ROBUST discussion

After a couple of free runs on my books, I had some good reviews and ratings on Goodreads. Then, as always seems to happen when things start to go well, I started receiving a run of one and two star ratings - most by members who had just joined, posted some generic photo and some ratings (mostly one-stars with a few fives), and did little else. It always happens.

A couple of months ago, I noticed that a strange chap called 'Grok Testuser' was reading my books. In fact, two strange chaps called Grok Testuser were reading one of them. Yesterday, a few of my ratings on one book disappeared and my overall average went up quite a bit - all the one and two star ratings I'd thought a bit suss - pfft!

Is Goodreads actually doing an audit of who's coming in just to throw single stars around? It's a reassuring thought.

I don't know, but another likelihood is a pattern by some other dragon writer downrating the books of her competitors. I were Goodreads, I'd be keen to remove such a person.

There is the occasional reader/griefer who just likes messing with people. Indie authors tend to react more than trad authors, so I can see them being targeted more.

I have no concrete data to support this though.

But those sort of authors have been around for ages, Andre. I'm just wondering if it's a coincidence that Grok comes along and then they start disappearing?

Are there other writers whose reviews have had the obvious malicious low-stars cleared out?

I don't know. Maybe someone will see this and tell us if they have?

I doubt Goodreads is monitoring fake profiles. If so, they're going to be kept pretty busy.

I just got a 2-star from a reader who rated my first novel a 1-star about a year and a half ago. Outside of disappointment, I find this an odd, suspect situation. Why would anyone bother to read an author whose first book she's already rated a 1? I mean, really. She also doesn't have any Goodreads friends other than a published author. Then again, I had a GR reviewer give my first novel a 1 star, then return a month later and give the first volume (published as a standalone later) a 1 star. I can't figure out why she'd bother to wait a month. If she felt that strongly about it, why not do it all at the same time and write a scathing review?

I know that Amazon responds to issues with sock puppets/dragon writers, but I don't know whether this rises to the level of sock puppetry or how vigilant Goodreads might be to audit for it. At the same time, I don't know if it's suspicious enough to report, so there that 2 star sits.

I imagine they have some kind of automatic screening at the bot level to keep out obvious pam, but I don't see how they could afford to have too many humans, or any, on that job. It's not exactly a profit center.