Friends Sharing Book Love discussion

https://www.goodreads.com/review/guid...

This seems a little alarming

We will not show reviews and ratings that we deem to be inappropriate or not of a high enough level of quality.

I agree that this is alarming especially the way that it stated.
On the other hand, I was commenting to some friends on how the number one most popular reviewer in the US has over 1 million likes in a month when I looked at her reviews. They were basically two lines about how hot the guy was or similar things like that. They were basically a few useless lines.

I think a better way to handle it would have been to state that they would be looking at reviews and possibly weeding out some people such as this with just a couple of lines!

I’ve been doing this for over 13 years now and have seen all the negative changes that have come ever since Amazon took over Goodreads. No more fun summer challenges or contests. No more posting badges from NetGalley and now they just took away our DM to friends!!

I just stick to my few communities with friends. I’ve gotten to know and try not to think about the rest, but it’s getting increasingly hard 🫩

I'm not against the short review. Freedom of speech and all that. We are going to have to live with the million morons who promote such drivel. All a part of living in a free society.

My problem is that Amazon censers reviewers who don't write reviews up to their "Standards". I stand as an example of a banned reviewer. I'm not surprised that Amazon is attempting to implement their "Standards" with Goodreads. I've been waiting for this since Amazon bought Goodreads.

We are NOT professional writers...and will probably never live up to their "standards". I see nothing wrong with the reviews that I have read here. All I want to know when reading a review is if the person doing the review liked the book and why. Someone has too much time on their hands:)

LOL! So true, Carol. I also there is a lot of CYA going on to try and head off lawsuits from authors and publishers. Apparently, AI has become a real thing in reviews.

Anita wrote: "I'm not against the short review. Freedom of speech and all that. We are going to have to live with the million morons who promote such drivel. All a part of living in a free society.

My problem ..."

Anita, I think you’ve nailed it. They’re going to implement their non transparent policy of banning reviews here on Goodreads. It’s going to be the beginning of the end of life as we’ve known it here. They banned me on Amazon many years ago and I still don’t know why.

FYI, you need to save your reviews to your computer.

But, But they have assured us that our reviews are safe! How can you possibly think they would wipe you off Goodreads the same way they have wiped us off Amazon???

I agree, backup your reviews, if they are important to you. Amazon doesn't give a fig who you are or what you think. If you don't help sell their product you are garbage to them.

I own over 700 books, and I bought every single last one of them from Amazon over several years' time. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Maybe when enough of us stop buying the books that we review.....This whole thing rings with redundancy.

I started a membership with Libro.fm a few years ago and when I need to get an audiobook, I use my credits there. I have a membership account with Audible but only use it for books that are exclusive to them. Spending a lot less with them now that I gobbled up the remaining books from my two series reads during the Cyber Monday sale. I may suspend my account now.

It’s this paragraph that’s concerning:

“Our updated guidelines apply to all rating and review content. We encourage you to report content, new or old, that you believe may violate these guidelines. Depending on the nature of the violation, we may remove content entirely or limit its visibility to personal profiles only. This approach allows us to maintain both personal reading history and community quality.”

This means they can go back and retroactively apply these guidelines to old reviews if “someone” reports it and it doesn’t meet their “guidelines.” Be prepared to have stuff removed inexplicably without notification as to why.

Yep, the Amazon Speech Gestapo has landed at Goodreads. Amazon does not have to abide by the First Amendment. There is no such thing as Freedom of Speech to them. They have all the power.

I was also banned without explanation from reviewing on Amazon a few years back and at the time it was crushing, as I'd always been so conscientious to follow the rules. It was only later that I started hearing from others that they'd also been banned. It's always made me a little nervous that they'd just one day decide that I'd broken some rule here and pull down years of hard work with no explanation again. I have all my reviews backed up, but honestly there are no other sites that compare to this one as far as features and community. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts and hope for the best for all of us!

I'm so sorry that happened to you too. I finally got them to tell me which reviews were inappropriate, but once banished, you are forever banished. That is why I am so concerned about Goodreads. If Amazon banished me for the following phrases:

Offending phrase: An influencer, to me, is just an egocentric a$$hole.

The offending language or phrase is probably: Karma is a bitch.

I think the offending language was "navel gazing".

They can find offensive language in just about any review.

As someone already banned on Amazon for who knows what, this strikes close to home. I hadn’t registered the new “guidelines”.
I even tried StoryGraph but it’s totally user unfriendly.
Something else to worry about. Ugh.

Anita wrote: "I'm so sorry that happened to you too. I finally got them to tell me which reviews were inappropriate, but once banished, you are forever banished. That is why I am so concerned about Goodreads. If..."

I just went back and revised a review I wrote earlier this week that used the word @$$es (afraid to even use it here) so I didn’t get a black mark.

I could try to go through and revise past reviews, but honestly, if I have to live in fear that I'll say the wrong thing again - unaware that it's also considered offensive, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

I know what you mean about StoryGraph, Liz. I had the same impression.

I am on StoryGraph, but it doesn't have groups like Goodreads. It works okay as another site to post reviews and get stats. I am thinking of trying LibraryThing, but will continue to use GR also (for now).

I'm with Goodreads at least until they kick me off. If we have to worry about what we write in a review resulting in banishment, that is not a fair, honest review. We might as well start sending everything through AI so is all sounds the same and won't offend anyone.

I'm wondering if NetGalley's new Booktrovert site is an effort to grow a site that will eventually offer more features like GR. It feels like they may be struggling to get off the ground, but if it does gain traction, perhaps it could be a future option?

I'll keep trying to make it work here as long as I can!

I love the groups here on Goodreads, but I am most concerned about being able to track my reading and books. I really don't want to start over on a different site.