Rod Brown > Status Update

No, it's not going to help. I also question why they're doing this now as these "inauthentic reviews" have been posted since the site was founded. This change seems prompted by negative reviews of books that support Trump, his family, and his administration. People have their beliefs and opinions. No amount of control will change those.

It's also not a necessary change. The site doesn't give users credit for using their brains to distinguish reviews that review the book and reviews that don't. I've never had trouble distinguishing these, and I doubt anyone has. They're more than obvious. I just scroll past those not reviewing the book to look at the ones that are.

Caroline wrote: "No, it's not going to help. I also question why they're doing this now as these "inauthentic reviews" have been posted since the site was founded. This change seems prompted by negative reviews of ..."

Oh, yeah, Bezos is deep up the Trump rump, so you're probably right about that being the trigger for making the change now.

Yeah. It stands out that this change happens a few months after we saw him standing by Trump at the man's inauguration. I remember countless complaints years ago from people in the Feedback group about "nonreviews," but staff just brushed them off. As I said, people can easily figure out which reviews are legitimate and which aren't, so I never got worked up about this problem. (Also, maybe I'm not looking at the right books, but the majority of what's in Community Reviews is and has been legitimate. I don't think this is that big a problem.)

Caroline wrote: "Yeah. It stands out that this change happens a few months after we saw him standing by Trump at the man's inauguration. I remember countless complaints years ago from people in the Feedback group a..."

The few authors it does happen to probably complain long and loud. And review bombing gets reported in mainstream media occasionally, getting a cancel culture spin.

I hate those review-bombing news reports! They always come across as overblown, and they hate GR. Review-bombing has happened to a few (often childish) authors, but the reports make it sound like we reviewers are immature, petty people who love drama and review-bomb constantly. I've never review-bombed in my 15 years on the site nor am I interested in doing so. I can't see a single one of my friends doing it either. I think this is happening to YA and New Adult authors, maybe also some authors who publish poorly written, commercial fantasy and erotica...? I just rarely see it, and I don't read in those genres (minus the poorly written, commercial fantasy I'm reading now :D).

Thanks for the link, Rod, and thanks to Caroline to calling our attention to this. It's a disturbing change, and it all makes me very grumpy.

I wanted to review Hillbilly Elegy and it wouldn’t let me. I had to appeal and prove to them that I had read the book years ago. It was on my GR list but I eventually removed it from my list as I learned more about the author and the stories behind it. I was blocked from adding a review to this one book. That had never happened. I appealed. Compared my experience reading H.E. to the same one I had about A Million Little Pieces. My appeal worked and they opened it up for me to review. All this to say I bet the Bezos/T connection is the exact reason they are doing this. So much to improve here and this is what they choose.

Thanks for the alert. Surely there's a software team out there somewhere that sees an opportunity to scoop up disgruntled GR people?

...I suppose if we let AI write all our reviews from now on, we'll have no problems meeting the guidelines.

Left Coast Justin wrote: "...I suppose if we let AI write all our reviews from now on, we'll have no problems meeting the guidelines."

AI will read a book for us and give us a summary and then write a review for us that AI will summarize for other users who want to know what their AI should read next.

Do you know what upset me the most, from that "update?" This:

How You Can Help
If you see content that you think doesn't meet our Rating and Review Guidelines, do not respond to it; instead, please report it for evaluation. While these policy updates primarily focus on new ratings and reviews, we will assess previously posted content that is reported to us.

Anyone else get Holocaust vibes from that?? I certainly do.

Julie wrote: "Thanks for the link, Rod, and thanks to Caroline to calling our attention to this. It's a disturbing change, and it all makes me very grumpy."

You're welcome, Julie. (Rod, I posted a link to your status update in one of Marquise's updates FYI.)

Sherry wrote: "All this to say I bet the Bezos/T connection is the exact reason they are doing this. So much to improve here and this is what they choose.."

I'm sorry you had to go through that run-around. :[

I feel sure the Bezos/T connection is a major factor because people (including authors) complained about review-bombing long ago--and persistently so--but GR couldn't have cared less. This is also happening only after Bezos cozied up to T.

Julie wrote: "Do you know what upset me the most, from that "update?" This:

How You Can Help
If you see content that you think doesn't meet our Rating and Review Guidelines, do not respond to it; instead, pleas..."

I know what you mean--it's that they're asking us to monitor and report each other.

How exhausting. This is just creating more work for staff. I guess they'll finally hire more.

Honestly? I doubt Mr. Bezos spends more than one millisecond per year thinking about GR.

This is geared towards eliminating negative reviews and pushing book sales, I believe. Community Gestapo policing will take the form of declaring negative reviews irrelevant and removing them.

Julie wrote: "Do you know what upset me the most, from that "update?" This:

How You Can Help
If you see content that you think doesn't meet our Rating and Review Guidelines, do not respond to it; instead, pleas..."

If you see something, say something! Or the terrorists win!

Left Coast Justin wrote: "Honestly? I doubt Mr. Bezos spends more than one millisecond per year thinking about GR.

This is geared towards eliminating negative reviews and pushing book sales, I believe. Community Gestapo po..."

Bezos himself doesn't think about the site, but it would not be strange for Amazon to have a revised reviewing policy at this time. Businesses and various institutions are nervous about censure or punishment, for one thing. It can't be ignored that GR began cracking down on reviews of books like Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, Hillbilly Elegy, and others concerning T and his administration (or family) only very recently. I have a few friends who've complained that their reviews of both books got removed. Last I checked, my review of the former is still up, but I was careful to not get heated and to stick to reviewing the book's content. As I said upthread, GR didn't care about this problem for many years before, and review-bombing and "nonreviews" (or "excitement reviews") got complained about a lot and regularly in the Feedback group.

Caroline, I agree with your interpretation of events.

I'm considering very seriously to start taking my reviews down myself. I have already been targeted by authors (and influencers), and have very 'liked' negative reviews that get trolled with some regularity, so I'd not be surprised if those get reported enough that they get deleted.

I'm tired, Mr Stark. :'(

Marquise wrote: "I'm considering very seriously to start taking my reviews down myself. I have already been targeted by authors (and influencers), and have very 'liked' negative reviews that get trolled with some r..."

As is too often the case, other people suck. Sorry you have to endure it.

I'm inclined to make them tear my reviews out of my cold dead fingers, but honestly they could probably delete a hundred tomorrow and I wouldn't notice for weeks or not at all.

Yeah, that's the concern... I don't have time to keep an eye on everything I've reviewed, so best to start saving them as quickly as possible.

Marquise wrote: "Yeah, that's the concern... I don't have time to keep an eye on everything I've reviewed, so best to start saving them as quickly as possible."

I post all my reviews at LibraryThing also. Of course, Amazon has a minority stake in that also . . .

Heh, figures. :) I'm not joining any GR copycats, though. Too old and too tired for starting again from scratch.

I will be going to StoryGraph. Amazon does not own this place and it's closer to what I want as far as reviewing goes. I have been here since 2009, so I'll be moving some of my reviews over slowing in the coming weeks, until I have my profile the way I want it..

I'll miss the community aspects I have on GR groups/platform etc., but pretty soon that won't be here either. So what's the difference? I will miss the groups I moderate and the people that I love here, though..

As long as I'm landing in a place that AmaNazi does not has its claws, I'm good.