Hilary > Status Update

This has happened to me and lots of ppl too, Hilary! I'm ignoring GR and their issues/errors...

Hilary, it's infuriating and completely unfair! I am upset that GR is doing this to your reviews and find it very suspicious that they are targeting your one and two star reviews! I wonder if book sales have something to do with it! I have a similar issue with GR. Every single one of my reviews since March of this year has been buried beneath pages of one and no-like reviews. GR's response to me when I contacted them was that they now use a "secret sauce" in the placement of reviews on the community pages (not just number of likes.) Lucky me and lucky you to have our reviews drowned in "secret sauce!" Good for you for posting this! People need to be aware of what Goodreads is doing; they could be next!

Really sorry to hear this. I’m glad you’re posting about it Hillary please Do not leave our little good reads family. A lot of people are having a lot of issues. I hope good weed does some thing about it.

Bren fall in love with the sea. wrote: "Really sorry to hear this. I’m glad you’re posting about it Hillary please Do not leave our little good reads family. A lot of people are having a lot of issues. I hope good weed does some thing ab..."

Yes, Hilary, what Bren says, please stay with us! We don't want our Goodreads family without you!
I love your new name for GR, Bren! Good Weed! Ha!
:-)

Unfortunately people seem to forget that GR is owned by Amazon. Bad reviews are not good for business. This has happened to me also. GR operates in a very opaque way.

Hilary, I've never heard of comments being hidden but I've also started noticing the changed order of some reviews.

I'm really sorry that this happened to you.

You are a great asset to Goodreads and they're idiotic to turn off members in this way.

I will miss you if you leave.

I hope that everyone affected will write to GR/Amazon and ideally will find a way to publicize this in the wider world, maybe via journalists and other professional writers.

So far my reviews that are now "out of place" are ones I've rated with 5 and 4 stars.

I wonder if when Goodreads changed their coding for reviews placement if they screwed up the programming and also unintentionally hid some reviews.

If this site wants to become a place where on book pages visitors see highly rated reviews, especially of new books, in order to help sell books they're idiotic. Goodreads will be so far from where they've been and any good reputation that they have left will be gone.

I wonder how many members actually buy books from Amazon/Kindle. I don't.

P.S. Hilary, I just saw your status update because Margie told me about it. I miss seeing a lot here.

In order to find friend's reviews I have to ready ALL my home page and often I have to go to friends' profile pages/book-review lists.

The daily digest updates used to at least have all the reviews (up to 3 per person) but have been nearly worthless for a long time now.

I don't buy books from Amazon, Lisa. Also, Goodreads depends on star ratings; they don't care about our reviews. NO MORE STAR ratings for Goodreads! I will not leave stars on any review I write in the future.

Margie wrote: "I don't buy books from Amazon, Lisa. Also, Goodreads depends on star ratings; they don't care about our reviews. NO MORE STAR ratings for Goodreads! I will not leave stars on any review I write in ..."

I don't buy books there either, Margie, and I talk about the library a LOT in my reviews. The rare times I do buy books I buy them at local independent bookstores. There are several good ones. I'm lucky.

Diane, I'm so sorry this has happened to you and others you know, it's unbelievable they try to tell us this is coincidental!

Thanks Margie, I'm so sorry this is happening to you too, and I'm so grateful for your support !

Thank you Bren, I really appreciate your support.

Milan, I'm so sorry to hear this is happening to you too and others you know. Yes, of course they don't want a negative review, they just want to sell books!

Margie and Lisa, thank you and I love Margie's new NO STAR campaign! I will be joining this movement!

Hilary wrote: "Margie and Lisa, thank you and I love Margie's new NO STAR campaign! I will be joining this movement!"

Yes, it's a brilliant idea.

I've noticed some people doing this in the past but it's often authors maybe not wanting to rate other authors.

If I do it I'll put my star rating in the review text so that I remember what I thought.. I haven't decided yet if I'm doing anything but once I get the energy/time to look to see just how much my reviews have been impacted I will write to GR and also to anywhere/anyone else I can think of who might publicize what GR is doing.

I'm going to use this for low ratings as they're the only ones that are affected for me.

Hilary wrote: "I'm going to use this for low ratings as they're the only ones that are affected for me."

Yes, that makes sense.

Hilary wrote: "Margie and Lisa, thank you and I love Margie's new NO STAR campaign! I will be joining this movement!"

Thank you Hilary for joining my NO STAR campaign! ALL my reviews since March (most of which were 4 star reviews with four to ten likes) have been buried! It's disheartening. I don't know if I will write any more reviews.

I understand the stand you both are taking but I’m going to keep status quo. When I write reviews and give ratings, I think about people such as family members and friends who follow me. I try to help out other readers and also make more informed reading decisions. It’s the only reason I’m here. If I focused on Amazon and the corporate side of GR I would be ticked off and depressed and as a person trying to recover from adrenal fatigue, I have to focus on other things (rump alone is enough to bury me if I think about him enough, ugh). It’s sad they are doing this and is totally wrong but on the flip side, there’s no user fee here but I do feel like I’ve met ppl like you all whom I’d never have met without this place. Not to mention found books I’d provably have never found without it. So it adds value to my life and I feel like I have to tolerate headaches in exchange for that. I’ve left FB over a decade ago, and all but totally left instagram. I’m not willing to abandon this place so for me it will stay the same. I do hope you all stay and I do enjoy and appreciate all of your reviews very much. ❤️

Laura wrote: "I understand the stand you both are taking but I’m going to keep status quo. When I write reviews and give ratings, I think about people such as family members and friends who follow me. I try to h..."

Laura, I feel 100% the way you do. I went through major angst in 2013 but my perspective is the same as yours at this point.

Laura, I completely agree, it's awful. I hate to remove stars but otherwise these ( 1 + 2 star ) reviews are hidden which is pointless so at least people will be able to read my low rated reviews now, and I can say what I have rated them in the review. For Margie it's worse and all of hers are hidden.

Hilary wrote: "Laura, I completely agree, it's awful. I hate to remove stars but otherwise these ( 1 + 2 star ) reviews are hidden which is pointless so at least people will be able to read my low rated reviews n..."

HIlary, It is ridiculous but as you say you can say what you want in the reviews.

It is the worst for Margie so far that we've noticed.

It's horrible for you too though and removing 1 and 2 star ratings of course raises the average rating of the book, though I haven't checked yet to see if the average rating is still accurate.

Most of my hidden reviews that I've found are 5 and 4 star ones but I haven't really looked yet. When I did look only some of mine are hidden, so far anyway.

Lisa wrote: "Laura wrote: "I understand the stand you both are taking but I’m going to keep status quo. When I write reviews and give ratings, I think about people such as family members and friends who follow ..."

Yes re the angst, I remember crying at my desk when the news came out. Thanks for your comment, Lisa.

Hilary wrote: "Laura, I completely agree, it's awful. I hate to remove stars but otherwise these ( 1 + 2 star ) reviews are hidden which is pointless so at least people will be able to read my low rated reviews n..."

It’s so bogus they are doing this, Hilary. At least ppl will see them this way; you raise a good point 👍🏻

Lisa wrote: "Hilary wrote: "Laura, I completely agree, it's awful. I hate to remove stars but otherwise these ( 1 + 2 star ) reviews are hidden which is pointless so at least people will be able to read my low ..."

It makes no sense why they would hide 4 and 5 stars. I want to know what is in their secret sauce. Perhaps hallucinogenic mushrooms 🍄😅

Haha, it sounds that way Laura! That would explain why things are such a mess!

😅🤗❤️

Laura, LOL. Maybe.

🪄🍄