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A harassment campaign on Goodreads

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270 points ilamont | 7 comments | 06 Jan 20 20:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.812s | source | bottom
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jshevek ◴[06 Jan 20 21:17 UTC] No.21973409[source]▶
Some people are trying to battle against negative fake reviews by posting positive fake reviews. It's not clear to me that they are as morally superior as they evidently believe.

Edit: The solution is to fix the voting system, not to abuse it further because you believe you are virtuous.

replies(2): >>21973504 #>>21973725 #
1. matsemann ◴[06 Jan 20 21:25 UTC] No.21973504[source]▶
I hope you see the difference between fake praise and harrassment.

"Both sides are wrong" doesn't mean they are equally bad.

replies(3): >>21973560 #>>21973847 #>>21974490 #
2. jshevek ◴[06 Jan 20 21:31 UTC] No.21973560[source]▶
That's why I used relative language such as "as morally superior as they evidently believe"

Edit: If someone is caught posting fake positive reviews to boost a rating[1], that doesn't make it okay to post fake negative reviews 'to fight the good fight'.

[1] As opposed to impugning someone's character via impersonation, as appears to be happening here

3. deith ◴[06 Jan 20 21:57 UTC] No.21973847[source]▶
It's not fake praise vs harassment, it's fake praise vs fake criticism.

In any case this will make for an excellent marketing campaign. I don't even know what the book is about (I assume something politically charged because of this campaign) but now I know the book!

replies(2): >>21973895 #>>21973949 #
4. catalogia ◴[06 Jan 20 22:01 UTC] No.21973895[source]▶
It can be [and is] fake criticism and harassment at the same time. These are not mutually exclusive in the slightest.
replies(1): >>21976229 #
5. jshevek ◴[06 Jan 20 22:04 UTC] No.21973949[source]▶
I do not believe that the author has faked their own fake criticism in this case, but this marketing tactic has been used successfully before by others.
6. thiagomgd ◴[06 Jan 20 23:02 UTC] No.21974490[source]▶
That's completely true. Even though I don't agree with fake positive reviews, I have seen enough harassment against authors and books
7. catalogia ◴[07 Jan 20 02:36 UTC] No.21976229{3}[source]▶
Excerpt from the article: "Jason: I saw one troll spoofing your name and picture post an extremely nasty, long-winded comment on Goodreads, discussing intimate details of your family life and making it sound like you want to kill yourself. None of this could be considered a review of your book by any conceivable means, yet Goodreads still hasn't removed it. What's going on here?"

I'm really curious how anybody thinks this isn't harassment.