←back to thread

A harassment campaign on Goodreads

(www.patreon.com)
270 points ilamont | 6 comments | 06 Jan 20 20:20 UTC | HN request time: 1.12s | source | bottom
Show context
withinrafael ◴[06 Jan 20 21:37 UTC] No.21973627[source]▶
I'm not familiar with the backend of Goodreads but perhaps one tiny step forward would be for the book page to not open for ratings/comments prior to review copy distribution. And because review copy users already have to on-board (in some way) to get those copies, Goodreads could provide an integration point for authors to plug that reader list in and only let those folks respond initially, with restrictions lifting at launch.

Anyway, I wish them best of luck. This problem is widespread, see: Amazon, Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, et al.

replies(1): >>21973695 #
1. larnmar ◴[06 Jan 20 21:43 UTC] No.21973695[source]▶
My solution:

“Thanks for posting your review on goodreads! As a final step, please enter the fourth word on page 93 of the book you’ve just reviewed”

replies(3): >>21973701 #>>21973723 #>>21974241 #
2. floren ◴[06 Jan 20 21:43 UTC] No.21973701[source]▶
I read it on Kindle, oops.

Edit: "What's the second word of chapter 4" would work better but that's assuming harassers can't source an ebook and share it around... it'd prevent pre-release spam like this but so would disabling reviews until the book is actually released

3. johnnyo ◴[06 Jan 20 21:45 UTC] No.21973723[source]▶
Page 93 of the Kindle version? The hardback? the paperback? or the large print version?
replies(1): >>21974236 #
4. anon73044 ◴[06 Jan 20 22:35 UTC] No.21974236[source]▶
Maybe something like "The last sentence in Chapter 8" "Fourth sentence in chapter 9" and so on.
replies(1): >>21976062 #
5. soapdog ◴[06 Jan 20 22:35 UTC] No.21974241[source]▶
doesn't work because these trolls would just seed pirated copies of the book to their group. Even if you force people to use a credit card to register, they'd just buy prepaid cards for nothing, just to keep trolling. These people are cruel and in large numbers.
6. johnnyo ◴[07 Jan 20 02:11 UTC] No.21976062{3}[source]▶
I still think GoodReads would have issues there.

The first thing Goodreads asks you to do when you create a new account is to list and rate a bunch of books you've read and either liked or hated. This is important, because they (ostensibly) want to recommend other books to you.

When I first created an account, I quickly rated maybe 50 books on a 1-5 scale I had read over the years. I didn't have most of them handy.