[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Basically all they are saying is that attacks on authors personal lives & habits will NOT be tolerated.

But it wasn't exactly about authors personal lives & habits, the comments suggest that the issue has to do with author behavior towards reviewers on Goodreads.
Discussing the author's personal life on the other hand is permitted in case of autobiographies:

If it’s an autobiography, then clearly you might end up talking about their lives. And often it’s relevant to understand an author’s background and how it influenced the story or the setting.

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Could you point me to the guidelines that you think say that? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not seeing that and following link after link is getting kind of confusing.

The Guidelines for Authors have two sections: Some things to do on Goodreads and Some things to avoid on Goodreads, and the things to avoid are:

• Don’t engage with people who give you negative reviews. We cannot stress this enough. The number one mistake new authors make is to respond to negative reviews. Engaging with people who don’t like your book is not likely to win you any new readers and could lead to members deciding not to read your book. Remember Goodreads is not private; other readers will see a reaction from the author and interpret it as hostile regardless of how carefully the response was crafted. A single negative interaction is often enough to turn a reader off an author permanently.
  
  If you feel a review is in violation of our review guidelines, please flag it and bring it to our team’s attention rather than responding. (To find the flag button, hold your mouse over the bottom right hand corner of the review when on the book page or look for the flag button at the bottom right hand corner when on the review page.)
  
  And please remember: not every reader will love your book. It is unrealistic to expect that your book will only get five star reviews, or even only four and five star reviews. Bestselling authors get one star reviews too. The key to their success is that they handle it with grace by not responding and moving on.
• Don’t spam. Do not contact (via comments/messages/friend requests) all or most of the people who add your book or a related work. You should also avoid tactics like thanking everyone who has added your book. Do not send unwanted messages or friend requests. While well intentioned, these kinds of behaviors will result in people flagging you as a spammer, and we will have to take action.
• Don’t join groups simply to promote your book. While we encourage you to join groups to meet readers, do so as a reader. Joining multiple groups for the sole purpose of posting about your own book isn’t permitted on the site, and will simply irritate your target audience.
• Don’t send mass friend requests. Goodreads is a great place to meet other book lovers. However, be sensitive to the fact that some members are only looking to befriend a small circle. We suggest only befriending other members you have met in discussion boards or elsewhere on the site.