Goodreads is hit and miss because the various versions are entered in by people like me who depend on other sources for the numbers, and hardcovers, paperbacks, and Kindle versions at Amazon frequently differ for the same book. I look at page numbers as a rough guide. If most are in the same ballpark, I pick that one and run with it.
As for what happens with people who do not approve, see pretty much any episode of
The Twilight Zone.
