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Krazykiwi · 08-04-2016, 12:37 PM

There is so much misinformation and misunderstanding on this thread, it's kind of funny.

Several years ago, before Amazon owned GR, they were one of the API partner for GR, and did display some reviews there IF you had checked the box allowing it. As did B&N, Kobo, Worldcat, Google Play, and quite a few other book sites. About 5-6 years ago, GR and Amazon had a big blowout, and Amazon revoked their agreement about book data (resulting in several hundred thousand book entries being blanked on GR to the despair of the librarians.) They also were no longer an API partner, and stopped displaying GR reviews.

Fastforward 3 years, Amazon turned around and bought GR. However (big however), they did not, and do not and have steadfastly refused to and repeatedly said they will not, import GR reviews to Amazon. The big reasons are that the rating scales differ (3 stars on amazon is "It was ok", which is 2 stars on GR), GR does not censor language in reviews, including profanity and explicit language - Amazon does, and GR allows images in reviews which some reviewers use really heavily, while Amazon does not.

So yes, up until about 6 years ago, some GR reviews appeared on Amazon, with permission (if you gave permission and weren't happy about it, then that's on you, isn't it?). Since then, and for the foreseeable future, they have not and won't. But they do still appear (again, with permission) on some other sites.

As for why people rate books they haven't read that aren't published yet, some people have said on the feedback group they use that to rate "degree of anticipation" so as they are notified the books are released, they've already got them prioritised which ones to buy if they have to pick due to budget or whatever.

Then there was the one lady who used the stars to indicate which bookshelf she had them on (or the floor), or what room they were in.

When you're talking books with a scant couple of hundred ratings, sure, that matters. When you're talking books with tens of thousands of ratings, the fact that most people tend to use the ratings more or less as intended, or at least on a "more stars is better than less stars" scale, pretty much drowns those outliers out, statistically.

Either way, a curated list of people who read what you read, like what you like, rate similarly to how you would and have opinions you trust, is super easy to make and then it's right there on every single book page you look at.

Still won't stop authors writing dud books, or things you just don't like though.

08-04-2016, 12:37 PM	#86
Krazykiwi Zealot Posts: 137 Karma: 2156958 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Too many random androids to list	There is so much misinformation and misunderstanding on this thread, it's kind of funny. Several years ago, before Amazon owned GR, they were one of the API partner for GR, and did display some reviews there IF you had checked the box allowing it. As did B&N, Kobo, Worldcat, Google Play, and quite a few other book sites. About 5-6 years ago, GR and Amazon had a big blowout, and Amazon revoked their agreement about book data (resulting in several hundred thousand book entries being blanked on GR to the despair of the librarians.) They also were no longer an API partner, and stopped displaying GR reviews. Fastforward 3 years, Amazon turned around and bought GR. However (big however), they did not, and do not and have steadfastly refused to and repeatedly said they will not, import GR reviews to Amazon. The big reasons are that the rating scales differ (3 stars on amazon is "It was ok", which is 2 stars on GR), GR does not censor language in reviews, including profanity and explicit language - Amazon does, and GR allows images in reviews which some reviewers use really heavily, while Amazon does not. So yes, up until about 6 years ago, some GR reviews appeared on Amazon, with permission (if you gave permission and weren't happy about it, then that's on you, isn't it?). Since then, and for the foreseeable future, they have not and won't. But they do still appear (again, with permission) on some other sites. As for why people rate books they haven't read that aren't published yet, some people have said on the feedback group they use that to rate "degree of anticipation" so as they are notified the books are released, they've already got them prioritised which ones to buy if they have to pick due to budget or whatever. Then there was the one lady who used the stars to indicate which bookshelf she had them on (or the floor), or what room they were in. When you're talking books with a scant couple of hundred ratings, sure, that matters. When you're talking books with tens of thousands of ratings, the fact that most people tend to use the ratings more or less as intended, or at least on a "more stars is better than less stars" scale, pretty much drowns those outliers out, statistically. Either way, a curated list of people who read what you read, like what you like, rate similarly to how you would and have opinions you trust, is super easy to make and then it's right there on every single book page you look at. Still won't stop authors writing dud books, or things you just don't like though.