Goodreads Goes for Censorship

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I agree, Blossom, but... without warning? Not a good commercial movement. What would you think if your mobile company raised prices without warning and will recalculate your previous bills asking for more money?

Verizon does this all the time and so does my ISP. I never know what will change on my bill.

This is a deviation from the topic, but as it might (or might not, if it's my silly rural internet!) be a related side-effect - anybody noticed an inordinate amount of crashing and errors on GR these past couple of days?

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Verizon does this all the time and so does my ISP. I never know what will change on my bill.

Future or previous? The key here is "previous".

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Future or previous? The key here is "previous".

Yes. They just tack it on to the next bill. Let's not talk about my Auto Insurance. OMG let's just not go there....*grumbles* I am currently shopping for a new provider.

I have no problem with GR removing offensive material. No warning is needed when you violate terms. It's always been that way.

I remember in my 20s I put together a puzzle which was a reprint of a famous painting. I took a pic to show my mom and uploaded it webshots. There was a huge glare on the pic yet the painter company complain I violated their copyright so it was removed without any warning. I then got a nasty email from them and one from webshots explaining why.

Yes it wasn't fair but that's just how it's always worked on the internet.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Seraphine

This is a deviation from the topic, but as it might (or might not, if it's my silly rural internet!) be a related side-effect - anybody noticed an inordinate amount of crashing and errors on GR these past couple of days?

Not more than usual.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Yes. They just tack it on to the next bill. Let's not talk about my Auto Insurance. OMG let's just not go there....*grumbles* I am currently shopping for a new provider.

I have no problem with GR removing offensive material. No warning is needed when you violate terms. It's always been that way.

I remember in my 20s I put together a puzzle which was a reprint of a famous painting. I took a pic to show my mom and uploaded it webshots. There was a huge glare on the pic yet the painter company complain I violated their copyright so it was removed without any warning. I then got a nasty email from them and one from webshots explaining why.

Yes it wasn't fair but that's just how it's always worked on the internet.

I think the key is "You have to violate the terms" and it wasn't true previous of the change. Anyway, I think we have to agree to disagree. Doing a thing always in a way doesn't make it fair for me.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I think the key is "You have to violate the terms" and it wasn't true previous of the change. Anyway, I think we have to agree to disagree. Doing a thing always in a way doesn't make it fair for me.

That's just it. Life is never fair. I have learned so it doesn't bother me. Do I think it was fair...No but I understand why they did it and it was much needed. I like to think of it as a wake up call to some really mean spirit people on there. Hopefully they will either leave GR or learn to behave.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Blossom

That's just it. Life is never fair. I have learned so it doesn't bother me. Do I think it was fair...No but I understand why they did it and it was much needed. I like to think of it as a wake up call to some really mean spirit people on there. Hopefully they will either leave GR or learn to behave.

I hope they were so diligent with spammer authors (you can't flag them). But it doesn't matter. In the end, I'll use it if it's useful for me, and if not, I'll go away. That's all.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I hope they were so diligent with spammer authors (you can't flag them). But it doesn't matter. In the end, I'll use it if it's useful for me, and if not, I'll go away. That's all.

Agreed. Spammer Authors are the worse. MR has to deal with them too.

On another note: GR has apologized to the 21 users who were originally effected by the new guidelines and now say they will notify people before deleting so I think this solves the issue on the new guidelines. 21 users are very small percentage when you think how many users there are at GR. I think this was blown way out proportion. I applaud GR for responding so quickly to clarify everything and making an effort to notify anyone in the future who violates the new terms.

Also those who are confused on the shelves rules. This is what GR has said.

We don’t comment publicly on individual cases, but in general, what we do is look at a shelf and see how it is used in context. In any case where we have decided to remove that shelf, we are confident that the shelf was being used in a way to review author behavior.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I hope they were so diligent with spammer authors (you can't flag them). But it doesn't matter. In the end, I'll use it if it's useful for me, and if not, I'll go away. That's all.

I believe now you can flag spammer authors. The new guideline states there is a box close to the inbox (if you mean author spamming you with private messages).

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by library addict

Here's an article about it http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...any_users.html

That article repeats the shelf names mentioned in that Salon article about the self-published author. They do admit that there is controversy over what was said and that the author later backtracked. still, why repeT them if that's not what they said. The shelf names were tasteless, but from what I have read, they didn't say what the author claimed.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

I've learned two things from this thread: A) My book shelves are viewable to the public or to my friends? WTH? and B) Some people sure take their reading lists seriously. Wow.

Only if your profile is public. If set to public everyone can see your shelves if they want to spend the time looking. If your profile is not public, only those people who you agree to friend can see your shelves (if they are so inclined to browse through them).

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan View Post
I agree, Blossom, but... without warning? Not a good commercial movement. What would you think if your mobile company raised prices without warning and will recalculate your previous bills asking for more money?

My phone company just did this--and yes, they went BACK to May and declared that under their new ownership, which occurred in March, I owed them 5 dollars usage fee for all those previous months. Did they notify me in March? No. Did they notify me in May about new rules? No. I got a bill in July for all those previous months! I spent a lot of time on the phone where they first tried to tell me I had been notified, but they could find no record of having sent me notification or a bill. BECAUSE they hadn't.

And whether they had or hadn't, I certainly hadn't agreed to even let them BE my phone company. So I canceled and now I am happier.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by library addict

Here's an article about it http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...any_users.html

The article is distorting the facts. It linked to what it described as a good wrapup of the Howard saga but presented the story differently.

The story started because of ratings of interest. GR allows (allowed?) people to rate a yet unpublished story to show interest. In this case a member showed lack of interest by giving the book a 2-star rating. The author proceed to ask about it. I don't know what language she used for the question, but she 4 1-star ratings from people who didn't like it and 75 5-star ratings from people showing their support. Well actually two of the 75 5-star ratings were from herself one on an old account and one on the new account.


She said that she was a new member and that is why she asked the question about the rating, but apparently she had an old account

She made it sound like she was threatened with rape, but later she clarified:

At no point have I ever said “People threatened to rape me”… simply expressed how disgusted I was…

She just kept insulting members, and the website.

This isn't a story about GR members bullying authors, this is a story about an author bullying GR members.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by samhy

I believe now you can flag spammer authors. The new guideline states there is a box close to the inbox (if you mean author spamming you with private messages).

No, friend requests. 1000 friends and 2 books