I’d like to not chalk this up to the recent acquisition of Goodreads by Amazon, as I am going under the running assumption that this was a problem beforehand.
Last week, I came across an article about how a self-published author eventually yanked the publication of her debut novel due to some serious harassment at the hands of members of the Goodreads community. As I understand it, she’s not seeking any publicity on this matter, and, to respect her wishes, neither her name nor the article will be mentioned here. But you’re smart people. You’ve either read it already or can use Google.
In any event, the Goodreads bullies (And let’s face it, that’s what they are), basically pounded the author into oblivion, posting excoriating reviews (Odd for a book that hadn’t been published yet) and even went so far as to threaten bodily harm.
For a site that’s supposed to promote meaningful interaction within the book-reading community, this has all the ear-markings of an ABC Family movie that generally ends badly.
I have never made it a secret that I have been witness to many good and bad qualities about the Internet. This instance at Goodreads undoubtedly is one of the worst things I’ve seen in a while in terms of the sheer malevolence anonymous jerks can rain down upon someone who did nothing but spend countless hours writing and editing their pride and joy. And I use the term “in a while” loosely, because Internet folks have this nasty habit of being this kind of ridiculous on a shockingly regular basis.
The only remaining thing I have to say about this is at some point, these bullies are going to mess around with the wrong person and find themselves on the other end of the stick.
Don’t believe me? Ask anyone who’s crossed the hacker group Anonymous.
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