4 ms·

I'm not familiar with the backend of Goodreads but perhaps one tiny step forward would be for the book page to not open for ratings/comments prior to review cop

I'm not familiar with the backend of Goodreads but perhaps one tiny step forward would be for the book page to not open for ratings/comments prior to review copy distribution. And because review copy users already have to on-board (in some way) to get those copies, Goodreads could provide an integration point for authors to plug that reader list in and only let those folks respond initially, with restrictions lifting at launch. Anyway, I wish them best of luck. This problem is widespread, see: Amazon, Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, et al.

larnmar 7y ago
My solution: “Thanks for posting your review on goodreads! As a final step, please enter the fourth word on page 93 of the book you’ve just reviewed”
- floren 7y ago
  I read it on Kindle, oops. Edit: "What's the second word of chapter 4" would work better but that's assuming harassers can't source an ebook and share it around... it'd prevent pre-release spam like this but so would disabling reviews until the book is actually released
- johnnyo 7y ago
  Page 93 of the Kindle version? The hardback? the paperback? or the large print version?
  - anon73044 7y ago
    Maybe something like "The last sentence in Chapter 8" "Fourth sentence in chapter 9" and so on.
    - johnnyo 7y ago
      I still think GoodReads would have issues there. The first thing Goodreads asks you to do when you create a new account is to list and rate a bunch of books you've read and either liked or hated. This is important, because they (ostensibly) want to recommend other books to you. When I first created an account, I quickly rated maybe 50 books on a 1-5 scale I had read over the years. I didn't have most of them handy.
- soapdog 7y ago
  doesn't work because these trolls would just seed pirated copies of the book to their group. Even if you force people to use a credit card to register, they'd just buy prepaid cards for nothing, just to keep trolling. These people are cruel and in large numbers.

larnmar 7y ago

My solution: “Thanks for posting your review on goodreads! As a final step, please enter the fourth word on page 93 of the book you’ve just reviewed”

floren 7y ago
I read it on Kindle, oops. Edit: "What's the second word of chapter 4" would work better but that's assuming harassers can't source an ebook and share it around... it'd prevent pre-release spam like this but so would disabling reviews until the book is actually released
johnnyo 7y ago
Page 93 of the Kindle version? The hardback? the paperback? or the large print version?
- anon73044 7y ago
  Maybe something like "The last sentence in Chapter 8" "Fourth sentence in chapter 9" and so on.
  - johnnyo 7y ago
    I still think GoodReads would have issues there. The first thing Goodreads asks you to do when you create a new account is to list and rate a bunch of books you've read and either liked or hated. This is important, because they (ostensibly) want to recommend other books to you. When I first created an account, I quickly rated maybe 50 books on a 1-5 scale I had read over the years. I didn't have most of them handy.
soapdog 7y ago
doesn't work because these trolls would just seed pirated copies of the book to their group. Even if you force people to use a credit card to register, they'd just buy prepaid cards for nothing, just to keep trolling. These people are cruel and in large numbers.