Much ink has been spilled about spammers and trolls on the book review site, Goodreads. To its credit, Goodreads has cleaned up its act regarding fake reviews and hostile reviewers-- or at least made inroads in that direction. Book reviewing, whether in print or online, has never been a completely fair game.
But today, a new and stranger (at least to me) form of hackery appeared on the site-- just when you thought that things had calmed down. An author friend of mine (who, to avoid further mischief, shall remain anonymous) sent me a private message on Facebook. He was curious to know what I had disliked in one of his books to merit a one-star review with no comment. Was it his writing or the content, he asked.
But I had never read his book. It was not on any of my lists, even as a "to read" book. It was, simply put, not on my reading radar. I could not find the "review" on any of my pages-- nowhere. I asked him to send me the link.
There it was, an "update" on his book -- with my name attached to it. A strange sort of hackery indeed-- and one which offended me more than if a troll had attacked me. Worse, there is no way for me to detect the problem -- since the fake review did not show up under my account.
Is there no end to social media mischief?
But today, a new and stranger (at least to me) form of hackery appeared on the site-- just when you thought that things had calmed down. An author friend of mine (who, to avoid further mischief, shall remain anonymous) sent me a private message on Facebook. He was curious to know what I had disliked in one of his books to merit a one-star review with no comment. Was it his writing or the content, he asked.
But I had never read his book. It was not on any of my lists, even as a "to read" book. It was, simply put, not on my reading radar. I could not find the "review" on any of my pages-- nowhere. I asked him to send me the link.
There it was, an "update" on his book -- with my name attached to it. A strange sort of hackery indeed-- and one which offended me more than if a troll had attacked me. Worse, there is no way for me to detect the problem -- since the fake review did not show up under my account.
Is there no end to social media mischief?
2 comments:
Very strange Are you contacting Goodreads?
Goodreads has been contacted, I will post their response.
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