SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I just stumbled upon it today and I find it odd that anyone would bother creating such a web site, hopefully it will not be with us long. Here are some related links:

Stop The GR Bullies
Related blog by Shattersnipe
Related blog by John Scalzi

Don't seem to be able to use your links, but managed to have a quick look at the site. I personally don't like any form of bullying or personal abuse on GR, but this site is certainly not for me.

Shattersnipe's blog pretty much says it all.

Hopefully the above link will work a little better.

Richard wrote: "Don't seem to be able to use your links, but managed to have a quick look at the site. I personally don't like any form of bullying or personal abuse on GR, but this site is certainly not for me.

..."

Sorry, my mistake, fixed the links now. Thanks very much! :)

One might suggest that the authors of "Stop the Goodreads Bullies" behave like bullies themselves

Yeah, Shattersnipe's post more or less sums up my opinion. Particularly his/her paragraphs on why "bullying" is a terrible term for this kind of thing.

The creators of the blog are just lucky they wanted to be authors, rather than filmmakers. The average YouTube comments section contains ten times as much viciousness as all the book reviews on Goodreads combined.

You wanna write and offer those kernels of wisdom to the world, have a thick skin.

Also, when you start to read material you deem offensive or over the line from critique to personal attack, STOP READING.

Lastly, why would you care what some reviewer says about your work if you truly believe their review is motivated from some place other than a desire to accurately assess and assist in either the writer's or the reader's process.

Give the general reading public some credit. We can see a troll in reviewer's clothing pretty easily. It only takes a few of those types of reviews strung together to put me off from ever trusting their opinion again. Those who continue to follow such blogs are looking for that kind of negative energy and will not purchase your work anyhow.

I find the GR Bullies site fairly disturbing, and childish. I agree with what Scalzi said. If you followed the bullying of another reviewer that happened earlier this year, it is clear this is the same person....

Well, as I've been told that the Bully site has started picking on any random reader that can...

...it's made me decide to avoid all Self-pubs (who I don't personally know) in the future. I won't stop writing critical reviews but a lot of authors will no longer get my money.

I feel bad - slightly - as I've read some great self-published work but the risk/reward isn't there. I guess the Bully site is trying to make sure traditional publishing never dies.

It is sad...I think the vast majority of authors WANT honest reviews, and are quite capable of taking a bit of criticism. It's these authors who behave badly that are going to ruin the opportunities that have been provided by electronic publishing....sad.

Maggie wrote: "It is sad...I think the vast majority of authors WANT honest reviews, and are quite capable of taking a bit of criticism. It's these authors who behave badly that are going to ruin the opportunitie..."

I totally agree. After this hoopla started I read a comment by an author who was basiclly begging for a review of any kind from any one. He'd had his book out for quite a while and got no feedback whatsoever. If he'd been in my genre I would have read it, I felt so bad.

At least, I would have read it then.

The other sad part of that Bully site is that readers are/have become more suspicious of authors. Now any little innocent thing said by an author will be misconstrued when viewed through such a (rightfully so) suspicious lens.

I don't think that the creators of that website are fully tuned in to what bullying is. Many of their "examples" are people that use *gasp* potty words!

The first example asks if the author has talent, and then if the reviewer would enjoy another novel by the authors. The reviewer then says no, and goes on to explain why, with the explanation conveniently cut off.

Another example was the author being an ass to the reviewer, and the reviewer adjusting their review accordingly. Yes, your opinion on a book can be changed by remarks the author said or what the author did.

Then the 14 year old called people that use a larger vocabulary than her illiterate. Sorry sister, but just because people use more words than you do doesn't make them bad.

I'd say that entire site is an enormous, and apparently enormously successful, troll.

I think the site is probably sincere. To me, it reads like somebody with a persecution complex and a poor understanding of the concept of bullying, rather than somebody just trying to rile people up. It's a lot of effort for not much payoff if it's purely for the creator's amusement, as it provokes apathy more than outrage. I'm guessing it's more in the tradition of Jacqueline Howett.

Apatt wrote: "I just stumbled upon it today and I find it odd that anyone would bother creating such a web site, hopefully it will not be with us long. Here are some related links:

Stop The GR Bullies
Related b..."

The Maker (and her sockpuppets) of That Site That Must Not Be Linked has been harassing those reviewers for nearly a year now. Things have escalated to this point:

This week, shortly after writing a status update about feeling stalked, I received a call. A woman said, "We can find you, bitch" and then hung up.
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3...

Dylan wrote: "I think the site is probably sincere. To me, it reads like somebody with a persecution complex and a poor understanding of the concept of bullying, rather than somebody just trying to rile people u..."

Sincere in only that they want to cause pain and fear. Because she is butthurt.


Screw that. I hope someones sues her so hard that she looses money just thinking about it. Then I want her to go to jail.

I meant sincere as in genuine. It's obviously mean-spirited, I just don't think it's a mean-spirited joke.

Dylan wrote: "I meant sincere as in genuine. It's obviously mean-spirited, I just don't think it's a mean-spirited joke."

Ooooh.

Yeah, you're right.


It's sick but its not a joke.

After reading through more of that website, I'd have to agree with y'all. Well, time to go watch Fatal Attraction. Cheers!

I've been sucked into the blogosphere reading about this shit all day now. It's insane. The fact that they don't see that they are the bullies in this situation - calling up people and threatening them! - is just beyond fucked up.

ETA: Now that I'm not dashing off a response before running for my train...

One of the parts I liked best about Shattersnipe's blog was the definition of bullying issue, such as:

Because – and I cannot stress this enough – simply disliking a book, no matter how publicly or how snarkily, is not the same as bullying. To say that getting a handful of mean reviews is even in the same ballpark as dealing with an ongoing campaign of personal abuse is insulting to everyone involved.

Bullying is a very real, hurtful, damaging and dangerous thing.

It's also, right now, a buzzword that's thrown around willy-nilly and because of the horrors of bullying that we see happening in the world, it's becoming a bugaboo that people try to use in order to silence criticism.

And it's disgusting.

To take a real issue like bullying and use it to be a bully is just wrong on so many levels I can't even begin to express the level of disdain I have for these people.