Observant readers may have noticed that in the last couple of days, the Goodreads widgets have been missing from my blog. Here’s why.
I got a surprise email from Goodreads on Sunday morning. Apparently, someone had complained about one of my reviews because it only had the link to my review on this blog in it. They said that it violated their review policy, so they removed it. They said if anyone else complained about other of my reviews in the same state, they would remove those.
I found that interesting for a couple reasons. (Actually, I found it infuriating.) One, when I started using Goodreads 12 years ago, I sent them an email asking if it was okay to link to my blog. They said yes, it was encouraged, and they didn’t tell me I had to write anything else. I felt that putting in part of my review and then linking to the review was redundant, so I have simply stuck to a statement referring to my review with the link. And I have done that for more than 2000 reviews over 12 years.
It is also interesting, because the majority of “reviewers” simply pick a number of stars, and at least my review did more than that.
So, first I looked for this policy that I had apparently violated. I couldn’t see a place for it on any of the menus or submenus. I looked for a link to it on a review page for a book. I found nothing. Finally, I clicked on the link to the policy that they emailed me, and as far as I can tell, this is the policy I innocently violated. The only way I can tell this is because the other policies don’t have anything to do with this issue. I haven’t harassed anyone, plagiarized anyone, or abused their rating system.
Full reviews that link to a blog are acceptable, as long as the blog is not selling a competing book and using the review to denigrate the book being reviewed in favor of its own.
The word “full,” I guess, is supposed to convey that you have to write something in addition to a link. Otherwise, this rule is about something else entirely. There is no rule that outright says you have to leave a text review in addition to a link.
I sent them an email explaining all of this, and the response I got just repeated everything they had already said. To my comments about not being able to find their reviews policy on their site, they actually responded this:
For security reasons, we do not share details about our guidelines or moderation processes.
So they’re purposefully hiding their policies? Is that what that means?
In the meantime, I was so angry, especially at the pettiness of someone bothering to complain about my review, that I decided to look for alternatives. I finally decided to switch to The StoryGraph because it allowed me to import my Goodreads data (some of it) and because it was one of two alternatives that allows me to use my computer rather than an app on my phone. I have Goodreads app on my phone, but I never use it.
While I was researching alternatives, I heard for the first time about some of the controversy surrounding Goodreads since it was bought by Amazon. Some of it involves not following up when authors complain about blackmail attempts by people who threaten to load their books up with one-star reviews if they don’t pay up. I found this interesting because Goodreads does allow you to post star reviews with no other content, whereas The StoryGraph does not. You have to at least make some selections about the type of book it is even if you don’t write anything. Apparently, it is okay to Goodreads to leave just stars, even if this can be abused, rather than linking to a full and legitimate review. And it is interesting to me that they would not follow up on blackmail threats by removing the one-star reviews but then remove mine.
I may have cut off my nose to spite my face, because I am having to get used to the new interface, and in some ways I don’t like it. It is a lot harder, maybe impossible, to see all the books you have reviewed. I used the Goodreads spreadsheet feature a lot, and they don’t seem to have anything like that, although I have asked. (I can export all my book information and figure out how to get it to tell me what I need, but I’m too lazy.) As far as traffic is concerned, my blog stats inform me that I got eight referrals from Goodreads in the last year, so that seems insignificant. I do have one follower who came over from Goodreads that I know of and who leaves comments on my blog occasionally, but I don’t think I have lots of them. I don’t know how many users The StoryGraph has, but probably a lot fewer than Goodreads. The only social feature that I used on Goodreads was to see what one of my friends was reading, just one. So, I’m not going to miss that.
Anyway, all I can say is, bye, bye Goodreads.
whatmeread 
I stopped using it several years ago. I believe it’s mainly used for data mining by Amazon, and the reviews aren’t very reliable. Too many seem not well thought out, or outright fake. I’d rather read one review by a dedicated or professional reviewer than 100 that are mediocre.
I didn’t mention it, but I wasn’t really aware of several controversies about Goodreads until I started looking for alternatives. I didn’t look at the reviews very often. I mostly just used Goodreads to keep track of my reading and to get stats about my reading. I usually read NY Times reviews and only referred to Goodreads reviews when I found a book perplexing and wanted to see if others did, too.
What a ridiculous situation! I can’t believe Goodreads did that when so much worse goes on on their site!
Mind boggling, isn’t it? Apparently, they can’t be bothered to remove one-star bombing reviews after ransom attacks toward authors (at least that’s what I read in a Time article) but they can take down mine.
I’m not surprised you feel angry! It’s ridiculous if they don’t even have a review policy on their site. I only really use Goodreads to track my reading and don’t bother much with any of the other features so I haven’t thought about switching, but I know a lot of people stopped using it due to the Amazon connection.
Amazon doesn’t bother me so much, because I still remember that days when I was dependent upon local bookstores or the library for book choices, and I have lived in some places where they were bad or nonexistent. To me, back when they first opened, it was like a miracle that I could get any book that I wanted, pretty much. Of course, I know things have changed there, and the data mining stinks. I used Goodreads for tracking my reading, too, and for getting stats; however, when I finished a book I rated it, and when I posted the review, I posted a link to it.
Exactly the same thing happened to me about 6 months ago, and I immediately left Goodreads, didn’t bother to contact them because I had become annoyed by the Amazon aspect and was thinking about ditching them anyway. My attitude is they were lucky to get my book reviews for free, and they have cut off their noses as apparently all my reviews have been deleted. If anything my blog stats increased after that! I’ve gone back to LibraryThing but I’m not keen on it.
Wow! They deleted all your reviews? They told me they would only delete specific ones if someone complained about them. I know a lot of people use LibraryThing, but I think it didn’t allow me to import my Goodreads data, or maybe it required a phone app. I can’t remember.
Sorry to hear this! I think when I wrap up my current studies and get back into blogging more frequently I will also be making the shift after hearing other stories like this. It’s gone down hill so quickly and become the cesspool of book review sites.
Seeing the other comments I may need to try and port over sooner I don’t want to lose all my data.
Good luck finding something that works for you. There are a lot of options out there.
Ridiculous. I understand you. I am not a fan of Amazon (it is a good idea, and I do order books from there sometimes, before Brexit that is, but I don’t like there personal policies), and I was surprised to hear that Amazon took over Goodreads some years ago. I use it mainly for keeping track of books I have read.
I tried out StoryGraph but there was an obstacle which I cannot remember now. Maybe that you always have to put a review as you said.
I found this web-site: https://candidcover.net/book-reading-tracker/. maybe it is possible to find something there.
You don’t always have to put in a review. In fact, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to leave a review in StoryGraph. But I imported my stuff to StoryGraph, so that’s what I’ll be using.
That’s great. I might go over to StoryGraph as well. I will check it out. I did download my info on Goodreads before they changed ownership. Hopefully, I have stored it somewhere.
How annoying! I’m at least some of those links you get through from GR – if I’m checking out a book you’ve read, I often click through to see what you thought of it. The same happened with Amazon – they started introducing more and more rules around reviewing and what you could and couldn’t say. I still post my reviews there but if they get rejected I no longer try to work out why. As for hiding their policies, it’s surreal – are we all supposed to guess??
I know it’s irritating but couldn’t you just copy and paste future reviews into GR? Hopefully there aren’t too many petty people out there who spend their time complaining about other people’s reviews…
Well, I could have written a short paragraph of a review and then put my link in, but I was too mad about the whole thing, especially about the hidden policies. I’m over at StoryGraph now. Anyway, my old links are still in Goodreads, although I heard from one person who said she thought they deleted all of hers.
I wish Amazon would deal with the real problems on GR, like missing books, missing covers and mistyped blurbs, and leave the reviews alone. If anyone doesn’t want to click on a link, they don’t have to, but what harm does it do to have them there for people who do want use them?
They didn’t object to the link. They objected to me not writing any more of a review but just pointing to the link. To me, since I didn’t know there was anything wrong with doing that, I felt that writing something and then including the link was redundant.
Yikes, I don’t blame you! I genuinely don’t understand why they can’t be transparent about their review guidelines or moderation process. If users are generating content for a website for free — and let’s be real, Amazon bought it because it because user-provided ratings and reviews can generate sales for next to no effort on their end, that’s the bottom line — we should have easy access to the full rules for doing so. WHY so secret???
Goodreads for me now is mainly for entering giveaways, following a handful of real-life friends, and getting that cute annual wrap-up. But I stopped using it as my primary reading tracker a while ago and reverted back to a good old fashioned spreadsheet, LOL. I’ve heard mostly good things about StoryGraph, and would be interested to hear more of your thoughts on it after you’ve had a chance to get used to it for a while.
OK, I’ll let you know. So far, it is okay, but I don’t see that there’s any way to see your complete list of books, or of to-read books, that kind of thing.