Goodreads Versus Wikipedia

There has been some debate about what should or should not appear on the Goodreads Wikipedia page in recent weeks. It would appear as though Goodreads (and manager Patrick Brown) take offense to the TRUTH being shared on their page in regards to their ToS or enforcement thereof. (Or lack of it.)

Goodreads has recently released their “updated” ToS where they continue to maintain the following in this little excerpt:

*** You agree not to post User Content that: (i) may create a risk of harm, loss, physical or mental injury, emotional distress, death, disability, disfigurement, or physical or mental illness to you, to any other person, or to any animal; (ii) may create a risk of any other loss or damage to any person or property; (iii) seeks to harm or exploit children by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable details or otherwise; (iv) may constitute or contribute to a crime or tort; (v) contains any information or content that we deem to be unlawful, harmful, abusive, racially or ethnically offensive, defamatory, infringing, invasive of personal privacy or publicity rights, harassing, humiliating to other people (publicly or otherwise), libelous, threatening, profane, or otherwise objectionable; (vi) contains any information or content that is illegal (including, without limitation, the disclosure of insider information under securities law or of another party’s trade secrets); or (vii) contains any information or content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships; or (viii) contains any information or content that you know is not correct and current. You agree that any User Content that you post does not and will not violate third-party rights of any kind, including without limitation any Intellectual Property Rights (as defined below), rights of publicity and privacy. To the extent that your User Content contains music, you hereby represent that you are the owner of all the copyright rights, including without limitation the performance, mechanical, and sound recordings rights, with respect to each and every musical composition (including lyrics) and sound recording contained in such User Content and have the power to grant the license granted below. Goodreads reserves the right, but is not obligated, to reject and/or remove any User Content that Goodreads believes, in its sole discretion, violates these provisions. You understand that publishing your User Content on the Service is not a substitute for registering it with the U.S. Copyright Office, the Writer’s Guild of America, or any other rights organization. ***

I hope you took notice to “Mental injury”, “emotional distress”. And the part, “defamatory, infringing, invasive, harassing, humiliating to other people (publicly or otherwise), libelous, threatening, profane, or otherwise objectionable. Contains any information or content that you know is not correct or current. You agree that any User Content that you post does not and will not violate third-party rights of any kind, including without limitation any Intellectual Property Rights (as defined below), rights of publicity and privacy.”

Evidently, Patrick Brown and Goodreads don’t understand their own ToS. I present to you, the following links: (The first of which is a group created by a Goodreads lirarian, HJ Leonard, with the purpose of harassing (bullying) authors.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/68876-badly-behaving-authors

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/138220761

http://www.goodreads.com/list/comments/20953.Badly_Behaving_Authors?page=10

A listopis list that is meant for your favorite authors has been turned into an "author" harassing (bashing) list.
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/20953.Badly_Behaving_Authors?format=html&page=2


Scroll through the pages of this link and be amazed at the amount of hate, harassing, bullying ("publicly or otherwise" - as stated in the Goodreads ToS) http://www.goodreads.com/list/comments/20953.Badly_Behaving_Authors?page=1

Scroll through these pages, tell me if you see any bullying or harassment? Or fake ratings and reviews?
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11292672-children-of-the-flower-power

Or scroll through these pages. (Notice the one remark by "Loopy" who clearly has not read the book. He or she doesn't even get the age of the character (Lilly McCourtney) correct.
 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12924198-last-flight-out

Or scroll through these pages.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13626239-of-the-light

Clearly, case after case of Goodreads ToS being violated yet, these people and their comments remain.

I am working diligently with Wikipedia and others to ensure that anything that can be proven a fact, appears on the Goodreads Wiki-page. The links I just provided are FACTS! (There are more links proving the same, I assure you, and Wikipedia has or will have them all at their disposal so that the truth cannot be disputed.)

If Patrick Brown or Goodreads (by that I mean, founder Otis Chandler) wants to clean up their website and rid it of these “bullies” then great. But first, they need to start by deleting “bullying” of the past and making sure new forms of bullying do not appear on the site. (I.E. false ratings and reviews, author attacking reviews, gang attacks in authors book reviews section, listopias designed to humiliate and attack authors) They also need to delete the hate group “Authors Behaving Badly” which is mostly over-seen by their own “librarians”. (A group where these bullies can meet and discuss new ways to attack authors who question their integrity of ratings and reviews when clearly, there is enough evidence to prove they rate and review books they don’t even read and attack authors in their reviews instead of the story within the book itself.)

Negative reviews are not bullying or harassment. An author challenging the authenticity of the reviewer si not harassment or bullying. Negative reviews where the review centers more on the author and not the book, is. (As is false ratings.)

Here is the problem, Goodreads and Patrick Brown decide what constitutes bullying and harassment. And they get to “pick and choose” who to punish for it. For example, trashing an author in a review is not “bullying” or “Harassment” in their eyes for as long as the person doing the trashing is a “librarian” or a friend of a “librarian”. However, any author (or other peoples) responding to the review in a manner that points this out, that the review given had nothing to do with the book, is considered “bullying” or “harassing” by Goodreads and Patrick Brown and thus, leaving that person to be at risk for membership termination. Meanwhile, the “bully” or “harassment” review remains.

Getting the picture here?

Therefore, I will not stop from pursuing Wikipedia to include facts and that of which can be proven of cases where preferential treatment is being administered and can clearly be proven where Goodreads and Patrick Brown continue to “look the other way” when the ToS violations and violators make themselves publicly clear to all, and those violators are clearly one of Goodreads “librarians” in the process. (or their friends)

And until those things are rectified, and the people behind them punished accordingly (banned) then Goodreads is doing nothing more than trying to hide the facts from the general population. And the fact is, if you cross paths with these specific “librarians” and or their “friends” (author or not) you run a risk of them “bullying” you and “harassing” you to the point where they will have Patrick Brown ban you from the site for absolutely no reason other than to serve their own need to victimize people. And Patrick (as well as Goodreads) thus far has shown that he (they) endorse this type of behavior.

This MUST be reflected on their Wikipedia page. And when the evidence becomes too overwhelming for them to ignore, Wikipedia will include it … or the reputation of Wikipedia will then soon be called into question. I don’t think they want that.

The attack on me was started by one Jude Henderson. (Elsa Hernandez, for those who want the facts) when she shared a private email between her and I that was somewhat taken out of context. She did this merely to spark the “gang” of bullies to attack me. When she realized what she did, she backed out in shame. She now spends her time distancing herself from these people as she realizes they are the very same kind of people she always preaches against in her group. For someone who hates bullies, she sure does know a lot of them and how to use them.

And for the record, the “updated” ToS of Goodreads preaches about “misrepresentation” of ones self. I can think of no better example currently than someone using a fake name. (Where as we all know many authors use pseudonyms) What is her excuse?

But do you think for a moment that she or any of my attackers will ever be punished for what they did? Said? (Like calling me a pedophile and such) Of course not. Patrick made sure to delete those comments and the people who made them never got (and never will get) punished. Thus, ignoring their own ToS and proof positive that this must be represented on their Wikipedia page. (That not only does things like this occur frequently on their site, but that also, Goodreads will do nothing about it and protects their “librarians” from responsibility when they are in violation.)

You’re not fooling anyone, Patrick, (or Otis) - the gig is up. Everyone knows what you’re up to. Everyone knows (or will learn of) your shady practices, and the truth. If you wish to “change” the truth, you’re gonna have to go in and delete that group, and all “gang” like activities where reviews and ratings are concerned. And punish those behind them. Otherwise, the proof will always be there showing itself to the world what it is you really endorse and what Goodreads has now, sadly become. Nothing but a place where “their” bullies (librarians) can harass innocent people and authors.

The bottom line is this, the public has a right to know the truth about Goodreads and it's librarians and other members whom Goodreads has allowed to roam freely in their attempts to bully and harass authors and others. I hear it never used to be like this. Such a shame that Otis Chandler has allowed it to become like this. A real big shame.

To keep up with the happenings on Goodreads and the bullies, make sure you check out "Stop the GoodReads Bullies" website. Where every report comes with validated proof of what the bullies are doing and who they are.

STGRB - http://stopthegrbullies.com/

And if you're a member of Goodreads and you are upset by what is going on, write to Patrick Brown and or Otis Chandler and tell them you wish for them to put an end to this nonsense once and for all. To get rid of this adolescent crap, groups, you name it. It is time for the good people to stand up and be heard, and put these GR bullies out of buisiness once and for all.