Our Saturdays are normally reserved for the start of our new author of the week, well this week we are not doing it, don't worry next week we will have a new one and we will be doubling the prizes to make up for not having any this week. Today we are doing something completely different than what we normally do on this site, it's not a review, promo or anything like that it's simply my opinion on some of the things that have been going on lately and how I personally feel about them.

Not that long ago Goodreads changed the ToS, I was not happy my first thought was  

I ran over to BookLikes and created an account worried that the changes GR had made would change things, censorship is a slippery slope and where is the line drawn? Once I calmed down I started thinking instead of just reacting.

 

I started looking beyond my group of friends, I don't know if I have been living under a rock or I have just been ignoring things but once I took my blinders off I saw that there was some serious drama going on. There are people attacking authors, authors attacking people and authors fans attacking people while yes I knew this stuff was going on it was more in a abstract back of my mind kind of way because really I wasn't involved in it so why get in the middle of the drama. When looking at things I see some people saying this about authors

 

 

Then I see authors attacking reviewers

 

 

Then we have the peanut gallery get involved, who yes sometimes are trying to help other times not so much. 

 

  

All this combined together created the perfect storm and putting myself in GR shoes I would think this

 

So when I pull myself out of the this sucks and I hate it mind set GR isn't really to blame, it's  not the fault of the moderators of the site it's the fault of the few who ruined it for the majority.  People were bullying back and forth creating problems left then right, there are only so many fires a person can put out before they have to draw a hardline to stop it. 

All that was to come around to my real problem the issue of bullying, everyone is entitled to their opinion and while I may not agree with it I still think they have a right to express it. However, I don't think anyone has the right to verbally bash anyone or maliciously attack them. To go after a someone because you don't agree with whether or not they like your book is not ok, to personally attack an author because of their behavior is not ok. Yes sometimes I feel like this

 

but that does not give me or anyone the right to go out and badmouth anyone and try to drive down an authors sales. If an author is behaving badly or they are fine with their fans attacking bad reviewers I won't read their book, I don't want the hassle and I don't support people who are fine with bullying. 

Then we have the STGRB they are of the mind of an eye for an eye, they think the way to stop bullying is by bullying people who they think are "bullies." At first maybe they were really trying to help but like all other groups that start out with good intentions when things get twisted and your approach changes you yourself turn into the bully. The STGRB has a habit of broadcasting the personal information of the so called GR bullies and violating GR ToS. I can no longer distinguish what the goal of this group and all I can think is

 

That's my two cents on the subject of GR ToS change and all the drama that has been going. As cliche as it sounds two wrongs don't make a right, you can write a bad review without personally attacking an author and retain your integrity at the same time that you're expressing your honest opinion. Authors remember that reviews are subjective just because one person doesn't like your book it doesn't mean other people won't as well, attacking a reviewer or turning a blind eye when your fans do just makes you look bad. Stop bullying each other, the sandbox is big enough for everyone so even if you can't play nice you can at least not throw sand in each others eyes. 

Post by: Jillian