The Good and the Bad

The latter half of the title of this post refers to the dark side of the world we live in today. So many of our politicians spewing such vile garbage (you know who I'm referring to), tells many who hear it, they can do and say the same.

I was aware that there were a large number of fake accounts and reviews for books on GoodReads. I hadn't experienced it personally, but knew many others have. I hadn't experienced it until a few days ago.

I received a message from Gina, a GR author, who noticed I had a half dozen or so 1 star ratings and horrible comments for my just released book. So "just released", I knew they were not people who had read it. Gina did too, and took the time to report it to GR (which is owned by Google.) She's been battling this for over 3 years. 

I reported it as well the next day, and less than 24 hours later received the following response from GR:

"Hi William,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, though we're sorry to hear about your experience. We've looked into the accounts you reported, and as they raised a number of our standard red flags for illegitimacy, they have been removed from the site. We take the responsibility of supporting our members seriously and are constantly investing in making improvements to better safeguard our community. We're happy to continue to investigate any content/accounts you think breaks our guidelines. 

We appreciate that you brought this to our attention. Please let us know if there's anything else we can help you with. 

Sincerely,
The Goodreads Team"

Being honest, based on the lack of response others having the same problem have reported, I did not expect resolution or a reply as quickly as happened. My hope is GR recognizes this is a major problem, one that could cause them to lose both authors and members. That would be a tragedy from the perspective of someone who enjoys interacting with others about books.

The former part of this post title is about the good in today's world. Gina, who took the time to help someone she didn't know, and GR who cleaned up the problem so quickly.

That may seem insignificant with all at stake as we approach our national election, but I'll take it, appreciating anything, small or large, that is about the good.