Blase Eight by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Chapter 3- Goofreads
Definitions are always useful. I’ll open this chapter with a paraphrase of my favorite definition of Goofreads. “It is a social book cataloguing and reviewing site which enables the reader to become addicted to it; thereby decreasing the amount of time the reader has to spend doing their favorite thing; reading books.”
The Goofreads internet module is commonly advertised as one which provides a “social” venue for the exchange of reader ideas. Friends. Enjoyment. Someone to speak with about that book no one else within 1,000 miles has read. Jokes. Ha, ha, ha.
Someone finally understands and I can reach them with just a few clicks.
This can easily be viewed as a sarcastic statement. I assure you that it is not. It’s one which brings tears. I’ll volunteer. It doesn’t matter anymore. Haven’t there been times when we’ve felt so alone and that there was no one near who could possibly relate. The ideas and characters in the billions of books are a shorthand way of expressing feelings and saying things which can never be conveyed to a non-reader. Now, with GFR, one no longer requires a kindred spirit next door. The
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geography was no longer bound by physical realities; it reached to cyber-space. Finally.
So, what’s so wrong about it? No doubt that sometime in megabyte antiquity this may have had some naïve, faith engendered, temporary “validity.” From GFR’s outset its founder has demonstrated an un-deniable aptitude to capitalize on the general public’s show of weakness. Its subsequent acquisition by AOS multiplied that. Their corporate motto, openly displayed within boardrooms says; “Like me. Like me. I’m so nice. I give you precisely what you want. ............ Gotcha, sucker.”
Having said that, it is fair to point out that GFR still has more participants, more discussion threads, a larger data base of books and authors, more book reviews, more categorized lists, a superior search engine, which through 20 or fewer stated preferences, is capable of matching readers with other books they would probably like, more free giveaways, more and better indie reviewers (term to be subsequently discussed), and it all rests upon the easiest to use platform in the industry.
It is at least two hundred times larger than its closest competitor and infinitely superior in providing book and traditional author related information.
So, what’s the problem dickhead? Sounds pretty fucking good to me.
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Fair enough. Sounds pretty fucking good to me too, depending upon which hat I’ve chosen to wear today. To begin, today I am wearing my trustworthiness hat. I note that if one discounts the information also available on Wikipedia and the pages established by the indie writers, the rest of the information which is there is either inaccurate, useless or both. Within a caveat to be discussed later regarding various notions of censorship, this is the best single stop shop a reader has available, by far. ............ In this case, that’s something like being the best of five students in the Special Education Division. I mean no disparagement to those kids, but concerning GFR let’s get a little bit real. If this thing was any damn good, AOS, its profit deficient owner, would try to charge monthly fees for access. The only thing stopping them is that they know that any such action would result in their loss of 90% of their supposed number of subscribers.
If you might recall, this book is titled; “FOR UNDULY
CURBED KINDLE ELECTRONIC MONOGRAPHERS; A LITERARY LITURGY;”
which may be loosely translated as “for unknown indie e-book writers.” Perhaps I should have added “only,” but that might have connoted some sort of exclusivity. The site is less useful to writers and in fact, there is substantial testimony, including mine, that GFR is detrimental to them. If I were only a reader I might make some use of that which GFR freely offered.
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That is until I became more familiar with it and noticed that whenever I sought book recommendations, that I am recommended books which I already am well aware of from various best-seller lists and that the discussion threads, upon which I hoped to share thoughts with other readers, are 90% comprised of indie authors trying to get some attention and sell their middling-at-best books by being witty. Despite that I would personally remain there, though at a declining frequency, until I could find something better. If I were an indie reviewer I’d be careful of what I said, avoiding the possible retribution which might be induced as the result of my denigration of an indie book. The deletion of material and indie reviewer, for that matter, without warning, became a common occurrence right after the AOS acquisition. If I were a designated “librarian,” term further discussed later, with no other claim to a life, I would be thrilled with the power I have over non-descript indie writers and reviewers, with un-disclosed and un-proven access to and the ability to alter, delete, or otherwise falsify the entire GFR database; and try not to think too much about the all the free labor I’ve given to Oat Willy and Bozos to acquire that. If I were a traditionally published author I’d just ignore the whole thing; just as, with a handful of exceptions, which may well be falsified, they do. If I were an indie author I’d like to believe the GFR claims about how I can freely market my
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book on their site, and attempt to do so until I realize that I can quadruple that income at Mickey D’s, cooking up fries. If I were Oat Willy or Bozos I would occupy my time thinking about the most efficient way in which I could keep the puppets moving in a fashion which maximizes the market value of my holdings in AOS. If I were in the US Justice Department, I would be evaluating the merits of two filings made in July, 2015; alleging that AOS-GFR are monopolies, monopsonies, and that in addition to their actions which have resulted in a furtive strangle-hold on the US economy, they also tend toward demonstrable curtailment of the freedom of speech; simultaneously trying to calculate how my publicly stated position on the matter would affect my career and family in the current political environment. If I owned Hachette, I’d be practicing how to convincingly say; “Yes, sir.”
You will note that these things are easy to predict and say; and you will further realize that many people are eclectic mixtures of the aforementioned types, complicating matters. Any attempt to define every possible category relegates the writer to a task which cannot be finished in a lifetime, even “aided”
by the duplicative assistance of inaudibly droning processors.
Imagine the possibilities. Mix 1-2-3. Mix 1-2. Mix 1-2-4. Mix 1-2-5. Mix 2-3-4. Mix 2-3-5. Mix 3-4. On and on. Probably not to infinity, but damn near.
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But, there is an apparently invisible, and effective shroud which covers the simplicity. Everyone except Oat Willy and Bozos have degrees of dissatisfaction; yet rather than attempting to correct that through co-operative action, perhaps a boycott, aimed at the perpetrators, the aggrieved millions attempt to correct their situation by attacking each other, ostensibly blind to their common thread, while Oat Willy and Bozos find mirth in the Charles Ludlum-esque, farcical presentation.
On the most un-challenged of levels GFR boasts 40,000,000
members. Other sources say 20,000,000. In their 2015 voting for best book of the year there were 20 categories which allowed one person to cast twenty votes. Despite that, GFR reported a total of 3,007,748 votes cast. Draw your own conclusions. Out of a potential of either 400,000,000 or 800,000,000 votes cast, and keeping in mind that indie writers diligently vote for their own
“brilliance” as well as their “friend” books, a big fat 3,007,748 were cast. That’s .7519% of the smaller number and
.3760% of the larger one. Damn, Gore got a bigger turnout in Dade even when the people knew that their votes weren’t going to be counted. Could it be possible that the Wizard is adept in the use of smoke and mirrors?
One can freely enter this 2013-acquired-by-AmawayOnSteroids-subsidiary site and if armed with a valid e-
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mail address and password one can actually become a member in just a few seconds. Be warned. With all its faults it is also addicting. You will no longer have to worry about your annoying, real life friends, if any, or family, if any of them are still on speaking terms with you just showing up willy nilly. You can lock the door and experiment and play with “friends” whenever the urge strikes YOU. Total control. In complete safety, you can test how stupidly vicious you can be. Unless you attract the attention of a rabid GFR librarian, your only penalty will be the deletion of the comment deemed to be against GFR policy.
Right here it should be noted that this GFR policy dissertation, as opposed to definition, begins with a statement of how they believe in free speech and ends with the statement that they retain the right to alter, delete or otherwise modify anything on their website whenever they deem it appropriate, without regard to reason or cause. A first time offender will most likely be the recipient of a standard e-mail warning about violating GFR policy; that you’ve been bad; and to not do it again. If this happens, do not take it lightly. For one thing, this will put you on the troll librarian secret shit list of members who have no defense against bullies, trolls, carpet bombers, or incompetent and jealous indie writers and reviewers.
If you choose to put up with the harassment, with the third GFR
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warning e-mail you will be completely deleted, and some people die when going cold turkey.
In this environment, the most astute of GFR reviewers, many of whom were also early librarians who freely established the database, are now also the victims of harassment. Many were quite vocal over the things which happened in 2013, right after the AOS takeover and are apparently now expendable. Universally, they have logically ceased reviewing indie books, I believe because a warranted one or two star rating will get them another warning, and for some incalculable reason they want to remain part of GFR. Despite attestations to the contrary they must believe in a resurrection; and at least one of them is Jewish!
They now reserve commentary and save any pent up viciousness for the classics. None of the writers have registered a complaint since their deaths and since the books have already been rated thousands of times anyway. A one or two star rating has negligible effect on the overall average, and AOS doesn’t seem to worry over the possible loss of a sale.
In no circumstances say anything which, even out of context, might be construed as homophobic, race discriminatory or sexist. If you have some intolerant need to address these issues at all make certain you are current with the politically correct euphemism with which to refer to the disadvantaged
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minorities. You will note that there is an accepted genre title which uses one of these terms, Chick Lit, but take my word on this one. Don’t use it. Say nice, nice things of everything and everybody and embellish them with loads of happy faces, even the indie books which find their most humorous attempts in protracted descriptions of household pets evolved into road kill or torture subjects for youthful-would-be-Satanists. Better yet, don’t take any risk and say nothing at all. The site is chock full of book and writing information you may wish to read if like me, after having written a few books, you’d like to learn something about literature.
The real politik displayed here? Readers, writers, reviewers, and librarians know that they are extremely weird people and they want to keep that a secret. As noted elsewhere they do not even have a clue as to how “real” people communicate. They are afraid that other people call them derogatory names behind their backs and are more afraid that these names will be thrown in their faces publicly. So, in practice, their insistence upon their idea of fairness and politically correct terminology is just another example of self-serving behavior, clandestinely aimed at maintaining a barrier between them and the ones who would ridicule or even hate the useless and protected reader-writer-reviewers and call them the dreaded “S” word; “softcover twits.”
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Some might say that this is “skewer the reviewers,” and as usual some may be right; much as “I suppose your guess is more or less as bad as mine.”
I’m taking a risk right here, but in the interest of truth
............ Do not ever; and I mean do not ever post anything positive about Donald Trump. Don’t even attempt sarcasm as US
mid-westerners and off shore GFR participants either do not understand it or don’t like it. Whatever. The possible punishments for registering a Donald approval exceed that of infanticide. No, no, no.
As anecdotal background information, a few un-commercial maximizing years prior, there was a Goofreads approved indie
“author” who considered art to be theft. He, she or to-be-determined was an e-book writer with no market or literary ability; likely both. Yet he, she, or to-be-determined could converse with readers at will; perhaps a respite from being alone trying to write a decent book or being alone trying to find a decent one to copy. All right. It was one of my former GFR indie “friends” and I used to say that his, her, or yet-to-be-determined’s efforts to ingratiate themselves was excellent, while I was careful not to mention anything about what I was currently doing. I’d just make up moronic things, like the story of a not-quite-so-young man who still lived with his parents.
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He’d write books for the lack of a real job and he’d get laid about three times per page, treating it in an over-baked blasé fashion. The rest of the book was basically about puss, piss, loose eyeballs and dead babies; you know, the stuff you used to find the height of hilarity sophomore year in high school. He’d show his stuff to the Moms in an attempt to gross her out, but she’d always be too Xanexed out to be upset or maybe even read; responding; “Very good,” at each showing. Book 1 of the series ends when the Moms becomes a GFR indie reviewer. This worked for a while and then we had a bit of a blow-up about what is a truly long, boring story, centered around my “sarcastic” posts. It was then that I learned this person was a librarian-reviewer-ersatz writer with access to the entirety of the GFR database and some of AOS’. Just by “coincidence,” at the same time 300+ of my four and five star righteously received reviews were deleted. Those with one or two stars remained and approximately twenty were added, containing identical reviews for seven different books, in the name of an obvious sock puppet. A sock puppet is basically a fictitious alter ego of some presumably “real”
person, falsely created to make web posts, with which the “real”
entity does not want to be associated. The term will be expanded upon later herein. Just by further “coincidence” I could no longer access GFR, which in retrospect was a blessing; an end to a harmful addiction.
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All right, all right; some of you insist that I be totally serious; or lacking that, at least a little funny. I thought I was. Oh, well. In a very real way that seems to be an un-reasonable requirement in an absurd situation. It inevitably puts the masters in control. ........... You are askance and REQUIRE further documentation. Sorry, my well-loved scholars. My mortal deficiencies dictate a pragmatism. I don’t have the time or the interest. I don’t know and think that I don’t care. But, it is for you to write your own book. ........ Anyway, I wrote some serious crap to “GFR Lack of Administration,” and after a lengthy delay and two more e-mails was advised that the problem was not within their purview and referred me to no one in particular at AOS. I first said; “Fuck it. I know the bullshit game,” but after a few days I didn’t have anything else to do, so I e-mailed AOS. For those scientists out there who require the most severe form of clarity let me say; “After a lengthy delay and two more e-mails I was advised that the problem was not within their purview and referred me to no one in particular at GFR.” Jeez, how can you help but laugh?
I thought that one of the primary, pre-AmawayOnSteroids purchase, purposes of GFR was to enable readers to exchange information and recommendations with other readers. Readers all too well know of the classics and best sellers, no matter how
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ridiculously calculated. Yet the programmed commercial orientation on the site today throws those books in front of users at every turn. Thanks so much. From the reader's point of view, if there is any useful purpose for the existence of GFR, it is to be able to tell other readers of the out-of-the-mainstream books they liked and be advised in a similar fashion.
But, that’s just naïve, pie-in-the-sky thinking on my part. When I gave GFR their required 20 books liked information, their stated requirement for suggestions generated by their super search engine, I got back the very well-known ones; most well ensconced on AOS “best seller” lists. Thanks again.
Perhaps in the same vein, I have found that when I have rated un-known indie books highly, that rating is often soon deleted. I suspect that this is either the result of ownership policy or the workings of their unpaid "librarians," most likely a combination of the two.
If it has not been previously stated, in return for providing free work to GFR-AOS, though it is of course not officially stated to be as such, de-facto; un-supervised, these officially designated "librarians" are granted the ability to edit, delete, add to, totally fabricate, copy, or change anything which exists on this marketing website. .......... Oh yeah. You can say what you want for a short time. But, if what you say is inconvenient, or if it is viewed as something with
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more US$ potential than the "librarian"-failed writers could ever achieve there will be changes made without your consent and you will never be told the name of the responsible party or their “sock puppet,” or more likely “sock puppets.” Initially, this may sound as outrageously nonsensical to you as it did me.
However, I did just an hour’s worth of internet research and found lots of company; thousands. This can be confirmed at sites called bookriot, goodreadsucks, jackiedaniki, zoedesh and especially the indie reviewers’ most hated STGRB. STGRB stands for “Stop the GoofReads Bullies” and has a fairly comprehensive database of differing categories of GFR author abuse and cheating. Zoe Desh, a fictitious name intended to avoid AOS-GFR
retribution, has written a book on this subject which can be downloaded free. It will go into some areas not covered here and will be even more damning. The other sites mentioned represent a potpourri of complaints about AOS-GFR, including how their automatic engines have been set to make it appear as if a new GFR member was requesting, through e-mails sent to every friend they had on social media, to join GFR. This resulted in many
“GFR new members” being blocked from some areas as ‘spammers,”
with a resultant loss of business. I realize that in this duplicitous time some of these people are making use of these sites to advertise their books, sort of an anti-advertising; some are just un-happy writer’s with garbage books; and some
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want to defame a reviewer who didn’t like their book. But, I do believe that many of them are just detailing true events, as many are the same stories I experienced.
One of the things I found most amusing were the occasional posts from the GFR founder and continuing head honcho under AOS
ownership; Oat Willy. He always basically states that whatever the event, that this was some sort of accident which he and GFR
are concerned about and are currently working on. I wonder if he got the idea for his form letter from a George Saunders short story. He mercifully disappears when the complainant says;
“Bullshit, and I’ll tell you why that’s bullshit ......” It may be of further interest to know that while GFR was compiling its strange version of “2015 Best Of ... Awards,” a here-and-there-rebellious GFR author-reviewer-librarian posted that this GFR
founder again led the league in deletions. The margin was so wide that second place was the horse that tripped over the gate.
I can’t help it. It strikes me as odd that the CEO of a sizable, indirectly publicly held institution spends so much time in the deletion process. I know some unemployed people who can easily handle that job for much less pay.
You may have no interest whatsoever in this subjects. You might say; “Fuck GFR. Fuck AOS. Fuck the Deletion Maven. Fuck Bozos. Fuck Oat Willy. Fuck books. Fuck reviews. And most of all fuck writers.”
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I fucking agree. Believe it or not, I really don’t need the money, books, reviews or aggravation from this shit. It’s not that I’m anywhere near rich; but until the day they delete the Social Security program we’ve all paid so much into, me and my lady will be all right. From the outset it was termed a “non-tax deductible-purchase-of-insurance.” For Christ’s sake, if Nationwide told everyone “We’re not paying any more claims because we don’t know how to manage our money,” there would be a revolution which would make the ousting of the Brits seem like a
“Tea Party” demonstration.
These thoughts arise out of a hatred for charlatans. I have a fear that this AOS-GFR business plan, which is to find desperate suckers to work for no pay, has expanded well beyond books. AOS has already made acquisitions and announced startup operations in virtually every aspect of life people find necessary or entertaining. If somebody doesn’t give them some shit over books, then the lines become more gray as they establish dominance in household services, clothing, food, package delivery, movies, computers and peripherals, etc., etc., etc.
I know that it in the US, it is currently the right of the owner to do whatever they wish with their "properties." I also used to know that it was the job of the Federal Government to monitor monopolistic activities whenever they became detrimental
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to the vast majority. Used to. I also know that when monopolies are permitted, those entities will invariably follow a course which in the short run will make them lucrative, and in the long run; the optimistic scenario; will make them as broke and irrelevant as the ones from whom they seek revenue; with their most important executive, the “Senior Vice President in Charge of Sucking Up to the Public Utility Commission.” They can take their free choice although they always take the same one.
“Ordinary People” and their elected leaders seem to have forgotten their birthright, existent long before a corporation was ever invented. Excuse me, I’m getting way off topic again.
Oddly, though I think that this is not done by the now mistreated originals, I think that the newer GFR unpaid
"librarian" operatives, acting something like a 1940's garter belt, for the most part, make efforts to thwart anyone who they might see as being headed for something more "successful" than themselves. Bottom line; this is most everyone with a paying job. Bottom line; this may be partially due to AmawayOnSteroids’
profit deficient need to make use of suckers willing to work for nothing; married to those same sucker's, untalented grabs for power; only able to show jealousies useless to the general public. Whichever, through having been made aware of these things on countless occasions AmawayOnSteroids has possibly been
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criminally negligent in allowing this to continue to be the case.
On the most pedestrian of legal considerations, that's their permitted "ownership" right in America, but it is also a violation of GFR’s implied promise of working together to make the definitive literature site. If anyone at corporate level can see outside themselves just a foot, they'd have seen that it is also our legal right to be totally disgusted, and not be a part of their efficient, power grabbing, entrepreneurial efforts.
They can easily themselves; or more likely through the use of desperate un-paid flunkies ignore, thwart, pervert, delete, massage, or out-and-out fabricate anything I try to write. My only "logical" choice is that which allows me the possibly illusory dream of a departure from the things they have poorly duplicated; as opposed to the depiction of things true and elemental. So, bye-bye GFR. You have no use for me and I have none for you. My dream is that some attorney sees this as potentially being the largest class action suit of all time.
Guess what? Ha ha ha. What a fucking surprise. They did not delete something I wrote. Somehow they managed to not allow its posting to begin with; and therefore didn’t have to delete it.
In an effort to "comply" with their dictums, masquerading as technical glitches, I hope to say a final "Adieu." Just stay away. I'll gladly return the favor. As I and others have
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requested; delete our “author” pages in entirety. We don’t want or need you. But, you won’t. You choose to act like an adult bullied child, your learned behavior administered by your flunkies. Further dreams indicated. In its entirety this will appear somewhere out of the purview of GFR and their minions.
Big deal, right? The big men at AOS and GFR worry about stuff like this.
I am fully aware that some of the things I have written in this document concerning AOS and GFR operations sound bizarre.
They are; AOS and GFR that is. I assure you that I am no more insane than any other e-book writer and more balanced than a few I’ve encountered. The possible events which I describe actually happened to me. When they did I wondered myself if I wasn’t seeing the little man who wasn’t there or if these things just happen through computer errors of some sort. But, then when I started to investigate “problems with GFR” and similar phrases on the web I found that there were thousands of people saying exactly the same things. Though it is not the subject of this book, when I was banished from GFR, I was also unable to write anything on other websites, including newspapers and Amazon. A former friend was an excellent hacker and she advised me that something was done to the modem, which makes my Internet Service number recognizable to and banned from AOS “affiliate” and “cooperating” sites if not more. I can change this number, but
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doing so results in the strong possibility that my Internet Service Provider will cancel my internet service. I can access many things when I use someone else’s internet service. Anyway, the whole process made me feel as if I was in Orwell’s “1984,”
with some specific mechanics changed, with the overall theme of being rendered substantially mute, but not by the government per se; by a scumbag private company which is trying to get its hands into everything cheaply and letting their unpaid help do whatever they want while they and the government pretend to look the other way.
In fairness, there also have been numerous indie reviewers
“trolled.” One of the top rated GFR reviewers has detailed what she thinks happened to her. She primarily had suspicions about three entities; “one stupid enough to use his own name,”
supplemented by two others who made use of sock puppets. It dovetails nicely with my personal story. She also testifies that she was stalked by some nut.
I’ve read a few of her reviews and to me they seemed cogent and not un-necessarily derogatory. However, her average rating was 3.46; which is on the low side. I valued them more than others, as when a reviewer has an average rating of 4.3 or higher I respect their assessments as highly as I do that of a blind and rabid used car salesman. But, apparently this is exactly what AOS-GFR wants most.
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This is a paraphrase, but she deftly characterized a troll as “an unhappy loser, whose greatest thrill in life is to anonymously post vile comments in the hope that they will make the recipient feel as poor and deficient as the troll actually is.” I would only suggest the insertion of “or encourage others to post vile comments” after “comments.” Perhaps these trolls would be chagrined to know that both she and I usually find them a source of amusement, unless they are also sufficiently computer savvy to affect the operation of our machines.
.......... Yeah, I know that amusement can be viewed as something akin to laughing at a cripple; but it’s not exactly that and I don’t care in the least bit anyway. They started it.
Her experience actually sounded worse than mine in most respects; as at least one of the sad-ass trolls pursued her in a cyber fashion for months. Perhaps the same one screwed up her IP
address; affecting her access to various websites; and one stalked her in person. At least I didn’t have to see the cretin.
The entire situation is consistent with that of art imitating life; in this case very redundant, rude computer graffiti married to an insignificant little shit, thinking that they are a terrorist of world-wide infamy. That’s a bit post-modern or post-industrial; but it works here. Recall Dylan’s
“Pawn in the Game,” and try to picture a deluded, mean, pathetic one.
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You see; it’s this simple. Just as in “real” life, in cyber space there are “terrorists” on both sides; each fitting the astute reviewer’s idea of a troll. Their numbers continue to grow, as both sides argue with each other as to who is at fault.
Concurrently, the powers that be wring their hands as they display their oh-so-pained-public faces. Christ, if Obama’s lower lip gets any lower it will half kiss his neck. I’ve yet to see one capable of tears, but fully expect some further cosmetic advancement will soon provide the professionally restrained waterfall. Personally, I look forward to that day, as it will be funnier than Jack Nicholson’s Hollywood portrayal of the Joker.
In the meantime one would have to conclude one of two things; 1) That the powers that be are completely ineffectual; or 2) That the powers that be have analyzed the situation, and have incorrectly found it to be in their best interest.
So, everybody is “trolling” everybody else and complaining about it. I am certain that AOS and GFR have been the “winners”
insofar as they can define the term, and we are providing them with free entertainment.
As previously alluded to, my personal experience was that I sold more books before having had the “help” of being a GFR
participant. In fact half of my total 19 month sales came in that first month before we were acquainted.
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Prior to having the GFR experience I could not have imagined this. Why should you believe me? I don’t know. We’re all now loaded with bad information. But, do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to do this. Google GFR complaints and see how many writers claim to have been hurt by GFR. Then try to find one who says that he was helped. The conclusion is obvious.
Unless one is desperate to have an electronic “friend” there is no reason to bother with GFR.
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