[Caddy]

How wonderful. Someone gave book 4 1 star on Goodreads and I went to see what other books she has given one star to, and guess what?  She doesn't even have it listed as read. She entered hundreds of books in one day, assigning them low ratings but not yet reading them.  

I wonder how bored a person has to be to take time to do this.

Nor has she read the first three or does she even list them. Perhaps she went through the giveaways or something and rated them all a low rating for the heck of it.  

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Is this on GoodReads?  She could have imported from a text file and the default for that field was one star.  I know I bulk imported a bunch of books into Goodreads using a CSV file from another program not long after I got my first Kindle--maybe in 2009?  And it gave them five star reviews (is that the max on GR?  I'm doing it from memory). I started getting thank you notes from authors for giving their books five stars.  It took me a second or two to figure out what happened, as I hadn't read any of the books.

My guess based on my own experience and my natural inclination to not assume the worst would be that it was a flaw in a file import.

Betsy

 

[Caddy]

Good to know, Betsy! At least I don't have to picture a woman sitting at her computer adding one book as a time and and thinking, "Hmmm.  One star?  Two? Let's flip a coin."

Thanks. 

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

Good to know, Betsy! At least I don't have to picture a woman sitting at her computer adding one book as a time and and thinking, "Hmmm. One star? Two? Let's flip a coin."

Thanks.

I felt bad for the author who was so grateful for the five-star I gave her...

Betsy

 

[H.M. Ward]

Try not to let those get to you. There are ppl who left 1 stars for books of mine that weren't even released. No ARCs, nothing. And she left a big fat ONE STAR.

 

[Andrew Ashling]

Bummer, but to put it in perspective: she read 21 books, rated 633 books, and reviewed none. Her average rating is 2.17.

Some readers use the star system to classify books before reading. Let's say someone hates Westerns. They start reading blurbs and whenever they happen to stumble on a Western they give it one star, which is their personal code for "genre I don't like to read."

I read about someone rating over 2,000 books in less than two days. 

Goodreads may give recommendations, but readers can use the star system any way they want.

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

I read about someone rating over 2,000 books in less than two days.

See, I would just assume that was a file import. I imported about 400 books the first time, and they apparently all had ratings attached that I wasn't aware of, even though I hadn't read them. It can be very easy to get field mismatches when importing files.

Betsy

 

[AnnMHammond]

Those stars GoodReads asks you to give books actually reflect the books scores?!

When I first joined up they made me rate like 20 books or something in order to start giving me recommendations. Luckily I think I only was given choices on some pretty big name books (Harry Potter and such) but I had NO idea that was an actual rating system, I thought it was just so the system could get to *know* what I liked.

Sheesh, I bet Netflix works the same way. Now I am feeling bad  

 

[Andrew Ashling]

Try not to let those get to you. There are ppl who left 1 stars for books of mine that weren't even released. No ARCs, nothing. And she left a big fat ONE STAR.

Not long ago there was a similar case on Goodreads, except… the reader reviewed the book. The book of which the only copy was on the author's hard drive. That as yet wasn't seen by anyone except the writer. The "reviewer" was "offended as a dancer," and she wasn't even going to waste her time writing a long review, because it was "bad in every way you can think of."

Goodreads got many complaints but the "review" is still up.

It's a jungle out there.

 

[Caddy]

Some readers use the star system to classify books before reading. Let's say someone hates Westerns. They start reading blurbs and whenever they happen to stumble on a Western they give it one star, which is their personal code for "genre I don't like to read."

Oh, that's good to know as well!

After reading a few other comments, at least my book has been released! I would be even more gobsmacked it it was still simply on my hard-drive...

 

[ElHawk]

It could have been a bulk-import error, OR you could have been hit by a Goodreads demon. They're accounts users have created specifically to "punish" authors for what they perceive as "bad behavior." Bad behavior in their eyes can include mentioning your book in any thread that is not specifically for book advertising (even if it's related to the discussion, even if another person in the thread asks you to link to your book so they can see it), adding your book to relevant Listopia lists, responding to reviews (even just to say thanks, or even liking positive reviews). Don't let it bug you. Goodreads demons are dumb. They're just people who take GR waaaaaay too seriously.

Every book on the face of the planet has at least a few bad ratings. Not everybody loves everything. Keep doing your thing, and always remember:

 

[ElisaBlaisdell]

Those stars GoodReads asks you to give books actually reflect the books scores?!

When I first joined up they made me rate like 20 books or something in order to start giving me recommendations. Luckily I think I only was given choices on some pretty big name books (Harry Potter and such) but I had NO idea that was an actual rating system, I thought it was just so the system could get to *know* what I liked.

Sheesh, I bet Netflix works the same way. Now I am feeling bad

I thought that the purpose of the stars you give books on Goodreads was so GR would know what to recommend. Isn't it?

 

[Atunah]

And the stars help when you compare your reading likes with others. That way you can make a decision who to follow or friend, so you can see how they rate stuff. The higher the match percentage, the better chance that what they like, you might like too and the other way around.

The compare button is awesome on Goodreads. 

There are many reasons why folks rate something on Goodreads. Some use it as a database for their books. Ratings are part of that.

And Betsy is right about the importing. I had to start from scratch again when I tried that after I signed up on Goodreads. That was a big mess. But I didn't have a clean text file. So I just did it manually. One by one by one. All 3500 of them 

 

[Incognita]

Try not to let those get to you. There are ppl who left 1 stars for books of mine that weren't even released. No ARCs, nothing. And she left a big fat ONE STAR.

I've had that happen with books I'm giving away. The books hadn't been released, and the only people who had read them were my beta readers (who loved the books, BTW). But someone still comes along and gives the books one or two stars. It's really frustrating, but what can you do?

 

[Kathleen Valentine]

Try not to let those get to you. There are ppl who left 1 stars for books of mine that weren't even released. No ARCs, nothing. And she left a big fat ONE STAR.

^^^ This. I've had the same thing happen. I also had a person who went through and gave every single 1 of my books a 1-star rating with no review. I think smething must have happened because they are all gone now and so is she.

 

[Caddy]

Thanks everyone. No, I haven't behaved badly or otherwise on there. I simply add my books and to give-aways when a book first comes out. I am very happy with my rankings on there...so this really surprised me.  Ah, well. Nothing to be done about it.

 

[Mathew Reuther]

Sheesh, I bet Netflix works the same way. Now I am feeling bad

It does kind of. If actually guesses at what movies should be given what other people who thought similarly about movies thought of it.