Dear Goodreads,
We emailed you on June 4, 2013 and July 9, 2013 about what we think is a Goodreads spamming / hacking / bot issue. We have not had a response to our queries, let alone a resolution. We are writing you this open letter in hopes that we can receive the courtesy of a reply.
Our concerns relate to our version of Moby Dick, one of the titles in the series Cozy Classics. As you will see from the screen capture below, the number of ratings for Moby Dick is wildly disproportionate to ratings for other books in the series.
As far as we can tell, this issue began on May 26, 2013, when the first suspicious rating appeared from “Kathryn”. Kathryn’s profile is highly suspicious since she only joined Goodreads in May, added nearly 100 books on May 26, 2013 (including a rating for our Moby Dick), and has had no activity on Goodreads before or since that date. Here is Kathryn’s entire book list.
There are countless other profiles of Goodread users who have rated Cozy Classics: Moby Dick that appear entirely bogus. Here is just a tiny sample:
* Bob Feland: joined Goodreads May 2013 – rated Moby Dick May 27, 2013 – all other book ratings (several hundred!) on the same day, no activity before or since
* Amy: joined Goodreads May 2013 – rated Moby Dick May 31, 2013 – all other book ratings on the same day, no activity before or since
* Hans Bulo: joined Goodreads June 2013 – rated Moby Dick June 2, 2013 – all other book ratings on the same day, no activity before or since
* Martin Whittaker: joined Goodreads June 2013 – rated Moby Dick June 4, 2013 – all other book ratings on the same day, no activity before or since
* Emily: joined Goodreads June 2013 – rated Moby Dick June 5, 2013 – all other book ratings on the same day, no activity before or since
* Mary: joined Goodreads June 2013 – rated Moby Dick June 7, 2013 – all other book ratings on the same day, no activity before or since
* Erin Nakasone: joined Goodreads June 2013 – rated Moby Dick June 9, 2013 – all other book ratings on the same day, no activity before or since
The last day this spamming / hacking / bot activity seems to have occured is June 9, 2013, when Cozy Classics: Moby Dick received over 80 ratings or “to reads”! This level of activity is clearly suspicious, since none of our other series titles have received more than 78 ratings since fall 2012.
We kindly ask that Goodreads remove all ratings / “to reads” (or at the very least, the ratings) from May 26, 2013 to June 9, 2013, inclusive. On most days during this period, Cozy Classics: Moby Dick received dozens of ratings and “to reads”, which is entirely inconsistent with the frequency of activity at any other time period. Will there be some legitimate reviews amongst the nearly 700 suspicious ones from May 26 to June 9? Possibly, but removing a few legitimate reviews is preferable to leaving up several hundred bogus ones.
Finally, because of this spam / hacking / bot activity, the average rating for Moby Dick has gone down more than half a star rating, which is also dragging down the rating for the entire series. The number of legitimate reviews simply can’t balance out the sheer number of suspicious ones. We believe that Goodreads provides a wonderful service to readers and writers, but not if the integrity of the rating system can be allowed to be compromised by suspicious activity.
We kindly ask that you take the requested action as soon as possible, or at least contact us to discuss this matter. You can contact us here.
Sincerely,
Holman and Jack Wang
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UPDATE: We had the following exchange with Goodreads on Twitter:
However, we’re not optimistic that Goodreads will in fact get to our email “shortly”, as they told us to report suspicious or inappropriate activity two months ago. Only time will tell…