Naughty authors, Goodreads will smack...

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Holy crap, guys, self publishers have finally done it. I mean, I know that authors, and writers in general, have the ability to be obnoxious little jerks with the mental maturity of twelve year olds, but they've finally gotten to the point where they're being so dreadful on Goodreads that they're forcing them to go all "bad-parent" on their asses.

Naughty authors!  Goodreads will smack!

Thanks to a spate of "revenge ratings" on Goodreads, usually organised by a rival author and their cronies, that the social cataloguing site has decided to change their T&C's and start deleting ratings and reviews that are obviously not aimed at the work itself [link].  That's kind of pathetic, isn't it.  We can't be grown ups so they have to supervise us.

Although I have to think that the phenomena has less to do with the fact that they're self published authors and more with the online nature of the catalogue.  As I'm sure we've all been witness to at least once or twice, people can be little bastards online.

There's just something about the anonymous nature of online interactions that seems to make people believe they can be as rude as they'd like.  No face, no consequences.  It's all ridiculous, and so 7th grade, but it is what it is.

But I have to admit it makes my soul weep a little when I hear about self published authors doing it to each other.  I love the current self publishing trend.  It's opening up the industry in a way that's never been seen before and allowing all sorts of wonderful works to be put out there.  It's a true revolution, and we're getting to watch it happening.

But instead of supporting, or at least tolerating, each other through it, authors are doing things to each other virtually that they would never dream of doing face to face.  All because they don't think anyone will notice and call them on it.

Well, Goodreads has noticed.  Consider yourselves grounded.