Alot of times when Im looking for a new book I'll check the members reviews to see if I think it would be a good read.  Lately Ive noticed more and more people just copying the books synopsis for their review and then giving it however many stars.  Now seriously, I can read the synopsis for myself, why do people bother doing a review if they arent really going to add their own thoughts?  It doesnt bother me in the least if a review is short but it does irk me if people take the lazy way out.

A lot of old members of PBS do this ... because it used to be that there was no way for them to add the book description to the listing except in a book review. Apparently, they haven't gotten out of the habit of doing this.

When you are looking at a book listing, you can go to More Options -> Edit Book Data and put the description of the book in the correct field.

And now we can enter it into the book wiki.  Hopefully that will cut down on those reviews.

If enough people mark those reviews as unhelpful, I think they eventually get removed.

If enough people mark those reviews as unhelpful, I think they eventually get removed.

Now see I hadnt thought of that.  Thanks for the idea and the explanation you guys.  =)

Give 'em the thumbs down to slide those crummy reviews down the screen. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Bwhahahaha.

I gave a thumbs down today to someone who wrote: "I haven't read this book"

It doesn't annoy me as much as when people post spoilers. THAT annoys me.

Seriously Laura? I haven't read this book? How could someone think that is helpful/useful at ALL?

LOL Laura! I love that....I haven't read this book. Okay.

But on the other hand, "I haven't read it" is *almost* as helpful is "great book!" or "I liked it."  Well goodie for you.

I just don't even bother anymore...between people giving away the ending, people copying the description from Amazon, one or two word reviews, people putting the condition of their particular book....it's just not worth the bother. I would rather spend time reading the book than wading through crap. :D

I think part of it is because people think that if they review the book, it's more likely to get chosen off their shelf. So they put in any old thing. Yeah, whatever.

Cheryl

Give 'em the thumbs down to slide those crummy reviews down the screen. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Bwhahahaha.

Laura, I do the same thing!  

Amazing how some folks thing a synopsis is the same thing as a review.  I really need to make more comments on the books on my shelf, though.  I buy so many just to post that often I don't read them myself.  Still, I won't just copy something from the back of the book.

It's suggested to get books requested from your shelf, you post a review.  Maybe that's part of it? 

I find it continually more inconvenient to post reviews (they keep pushing the stars, which I find next to useless) so I'm surprised that folks are going out of their way to post non-useful reviews!

Some of the synopsis may be from back when you couldn't edit book data.  I went back through my reviews and fixed at least most of those to put the synopsis up where it should be, but it took a fair amount of time and not everyone may have the time, care enough (I usually wouldn't, but I had some time to kill at work one week) or is still active. 

I do wonder how many people read reviews.  Do they read and not thumbs up/thumbs down?  Are they thumbs-downing my reviews so I don't know it?  Is it a waste of time to review here?  I wonder these things.

Before marking those synopsis reviews with a thumbs down so that they disappear from view, take the time to make sure the synopsis is above in the book data. As was stated above, most of the synopsis reviews are left overs from the days when we could not edit the book data as we can today. The only way to get the synopsis to people so they might be interested in your books was to put it in the reviews.

There are a whole team of people diligently working to get the synopsis up into the book data, but they cannot remove the reviews, they can only be shifted down the page by using the thumbs down feature, and then eventually only the thumbs up reviews will be shown on the page. But, again, please, make sure the synopsis is above before using that feature.

THANKS!
Sherry,
Data Corrections Team Leader