BBA Ms. Vidal, Part 2
Today author Elena Maria Vidal posted on her Facebook page:
Here is the link she posted: Trianon Questions
These links will take you to each Question separately, so you can see the comments more easily:
To be honest I am a bit surprised GoodReads hasn't removed these "Questions".
However, what Ms. Vidal clearly misses is the fact that while a GoodReads Author she posted a blog article attacking GoodReads users by user name and providing links to their reviews on GoodReads (as well as Amazon). Which is a clear violation of GoodReads' TOS not to attack reviewers. The fact that it was done outside of GoodReads doesn't help her, not when she's calling out specific users by name and linking back to specific reviews on GoodReads.
This is the sort of thing that can get authors banned from GoodReads. Particularly when it's a not so subtle "invitation" for fans to target these reviewers for harassment, as we see has been done in this case.
While these "Questions" are not complementary, they certainly are not "harassment". In order to harass someone you have to actually interact with them. The problem with her blog article isn't that it is, in and of itself, harassment. It's that it makes accusations against individuals and identifies them both as GoodReads users and as Amazon reviewers, as well as providing links to their reviews and comments on those sites.
Whether intended or not this facilitates and inspires some of her fans to "defend" her on GoodReads and Amazon, and they have done so, by attacking them in the comments of their reviews. That is harassment. Amazon at least also considers this sort of thing review manipulation, as it spotlights reviews an author is displeased about for the author's fans to downvote.
Additionally, Ms. Vidal fails to mention the "Questions" posted by a couple of her fans accusing these reviewers of "persecuting" the author. These questions are deleted now, but you can see responses to one of them here:
The Persecution of Elena Maria Vidal
We've seen this sort of thing over and over. An author attacks reviewers in the comments of their reviews and/or instigates such attacks by their fans. Then, when reviewers stand up to this behavior and call the author out for it, the author claims they are being "bullied" and the victim of "harassment". If the author doesn't wise up it often results in that author being banned from GoodReads for TOS violations.
Here's the thing, Ms. Vidal. YOU are the instigator here. That people stand up to your intimation tactics and advise others of your unprofessional behavior doesn't make you an innocent victim.
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