"How to thank a reader"--suggesting a link to Archive.org

Sue Anderson · Post by **Sue Anderson** » November 7th, 2011, 4:53 pm

I have a suggestion for an addendum to the "How to thank a reader" Wiki. My suggestion is to tell the pleased listeners how they can also post positive reviews for Librivox books on Archive.org, which is a public venue. Those "stars" on Archive.org always seem to increase downloads.

Sue

Post by **annise** » November 7th, 2011, 5:31 pm

As a personal view.
Librivox does not allow negative comments on site, Archive does. And some of the reviews on Archive are awful , so although we know they are there , I am not in favour of our promotion of it.

Anne

MARTIN GEESON · Post by **MARTIN GEESON** » November 9th, 2011, 1:41 am

I totally agree with Anne.

Appreciative and constructive comments are a joy, but when you've had scores of hours of dedicated work patronisingly dismissed by one of those pusillanimous carping "reviewers" it can affect you like a kick in the guts.

The worst of them deserve the same or worse in return.

Martin

Starlite · Post by **Starlite** » November 9th, 2011, 5:03 am

I agree that a bad review is hurtful especially when we do this for FREE.

Most of the reviews are ok though. Often they comment that the book was awful but the reader was good.

But adding a link, I'm with Ruthie on that one. Not a good idea to promote it too much.

Esther

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » November 9th, 2011, 9:13 am

That wasn't me actually, it was Anne, but I think I am in agreement too, and I don't usually get savaged on archive too badly. It is very distressing when you do. You have no way of getting in touch with the person that wrote a review, which is frustrating, as sometimes they clearly don't even know what they are talking about.

I remember one, The Beetle, where the reviewer complained loudly that we had censored the text. This was completely wrong, as the blanks were in the text itself. All I could do was reply

Complain to the author - that's how he wrote it
Well, you could talk to the author about it, if he hadn't died in 1915, but that's how he wrote it e.g. "Oh it's a——fine world, this is!" We can't insert text that isn't there.

It made me feel a bit better, but I doubt the reviewer ever saw it. They just disgorge their bile and disappear.

Ruth

Timothy Ferguson · November 21st, 2011, 2:39 am

I agree with having a link. The problem with Archive's reviews is that there are too few of them to drown out the trolls. The stars really do help when selecting things to listen to.