Would you seriously trust this blank Vine Reviewer, even trust one with a profile pic if the reviewer has no authentic profile, no direct means of contact by email, no credibility elsewhere as a book reviewer? The best means of checking out these VRs is to see who they follow which tells you who they associate with and usually they can be tracked on FB, The honest ones will include an FB or web site link.
Why I no longer trust Vine Book Reviews at Amazon.
Once upon a time there was a website called Goodreads. It was a readers book review web site. It sort of came into being as a new ground-breaking platform for readers. It had glorious book images, star rating facility and it shone better than previous reader book forums where text reigned and lots of live chat forums were all the gig. As the saying goes, flashy does it and wins punters, and Goodreads caused a great decline in reader forums. Like all new shopping malls Goodreads had it all. You could sit back with a cup coffee and enjoy reading other readers outlook on a book, any genre you cared to delve into. Authors were feeding the frenzy for new reads, collecting followers and all was rosy in the Goodreads garden of joy.
Like all wicked fairy stories, trolls turned up, some in witch garb, some in bitch wagons. Wars broke out with authors in their turrets defending their written words, and the trolls just kept coming, scaling the defences and rampaging over well written, beautifully worded books, trashing all before them.
The Goodreads Castle after a great siege was left a burning shell of its previous self. In the wake of defeat the authors who had so valiantly fought to retain their hold with support from good honest readers finally migrated from Goodreads Castle to the realm of the mighty Amazon. All was lost in a world where peace had once reigned at Goodreads.
All was sunshine and flowers in the Amazon realm until the mighty Giant Amazon warrior scaled the Goodreads castle walls and acquired the Goodreads castle. Like all greedy Giants Amazon banded together with the Goodreads trolls who it saw as its newly acquired popular warriors. With their new Ally, the Trolls moved into Amazon lands. With renewed vigour and vicious intent the Trolls set to work with devious practices to infiltrate the genteel upper realm of Vine Readers at Amazon. The thing with giants they only hear those who shout loudest, those who mass together a following in order to keep their vicious rallying forces ever present, ever threatening.
The Giant is too mighty to care who presses what like button or favours a particular reviewer. All the Giant sees is "Popularity" and if that person is popular then it stands to reason they are the tops for reviewing books. Hence Goodreads Trolls were popular leaders of their regiments and so impressed was the Giant Amazon it promoted them to the Elite Vine Regiment at Amazon.
Vine Reviewers get to review every thing from an electric tooth brush, to clothes, to books, all handed to them as free goods or they grab it for free when on offer for nothing. A tooth brush reviewer is no book reviewer and Vine Reviewers on the whole are Freebie Junkies. Trolls won't pay if they can help it. If they want they take and will then reclaim their cash by any means open to them. When authors say they've suffered a spate of paybacks on books, usually a short while later the cry for help goes out on the basis they've had a spate of crippling * reviews. That's why Vine Reviewers are untrustworthy freeloaders!
The Giant is too mighty to care who presses what like button or favours a particular reviewer. All the Giant sees is "Popularity" and if that person is popular then it stands to reason they are the tops for reviewing books. Hence Goodreads Trolls were popular leaders of their regiments and so impressed was the Giant Amazon it promoted them to the Elite Vine Regiment at Amazon.
Vine Reviewers get to review every thing from an electric tooth brush, to clothes, to books, all handed to them as free goods or they grab it for free when on offer for nothing. A tooth brush reviewer is no book reviewer and Vine Reviewers on the whole are Freebie Junkies. Trolls won't pay if they can help it. If they want they take and will then reclaim their cash by any means open to them. When authors say they've suffered a spate of paybacks on books, usually a short while later the cry for help goes out on the basis they've had a spate of crippling * reviews. That's why Vine Reviewers are untrustworthy freeloaders!
And as fairy stories go, the former Vine Regiment was an honourable force for good, now it is a force for evil. Vine Reviews are unstrustworthy reliant on popularity of the reviewer, and the worst part in the shady underworld of trolls is they will always seek and find a way to review as many books as they can. The oldest trick in the Troll Review kit bag is to skim read, read a few existing negative reviews and cobble stink reviews, or trash a book regardless to help their best friend authors shine with dozens of
*****
There are more Author Vine Reviewers than ever before trading under their BH, mother's, sister's, brother's or granny's Amazon ID, and the Amazon Giant doesn't care about honesty, Popularity is key and Goodreads Trolls are Back in Force and in power play at Amazon as they did at Goodreads!
In the meanwhile there are still a few independent quality Vine Reviewers who work with integrity, though more and more are quitting Amazon. As in all good fairy tales the literate Vine Reviewers are well read, their reviews on average are positive, enlightening for the right reasons, and best of all, they write literate and fascinating reviews.
I no longer post reviews at Amazon and removed all that I had there on a joint account with hubby. I do not want to be associated with Amazon's review system. It stinks of corruption. All hail Kobo.
