Goodreads review bombs

The Cait Corran review bombing story arrives on the heels of the Elizabeth Gilbert review bombing story earlier this year and all the other review bombing stories before that. This is probably not surprising. The web is filled with fake reviews and there's nothing online that can't be gamed. Manipulating online systems was once an activity reserved for hackers but in recent years it feels like such behaviour has become the principal motivation for even non-technical users. People used to log in to make themselves heard; now they do it to influence the result. Whether it's online polls or user reviews, you hit the button to make a difference.

And AI will make things worse. And that assumes you believe in the wisdom of crowds in the first place, rather than placing your faith in fewer critics whose position you know.

Such controversy around writers feels like a fever that never breaks. However fantastic it must be for readers to have that level of interest in your work, the pace of such fandom is cautionary. The processes around fiction should move ... slowly. The work can be fast. The thinking takes time.