Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I was wondering why G33z3r didn't beat me to creating the "what are we reading" post for June and...well...seems his account has been deleted!

All I can think of is that the Men in Black have lured him into their ranks and they've gone and wiped any trace of his past existence from the records...

Oh no, it was really deleted?

That is very surprising news

Wait - really? I thought I saw a review from him not long ago�..

But he is no longer listed as a mod on the group page! So sudden

Rachel wrote: "But he is no longer listed as a mod on the group page! So sudden"

Actually, he seems to be gone from GR completely. I can't even find any of the PMs that we shared over the years.

What could have happened? I can’t imagine that he did something that good reads would have kicked him off for so�. He did it himself?

I hope he's OK!

Oh, that's sad! I loved his reviews! I hope everything is okay too.

I just checked and he's gone from my friend's list as well

The same thing happened to a friend of mine several weeks ago. All traces of him are gone. This was on Facebook.

That has happened to a friend of mine also - Facebook just closed her account. It happened to me with PayPal - they permanently limited my account (meaning I can't use it to send or receive money), said I had violated their terms of service but refused to tell me what I had done that violated their terms of service. I appealed the decision - both with PayPal and through a government regulatory board - but they didn't change their decision.

That's nonsense! I use PayPal quite a bit. I'd be spittin' mad!

I used to use PayPal all the time - it cost me hundreds of dollars of sales through my eBay store. It's still an inconvenience because there are websites that only accept PayPal, so I can't buy from them.

Maybe someone hacked your account? But just the same you'd think they could at least tell you what you did wrong so that you could figure out if it was a hack or something you yourself did so you don't do it again.

Hacking crossed my mind for G33z3r too, some hackers just want to mess with people and deleting an account they could hack into would be one way, even if they get no financial benefit. Can't imagine G33z3r did any TOS violations seeing he was not just a mod but also a GR librarian so he'd know the rules. Plus freezing an account and deleting it are two different things.

In my case I doubt it was hackers - there was $300 or $400 in my PayPal account at the time - money which PayPal said they would keep for 6 months just in case someone disputed some of the sales I had made on eBay. I expect hackers would have taken the money, or at least tried to.

To err is human, but a computer can really foul things up.

This thread seems to have gotten a bit off track. We're wondering what happened to a moderator that has vanished. Would other moderators in this group know? I'm new to this group, so I don't know the moderator. If the moderator's name is known, has anyone Googled for any news articles, etc.?

I am the other moderator :) Our third mod has been AWOL since I joined, which is how I became the backup mod. Unfortunately I don't know any personal info about G33z3r so I can't look him up.

Although I suppose that eliminates him deleting the account himself (for example if he wanted to get off social media) since I'm sure he would have notified me of that.

Hi, Andrea. Does this mean you are our only remaining moderator? Lucky you!
I'm a paid beta reader and I belong to 30ish discussion groups. In the past week or so I've run into one GR member posting ways to back up bookshelves as she reports GR is deleting books that don't meet the GR definition of a book. Today I've seen posts from two authors saying that their ratings, totaling almost 250 ratings, disappeared last night. They had no idea why. I was thinking that if a member is deleted possibly any reviews and ratings would be deleted with them, which is sounding like what's happening here, which could mean that hundreds of members are being deleted. Tell me I'm wrong, please. - Sue

I suppose he could have died suddenly. Not a pleasant thought, but it happens & he was well into his 70s, I think. Usually when people die, their account just languishes, but he might have left instructions or something to delete his social media accounts.

I've left instructions to update some accounts & delete others. My wife & 2 of my kids have access to lists containing all of my accounts so they can clean credit card information out &/or update who the bill goes to since many are handled electronically & will continue after my death.

The instructions weren't fun to write, but they did straighten out some perennial issues, reduce duplication, & should really help out those who survive me. I had to clean up after my in-laws who made no provision for their deaths & that was a nightmare over 2 decades ago. Today with automated customer 'support' & so many electronic accounts, it would be a lot more difficult, so I can understand an executor just doing a hatchet job on all social media accounts especially if passwords & accounts were held within a browser on his personal computer.

@Sue - unfortunately as a moderator of a group, it doesn't make me particular in the know as to what is going on in Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ as a whole. I just have the power to delete an offensive post in our forums, and maybe a handful of other things that a regular group member cannot. So I can't say if many members are being deleted, I only noticed G33z3r since he's a fellow mod and frequent poster, but we have several thousand members of this group but since only a handful post anymore I wouldn't notice if the vast majority were deleted.

A Librarian though has greater power across all of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, able to update and delete book entries and such (which I cannot do any more than any other GR member). There is a Librarians group where you can ask questions about adding/removing books - /group/show/...

I have through them found out that Magazines cannot be treated as a series (though would be super convenient to find all issues under the series link rather than search each issue out individually). I also know that short stories which often show up standalone will later be deleted and replaces with a magazine or anthology in which they were published, my reading status changed to the new entry automatically but then it looked like I read the whole anthology which I had not.

Though we can't ask if they know about G33z3r, it would be confidential information even if they knew.

@Jim - it is possible, was my first concern. Obviously he himself could not and GR wouldn't know and as he was active just a few days ago GR wouldn't have deleted his account automatically for not signing in for a couple days. But it could be the executor, didn't think of that. I didn't know his exact age but I did get that the "G33z3r" label was in fact accurate, so I knew he was no spring chicken.

@Sue - Right at the top of the Questions section of the Librarians group was a relevant question
/topic/show/...

Your fellow authors may need to contact support. There could be a bug in GR after all. Because it would be unlikely to have 250 people in a short time span all delete their accounts so feels more like a bug.

I have since heard that GR confirmed a glitch on the ratings/reviews issue, but that they were not being overly assuring that all would be fixed. There is some understandable fuming going on in that thread, but I am so glad that it's just a glitch.

Just to be perfectly clear on this, I am not an author, but a paid beta reader. Since I work for authors I do share some of their concerns.

It does hearten me that you are so responsive to this group's members' concerns. Thanks for following up and doing what you can.

Sue

Andrea, with G33z33r gone, for whatever reason, that leaves you as the sole moderator of the group - which is not an ideal situation. When you have time, you may want to consider finding another moderator to help share the load - which I expect is not particularly onerous in a group like this - and act as a backup.

Tony wrote: "Andrea, with G33z33r gone, for whatever reason, that leaves you as the sole moderator of the group - which is not an ideal situation. When you have time, you may want to consider finding another mo..."

Agreed, especially the backup. Illness or some other misfortune can strike too easily & it's a drag trying become mod of a group that's been abandoned. I've done it once & it took quite a while even back when GR support was responsive.

Yes, I was thinking about that.

I'd like someone who has been in the group for a while and it active. The group is pretty inactive right now so don't need to manage things like group reads, just need to keep an eye out for the occasional spam postings.

That said, that includes the two of you, Jim and Tony if either (or both) of you are interested as a backup(s). I know Jim you're already a mod of another group, but at least you already know what to do I and figure this group wouldn't be a lot of work the way it is right now.

If no one else steps up, I'll be the backup mod. I'm pretty lazy about doing too much, but I am cruising the groups regularly so cleaning up spam is something I can do. I can certainly fill in if you get busy at times, too.

I haven't been a mod in a GR group, although I have been a mod in a few FB groups, and I am a GR librarian (if that matters). Like Jim, I am prepared to be a backup mod if no one else steps up.

Thanks! I'll add both of you, being mods in other groups or a GR librarian are good references :D At the moment, without any group reads going on I think the only real heavy work is creating the reading challenges at the start of the year which I can handle. The rest is just keeping eye out for spam and blocking any nasty users (which I think happened like two or three times since I became mod)

Now, to figure out how to add a mod, this will be my first time doing that.

If G33z33r is still active online and is somehow reading this, I just want to say thank you for all your wonderful reviews. I looked forward to the F&SF mags especially and was always excited to see a new review from you pop up. You also approved one of my first friends requests when I was new and nervous about asking, and I will always appreciate that. You will be missed here. I hope you are well, and that there are brighter days ahead. Best of luck in the future.

I echo what Aphelia says I have enjoyed many of his reviews even when my health has not always left me with the energy to do that much reading myself I still have enjoyed seeing his thoughts on things. And I have lots of fond memories discussing books and stories. When I noticed hadn't seen any updates from him and got concerned I came to this thread. Took my 6 months or so to realise but I had not been doing that much reading (just managed 34 books last year).