People, including authors, can be bullied.  I get so enraged when I hear anyone talk about the poor commercial product getting traumatized and attacked -- things are not victims.  

A post in goodreads has set me off again (doesn't take much, I get disgusted at how people demean the suffering of people who were bullied by equating it with hurting their sales or  by not promoting a commercial product).

The goodreads post:

Screenshot of relevant wording from site mentioned:

So, any interest in a newish book site with an "about us" stating wants to keep all reviews positive with no bullying books?  (No, I'm not paraphrasing some site just asking everyone to keep it civil, respectful, inoffensive or clean language only -- they said books could be bullied and all reviews/content had to be positive.)

I'm not even naming or linking to that one because for crying out loud living breathing beings get bullied NOT inanimate products!

I'm not talking about someone being bullied; I realize that bullies are relentless both on and ofline and will attack any way they think they can harm their victims including through their business interests.

PEOPLE GET BULLIED.  NOT THINGS.

I'm continually sickened and outraged by how incredibly offensive and demeaning it is to anyone bullied -- and how detrimental to bully prevention efforts -- when that word gets overused or gets used for bullshit like calling a single star rating from a random internet stranger on a commercial product "bullying."

And let's face it, if I want to see 100% positive reviews, I can visit a thousand author run sites, buzzfeed, author review services requiring 4-star minimums, ... I don't need to be visiting or contributing to one that insults victims of bullying.

Sheesh, cannot believe someone asked me why I wouldn't join.