..... it's baffling to me why people get so uptight and ugly about reviewer rankings. It's not like there's money involved. Or, wait, maybe there is money involved, since nothing else can bring out people's ugly side like $$$$$$$. Is there some reward -- besides getting free stuff from Amazon -- for being a top reviewer?[/quote]Some people take it very very seriously, especially in the higher echelons, and a lot of the highly ranked reviewers get offers for free stuff to review. It's always been fun for me to gain a higher ranking, just because I review in such a small genre and have so many of the fan voters we're discussing - I rarely get positive votes in numbers that help higher ranking, so I doubt I'll ever reach those heights and really don't care to. I can't believe some people take any one review seriously because it's from a *Top Reviewer*. Geez, that would include Harriet
What I love most about reviewing on Amazon is the occasional comment here and there thanking me for doing it, both the good and the bad. One gal had been following what I was reading for quite some time before she finally screwed up the courage to comment. I promptly invited her over to Goodreads and she's having the time of her life and has made many new friends.
It's fun to get some of the stuff offered on Vine, but I rarely get offered any of the higher priced electronic stuff I've seen others mention. Between that and the occasional win at Librarything that is more than enough free books for me, most of which I could ultimately get from the library. Once I did put an email on my profile page at the urging of some Amazon friends and it didn't stay up long. I was getting too many offers from self-pubbed authors on books I had no interest in.
I just mislike the negative vote campaign as they are mean. There was a heavy campaign like that going on for a good couple of years (both myself and some friends were *victims*) and it really is maddening to post a review and come back later (sometimes within minutes) and find yourself gob-smacked with negative votes, it feels like stalking.
Divia, votes on lists and images do not affect your reviewer ranking, at least that's what Amazon told me. It does seem to affect your approval rating, say 87% helpful on your profile page.
Annis, it really surprises me people would do that I swear it must take longer to find someone else's review and then all that thinking involved trying to switch the words around. Why?
As for the Amos mentioned above, he's made a couple of very nasty reappearances at the original Amazon thread. I believe now every comment he's ever made at Amazon has been deleted.
I do have some reviewers I follow who generally follow along the same thoughts as I do with a book and I really have to avoid those reviews while I'm in the midst of a book or ready to write a review, so I don't end up saying what they just said
I recall one obscure Dumas book (Georges) I'd just finished. I think I diddled around a good hour or two trying to write a review on it, but always ended up saying what the one lone reviewer had already said and quite nicely. I gave up on my own review and left a comment thanking him for doing it so well.
Sorry I've carried on so long here...
(although at first I was suspicious that it was all some sort of game). I had no idea anyone was even "following" me.
I just can't take it all so seriously, but that's just how I'm wired, I guess - I tend to respond that way to a lot of things. 
