On Friday morning, Goodreads users who wanted to read reviews of the werewolf romance Mate by Ali Hazelwood were confronted by the cover of the new Eric Trump book Under Siege. One of the site's volunteer moderators had gone rogue and changed Mate’s cover, added the subtitle “Goodreads Censorship in Favor of Trump,” and altered Mate’s listing into an explanation of why. To hear them tell it, Goodreads was removing criticism of Trump’s book from the site.

“Silencing criticism of political figures—especially those associated with authoritarian movements—helps normalize and strengthen those movements,” the post that replaced Mate’s description said. “When we let powerful people’s books be protected from criticism, we give up the right to hold power accountable.”

Goodreads employs a volunteer staff of “Librarians” who act as moderators for the site and have the power to make changes to the listings. One of these librarians altered the titles, pictures, and blurbs of several popular books including the Mate, the Resse Witherspoon penned thriller Gone Before Goodbye, and the Nicholas Sparks bestseller Remain. The changes were up for a few hours before Goodreads caught on and fixed the listings.

Jana | Bookstagram (@janaandbooks) on Threads

Dearest Gentle Bookthreads, It’s time for our weekly wrap up of book discourse, drama, and terrible behavior! 1 Readers noticed a strange “glitch” on Goodreads Friday morning. Several books (including Ali Hazelwood’s “Mate” and Navessa Allen’s “Lights Out”) were instead showing the cover of Eric Trump’s memoir, and this message in the blurb:

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The rogue librarian claims Goodreads is censoring negative reviews of pro-Trump books. They said that Goodreads deleted negative reviews of Under Siege as they came in after its publication on October 14. “These were the honest opinions from real readers who disagreed with the book’s content,” the Librarian said in their post. “When people noticed and complained, Goodreads deleted ALL reviews of the book—positive and negative alike. This wasn’t an accident or a one-time glitch. It was a deliberate pattern.”

A Goodreads spokesperson confirmed that a Librarian had altered the covers and listings for the books. “We're aware of unauthorized edits made by a volunteer librarian to several book listings. All titles affected by the unauthorized edits have been restored to their correct information, and the librarian no longer has an account on Goodreads,” the spokesperson said.

In response to questions about reviews for the Eric Trump book, the spokesperson told 404 Media that Goodreads “has systems in place to detect unusual activity on book pages and may temporarily limit ratings and reviews that don’t adhere to our reviews and community guidelines. In all cases, we enforce clear standards and remove content and/or accounts that violate these guidelines.”

On Monday, the two week old Trump book had no reviews and no ratings. By Tuesday morning, Under Siege had begun to accumulate reviews and ratings again. The Kamala Harris campaign memoir 107 Days, by contrast, has been out since September 23 and has more than 14,000 ratings and more than 2,000 reviews.

Goodreads has done this kind of thing before and its review guidelines state it will delete “unusual” reviews or “limit the ability to submit ratings.” The idea behind this is to prevent review bombing of controversial figures, but the author’s Goodreads protects tend to be conservatives. In the summer of 2024, it temporarily halted reviews of JD Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy after people had begun to dunk on the Vice President by leaving reviews for the book. There are many “unusual” reviews still up for Harris’ memoir, including a one star review that says “Did not read but so sick of seeing this 💩 in my suggested 🖕🖕”

This kind of one-sided protection from review bombing is at the heart of the rogue Goodreads librarian’s complaint. “When a platform removes criticism of a political book while leaving praise, or removes everything to hide that [that] criticism existed, they’re not saying neutral—they’re picking a side,” their post said. “Goodreads is owned by Amazon, one of the world’s largest companies. When major platforms decide which opinions can exist and which must disappear, they shape what people think is true or acceptable.”

While show-stopping design is often equated with grand gestures – a sculptural sofa, a marble dining table – smaller objects shape our day-to-day just as meaningfully. Gejst’s newest designs, the Kydo tray and Sina salt and pepper mills, are small in scale but grand in intention – a testament that everyday tools can be just as impactful as statement pieces. Both embody the Danish brand’s quiet philosophy: that good design lives in the balance between simplicity, presence, and purpose.

Inspired by the ancient Japanese art of archery, the Kydo tray takes its name and silhouette from kyudo, the ritual of drawing the bow. “Kydo was born from an image of an archer preparing to release the bowstring,” shares Kydo’s designer, E-ggs. “That simple, precise movement became a metaphor for a handle: strong yet balanced, practical yet poetic.” This sculptural curve gives the piece both elegance and strength – a poised moment frozen in time, calm and purposeful. More than just a tray, Kydo becomes a toolbox for daily life, built to carry everything from kitchen essentials and office tools to fresh drinks for the garden party. Crafted from solid wood and available in three colorways, it moves effortlessly through the rituals of your day.

The Sina salt and pepper shakers also bring balance, but in a different way. “Sina is about harmony between function and form,” shares C.F. Møller Architects, designers of Sina. “With oak and brass, the grinder gains a new character – grounded in nature yet refined through crafted metal.” Originally introduced in oak and steel, the updated edition pairs warm oak with a brass top that catches the light just so, adding a soft, light-reflecting gleam to the table. Fitted with the precise CrushGrind® mechanism to control grind size and paired with a minimal tray that keeps surfaces clean, Sina transforms an everyday action into a small, meditative ritual.

While both Kydo and Sina are simple in purpose, their designs and expertly crafted details ground our daily rhythms with thoughtful intention. With Kydo’s poetic silhouette and Sina’s tactile movement, Gejst turns simple gestures into moments worth designing for.

To add the Kydo tray and Sina shakers by Gejst to your home, visit gejst.com.

Photography courtesy of Gejst.

Michael Kalus posted a photo:

The mother of a teenager who died by suicide is suing  Roblox, accusing the company of worrying more about its investors than the children in its audience. The complaint, filed this month,  claims Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz, who’ve collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the gaming company, fostered a platform that monetizes children at the cost of their safety.

Attorneys for Jaimee Seitz filed the lawsuit in the eastern district of Kentucky. Seitz is the mother of Audree Heine, a teen girl who committed suicide just after her 13th birthday in 2024. When detectives investigated Heine’s death they found she had a vast online social life that centered around groups in Discord and Roblox that idolized school shooters like Dylan Kleebold. Since Heine’s death, Seitz has been outspoken about the unique dangers of Roblox.

Heine’s family claims she would never have died had Roblox done a better job of moderating its platform. “Audree was pushed to suicide by an online community dedicated to glorifying violence and emulating notorious mass shooters, a community that can thrive and prey upon young children like Audree only because of Defendants’ egregiously tortious conduct,” the complaint said.

Seitz’s lawyers filed the 89 page lawsuit on October 20 and in it attempted to make the case that Roblox’s problems all stem from cause: corporate greed. “The reason that Roblox is overrun with harmful content and predators is simple: Roblox prioritizes user growth, revenue, and eventual profits over child safety,” it said. “For years, Roblox has knowingly prioritized these numbers over the safety of children through the actions it has taken and decisions it has made to increase and monetize users regardless of the consequences.”

According to the lawsuit, Roblox’s earning potential attracted big investors which encouraged it to abandon safety for quick cash. “Roblox’s business model allowed the company to attract significant venture capital funding from big-name investors like Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz, putting enormous pressure on the company to prioritize growing and monetizing its users.”

Andreessen Horowitz, known as a16z is a venture capital firm whose previous investments include Civitai—a company that made money from noncensual AI porn—an “uncensored” AI project that offered users advice on how to commit suicide, and startup that’s selling access to thousands of “synthetic influencers” for use in manipulating public opinion.

In 2020, a16z led a round of funding that raised $150 million for Roblox. “Roblox is one of those rare platform companies with massive traction and an organic, high-growth business model that will advance the company, and push the industry forward for many years to come,” David George, a general partner at the investment firm, said in a press release at the time. 

The lawsuit claims Roblox knows that kids are easy marks for low effort monetization efforts common in online video games. “Recognizing that children have more free time, underdeveloped cognitive functioning, and diminished impulse control, Roblox has exploited their vulnerability to lure them to its app,” it said.

The lawsuit notes that Roblox did not require age verification for years, nor did it restrict communication between children and adults and didn’t require an adult to set up an account for a child. Roblox rolled out age verification and age-based communications systems in July, a feature that uses AI to scan the faces of its users to check their age.

These kinds of basic safety features, however, have taken years to implement. According to the lawsuit, there’s a reason Roblox has been slow on safety. “In pursuit of growth, Roblox deprioritized safety measures even further so that it could report strong numbers to Wall Street,” it said. “For instance, Roblox executives rejected employee proposals for parental approval requirements that would protect children on the platform. Employees also reported feeling explicit pressure to avoid any changes that could reduce platform engagement, even when those changes would protect children from harmful interactions on the platform.”

Roblox is now the subject of multiple investigative reports that have exposed the safety problems on its platforms. It’s also the subject of multiple lawsuits, Seitz’s is the 12th such case filed by Anapol Weiss, the law firm representing her.

According to Seitz’s interviews with the press and the lawsuit, her daughter got caught up in a subculture on Roblox and Discord called The True Crime Community (TCC). “Through Roblox, Audree was exposed to emotional manipulation and social pressure by other users, including TCC members, who claimed to revere the Columbine shooters, depicted them as misunderstood outcasts who took revenge on their bullies, and encouraged violence against oneself and others,” the lawsuit said.

404 Media searched through Roblox’s game servers after the lawsuit was filed and found multiple instances of games named for the Columbine massacre. One server used pictures from Parkland, Florida and another was advertised using the CCTV picture of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris from the Columbine shooting.

Beneath ominous skies and set within flat, green parkland, Lee Madgwick’s folly-like buildings strike an unsettling note. His surreal paintings feature dilapidated facades and uncanny shrubbery against cloudy, deep gray skies—usually with something just a little strange going on.

In “Drift,” for example, bricks dislodge from the top of a boxy structure and float into the sky one by one, and “Fracture” defies gravity altogether with a hovering apartment tower that crumbles from below. Madgwick’s rural scenes nod to landscapes and developments that are often overlooked, imbuing them with what he describes as “an undercurrent of mischievous menace.”

Madgwick’s paintings aren’t without hints of dark humor, like in “Echoes,” in which half a building appears to be missing, as if washed away in a now-calm stream. Inside the ragged remains, a waterslide makes use of the height.

People are nowhere to be seen in Madgwick’s compositions, although their presence is felt in the graffiti left on walls or curtains drawn in various windows. His latest body of work continues “to portray that mysterious and melancholic otherworldliness of seemingly long abandoned and isolated buildings under heavy skies,” he tells Colossal.

The artist’s work will be on view at Brian Sinfield Gallery in Burford, Oxfordshire, from October 18 to November 4. Find more on Madgwick’s website and Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Sinister Skies Set the Scene for Derelict Buildings in Lee Madgwick’s Surreal Paintings appeared first on Colossal.

In 2016, while artist McKay Lenker Bayer was still an undergraduate, her professor assigned the class the task of exhibiting their work. Unsure about presenting her work to the public, she downsized, quite literally, showing miniature paintings with teensy-tiny labels. And the idea for a minuscule exhibition space was born.

In 2018, Lenker Bayer established Tiny Art Show, a community art project that utilizes unique and unexpected spaces around Provo, Utah, to show original work by numerous artists. Until this year, the project was largely nomadic, but Tiny Art Show now has its own dedicated space.

Installed at 1:6 scale, the storefront-style gallery sits inside what was originally a stairwell, accessible from street level. Its blue facade is reminiscent of retail spaces in New York City or London, and inside, it’s what Lenker Bayer describes as “a fully functional, commercial art gallery… that just happens to be tiny.” Original work is for sale, opening events draw gatherings of people who enjoy tiny snacks, and you can even grab a tiny newspaper from the vending machine near the door.

In addition to its miniature brick-and-mortar presentations, Tiny Art Show also facilitates a series of art projects like the Monthly Mini Mail Club, a subscription that dispatches an itty-bitty periodical called The Tiny Times, plus a booklet from that month’s gallery show. You can also purchase tiny art kits in the shop, along with prints and merchandise.

Explore more on the project’s website, and keep an eye on Instagram for updates about forthcoming shows.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Tiny Art Show Repurposes a Disused Stairwell into a 1:6-Scale Gallery appeared first on Colossal.