Friday Feature and Follow #74 ~My criteria of a misbehaving author/reviewer?

Feature & Follow is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. The purpose is to meet new people and gain more followers in the book blogging community.
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Prompt of the Week: What’s your criteria of a misbehaving author/reviewer?

While overall I have been blessed with meeting really lovely reviewers, I did have an encounter with a nasty incident early on in my reviewing career. One reviewer had started a group and I joined that group and met some really lovely reviewers and authors. Then one day, out of the blue this owner of the group messages me on FB and blames me of influencing the other authors and reviewers against her. Howsoever, I tried to tell her that I hadn’t done this, she didn’t seem to agree and told me that she had received complaint from an author. When I asked her to show me proof and tell me the name of the author so I could sort out the misunderstanding, she refused and told me that she was throwing me out of the group and that I should start my own group. I was really shocked, hurt and then some at hearing this. Being new to blogging, I didn’t know what to do so I silently backed out but now when I look back and see her conniving efforts to blacken my reputation and my actions in not saying anything that led to her spreading bad rumours about me which hampered my relationship with many authors and reviewers, I feel like I should have done something and not silently accepted the blame when I knew I was innocent. Well, I learned a lot from this incident and am more cautious now in trusting people and will definitely not stay silent at any unwarranted accusations.

In relation to authors, I did have one incident with an author who had become somewhat of a friend and whose new book I didn’t quite like as much as I had done the previous one from her and like I do in my reviews I gave constructive criticism of some points that I felt could have been better but the author went ahead and not only started ripping my credibility as a reviewers but also started a discussion on Facebook and other places where she tagged the other authors I had reviewed for earlier and other reviewers ripping my review and blaming me of being biased with her book. I came to know about this later and was really annoyed and hurt too. It so happens that she wanted me to give her a good rating just because we were friends. Now, after this incident I have become very cautious while accepting books for review. While I have decided never to review any of her books, for other authors too I mention beforehand that all my reviews are my honest and unbiased opinions and not influenced by friendship to the author. If they agree to my terms, only then do I take up a book to review.

For both misbehaving authors and reviewers, I have decided to not only sever any ties with them but also share the incident with other reviewers and my readers.

What’s your criteria?