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Serious discussion!
So! Something interesting and pretty controversial came up at work the other day, and I am curious what other people think about it.
There was a book on Amazon recently, entitled "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure". It receieved a hugeass mountain of criticism and hate in it sreviews, something that it definitely deserved, basically being some uneducated creepy douchebag's ode to pedophilia and being a massive creeper. I don't think most anybody would disagree that it's a bad book and is generally something that has no value.
After much waffling, Amazon has pulled the book from their catalog as of this evening. Personally, I think this was a hell of a bad move.
My reasoning? Removing this book implies that we, as a company, are responsible for censoring our content for morality of content. We made a judgment call in this case, and what it means is that from now on, we're obligated to make judgment calls on all our content. Where the hell do we draw the line? Do we take down Mein Kampf due to the author? The Anarchist's Cookbook due to the subversive material? Catcher in the Rye due to promoting rebellion against authority?
I'm not making any kind of statement about which of these books are good or bad here. AND THAT'S THE POINT. We've already made an executive decision to never take down reviews due to false content, because it requires us to be experts on every subject. So, why do it in this case? We're condemning ourselves to have to make unpleasant moral judgments as a corporation, and there's no way to get out of that that isn't ugly as hell.
So.
Thoughts?
There was a book on Amazon recently, entitled "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure". It receieved a hugeass mountain of criticism and hate in it sreviews, something that it definitely deserved, basically being some uneducated creepy douchebag's ode to pedophilia and being a massive creeper. I don't think most anybody would disagree that it's a bad book and is generally something that has no value.
After much waffling, Amazon has pulled the book from their catalog as of this evening. Personally, I think this was a hell of a bad move.
My reasoning? Removing this book implies that we, as a company, are responsible for censoring our content for morality of content. We made a judgment call in this case, and what it means is that from now on, we're obligated to make judgment calls on all our content. Where the hell do we draw the line? Do we take down Mein Kampf due to the author? The Anarchist's Cookbook due to the subversive material? Catcher in the Rye due to promoting rebellion against authority?
I'm not making any kind of statement about which of these books are good or bad here. AND THAT'S THE POINT. We've already made an executive decision to never take down reviews due to false content, because it requires us to be experts on every subject. So, why do it in this case? We're condemning ourselves to have to make unpleasant moral judgments as a corporation, and there's no way to get out of that that isn't ugly as hell.
So.
Thoughts?
no subject
For what it's worth, our stock price went down five bucks today.
no subject
In the end though, I think it takes multiple incidents and consistent disfavored rulings to alienate significantly spending customers to the point of not using Amazon.
(Significantly spending = we're not talking about people who only use Amazon once every two years for Christmas to begin with.)
It's interesting to note that stock price but I don't think it can be used as an indication considering how much that stuff fluctuates.
Overall you're probably better versed than me at this.