Saturday, September 21, 2013

Thank You, Goodreads!

Due to the overwhelming onslaught of cyber-bullying across the Goodreads site, the administrators are finally listening and have begun to fully enforce their policies against harassment. Meant originally to be a place where readers and authors could mingle and discuss books, many have taken their rights of "free speech" to the extreme. Both authors AND reviewers have been ganged up on and harassed persistently, not only online, but even by phone and in person because of the hateful culture that has ran amok there for too long.

Take a look at how Goodreads is working to clean up some of the muck:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1499741-important-note-regarding-reviews

No matter where you stand on this issue, whether you lean toward these actions being censorship or just good sense, all I have to say about the matter is that freedom of speech is NOT free. Thousands of men and women have given their lives to ensure you have the right to express your opinions.



Please THINK before you speak, whether in person or online. Use good judgement and be respectful in all your discourse. Don't resort to trash talk and profanity to harass others in the guise of "free speech".

And if you just can't help yourself and decide to be an @$$hole anyway, then expect some backlash. After all, free speech applies to EVERYONE, not just you.

~Mysti


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2 comments:

  1. OwlladySeptember 21, 2013 at 6:18 PM

    Cheers, Mysti! It's great to hear that an online group is finally putting the screws to those who continually behave like idiots. I'm also tired of people who use the excuse "at least I'm being honest" when they say hurtful things.

    Thanks for letting me know. Maybe I'll go back to Goodreads :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MystiSeptember 23, 2013 at 9:05 AM

      I'm not yet confident it's safe to return in full. I'm taking a minimalist approach and not being active on the public fora on these sites. You never know when what you say or who you say it to could be taken wrong by one side or the other, and then you're right in the middle of it.

      But, let's hope that it's a move toward the positive.

      Delete

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