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Askville boycott
Someone posted a "question" Askville urging a boycott of Amazon.com as a protest of bad Askville policies. My comment wasn't particularly brilliant, but since there's a good chance that the question will be deleted (and I hate it when that happens) I'm saving a copy here:
A minor point: every "Amazon.com" reference turned into a link, in my comment over on Askville. I don't like that, so I de-linked them here.
It's a good idea, and frankly I'd like to see a lot
more boycotting going on - heck, I'd like to see some general consumer strikes.
In this case, I see a problem. Amazon.com doesn't really have much competition left any more! I suppose Barnes & Noble might count, as would Borders and that west-coast store whose name I forget. But they're all corporate behemoths, as is Amazon.com itself. To really get the attention of Amazon.com management, you'd need a massive popular movement. To be honest, even if every single member of Askville were to boycott Amazon.com, I suspect that Amazon.com wouldn't notice or care much.
But Askville management would care, since it could potentially threaten their jobs. And what would get the attention of both Askville and Amazon.com management would be to get some national press; a few headlines like "Amazon.com users rebel against management" would do the job. Because then stockholders would get antsy, and everyone would pay attention.
Of course the problem is that you'd be shut down and banned long before things reached that stage. This DB would be deleted too. You'd need to start a stand-alone site to support the boycott, and you'd need to reach out to reporters from the national press and major industry websites. You'd really need to have a lot of people passionately involved in the issue, too.
I don't want to sound too negative. One person can definitely make a difference - I know. I've managed to irritate several large organizations over the years and got them to change a policy through online agitation, including Time-Warner and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
But you have to be stubborn to the point of insanity. The corporation has to cooperate by being really egregiously bad. You need the complaints to come from more users. And you need to be lucky in finding one or more reporters who think that there might be a good story in your struggle.
In this case, I see a problem. Amazon.com doesn't really have much competition left any more! I suppose Barnes & Noble might count, as would Borders and that west-coast store whose name I forget. But they're all corporate behemoths, as is Amazon.com itself. To really get the attention of Amazon.com management, you'd need a massive popular movement. To be honest, even if every single member of Askville were to boycott Amazon.com, I suspect that Amazon.com wouldn't notice or care much.
But Askville management would care, since it could potentially threaten their jobs. And what would get the attention of both Askville and Amazon.com management would be to get some national press; a few headlines like "Amazon.com users rebel against management" would do the job. Because then stockholders would get antsy, and everyone would pay attention.
Of course the problem is that you'd be shut down and banned long before things reached that stage. This DB would be deleted too. You'd need to start a stand-alone site to support the boycott, and you'd need to reach out to reporters from the national press and major industry websites. You'd really need to have a lot of people passionately involved in the issue, too.
I don't want to sound too negative. One person can definitely make a difference - I know. I've managed to irritate several large organizations over the years and got them to change a policy through online agitation, including Time-Warner and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
But you have to be stubborn to the point of insanity. The corporation has to cooperate by being really egregiously bad. You need the complaints to come from more users. And you need to be lucky in finding one or more reporters who think that there might be a good story in your struggle.
A minor point: every "Amazon.com" reference turned into a link, in my comment over on Askville. I don't like that, so I de-linked them here.