ah, just like what happened to marking, eh?
Whew.
Doug
On 28-Dec-09, at 3:18 PM, Catherine Daly wrote:
> it wasn't anything new to read, but I do have a couple of thoughts
> about the way social networking, especially facebook and goodreads,
> are getting used
>
> it is especially difficult because some of these people are, of
> course, only known to one "virtually," but also because one
> increasingly counters the lonliness of writing with social networking;
> this interaction has done a lot of replace "region" among certain
> people
>
> and facebook started as an academically-focussed network
>
> because so many people are promo-ing books there, one might set one's
> policy against things like becoming a fan or "friending" presses,
> organizations, or certain writers to avoid the endless quasi-spam
>
> the second is that since especially younger writers have set the tone
> of giving all of their friends' and teachers' books five stars on good
> reads, rave "comments" elsewhere -- regardless of actual thoughts on
> the matter because these contacts are needed MORE THAN EVER for
> networking, and because these little non review reviews are
> increasingly the means of networking, in a more direct way than ever
>
> the star rating not only has no meaning, but is now REQUIRED; I have
> been forced to grit my teeth and give five star ratings of really
> pretty dull books just to "get along" -- after starting with the
> "three stars is a C" idea -- had to go back re: star inflation and
> give everyone I might actually have to interact with in person five
> stars -- thankfully, they changed one star from "it was ok" to "didn't
> like it" -- it had been like amazon, with no way to rate at no stars
>
>
>
> --
> All best,
> Catherine Daly
> [log in to unmask]
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
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