From goodreads home page below featured poll:
To set your email preferences for the Goodreads Deals (your having an account on goodreads automatically signed you up to receive) -- go to your settings to the new "Deals" tab. Unsubscribing from all emails will not unsubscribe you from goodreads deals emails. The email used will be your account email, you don't get to set which email receives these.
Even clicking to "unsubscribe from all emails" in your profile settings on goodreads won't remove.
You'll need to set your preferences under "Deals" tab.
Goodreads staff haven't answered if Amazon's deals will be unique to goodreads or repeating their own emailings about daily deals, countdowns, etc.
(I'm anticipating seeing slideshows and all kinds of marketing materials touting how paying to do a Goodreads Deals email will reach 20-whatever million interested members -- without ever mentioning those members without notice or choice had their account emails subscribed to a mailing list. Considering the completely different reception a new feature might have gotten if opt-in versus opt-out, inflating numbers during testing period ...)
Well, at least for books on your " to read" shelf. You can opt out and you can select which retailers. "Opt out" versus "opt-in" -- even for features I really want -- always offends me. Feel free to reblog.
See the announcement thread in a group less than 5% of goodreads members belong to for directions on opting out or customizing: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18114746-goodreads-deals-u-s-members?page=1#comment_number_1
I suppose it could be worse (for example if only listing Amazon deals) but cynical me thinks it's a way for Amazon to finally make use of goodreads member emails without technically being considered spam; a side-eyed way for authors to send their Amazon countdown deals and other promotions out to goodreads members who do not subscribe to their mailing lists or follow them without Amazon being accused of illegally harvesting emails not provided for that purpose. Ethically, I find opt-out as wrong as just doing it but technucally only just doing it is illegal.
Okay, it's worse. Update: Pricing to be included in goodreads emails to members is forthcoming. https://www.goodreads.com/authors-advertisers . Finally authors can pay to email to goodreads members.
So what Movie Bob is discussing here is criticism, specifically film criticism. But you can't watch this and not think about the whole Goodreads Suddenly Trying to Redefine What Criticism Is When The Concept Has Been Already Changed Thanks to The Internet, Etc. thing. Because that's what's at the heart of the GR kerfuffle - criticism has morphed into multiple forms, and GR is trying to implement rules that just don't work well with what we've come to expect of the format.
Anyway, the video linkage:
Movie Bob is specifically talking about why it works to bring outside factors in to your criticism of something - in his case, why he chose to discuss Orson Scott Card's many anti-homosexual statements in his review of Ender's Game (that video is here, Salon article referred to is: Orson Scott Card's Long History of Homophobia.). The baggage is any discussion of race, class, gender, etc. in criticism when some folk will always say "that doesn't belong here, just judge the work, not the society or the filmaker or the writer" - you see why this is relevant now, right?
He also gives a really quick, concise rundown of the history of criticism and media, and as an English major I love this, because it's exactly the definition I had in my college writing classes. It's also right on point with the grad school classes I took in film and film theory - and all in 7 minutes. Which is why I'm referring it to you. He covers a lot, and talks rapidly - but then I'll often re-listen to Movie Bob's film reviews just to ponder some of the asides. He's particularly good at explaining to a viewership of (probably) mostly male, younger gamers why such things matter. (Note: I don't always agree with all his reviews. But then that's been true of almost every movie reviewer I've read/listened to.)
I also love his line, the "it" being criticism: "Think of it as mixed martial arts for intellectual disciplines." Because that made me think of Criticism Ninjas, which is a thing that should exist.
I'd also like to note here that The Escapist is a website that focuses on video games as well as other pop culture. Video game reviewing is another form of criticism that certain folk are sniffily snobbish over. But hey, if film criticism is now legit - when it very much wasn't when the medium was introduced, and took the French to argue it into being taken a bit more seriously - then game crit should be too. As should, frankly, all such criticism of any media. Let the reader decide the merits of each by weighing the writer's arguments and then their own thoughts, feelings and yes, their own criticism.
[You can imagine me, at this point, waving a small Go Team Critque flag. If there was such a thing.]
Was traveling all day yesterday and only now am catching up (I still have a lot of dashboard and GR stuff to check on) - so I only just now saw the Salon piece. From the details in Miller's article it's obvious that she's been paying attention and did her research. And I mentally said "yay Ceridwen" at all of her quotes. (I'm a fangrl for her use of data and graphs. I've always admired quantitative research, probably because I tried very hard to be a stats nerd in grad school and found it can be an endless type of work. Apparently I'm a more qualitative-research type.)
Most of you have already seen this, so I've left the quotes behind the page break. Bolded parts aren't in the original - I was pleased to see those points being made. The following is only a part of the entire article.
WEDNESDAY, OCT 23, 2013
When Amazon bought Goodreads it got a community of passionate readers, not all of whom want to follow the new rules
by Laura Miller
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