The Omnipotent Ear - applying McLuhan's tetrad to the flip of binge-watching television to binge-listening to the Beatles on Sirius XM radio

Coupland's conversational tone is fluid as ever, and entertaining in his trademark ADHD fashion. Like [b:Microserfs|2748|Microserfs|Douglas Coupland|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389626938s/2748.jpg|851428] and [b:JPod|221059|JPod|Douglas Coupland|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316729451s/221059.jpg|820439], this book is a physical work of art. Pages are adorned with language experiments in consonants, vowels and anagrams. He pastes in quotes and AbeBooks book reviews of McLuhan's works. I think he goes a bit far including excerpts from his own writing, revealing his inherent narcissism. The book is a fun and short read, but not all that enlightening of its subject as far as biographies (are supposed to) go. I can't imagine Coupland going any further than Wikipedia to do his research. This book is more about Coupland than McLuhan. I admit, my rudimentary understanding of McLuhan's history might mean I am missing some clever jokes and insights, but I doubt it.

Are there other people who wonder about this?

Goodreads ONLY exists because of the goodwill of the people who do all the unpaid slave labour that keeps it where it is. That is Manny, and Paul Bryant, me to a relatively insignificant extent, whoever is reading this.

It is covered in offensive ads. They are there because the site is able to make a lot of money by using OUR goodwill and turning into cash.

I wonder if there is anybody else out there, offended by an ad that lets you get in touch with desperate Thai girls, or inyourface hamburger ads, and would like to do something about it?

I've never solicited votes before except for fun, but I would now seriously like to solicit votes for this review on the basis that it is a serious issue and I would like to fight it and I hope others might too.

I am a member of sites where they at least give you the choice of paying extra so as not to have advertising in your face and I for one would greatly appreciate this option. I spend my life avoiding advertising. I don't want TV that has advertising, I don't listen to radio that has advertising, and I strongly object to Internet sites that force me to watch advertising when I AM THE ONE THAT HAS MADE THE SITE WORTHY OF BEING ADVERTISED!!!

Goodreads' policy is this:

What do i do if i see an annoying ad on goodreads?
Goodreads uses a variety of ad networks to serve advertisements on the site, which means occasionally things slip through that we can't control. We do try our best to keep our ads relevant, appropriate, and useful to members.

We ask our ad networks not to include disruptive ads, but sometimes one slips through. Please help us by reporting any ads that match the following:

* Auto-expanding or auto-sound ads.
* Ads that expand or play sound on mouse-over (on-click is fine)
* Ads that contain nudity or other offensive material

If you find one, please send a screenshot and the ad's destination url to support@goodreads.com, and we'll do our best to block it as soon as possible.

This is hilarious. I define advertising of that type, ie inmyface, not something I choose to look at, as offensive in principle. I do not want to see a hamburger ad. I do not want to see an ad trying to get goodreads viewers interested in Thai wives. I do not want to see anything in between these. I would not object, on a booksite, to see advertisements specifically about books and clearly associated themes. That's it.

Oh, actually, I have this further thought. I would pay if I have to, to avoid ads being in my face, but why can't they be classifed? Ie in a separate link where I can CHOOSE to see them if I want to?

Apparently goodreads is 'only' worth $1M. This is not about the survival of the site and having to have ads to pay the costs. It is about these sites building themselves up on the basis of unpaid 'work' by the users, which becomes something that makes goodreads valuable. Who owns goodreads? At which point, after building it up, are 'they' going to sell it for a pretty sum to Amazon? I ask these questions because that is what happens to these sorts of sites all the time and it has important implications for us as consumers.

Yeah, well. I hope somebody out there agrees with me.