Dear Censors - either leave my reviews alone or delete my account entirely, because if you keep deleting my reviews I'm just going to keep posting them right back up and this dance will go on for as long as you keep the same music playing.
This review by Jonathan was recently removed by Goodreads for breaking their ridiculous censorship policy - but is reposted here thanks to the good folk at Hydra Rebellions.
Okay, I'm totally hijacking this novel for use in protesting against the unannounced changes to Goodreads policy. But, it was a non-reviewed or read novel so I figure I'm giving it more attention than ever before! For those of you unaware of the situation: [link lost in deletion] Yeah, that's right. Rather than make a sitewide announcement they put up an 'important note' sloppily stating that any review could now come open for questioning on a group that was hidden away. Yes, none of my reviews have been affected and maybe none of yours have been. The issue is the potential the particular wording and background movements behind this which none of us are fully aware of. We need more transparency on something in which we are invested and in which we create the content which allows for Goodreads to make money. There was an analogy made in an article arguing that this was not censorship. The article suggested that this was like me using a friend's garage to store my valuables and then either later getting upset when he decided he wanted to loan out the garage to someone else or make me pay for it. It's his garage, the article said, and you've been getting a free service for it all along. That is true, but the more appropriate analogy would be to say that Goodreads are the friend that either throw out your valuables without warning or sell your stuff because it suits them. Both are highly unethical. I'm sorry, but censorship exists anytime you tell someone emphatically that there are only particular ways to respond to something. In deleting negative reviews of the book - well particularly singling certain reviewers out and driving them away - Goodreads is acting in censorship. By staying silent and not giving a sitewide announcement they reveal more and more that they know what they are doing is wrong. And regardless of what you think, censorship has historically never worked and always is shown as wrong.
Spread the call of the Hydra!