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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
So the general consensus seems to be; "I don't blame GR at all for selling out (and making millions on its members' purely altruistic contributions of time and effort--and their love of books). I just don't like it that Amazon was the buyer." That about right?
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I can't speak for others, but my take was this:
I'm annoyed with (but not surprised by) GR's selling to Amazon because I prefer a greater number of sources of info and also find Amazon's approach to reviews disappointing. I'd also hate to say goodbye to the idea of the librarians and users themselves creating the structure of the site (if that should happen).
I'm also annoyed but not surprised at Amazon's acquisition of GR, since I prefer multiple sources of info and acquisitions rarely help. It isn't simply a matter of the information itself. It's also a matter of the criteria by which it's sorted, edited, filtered and promoted, and added legacy content that can overshadow it. All of that can color the usefulness of reviews as well.
Someone grumbled a few pages back about the "Web 2.0 business model" often followed by user-driven content sites and I quite liked that post.
I wouldn't take negative statements about Amazon and GR personally. Some of us are simply skeptical about "embracing the future" when that means not getting to make decisions about it ourselves. I'm not thrilled whenever I create an account with a smaller bank which gets swallowed by conglomerates either.