Off-Topic: The Story of an Internet Revolt

by G.R. Reader

In September 2013, the Goodreads book reviewing site, which had previously operated a strict policy of free speech, began censoring reviews. The reviewers fought back, and the conflict was soon being reported in the mainstream media. This is the story of what happened, told in the protesters' own words.

• ISBN13: 9781304575197
• Publish Date: 6 December 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Lulu.com
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 216
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

The only problem with Off-Topic is that it's being read by people who already understand the problem. This book needs to be read by those that are saying to themselves "Why is this a problem? GoodReads is only making the site more pleasant for all of us - I don't need to see such animosity on my GoodReads site!" These people have no concept of the slippery slope censorship is. It always, always starts off small and reasonable. But it never, ever ends that way.

This book is an excellent cautionary tale about a site built on the good faith and enthusiasm of it's users and then sold off for cold, hard cash with complete disregard of those users. GoodReads is the perfect illustration of what so many companies do when they become successful - kill off the very thing that made them successful in the first place.

I recommend it to everyone.

[Linda]

This book is available for free download here

I am one of the readers who added this book to my TBR and became a fan of G. R. Reader when the book was first added to Goodreads database. Imagine my surprise when suddenly the book was gone from my shelves, and the author had disappeared?

I am very happy the author(s) has been able to get the book back into the database, and I look forward to reading it.

Remember that you can vote for this book in the Goodreads Awards for 2013 - it can be added both to the non-fiction and the Debut-author lists.

Extremely well written book, I found no grammatical, syntax or spelling errors. I really enjoyed some of the reviews that had been deleted, as they had been unceremoniously been taken off-site by staff before I had the time to check them out.

It continues to sadden me that so many of the users who got the 'Congratulations, you're part of the 1% top users of Goodreads' e-mail continue to have their reviews and shelves deleted. What I find much hope in is that Off Topic was still published! It is great to see that the community that once was the main focal point of Goodreads (at least for me!) still exists - even if it no longer exists here on the very site where it originated.