This is neither here nor there, but I've always been more than a little
amused by the Bookshare adult rating system. Automated checker or not, it's
always seemed quite arbitrary to me, particularly as it more often than not
depends on the discression of an individual validator. I highly suspect
that what I consider to be adult content and what some other validators
think is adult content are very different things.
Though, personally, I find the entire concept to be vaguely pointless.
There's an underlying assumption in this sort of system about people's
inability to deal with complex topics that is in the end more than a little
paternalistic. If people don't want to read a particular sort of book
that's one thing, and for that I suppose the system is useful. But telling
young people what they should and shouldn't read is an inherently flawed
idea, as is the whole concept of 'look away! look away! bad things in the
book will leap off the page and infect you!'
I imagine it's partly a legal issue for Bookshare, though, which is a shame
really because more than one excellent book I remember fondly from my
teenage years is out of reach of Bookshare's younger members. I have no
suggestions on how to make the rating process more intuitive, or even more
uniform as it clearly is not now. So in the end I am entirely unhelpful
except to muddy the waters a little bit.
skp
At 10:05 PM 1/16/2005, you wrote:
Sue,
Yes, but the way the bookshare site works is that adult rated books should not show up without logging in. Not only can I see them when I'm not logged in, but the adult rating is totally missing. ----- Original Message ----- From: "siss52" <siss52@xxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2005 10:49 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Uh oh -- re weird, Adult rating
> > > > > HHi Cindy, > > Even if folks can see the titles and authors without logging in, they can't > download them if they are copyrighted.. So I don't see any big deal. > <<lol> > > Sue S. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx> > To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2005 10:28 PM > Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Uh oh -- re weird, Adult rating > > > -But I did at least on Love Slave, which was rhe first > I did. I don't think Rosamund needed it. I can' t > remember if I did on Until You, but that probably > didn't need it either. After that I stopped scanning. > Unless it's no longer necessary to log in to see Adult > rated books, that is no longer marked Adult. > > Cindy > > > You know, I never marked Adult on the bErtrice Small > > books. > > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! > http://my.yahoo.com > > > > > > > > > >
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
-- 'Dirge Without Music', Edna St. Vincent Millay
