It has come to our attention that there may be some readers who have misunderstood our stance on GR and porn.  Over the weekend, we had a group discussion on this issue and Athena asked me to post our views on the subject so that it will be clear to others.  When we say we don’t think porn belongs on Goodreads, we are not talking about books written in the genres of romance, erotic romance, or erotica.  We are not talking about censoring these genres like Paypal attempted to do.  In fact, we agreed with Joe Konrath when he spoke out on the issue of Paypal’s censoring saying something to the effect: anyone who tries to tell you what you can’t do is an asshole (meaning what you can’t do within the law.)  We agree with him.  If authors want to write romance, erotic romance, and erotica, they should be allowed to.  If people want to form groups that discuss these kinds of books and reviews of these kinds of books, we have no problem with that either, provided that they label the groups clearly as 18+ groups, take measures to keep kids out, and keep sexually graphic images off of the front page where kids can see them.

So our problem is not with these kinds of books or groups at all.  Our problem is with groups like the sexual role playing groups that Carroll found that had no controls on them with regards to age and let minors engage in role play with adults.  Our problem is also with groups like BDSM After Bedtime and all the others that were created for the sole purpose of inviting members to join so they can “get their kink on” and have all the kinky cyber-sex they want.  So, what is our problem with them?  Well, we ask the question: what do these groups have to do with books or book reviews or discussions of books and book reviews?  The answer is nothing.  They have absolutely nothing to do with them.  They are pure porn.  So do they really belong on Goodreads?  We don’t think so.  We think pure porn belongs on a porn site.

Many of us here at STGRB are parents and when we see groups like these with the graphic pictures on the front page, it raises cause for concern.  Our belief is not that romance, erotic romance or erotica should be censored.  This is not about censoring.  Our belief is that as an online community, we have a collective responsibility to make sure kids are protected from content that is inappropriate for them and to make sure they are protected from adults who would try to harm or exploit them.  The fact is that there is a HUGE population of children on GR, ranging from very young kids to teenagers.  GR is not just for adults.  There is a very large crowd on GR interested in children’s and YA books.  As adults, as readers, as authors, or as moderators of the site itself, we need to remember that and remember what is important and appropriate.

The reason we are irritated with Goodreads on this issue and the reason many of us have removed ourselves and our families from the site is because other GR members complained and warned GR about these groups a long time ago and Patrick Brown and the other people running the site ignored them.  They didn’t act on it until it affected their bottom line.  They behaved the same way with the bullies and bully reviews.  They were told of the attacks on authors but did nothing about it until it received all the negative media attention back in July.  What this tells us is that GR doesn’t really care what happens on its site and won’t bother to fix something until it has to.  This doesn’t sit well with us.

These are our views on the subject.  We hope this clears up some of the confusion.  If there are people who still disagree with us, that’s fine.  To each his/her own.  They have a right to their views and we have a right to ours.  And unless someone can give us a really good reason for doing so, we won’t be changing them just because there are people who disagree.

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