Amazon: carrot and stick
Apr. 13th, 2009 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xthe10thdoctorI've written to them and I won't buy anything until it's fixed, but I don't really agree with the idea of swearing off forever, even if they fix it.
I want to reward good behavior as well as warn/boycott for the bad. Otherwise I think their incentive to fix it is less.
I don't know if behaviorism works at the corporate level, but usually a combination of positive and negative reinforcement works better than either alone. So if the idea is to get Amazon to change, I think both would be better than a forever boycott.
And I do think it's worthwhile to try to shape Amazon's behavior, even though I do buy some books elsewhere: in the past six months I've bought from Alibris, Powell's, and my local Barnes & Noble. Point is, they will still hold a large share of the market, and I think it's worthwhile to keep the LGBTQ titles there in the search results, looking normal and ubiquitous.
I want to reward good behavior as well as warn/boycott for the bad. Otherwise I think their incentive to fix it is less.
I don't know if behaviorism works at the corporate level, but usually a combination of positive and negative reinforcement works better than either alone. So if the idea is to get Amazon to change, I think both would be better than a forever boycott.
And I do think it's worthwhile to try to shape Amazon's behavior, even though I do buy some books elsewhere: in the past six months I've bought from Alibris, Powell's, and my local Barnes & Noble. Point is, they will still hold a large share of the market, and I think it's worthwhile to keep the LGBTQ titles there in the search results, looking normal and ubiquitous.
