"What is it that Facebook groups have that online petitions don't? First of all, 150,000 members in a Facebook group is not the equivalent of 150,000 signatures on a (real) petition. A portion of this group's members are probably not even from Ontario (though at least Facebook provides some assurance that most members are real individual people)."
Another other problem with Facebook "petitions" is that one must join the Facebook group in order to participate in discussion...so, even if one is actually opposed to the "petition", if you want to debate the issue you'll be counted as in favour of it.
...I'm sorry, but this post reaks of hypocrisy and sloppy reporting.
If Hasbro or any other content company had made the similar assertions linking the popularity of Scrabulous with lost sales and failed to provide any evidence to back up the claim, Techdirt, Ars, Slashdot and others would've promptly torn them apart (for that matter, I'm pretty certain that any evidence brought forward would also be torn apart). However, I note that the same standards don't seem to apply when asserting that online activity leads to increased sales (lostsailor and cram, good on you for noting the lack of evidence here).
Moreover, before lambasting Hasbro on its handling of the Scrabulous situation, you should know that in Aug 2007, before Scrabulous became a facebook app, Hasbro entered into an exclusive licensing arrangement with Electronic Arts for the latter to develop and publish digital versions of its board games for mobile and Internet platforms (eg. ZDNet, "Hasbro, Electronic Arts reach digital-games pact" http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-159096.html). This arrangement would've severly limited what Hasbro could do regarding Scrabulous, as any attempt to capitalize on the unauthorized version of a Hasbro game would probably have been a breach of the arrangement and invited a suit from EA. Of course, had you bothered to do a little research before opining, you may have realized this...
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RE: Facebook "Petitions"
"What is it that Facebook groups have that online petitions don't? First of all, 150,000 members in a Facebook group is not the equivalent of 150,000 signatures on a (real) petition. A portion of this group's members are probably not even from Ontario (though at least Facebook provides some assurance that most members are real individual people)."
Another other problem with Facebook "petitions" is that one must join the Facebook group in order to participate in discussion...so, even if one is actually opposed to the "petition", if you want to debate the issue you'll be counted as in favour of it.
Re: Wow
...I'm sorry, but this post reaks of hypocrisy and sloppy reporting.
If Hasbro or any other content company had made the similar assertions linking the popularity of Scrabulous with lost sales and failed to provide any evidence to back up the claim, Techdirt, Ars, Slashdot and others would've promptly torn them apart (for that matter, I'm pretty certain that any evidence brought forward would also be torn apart). However, I note that the same standards don't seem to apply when asserting that online activity leads to increased sales (lostsailor and cram, good on you for noting the lack of evidence here).
Moreover, before lambasting Hasbro on its handling of the Scrabulous situation, you should know that in Aug 2007, before Scrabulous became a facebook app, Hasbro entered into an exclusive licensing arrangement with Electronic Arts for the latter to develop and publish digital versions of its board games for mobile and Internet platforms (eg. ZDNet, "Hasbro, Electronic Arts reach digital-games pact" http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-159096.html). This arrangement would've severly limited what Hasbro could do regarding Scrabulous, as any attempt to capitalize on the unauthorized version of a Hasbro game would probably have been a breach of the arrangement and invited a suit from EA. Of course, had you bothered to do a little research before opining, you may have realized this...