Ask HN: What role does ethics, morals, honor etc play in Web 2.0?

[diminium]

The story of Facebook, Zangya, and other Web 2.0 companies is well know among us. Some of these companies are on shaky ground when it comes to things like privacy, deceit, etc. However, no matter how you put it, these companies are in the top and making a ton of money and the general public uses these sites like crazy.

They provide a "free" service with a hidden cost but to my surprise, it looks like none of the users care about any of that.

What do you guys think the role of ethics, morals, fairness, honor, honesty, and all that play in the future of the social web? Do you guys think it's alright to completely ignore the rule of ethics and do what some of the big names companies have done in order to gain user share?

Obviously, they aren't being punished when they do so by their users, so does it make it alright?

[derfclausen]

I think you're going to have a hard time with this one on HN.

Myself, I don't like it. But then again I don't think I'll ever be rich...

[diminium → derfclausen]

Thanks for the answer. Any idea why this is such a hard question for HN, especially when so many here are in the web 2.0 space?

[derfclausen → diminium]

I think the audience here tends to be capitalist/libertarian/objectivist. This means that for many, your assumptions about what is moral/"on shaky ground"/etc. are seen as somewhat baseless and irrelevant.

Maybe a better topic to discuss would be the ongoing debate over the proposed Harvard MBA 'oath' (http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/blog/2010-02-19.html). Actually, I think a quote in that article answers your question quite succinctly:

  He concludes: “Rather than focusing on pledges, businesses should make sure that managers comply with their fiduciary and ethical responsibility to maximize the wealth of the people who pay their salaries, i.e., the shareholders.”

Lastly, it's not common to have these kind of open-ended discussion topics.

Good luck.

[diminium → derfclausen]

Thanks.

Too bad though discussions like this aren't more common here, Ironically though, by not having a discussion like this invites more government interference into the internet. Kind of like the finance industry.