Someone left a comment today about Lush, pointing to a blog complaining about the site.
I have read the complaints, and I’m afraid I don’t see the discrimination.
As a webmaster, you have to make difficult choices. I ban pretty much the entire Russian Federation, Ukraine, China, and umpteen other places because the hits from those locations are so overwhelmingly spam that it’s not worth checking them. Instead, my ban message indicates that one can contact me through one of the story sites ( Lush, Lit, or SOL ) and I will manually allow the user, if anyone from those locations ever does show up on the site.
I’m not discriminating. I’m protecting my site. From the descriptions provided ( even within the blog complaining about Lush ) I see the exact same thing.
Users from India are provided the means to submit stories, and I have little doubt that once an original story has been approved, the user would probably be given the same access as anyone else. The country ban is a firewall that protects the site from having to deal with a problem that was consuming time and resources better spent on improving the site and approving stories.
As someone who has maintained an internet presence since the late 90s, I fully understand Lush’s position.
I can also see how someone who wanted to submit an original story in good faith would feel offended. I don’t begrudge them that emotion, but I’m not going to support an anti-Lush campaign on that basis.