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0 pointswyldfire4y ago0 comments

I respect people's religions but adherence to constraints like these -- to the extent that the automatons cannot even work -- are silly.

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neilv4y ago

IIUC, it's a religious/cultural observance that's very important to them, I think a kind of reminder. I'd say respecting that means respecting that.

Also, I loved B&H when I was seriously into photography, and even if the closed days had been a practical inconvenience (they weren't, IME), it would've still been worthwhile.

Speculating... Maybe something in the culture of dutiful adherence also helped them to provide such well-respected service at great prices? Diversity is good.

fmajid4y ago

They used to do transactions on Shabbat, then they stopped, presumably the Satmar Hasidic rabbi must have issued a ruling that it wasn’t allowed.

Sure, it’s a minor annoyance, but compare that with the nontheistic amorality of Amazon and their everything-goes train wreck of a marketplace (worse than eBay at its worst) and you’ll understand why I only buy my computers, electronics and photo gear from B&H.

sombremesa4y ago

Well, the website being up and somewhat usable means the automatons are working. Makes this policy even more nonsensical.

vincnetas4y ago

Let's take this to extreme. Commandment "Thou shalt not kill", would it be ok to let automatons kill instead of you and this would not be considered sin? (playing devils advocate)

Qwertious4y ago

Building (and activating) a machine that's designed to kill, obviously violates the "thou shalt not kill" and makes you an attempted murderer the moment you activate it. But the actual moment of killing? You're literally not doing that (you could be sleeping or have forgotten about the machine, at the moment it first kills).

Similarly, building the e-commerce machine obviously can't be done on the sabbath, but if it's already running then you're not actually working.

For example, suppose you push a rock off a huge cliff. If the rock tumbles for a full week after you push it, were you pushing it off a cliff for the full week (including the sabbath)? Or did you only push it the one time on a tuesday?

taneq4y ago

If the ONLY reason you're not killing people is the fifth of the Ten Commandments then we have bigger issues than "are sentry turrets OK".

fortran774y ago

You can't say you respect my religion and then call me silly at the same time. Perhaps you're the one that's silly.

hanche4y ago

I think respect is for people, not religions. I don’t even know what it means to respect a religion, unless you adhere to it. Respect for people includes respecting their right to practice their religion, even if you think it is silly. That respect also means you don’t go out of your way to point fingers and laugh at every opportunity, but not the obligation to keep your opinion secret either. Due respect can be a difficult balancing act sometimes.

tomc19854y ago

Silliness and respect are mutually exclusive?

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