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 Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:26 am
maenad nuri TheDisreputableDog Amazon.com is stripping sales rankings from a wide selection of erotica and LGBT books with seemingly no legitimate rationale or even consistency. I am pissed and confused. What rationale are they giving? Initially, that they were protecting their entire customer base from "adult" material—yet the catalogue of what has been stripped and what hasn't is vastly inconsistent along those lines. I think the latest explanation is it was a glitch? It's hard to say what the real issue is because Amazon representatives are not being very forthcoming. But sales rankings affect search, not just best seller lists, and so many books have been affected that a search for "homosexuality" throws up "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" as the first hit.
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:36 am
TheDisreputableDog maenad nuri TheDisreputableDog Amazon.com is stripping sales rankings from a wide selection of erotica and LGBT books with seemingly no legitimate rationale or even consistency. I am pissed and confused. What rationale are they giving? Initially, that they were protecting their entire customer base from "adult" material—yet the catalogue of what has been stripped and what hasn't is vastly inconsistent along those lines. I think the latest explanation is it was a glitch? It's hard to say what the real issue is because Amazon representatives are not being very forthcoming. But sales rankings affect search, not just best seller lists, and so many books have been affected that a search for "homosexuality" throws up "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" as the first hit. I read a blog that said this may in fact be a form of meta trolling. And the theory really is sound. I guess Amazon has an automated system where people flag adult content and then, if enough flagged complaints show up, Amazon's system drops the sales rankings. It isn't a far cry to wonder if a group of anti homosexuality proponents or even just a group of nasty trolls made a bunch of dummy accounts, spammed the adult flagging system on all homosexual, feminist, and rape survivor related lit on Amazon. Of course, once you do that, the automated system drops the sales ratings and Amazon's help staff would simply look into their database and see the adult content flag and notify you of such. Especially since it all seemed to happen over a weekend and a vacation one at that. There has been more recent assertions from Amazon that this is some kind of glitch, which is what makes me really think this was meta trolling. After all, Amazon is pretty damn liberal and good chunk of their market is too. Poor business plan to piss off your market. As a note, meta trolling is a method of trolling wherein two groups online are turned against each other in an extraordinarily subtle way, using exploiting some element of trust between them. Basically you create the impression that one group is opposed or acting antagonistically to another, at best in a subtle fashion that neither is aware of at first. So an inevitable shitstorm ensues as one group attacks the other for whatever slight or transgression was created by the troll. The previous group responds and now you have two groups trolling each other, while you (as the meta troll) sit back and giggle. Slightly less capable versions of it just result in presenting an object of dissension in between two normally allied groups and watch them go to town on each other (it works less often though) I didn't really think of it till I read this guy's blog despite my background knowledge that should have sparked some red flags for me.
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:27 am
Recursive Paradox After all, Amazon is pretty damn liberal and good chunk of their market is too. Poor business plan to piss off your market. Well, that doesn't always stop people from doing stupid things. I did see the meta-troll theory post, and sometimes "this is too good to be true" means it's a scam and sometimes people really are that dumb. Jury's still out. Something interesting either way is that AMZN shares were rising previously but have been dropping all day--but I don't know enough about stocks to say whether that may be related or not.
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:03 pm
Yo, b***h. If you're going to complain about customer service and getting all my closing tasks done- perhaps you could do it to the people who leave work for me to do when there are two people on the floor and against people who are never mentioned in Guest reports, as opposed to me who habitually hears about my Bosses being told I'm great and they need to pay me more.
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:20 pm
TeaDidikai Yo, b***h. If you're going to complain about customer service and getting all my closing tasks done- perhaps you could do it to the people who leave work for me to do when there are two people on the floor and against people who are never mentioned in Guest reports, as opposed to me who habitually hears about my Bosses being told I'm great and they need to pay me more. That sounds just like a job I used to have... except for the part about your bosses sweatdrop Also I hate bureaucracies, I went today to go get my name change done and found out 1 I need proof of my supplemental security income for my fee waver, 2 the money I have to pay the newspaper has to be in a check, which I cant afford to write, and can't deposit, lest SSI think I have "income" or a money order, which since I rely on public transportation requires me to go a half hour out of my way to get. Neither one of these would be a big issue except that I couldn't just leave and go back to court with the stuff I needed on the same day, because by the time I got back the court would have closed down. The worst part is 3 they told me I was missing a form, which thankfully they gave me there, but I don't understand it at all, and it could take weeks to get a hold of the legal services adviser. sweatdrop
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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:44 pm
biggrin : I saw Monsters vs Aliens today, wonderful show.
confused : Umm... my neckbeard is itching... but then again, it is for the play offs.
crying : Uh... Um... my shoulder is sore?
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 8:29 am
Fiddlers Green biggrin : I saw Monsters vs Aliens today, wonderful show. It was what me, Error and Rune used to cheer me up after I read my dad's ******** up email response. Very awesome movie.
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:05 pm
scream : ******** boss didn't decide to tell me what shifts were available for the new escalation class so i had to go around him to another manager...and we've had to schedule this on my days off!
gonk : i was scheduled to go up for MEPS, but because i don't make tape, we decided to reschedule (again) in two weeks. i have to lose 3 inches on my waist and hips.
neutral : a coworker had a texting conversation with me last night about sex. and then told me he didn't think it was appropriate for two people who work together to have that conversation, when he was the one to bring the topic up twice.
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:26 pm
sweatdrop : I'm out of money.
gonk : The credit market is effed in the ay to the point where I can't get any loans.
whee : I'm also unemployed...
blaugh : ...but I just got a new job...
stressed : ...that doesn't start for a week and a half.
rofl : My car just broke down (that's me laughing from a nervous breakdown)
My, this has been a mods-awful week.
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:13 pm
sweatdrop : I'm PMSing. Trying to not be TOO moody.
crying : I'm depressed.
stressed : Mood swing, I'm angry now.
stare : I hate being female.
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:21 pm
Female weight and proportion expectations are unrealistic in the U.S. military, it really supports the starving to death is good look for ladies. rolleyes
Boxy, you can crash on my couch if it all really goes south. sweatdrop
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:24 pm
I look like I'm starving to death naturally.
I never thought it looked good. Too boney.
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:32 pm
kage no neko I look like I'm starving to death naturally.
I never thought it looked good. Too boney.
I didn't mean to imply there was anything wrong with having a slim build, just that when it is used as a mandate, it tends to fail. sweatdrop
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:09 pm
Fiddlers Green Female weight and proportion expectations are unrealistic in the U.S. military, it really supports the starving to death is good look for ladies. rolleyes but with tape being that liberal, i'm not okay. seriously, tape requires 36% body fat for me - apparently with calculations i'm at 40%. so 3 inches in 2 weeks...le sigh...
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 4:18 pm
saint dreya but with tape being that liberal, i'm not okay. seriously, tape requires 36% body fat for me - apparently with calculations i'm at 40%. so 3 inches in 2 weeks...le sigh... Taping, by and large, is based on a tall, slender male's proportions. Even for females.
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