Amazon(still) fails

[catherineldf]

from Kate Harding at Salon.com:
"Update: Jessica Valenti's editor at Seal Press, Brooke Warner, has spoken to an Amazon rep who told her it was neither glitch nor hack. In an e-mail to Valenti, Warner wrote, "Basically he said that Amazon has been experimenting with the way they dole out content specifically so that people who are searching Harry Potter or whatever won't run into links to products that might be offensive... [T]his is mandated from their bosses, who essentially want to be Walmart.... also said no human is responsible for the decisions per se, and that it's all about tagging and feeds which are constantly being tweaked. He does think that amazon will retweak the tags based on the uproar that happened over the weekend." However, others remain convinced it's the work of outside shit-disturbers. Amazon, meanwhile, still hasn't apologized for the glitch/fail/hack/error, and I still find that totally baffling. "

Yes, they did it more or less on purpose and we haven't "won" a damn thing yet because they're just going to try it again when they think no one's paying attention.
It sounds like some, but not all, gay titles have been relisted; a number of lesbian ones, including my own and BLE, had not been as of earlier this afternoon.  Remind me again why I only buy my books at independent bookstores? Oh wait, it's coming back to me.

Comments

[thaedeus.livejournal.com]

Lame. And yet, unsurprising.
I admire the uprising.

I wonder if authors will just retag their work (or if they can),
to bypass the censorship?

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

This is internal to their freakin' database, far as I can tell. It's done by publisher classification so we can't change it.

[thaedeus.livejournal.com]

Damnation!

It's changeable on Kindle, if any of those went away.
But it probably works differently if you aren't set up
as an 'individual.'

[lynnejamneck.livejournal.com]

It sucks that, for some reason and I cannot imagine for the life of me why, I want to give amazon the benefit of the doubt. Now your post has seriously banged into that. It is peculiar that they have not apologised. I guess a big part of me wants to believe this was the work of a bunch of fktard conservatives instead of a major online bookseller.

Please, Amazon, say sorry and donl't make me cry.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Go with the pure evil analysis - it's usually right when it comes to large corporations. I should know, I've worked for enough of them. :-((( Just not this one; making note to self.

[coyote-eyes.livejournal.com]

I sent them a nasty email about it and am going to boycott them until they apologize. I clearly spelled out why I used to shop there and why I am opposed to censorship. I doubt it will help, but if enough people attack their bottom line, they might recognize the cluestick. Bleh.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks for doing that. :-)
There's a bunch of us still delisted and while they're sending out half-assed apologies to the folks who contacted them to complain, there's no mass apology nor real assurance that we won't all be seeing this next month. Snarl.

[coyote-eyes.livejournal.com]

They haven't sent me an apology letter yet, but then I demanded a public apology. *grins* They should have learned by now that angry people say far more about your company to other people than happy people ever do.

Books

[traceyshellito.livejournal.com]

Speaking of independent bookstores - tried your link to True Colours - great selections and nice website - everything was going just fine until the message flashed up that their security certificate is out of date so I had to stop. In light of the gals recent problems, I didn't think it was fair to fire off an unhappy e-mail since I was a complete stranger. But I know you are close by and know the ladies. Any chance you could drop in and have a quiet word? I love to help support small biz enterprises but I can't risk my credit card details on line till the problem is fixed.

But so true about Amazon, yet seeing how much this gaff has cost them, all I can say is - ha, suckers - told ya so - in my blog on their own damn site! Sometimes I really love to be right.

Re: Books

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Hi Tracey - thanks for passing this on! I'll let them know. :-)
Re: Amazon - snarl. I don't know what's more frustrating: the fact that they did it to begin with or that so many people are willing to buy the "oopsie, we made a mistake analysis." But then this is what happens with monopolies. :-(