AmazonFail

[netmouse]

"Fail" seems to be the new internet version of "gate" as Brian just commented to me.

Anyway, I got home tonight from a lovely 3-day weekend trip to NY with my sister, sat down to work on taxes and promptly got distracted reading AmazonFail, all about something Amazon has done (maybe policy, maybe glitch, probably both?) that has made it very hard to find many many books. (And if you have any doubt how horrid this is, go to amazon.com and do a search for "Homosexuality"). There's a book for helping teens accept their homosexuality and not commit suicide that no longer shows up. Instead? offensive dreck IMNHO.

For more details and good commentary, see here (links to other sources at the bottom of her post), here, and here.

I have canceled the one open order I had with amazon and posted to the amazon associates discussion board, and signed the petition.

Comments

[vaxjedi]

failgate?

-gate and -fail

[kenllama.livejournal.com]

::"Fail" seems to be the new internet version of "gate" as Brian just commented to me.::

I've been contemplating the abundance of the -fail suffix these last few weeks, and hadn't thought to connect it to -gate. This is an excellent observation.

Sadly, I find its prevalence even less appealing than -gate. Possibly too hip for my blood. Someday it will become unhip and everyone will use it, and then I'll probably go along... Baaa...

[phawkwood.livejournal.com]

Well holy crap. I'd never really paid much attention to Amazon's corporate morals, for all they could be ultra right wingers or some such. They'd always seemed pretty even keeled, at least so far as it's never entered my thinking.

Now for this to come out... that's just nuts.

[nicegeek.livejournal.com]

Amazon is now saying that this was a glitch.

For a sufficiently broad definition of "glitch", they're probably right.

[madkingludwig.livejournal.com]

http://tehdely.livejournal.com/88823.html
I thought this enlightening on the Amazon issue.
I think this take is fascinating.

[phawkwood.livejournal.com]

I suppose this would fit the definition of a "glitch", if it turns out to be the case.

"oops, someone is abusing our system in ways we hadn't considered"

[madkingludwig.livejournal.com]

It would seem to make more sense than the alternative theory that someone at Amazon sat down and thought to themselves, "Our clientèle is younger, obviously internet savvy, pretty liberal, activist and openminded as a group, and obviously literate. What would be the best way to totally piss off our base and cater to a group that is never going to by anywhere near as into us, preferring to get their info and literature from more anti-reputable right-wing sources? I should get a few guys from the PR and IT departments and brainstorm..."

[madtechie2718.livejournal.com]

Have you tried doing the same search at amazon.com an amazon.co.uk (and/or any other english-speaking countries)?

I occasionally do this and find the differences in products offered to be interesting, even on non-controversial topics.

[skyfire1228.livejournal.com]

Apparently, one hacker dude is taking credit for causing the glitch at Amazon. His post here.

Whether that's accurate or he's taking credit post-insanity, I dunno.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

indications are (http://bryant.livejournal.com/672165.html) he's a meta-troll. In other words, not him, sorry.

[narbat.livejournal.com]

He may or may not be the culprit, but it sure looks to me like someone has gamed Amazon's ranking system. I would be surprised to find that this is a corporate policy decision.

[skyfire1228.livejournal.com]

Well, sure. I don't have enough grasp of codemonkey-speak to be able to judge whether weev was legit in his claim or meta-trolling; I just figured it was another possibility for why this all went down. Much like this guy, I find it likely that there's an abuse of Amazon's flagging system, rather than Amazon deciding to further marginalize the LGBTQI community.

One more!

[skyfire1228.livejournal.com]

And now, a supposed Amazon insider says it was an internal person who (accidentally? on purpose?) tagged everything, further debunking the hacker's claim.

This is fascinating.