Amazon.com asshatery

[mothwing]

Take a look at this:


Does this look... somehow... adult-themed to you? (Click here if you want to look at it in all its NSFW glory).

No?

Well, sorry, you sexually depraved deviant, you obviously don't share Amazon's family values (and shame on you, just look at it. It's clearly promoting not only the homosexual lifestyle, but also bestiality). This is clearly more offensive than, say,  the 120 days of Sodom. At least according to Amazon.com - as you may have already read, they're removing some titles from "some searches and bestseller lists and  the sales rankings from books they consider "adult themed".

Personally, I have no idea who makes the chops and why. King and King retains its ranking, so does The Different Dragon. My Daddy's Roommate does not, nor does Alan Hollinghurst's The Swimmingpool Library, or Fingersmith, but as I said, some editions of the 120 Days of Sodom do.

I wonder where this is going, especially considering some of the other books and merchandise allowed to keep its rating.

There's a summary of what has been going on here in case you're interested, and here is an affected writer's timeline.

This is gonna be good, I can tell.

EDIT: And the plot thickens. A SA employee's post on the AmazonFail proposed a different theory. According to him (1) either a vigilante organisation comparable to Innocence Jihad during during strikethrough/boldthrough/LoLJ's been reporting books with a specific kind of tags en masse, resulting in their adult flagging, (2) in addition to that, considering that apparently, Amazon's reporting system is not automatised, someone made "mistakes" influenced by personal bias when marking books as "adult themed" - or (3) someone did it for the lulz.

What gets me about the whole thing are the kind of books which were affected - LGBT books, no surprise there, it's common practice that any media with LGBT content are flagged as "adult", BDSM-related books, see above, but survivors, too? And feminists? Huh.

There is also early troll claims authorship of this and oh god, there is a twitter and an article on the Guardian (thanks, Bron).

Oh, I'll be needing some more popcorn for this.

Comments

[mariebernadette.livejournal.com]

Pathetic!!

[firenightingale.livejournal.com]

Paul was just telling me that he was unhappy with Amazon for the same reason (that he heard about via one of his online friends too). I just read a post via the link you posted that gives the theory that, as Amazon are blaming it on a 'computer glitch', that it is because content can get flagged on Amazon as 'adult' if a certain number of people complain about it & that it's down to a group of biggots going through and flagging gay fiction as 'adult' even if it's kids' books.

Either way, Amazon had better get their act together and repair this fairly swiftly!

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

I just read a post via the link you posted that gives the theory that, as Amazon are blaming it on a 'computer glitch', that it is because content can get flagged on Amazon as 'adult' if a certain number of people complain about it & that it's down to a group of biggots going through and flagging gay fiction as 'adult' even if it's kids' books.
I've read a similar theory (http://tehdely.livejournal.com/88823.html) and it makes a lot of sense to me, but I wonder - why isn't there anyone who supervises this, or at least pays more attention...? Automatised rank deletion can hardly be considered a good solution even for the laziest employee. o.O

[bronnyelsp.livejournal.com]

I love how on the ball the Guardian is.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Wow, they're fast.

[firenightingale.livejournal.com]

I've sent a complaint e-mail to Amazon stating that I am very concerned and dissapointed in them and stating that I hope they change this ASAP. I suggest that anyone else with an Amazon account do so too - they may already know that they messed up but the more complaints they get directly, the more they'll know not to let it happen again in future!

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. I've also sent in a complaint and signed the petition for all that it's worth, and I hope they'll fix this, whether it's a technical or a human "glitch", as quickly as possible.

[krakelwok.livejournal.com]

Ein Glitch, daran glaube ich nie im Leben. In letzter Zeit habe ich es ein, zweimal erlebt, dass bei Onlinevertrieben versucht wurde, potentiell unliebsame Änderungen ohne Ankündigung durchzumogeln. Bei entsprechendem Kundenprotest war dann immer von Systemfehlern die Rede. Zumindest wurden die Änderungen schnell wieder rückgängig gemacht. Trotzdem haben einige Firmen extrem scheinheilige Methoden, zu versuchen, ihre verqueren Politiken durchzukriegen und trotzdem ihr Image zu wahren.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Na, "Systemfehler" klingt so schön bequem, und wenn man bedenkt, wie wenig die User normalerweise über die Funktionsweise solcher Seiten wissen, kann es praktisch alles erklären.

[utter-pirate.livejournal.com]

What a cock-up. I was severely tempted to boycott yesterday but now I think I'll just complain.

To my shame, I am incredibly dependent on Amazon.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me, too, unfortunately. Usually, they offer books at a fraction of the price other services demand, AND they have free shipping.

[angie-21-237.livejournal.com]

They want to save some people from “offending” material?
Sot try and search the innocent word “Sachbuch” (non-fiction book) at amazon.
What is the first result?
Yes! “Fisting Sachbuch: Vorsicht, Verantwortung, Vertrauen“
The 4th result is “Ratgeber Analsex. the 5th “Onanieren für Profis”. But my favourite is the 7th “Die Kraft zum Scheißen: die 12 Mantras des Scheißens“.
Amazon is doing a wonderful job, right?

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

o_O I like the last result in particular. (In case you're bored, here's (http://alexwichert.com/2009/04/12/amazon-zensiert-schwul-lesbische-inhalte/) a German blog on the things, although he doesn't write about the outcome).

Yeah, I don't know what they're doing, really. Seems as though their explanation is that an employee mixed up the terms "sexuality" and "adult", resulting in the loss of sales ranks. Doesn't really explain why so many books on heterosex and sexual practices are not filed under "sexuality", or why "Heather" was, though...