Amazon Fail: Oh, is that a Bandwagon? Let Me Just Jump On That…
I know that we’re all diverse in what we consider “appropriate.”
I get that.
I know that some people think “gay” or “lesbian” is a moral issue.
I don’t agree with that, at all.
But, I kind of get where they’re coming from.
Here’s what I don’t get, though.
I don’t get how a company like Amazon thinks that it will get away with injecting their version of morality (disguised as a “glitch” *) into a secularist and capitalist society without repercussions.
If you read this blog, you know that I don’t usually address content like what’s about to follow. I’m doing it to illustrate a point, so please bear with me.
Do you know who Ron Jeremy is?
Ron Jeremy is a porn star. He is, according to several sources, one of the Top 100 porn stars of all time. He is famous for being able to perform oral sex on himself. Can we agree that a memoir written by Ron Jeremy would be considered “Adult” content?
Great.
Now, do you know who Ellen Degeneres is?
She’s an Emmy award winning talkshow host. She’s an actress, has hosted the Academy awards and is a Defend New Orleans activist. Oh, and she’s a happily married vegan lesbian with a couple of dogs.
I’m one of those people who doesn’t care about that last sentence. People have a right to live their own lives, you know? Who am I to judge? Personally, I could never live like that. I even tried it for a couple of weeks, but I decided that I love eggs, dairy and meat waay to much to give them up.
Anyway, Amazon has decided to remove the rankings of all books they consider as having “adult” content.
Ron Jeremy’s memoir still has a ranking.
Ellen DeGeneres’ memoir does not.
As far as I’m concerned, whether you’re writing about auto-fellatio or what your cat is thinking while it watches you take a shower, the public has a right to decide whether you’re read or not.
This discriminatory ranking thing?
It’s stupid and it’s not fair.
Before I get rotten tomatoes thrown at me by the “Yay Capitalism” crowd, I fully support the right of Amazon, as a vendor, to do this. That’s capitalism.
I believe in capitalism. You know, because I’m rich.
But, also, because I believe that capitalism doesn’t just reflect the right of the vendor to do whatever they want, but that it reflects the overall choices of the consuming public.
Capitalism reflects the power of the consumer. It offers us an opportunity to make a moral statement in economic terms, and we should take advantage of that opportunity whenever possible. So that we can hold our head high, and say, “This is who I am. I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk”
I believe that those of us who have the slightest bit of a problem with this policy should stop buying from Amazon until they fix this glitch. And that we should tell them why.
I will not support a company whose practices are overtly or inadvertently discriminatory. That is my choice. I fully intend on making that choice known to a company that I have previously had a great experience with in the hopes that I will not be inconvenienced with having to find an alternative vendor.
I know that there are petitions on the Internet, and I think you should sign them. But, I also think you should send an e-mail citing specifically why you are displeased. Like the one I’ve sent to executive customer service at ecr@amazon.com .
Subject Line: Amazon Fail
To Whom It May Concern,
Recent reports that I have read via Internet news sites and Twitter have brought to my attention that there is a glitch with the software which ranks books sold on your site. I am sure by now, you are aware of the parameters and repercussions of this “glitch.”
I would like to inform you as a consumer who purchases her books almost exclusively at Amazon, I will no longer be doing business with you until I am informed by credible sources that the ranking issue has been fixed and that all authors whose books are sold on your site are afforded the same treatment without respect to the nature of their content.
I do understand that you are working to rectify this situation as quickly as possible, and hope that the speed with which you work mitigates the great amount of revenue you may lose as a result of this carelessness. I also hope that the speed you employ to resolve this issue will minimize the inconvenience it has caused to the great number of people, like myself, who once constituted a happy and loyal customer base.
P.S. You are evil and I hate you. Just kidding.
Feel free to copy and paste, if you like.
*As for the statement which attributed this to a “glitch,” I thought this site stated how I feel quite aptly:
Amazon will need more than a one-liner to explain this situation. It must have been a very intelligent and homophobic “glitch” to have selectively de-ranked gay titles while leaving equally “adult” straight titles alone… Unless Amazon explains what happened and publishes a transparent set of guidelines on how books are classified going forward I don’t think anyone will be satisfied. Demand answers.
Update: I got this e-mail a few hours later from Amazon.
Hello,
Thanks for contacting us. We recently discovered a glitch in our systems and it’s being fixed.
Thanks again for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.
Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:
If yes, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-y?c=rhbwrfuf3473419046
If not, click here:
http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-n?c=rhbwrfuf3473419046
Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail.
To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our web site.
Best regards,
Venkata C.
Amazon.com
We’re Building Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company
I guess Venakata hasn’t heard about the possibility of a Christian fundamentalist hack, yet?
36 Responses to Amazon Fail: Oh, is that a Bandwagon? Let Me Just Jump On That…
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
-
Articles
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
-
Meta
Here’s what I’ve read about the glitch which is what I think happened. The glitch is something that if enough people mark a product as “objectionable”, it automatically marks it as “adult” and removes it from the sales rankings.
Over Easter weekend, it’s surmised that a large fundamentalist Christian group, like the same one that sent in thousands of complaints for the Janet Jackson nipple slip, went in and purposely marked books objectionable by the thousands, which caused them to be removed.
The thing is, the list is inconsistent even with the concept of homosexual literature. There are plenty of other books that retained their rankings.
Jeff Bezos is not a right-wing type of person. He’s not a crazy fundamentalist Christian. I do think that this is a huge error that caught them off guard, and I hope that they take the appropriate action against the party or parties responsible.
This is the first I’ve heard of it. Wow. I, too, am a huge Amazon customer. I’m with you. And I’m hoping Adam’s explanation is the right one.
Like you said in the title of this post, its a bandwagon.
You went and jumped right on.
Good sheeple.
Actually, I considered that as a possibility (I am sooo smart)… and my stand on this issue in terms of deciding not to do business with them until it’s fixed, is very firm even with this possibility in mind.
Also, if that *did* happen, they really should tell people.
@Karl: You know, if the fundamentalist explanation is the right one, I think being a squeaky wheel about this becomes even more important. I’m tired of walking away whenever fundamentalists (of any religion) start dictating their terms to everyone. We have to let them know that *our* numbers are just as strong, if not stronger.
@NYCWD: Siiigh. Just because a majority of people is doing something, it doesn’t make it wrong. If the sheeple are right, they’re right. In this case, I agree with the sheeple.
BAAAAAA.
Me too.
Okay so I don’t shop Amazon very often so if someone could explain what these “rankings” are, that’d be awesome.
Ellen is my favorite comedian….but I think her talk show is kind of lame.
P.S. Probably completely inappropriate but I died laughing over this : “Personally, I could never live like that. I even tried it for a couple of weeks, but I decided that I love eggs, dairy and meat waay to much to give them up.”
I’m also one in the skeptical camp: this just doesn’t seem like an Amazon-type move based on personal politics. Jeff Bezos certainly hasn’t come across with a specific mindset about such things in the past. And Amazon has carried many, many, many examples of GLBT material in the past, opening their arms to the community for quite a while now.
Why a big change all of a sudden?
It could be that someone found a vulnerability which was exploited bya group to flood Amazon with adult tagging requests (a la what Avitable wrote). Or, perhaps, this was a rogue operation by an employee on the inside who wanted to make an impression before getting sacked?
In any case — glitch or no glitch — I hope this gets resolved soon, and I hope the full story comes out once all of the details have been gathered.
@Sheila: That was supposed to be funny… your laugh was totally appropriate.
@shiny: I get that, and I didn’t even approach this in the context of it being an expression of Bezos’ personal politics. I read up on this a little before writing this post and found that a few GLBT writers have been having this issue since February? Anyway, not to be incredibly picky, but *your* comment would have made an extremely appropriate press release on the part of Amazon. “This is just a glitch, and in no way reflects an intentional discriminatory approach on our part” would have stopped *me* from writing this post.
BAAA indeed.
I don’t know why I find your attempt to live the lesbian lifestyle so fascinating, but I had no idea a person had to not eat eggs, dairy or meat to do it!
Plus I don’t know many (any?) Muslims who own dogs!
Whatever keeps Amazon in the news is good advertising, especially if it exposes such concepts as ‘ranking matters’, “let’s blame people before we have any data” and “I bet it was those CHRISTIANS who did it”.
We need more hatred I guess. And because Christians are allegedly involved, it helps verify the concept that religion is the cause of all wars. And back acne.
@Kiefer&Emo: Muslim dog owners are few and far between. As are vegan lesbian Muslims.
@whall: Ummyeah, I agree. And I’m certainly not blaming anyone. They’re a big company who have smart people working for them, so they should have this sorted out in no time. I’m just not buying anything from them until they fix it.
I love Ellen. Ellen is awesome
I find a naked Ron Jeremy objectionable. What does that make me?
@Sarcastica: Me, too. I can never understand it when people say that “hate” her. How can someone hate *Ellen*?
@SciFiDad: Smart. Tasteful. And a normal human being. I can’t believe he gets paid to take his clothes off.
It’s only a glitch because they got caught.
I have to agree that my favorite part of this post was about being a vegan. Very clever, you.
I enjoy your readers’ comments almost as much as I enjoy reading your posts.
You rock.
Why does this remind me of the LiveJournal crap that forced me — and so many others — to uproot our blogs to other — better — sites?
I never buy from Amazon anyway (I’m a go-into-the-bookstore, browse-with-the-scent-of-books kind of girl), but this is just disgusting. It’s stuff like this that makes me want to be an alien instead of human.
For the record, it makes me laugh that you pay attention to the porn industry. I had no idea who that guy was! Is there something you’d like to tell us?
#AmazonFTW…
Full Disclosure: I have been a customer of Amazon.com since 1997, am a current Amazon Prime Member, and am an Amazon Associate who in 2008 made $8.76 from cereal related products. I was going to avoid this whole Amazon.com debate. It seemed to be getti…
thats interesting. i read up on this this morning, and i had read that it was a random glitch. i had NOT read that it only seemed to affect titles concerning homosexual topics or situations…
i dont know how i feel about amazon right now.. especially since, for years, they have sold soft core porn dvd’s. (how did i know that? uuuuuh, EARL told me)
@Karl tweeted PCMAG’s report on the full info from Amazon
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345246,00.asp
“In fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica,” Amazon said. “This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.”
Yeah, but that gives almost no information. In today’s age, consumers expect more than “it’s a cataloging glitch.” How about some information on why it did that or what caused it to do that? What will stop it from happening again?
@Robin: Maybe. I don’t know. I think their silence on the possible causes is deafening. I understand that there may be security issues prompting that silence, but… I don’t understand why “adult” titles are treated that way when you have to be 18 to buy from them, anyway.
@Jason:
@Elizabeth Kaylene: Really, we need protecting from ourselves, this is what the “objectionable content” issue says to me. And, thank you very much, I do not need anyone protecting me from my own stupid choices. Er. You know what I mean.
And DUH everyone knows who Ron Jeremy is!! He’s famous!!
@Slyde: No, it does not only affect GLBT books, but other ones as well. Last report I read indicates that we can blame it on the French.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/163042/amazon_says_listing_problem_was_an_error_not_a_hack.html
@whall: I was typing that link as you posted your comment. Because I am cool like that.
@Avitable: Yeah. Exactly.
Furthermore? Some of you need to go back and read my post. I spoke of a company injecting morality into their listing practices. Just because I used Ellen as an example does not imply that I am only defending GLBT literature. And just because I used nasty Ron Jeremy as a counterexample does not mean I’m dismissing him as someone who *should* be marked objectionable. I know the site that I linked to towards the end reflects that I’m only addressing GLBT, but, let me be clear, that is not completely reflective of my opinion.
Also, I did not use the term censorship anywhere up there. Not once. Nor did I imply it. I’m not accusing Amazon of censorship. I’m asserting that this de-listing practice is questionable.
In case you don’t feel like scrolling up:
My stand is that I want to know exactly how this de-listing thing works and how it has been manipulated to exclude certain authors from privileges that others have. Until I receive compelling answers, I’m just going to re-read the books I have and shop at Target.
You are NOT a bad person if you continue to shop at Amazon.
When I said Amazon was evil, that was a joke.
And if you love Amazon so much, why don’t you just go marry it and have Amazon babies with it?
(THAT was a joke, too.)
… but I do shop at Amazon. And I am a bad person. So there! How bout them apples?
Avitable – so you want Amazon to disclose more of their proprietary mechanisms so as to encourage future exploits by groups who _would_ hack them for their own politically-motivated agenda?
@Shiny: I tried buying apples on Amazon but instead redirected me to some title about Eve
@Faiqa *that* was a joke
@whall GASP. Are you implying that I wasn’t funny? It’s official. I’m offended.
I’m so glad you have a blog.
@Faiqa I wanted to marry Amazon and have babies with it, buit the anti-marrying-a-company political groups are oppressing me! WHERE ARE MY RIGHTS TO HAVE SEX WITH WHATEVER INANIMATE ENTITIES I WANT?!?!?
ROTFLMAO like a crazy woman.
I like eggs.
(Everyone else has already said more than enough and I agree with Faiqa. As usual.)
I know, right? People who don’t eat cheese or eggs frighten me. I get the meat part… sort of.
Thank you so much for this post. I use the reviewazon plugin. Reviewazon is the easy and simple way to add amazon affiliate product to your website.