AmazonFailGate

[lls_mutant]

So, yeah, AmazonFail.

I'm totally not going to say it's really all hearts and flowers and all that, but the scientist in me wants hard statistics. Annoying. There are definitely books that they're stripping of their rankings that shouldn't be stripped (because, y'know, self-help books and non-fiction and young adult books are exactly what we should be worried about THE CHILDREN looking at ::rolls eyes:: (and also? I'LL decide what my children can watch, thanks, which is why my kids are allowed to watch Dr. Horrible and not Barney)), but I want more info about other books having their rankings stripped. I want to verify. And I want to believe that it's someone being a dork and when someone up higher in Amazon realizes what's going on, their ass will be fired. I sent them my annoyed email, but I was probably less vehement than others.

The annoying thing is that I have an order in at Amazon, and I just got the word I put in the wrong credit card number (I have an expired one saved- oops). I have three days to give them the correct info.

Right now, I'm waiting. Sounds like the righteous fury has descended. If we see a change in what they're doing in the next day or two, I'll put my order through. If I don't, I won't.

Of course, I really want that book, so I may just go over to Trappe Book Store and see if they have it in anyway. Independent sellers and all that. Plus, business aspects. If I ever finish my book and get it sold, it sounds like Amazon would be stripping it of its ranking because there are gay characters. ::Gasp::

Can you still get Face of the Enemy off Amazon? :)

Comments

[tin-o-biscuits.livejournal.com]

IDK if it counts as stats, but here's a list of deranked titles so far-
http://community.livejournal.com/meta_writer/11992.html

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen it. But I also want to know what het titles have been deranked. I want to know what Amazon's reaction is. Because it's possible that one or two people decided this was how "adult" should be classified and the company now has wind of it and is pissed. I want more info, because the internet is famous for overreacting. I'm not saying there's no cause, but I AM saying I want to see how this plays out past 48 hours before I make any decisions. :)

There are usually three sides to every story- the two conflicting sides and the truth. This is one of those cases where I'm guessing the truth is in between what we're seeing and what the company sees. :P

[tin-o-biscuits.livejournal.com]

I've been following this- http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/34095137.html - and amidst the trolling and anger I know I saw someone mention that Amazon released a statement along the lines of "it's a glitch." The original post does point out that several explicit het titles have not been deranked.

There are usually three sides to every story- the two conflicting sides and the truth.
LOL my mind went right to YFL...

EDIT- the glitch report- http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6651080.html
and some author commenting on it- http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/journal/2009/04/this-is-not-a-glitch-amazonfail/

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

According to a Publishers Weekly article, a spokesperson is calling it a glitch -- which doesn't make sense considering at least one writer was told that his gay novel was de-ranked because of a new Amazon adult content policy. Here's a screencap of the article (http://www.imagebam.com/image/ea9c5932532985) since the PW site has apparently crashed under the weight of thousands of pitchfork-wielding Twitterers. :-P

[tin-o-biscuits.livejournal.com]

it's apparently going on since February, too- http://craigspoplife.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-amazon-homophobic.html

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I definitely don't believe it was a computer glitch. What I CAN believe, however, is that there was a distinct person doing this, and it is possible that the rest of the company doesn't feel the same way. It's possible they were doing this without the rest of the company's knowledge, and now that it's out in the open, their ass will be fired.

It's very possible that's not accurate. There are a few other explanations I'll take as likely, too. And if Amazon doesn't reinstate the sales ratings of these books or strip some decidedly het books of their ratings (although I'd certainly prefer the first), I'll totally believe that it was the company, not a single person or a few people. I just want more information first, before I denounce them all to hell ;)

Sometimes, there is a logical explanation. One of the things I found rather sad in the BSG fandom was that there was a character that was supposed to be revealed as gay in the webisodes, and they couldn't get him because of scheduling conflicts, so they used another actor. I saw several people raise their eyebrows at that and insinuate the actor didn't want to play a gay character. But they did genuinely change the schedule, and a quick glance at IMDb shows that the guy is involved in another TV series.

I'm not saying something fishy isn't going on- not at all. And like I said, I sent my letter to Amazon too, and if this isn't changed in the next day or two I'm canceling my order from them and letting them know exactly why. But I want to see how the company reacts first.

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

I agree with you -- I'm very eager to hear a bit more from Amazon's powers that be about how this possibly could have happened. The "glitch" explanation doesn't cut it, but I could be appeased if they a) fix the tech side of things (preferably by reinstating ratings rather than nixing the het stuff -- the more I think about it, the more annoyed I am by the idea of burying content people are legitimately searching for), b) offer a believable explanation, and c) offer convincing evidence of their GLBT-friendliness as a company.

We shall see...

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Yeah- there's appeasal possible here. It just... ::sigh::

I don't get why they would try to hide adult stuff. I mean, if you don't want the kiddies to get it, don't sell it. It's that simple. I'll support any company's right to sell what they choose- that's not censorship, it's free speech. And I'll just not buy from that company if I don't like their policies. But this is just really, really dumb. I don't understand it.

I also firmly believe that it's MY responsibility to monitor what my kids do and see, so Amazon can fuck off. If I want my kids to read books about gay people and watch Dr. Horrible as I gleefully ban Barney from the house, that's my prerogative. (They haven't read books about gay people, but one of the books they both loved does have depictions of homosexual couples raising babies. I didn't realize it when I bought it, but it's a really neat book. It also has interracial couples, couples that obviously adopted, and other various not-just-mother-and-baby images.)

[werewolf-lib.livejournal.com]

Even if it was just down to a single/small group of employees, we'll wait until those employees are gone, the apology is issued and the matter is fixed before Amazon sees a cent of ours again.

[blue-crow.livejournal.com]

I looked to download Face of the Enemy for my documentary project and couldn't get it off of them. I ended up having to torrent the darn thing. I was slightly frustrated.

I don't know what to think about this Amazon thing. I know some people who are super frustrated that the first result for "homosexuality" on the search is a book about how to keep your child from being gay. Which creeps me out a little. D:

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that would creep me out, too.

The thing that bothers me about this Amazon thing is that most of the info is coming from the same source. It's like a giant game of telephone, and I can't help but wonder if there are aspects that are blown out of proportion. Is it a computer glitch? Hell, no. But is it possible it's an employee who's taken it into his or her head to decide that anything homosexual is "adult", and the rest of the company hadn't been alerted to it yet, and now that this is out in the open this person will be fired? Yes. It's also totally possible that it IS the company's policy, but I want to wait and see what happens. I try not to throw stones without all the information, and I don't really have the info yet.

[blue-crow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know what to think. I think that until I know better I may take my business elsewhere, but I don't really know at this point. I don't really love that they're labeling it a glitch where it looks like it may have been intentional, but it might also be totally legitimate. I don't know if I'm ready to do petition signing or rally joining yet. D:

[rayruz.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm really late to the party on this one. I'm not getting worked up because in a few days there's been so much outrage that everything will probably just go back to the way it was. 'Til then... I'll just be not buying from them.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's just it. I've seen other LJ scandals like this where everyone goes all nuts, and it turns out that there's some truth, but it gets blown way out of proportion. Although I think I may cancel my order and just get the BSG manga from a local bookseller anyway ;)

[kappamaki33.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you've gotten an e-mail from Amazon yet, but here's what they sent me back:

Hello,

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles - in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. 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.

Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.