Amazonfail: Is Amazon The Victim Of Conservative Cyber-Vandals?

The Examiner ^ | 4/13/09

[steve-b]

After the disasterous weekend, with the internet abuzz over a new policy to remove sales rankings from books deemed "adult," a new theory is developing that Seattle-based Amazon was the victim of conservative cyber-vandals. It was discovered that Amazon has been removing the sales rank from certain books (which identifies how popular the book is in total sales), effectively removing the book from most of the general searches people would do. If it doesn't show up in the search, most people won't find the book, and won't buy it.

Most of the books identified as "adult" and removed from the search were books about homosexuality, including the classic children's book "Heather has Two Mommies". Bloggers across the internet have been getting upset over what appears to be homophobia on the part of Amazon....

Now a new theory is starting to circulate, that in fact, there was a glitch in the system, and that glitch was abused by people wanting to hurt Amazon. Here is the theory:

On each book is a feature allowing customers to tag a book with words to help people search. Someone might tag a book about Britney Spears with the words "popstar" or "meltdown", words potentially related to the book. If a book was tagged "adult" enough times, it is possible that Amazon had a system in place to remove the sales rank and remove it from the search engine, perhaps until a live person could double check it. This would fit with the statement from a customer service representative over the weekend that this was a new policy about "adult" content.

Now, a group of people makes a concerted effort to tag books they don't like with the "adult" tag, knowing the automated system will remove them from the search....

[Psycho_Bunny]

uh....Ya.....an Internet conspiracy large enough to change rankings on Amazon is still going to be small enough to hide from the rest of the Internet.

Frickin morons.

[rom]

The only thing less likely than a government conspiracy is an internet one.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

So, leftists upset; leftists blame conservative conspiracy. This is news?

[KarlInOhio]

including the classic children's book "Heather has Two Mommies".

Classic? What's the next classic? "Daddy has a friend tied up in the basement: A child's intro to S&M relationships"?

[a fool in paradise]

Notice how “googlebombing” was never considered a conspiracy. It was a “prank”. Same with the liberal “prank” of branding Michele Malkin’s youtube posts “adult only”.

And DUping, DUmping, and ISLAMming online polls isn’t wrong but “FReeping” is (and called out as such in print).

And bumping up/down the rankings of photos and articles on Yahoo News (on the basis of liberal talking points...)

[dforest]

Poor Amazon. Those evil conservatives a ruining the bestseller status of “Heather Has Two Mommies”.

/s

[Alas Babylon!]

Generally speaking, I find when the Left accuses the Right of something, they’re either getting ready to do that thing themselves, or have already started to do so.

Get ready for books by Coulter, Levin, Steyn, etc, to start getting labeled as “adult”.

[cynwoody]

If Amazon wants to bowdlerize their information system, they deserve whatever they get. To hell with ‘em!

[wbill]

Nah, you're both thinking of the classic "Mommy Softens When Heated". It's the story of a young boy, his dad, his Dad's blowup doll, and the hijinks that ensue when she decides to stay in the car a little too long one warm summer day.

Coming soon to an elementary school near you.....

Unfortunately.

[DoughtyOne]

What would be wrong if people were trying to get some books recognized for what they are, something kids should not be exposed to?

I wouldn’t want some frank books on the subject of heterosexual relationships to be the subject of children’s reading materials. Why would I want certain frank books on the subject of homosexual relationships to be the subject of children’s reading materials?

We are told that the homosexual community doesn’t want to target children. Then books like “Heather Has Two Mommies” comes out, and people get upset that children may not be exposed to these books.

The goal is clear. The agenda is driven. The adults in the room need to take charge, and put an end to this craven effort to subject children to inappropriate materials.

I don’t have a problem with any topic being being presented to adults. I do have a very serious problem with some materials being presented to children.

And when people start throwing around the term “homophobia” when on the topic of what children should and shouldn’t be exposed to, there is obviously a problem.

[LS]

If you find a way to change my amazon ratings up, please let me know.

[tonyinv]

Some animals are more equal than others.

[Skid Marx]

CAUTION: not suitable for children or adults.

[chris_bdba]

ROFLOL! Apparently they think that we all sit around all weekend on our computers like they do dreaming up things to do? Not so, most of us actually have a life and honest to goodness things that need to be done.