Posted on 08/14/2014 6:01:35 PM PDT by truthfinder9
Hmm, what's this? We noticed that overnight eight 5-star reviews for Stephen Meyer's book Darwin's Doubt were mysteriously erased. Just vanished. Since these were positive reviews, it is unlikely they were "abusive" which is the normal criterion that Amazon has for removing reviews. Interesting.
These kinds of shenanigans always seem to happen when our critics are feeling maximally pressed because they can't answer our arguments on the merits. They thus see the need to resort to schemes and tricks. It's an admission of intellectual defeat.
We've also heard claims about people trying to reshelf Meyer's book in the religion section at the bookstore or get it officially reclassified as a Christian title instead science, and so on. University of Chicago biologist and evolution defender Jerry Coyne applauds such efforts. Anything to avoid a real debate.
No words could be more appropriate than those of Coyne's University of Chicago colleague, mathematician Leo Kadanoff, in thanking William Dembski for his presentation there yesterday:
"I think the ball is in the court of people who believe in evolution. They have to deal with these questions. ...Bill [Dembski] has made his case and we should all go home and think."
So...that was yesterday, and hours later someone is trying to sweep the positive reviews off the Amazon page for Darwin's Doubt. No doubt a coincidence.
Dr. Kadanoff, whose own views on intelligent design we don't know, thinks Darwinists should man up and address the evidence for ID rather than dodging, as per their usual custom. That would be most welcome.
Amazon generally makes me happy.
Needed a usb cable for my camera.
Researched it online, Walmart said they had it cheap, Staples said they had it cheap.
Drove around and got the jerk around for 2 hours.
Ordered it on Amazon for 59C and $4.99 shipping
Showed up in the mailbox 3 days later, works like a hose.
Reviews are also removed when they are reported as being written, provably, from the same IP address (if it looks like someone is logging in with fake accounts and writing fake positive or fake negative reviews) or from family members or others who may stand to benefit from the book (either by eliminating it from competition by writing negative reviews, or by boosting sales by writing shill reviews). It’s actually common for books ( I am not referring specifically to this one) to receive fake positive ratings (often purchased on Fivrr) as a part of a marketing plan so there is a chance that Amazon removed reviews believing (correctly or not) that they were incentivized reviews in some way. It is sometimes possible to contest review removals and get the reviews re-instated. We’ll see. I am not aware of review removal based soley on controversial content - not saying it doesn’t happen but am saying that review removals I’ve seen have always been due to claims of financial interest, multiple sock accounts, family members, or author rivals trashing each others books with fake negatives.
Seems rather common with book reviews, but in general Amazon runs a very tight ship.
Wish all e marketers were as much of a pleasure to use.
I’m a big fan of Amazon. They are battling to run that tight ship. One author had something like 200 fake 5 star reviews removed over night, leaving 2 poor reviews by their lonely selves. The technical challenge/sheer volume of the problem overwhelms Amazon and the company has to rely on support from readers reporting suspicious reviews and the ability of Amazon to detect it. THey are always improving their technology to address this but the scammers are evolving too.
Indeed, the reviews for sugar free gummy bears were right up there with classic FR threads.
Are you aware that the Amazon-Hachette disagreement is because Hachette wants charge customers a lot more for Kindle books, and Amazon wants to sell them cheaper?
Are you aware that during this disagreement, Amazon wanted to reimburse Hachette authors 100% for any royalties lost, and Hachette turned them down?
Are you aware that Amazon pays 70% royalties on all books over $2.99, and Hachette only pays 25%?
A recent online petition supporting Hachette was signed by a little over 900 authors.
The online petition supporting Amazon was signed by over 7500 authors.
I saw that also.
Dead on.
Written by Steven Meyer, the dude that says God is most probably dead.
Some of the review threads are epic!
The only one I've heard of there is Matt Bracken… and he was the one I heard about it from [link to his announcement].
Indeed, but I was unaware of any dispute.
Superfluous hubris and unnecessary defensiveness makes people question whether the scientists are committed to science or the culture war.
It seems the latter.
I don’t see any geologists getting all worked up over the hollow Earth theory.
I know all about it, and yes I know who signed what and I know Amazon does not care about authors, period....only the bottom line for them.
Amazon deletes fake reviews when they find them.
The owner of the book got busted.
but that is just one theory
You must be one of those ‘entitlement people’ always wanting something for free or almost free...because authors spend months or years writing a quality book, and there are costs beyond just publishing or e book publishing, it takes hundreds of hours to proof read and edit a book.
Of course, Amazon and some of the others don’t even believe in copyrights, because they can’t make as much money as fast as they want to donate to their liberal candidates, the greedy, blood sucking pariahs.
AS for Amazon’s author petition....roflmto. Yes, you got your Kindle/Amazon e mail with all it’s explanations and promises that were crap...just crap. You may be an employee of Amazon, and you get free books on your Kindle at the expense of someone who spent a long time trying to give you quality.
Oh you can buy all the sleaze you want at $1.99 or 99 cents, so you think authors should write for free or almost...yeah right, go on with your entitlement to other peoples property for nothing. Food stamps anyone?
Is there some type of scientific measure for superfluous hubris and unnecessary defensiveness you’re referencing?
It’s the new world we live in.
I have people (not even biting) who want you to have a BEE and want to pay $10 the hour.
Quite insane.
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