The fuckwittery continues to snowball.

[nolawitch58]

If you haven't heard the news about the new Amazon Rank system, I'm surprised. In fact, it's so rank, it reeks. The amount of money I've spent with them is miniscule, but I'm going to tell them to fuck off as well.

Anyone likely fitting the remainder of this paragraph doesn't read me. For anyone who reads this journal who doesn't support equal rights for the homosexual community: you are on the wrong side of history. Your days of heterocentric wine and roses are numbered. Your mindless breeding is the very last thing this poor planet needs to heal itself of our burgeoning destruction of the ecosystem. The Internet is for forward-thinking, tech-savvy progressive people. Turn off your computer adn go sit in the darkness with your souls and retro thinking processes.

Those of us who can't stand your nasty, hateful Yahweh aren't all that thrilled with you for not repudiating that hate.

Comments

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

I so don't understand this. And it's not consistent, either. I just looked up "Lady Chatterly's Lover" - the paperback doesn't list a sales rank, but the hardcover and the VHS do.

(and, weren't the Amazons all lesbians or something? My head is cocked to the side in the confused dog expression. WTF?)

[polarbear1986.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm with voxwoman. I'm a bit confused. As for the second part, hell yes!!!

[razedinwinter.livejournal.com]

Hmm.....I think my camcorder is the last thing I shall buy from them until they put their head on straight....err well, you know what I mean.

What the hell are they thinking?! Banning books? Bah! So dark ages....

[happydog.livejournal.com]

It may very well be that this is a troll hack. People can vote on the objectionability (is that a word) of books, therefore making them hard to find. It could well be that some 4chan or other hacker, or maybe a bunch of born-again christian batshit crazies, built a bot that would target GLBT/survivor/etc. books by the titles or by the keywords used to describe them in reviews, etc. This would explain the inconsistency of the "rankings." Then after the bot is built you just log on to amazon and turn the bot on and let it do its work. 24 hours later, you have something that looks like Amazon has gone on a censorship binge.

Here's how it could be done: http://tehdely.livejournal.com/88823.html

I realize Amazon is a company just like everyone else. However...it doesn't make any sense for them to do this over the weekend, all of a sudden, to a demographic of their users who are absolutely bound to react to something like this (and rightly so). Amazon doesn't want to lose sales, and this would be a surefire way to do it.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

[lionsphil.livejournal.com]

Weev has claimed credit for exactly this.

[lionsphil.livejournal.com]

Gah, sorry, that's already listed as an update in your link. I fail at not being Internet echo-box.

[saminz.livejournal.com]

I have heard, only am a bit too shocked/disgusted to react so far.

What else will I use to get books from the US? Any suggestions...?

[slamlander.livejournal.com]

barnes and noble
and one other whom I forget. There are three major bookseller chains.

[saminz.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Will give that one a try :-).

[drderanged.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing it out. Somehow I missed this and I go to Amazon a lot. (Or I did a year ago when I had the money to spend.)

[slamlander.livejournal.com]

I'd completely missed this. Thanks for pointing it out.
There are a lot of authors that will quit using them too, if it's confirmed. Ranking method don't even work for forums like these, applying them to booksellers simply invites spiteful censorship.

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

Someone else wrote in to Amazon and got a response - it seems to be a fuckup on their part, that they are rectifying immediately
Here's the post:
http://archangelbeth.livejournal.com/1006233.html

[nolawitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got that same response. I think that whatever the reason, they're responding appropriately to mitigate the situation.