Update: Amazon pleads stupidity
Okay, so we know it was stupidity any way you cut it, but they are claiming unintended stupidity:
Amazon's official story:
This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.
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.
The unofficial "we didn't want anyone to see just how stupid we were" story as per http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/journal/2009/04/idosyncratic-code-amazonfail/
From: Mike Daisey *email redacted*
Date: April 13, 2009 2:00:34 PM EDT
To: Anthony Hecht anthony @thestranger.com
Subject: Re: In case it gets lost in the comments…
Well, this is the real story: a guy from Amazon France got confused on how he was editing the site, and mixed up “adult”, which is the term they use for porn, with stuff like “erotic” and “sexuality”. That browse node editor is universal, so by doing that there he affected ALL of Amazon. The CS rep thought the porn question as a standard porn question about how searches work.
The livejournaler is full of shit.
md
On Apr 13, 2009, at 1:41 PM, Anthony Hecht wrote:
> Ah, very interesting.. I would actually love to know a little more detail if you have it.. would be great to get the real story out there on Slog, especially as this livejournaler’s claim that he “bantown”‘d it for kicks is making the rounds:
> http://community.livejournal.com/brutal_honesty/3168992.html
>
> a.
(from email)
Actually, I buy this. "Never attribute to malice that which can be as easily explained by idiocy."
Amazon's official story:
This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.
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.
The unofficial "we didn't want anyone to see just how stupid we were" story as per http://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/journal/2009/04/idosyncratic-code-amazonfail/
From: Mike Daisey *email redacted*
Date: April 13, 2009 2:00:34 PM EDT
To: Anthony Hecht anthony @thestranger.com
Subject: Re: In case it gets lost in the comments…
Well, this is the real story: a guy from Amazon France got confused on how he was editing the site, and mixed up “adult”, which is the term they use for porn, with stuff like “erotic” and “sexuality”. That browse node editor is universal, so by doing that there he affected ALL of Amazon. The CS rep thought the porn question as a standard porn question about how searches work.
The livejournaler is full of shit.
md
On Apr 13, 2009, at 1:41 PM, Anthony Hecht wrote:
> Ah, very interesting.. I would actually love to know a little more detail if you have it.. would be great to get the real story out there on Slog, especially as this livejournaler’s claim that he “bantown”‘d it for kicks is making the rounds:
> http://community.livejournal.com/brutal_honesty/3168992.html
>
> a.
(from email)
Actually, I buy this. "Never attribute to malice that which can be as easily explained by idiocy."