Like you haven't heard about Amazon sucking yet...

[beckaandzac]

But if you haven't, this is probably a good place to start reading. Short version: removing the sales ranking for E.M. Forster's Maurice, along with a ton of other LGBT-themed books is not actually protecting your users from "adult" content. It just makes the fact that Forster felt his novel about men in love (which is about as far from sexually

Comments

[pigeonrat]

That is pretty awful. I am willing to bet that the eventual official response will be "We have an automated system that was only intended to remove especially explicit stuff like 'The Joy of Fisting' [or whatever that book is called] [yes I am referring to a specific book] but there was a glitch where a bunch of innocuous GLBT stuff got flagged and now we're reversing that." I do not know if I'll believe that explanation, but eh, it'll be enough to get me not to boycott Amazon because I like Amazon. I'd be amazed if non-erotica novels with gay themes weren't included in the search ranks again.

[flaxeloquent]

I would be more inclined to believe that official response if Amazon had come up with it right away. If it takes them a week of hemming and hawing, then it's a fabrication, I say!

[beckaandzac]

I expect that they'll clear it up and hopefully make a big deal of not being asshats (or letting asshats "glitch" their site) again. But I don't think it makes sense to remove a market indicator that publishers use to look at trends in sales from things that are (even if they're gross) books that Amazon sells. I mean, I'm sure there's some way to set up a child-friendly search that doesn't involve stripping that kind of metadata from the listings altogether.

Also, why do you know about this fisting book?

[pigeonrat]

Yeah, I agree it doesn't make sense to do it at all, whether you limit it to hardcore stuff or not.

And I know about the fisting book because it gets posted on the Internet a lot in a "can you believe this book exists" context. I think the cover is really New Age-y.

[edminster]

Finally, someone else who isn't leaving! I do like the concept of mirroring over at Dreamwidth, but I have a Permanent account so am not very likely to leave.

I can understand the furor over the entire Amazon thing, but quite frankly I wouldn't be affected at all if they removed all sales rankings for everything. Heck, I make it a point not to read books that are ranked highly in terms of popularity; my taste in books rarely agrees with the Public.

[beckaandzac]

Exactly! I may not agree with everything LJ (the business) does, but communities are tricksy enough in one place without trying to reestablish them elsewhere.

[pigeonrat]

P.S. Have you seen this trailer for Rupert Grint's new movie? It seems to be about teenagers hitting each other, and fucking each other, and going swimming.

[letmypidgeonsgo]

what is this dreamwidth thing?

[laisserais]

thanks for the heads up. this is popping up all over the flist. i'm kind of. i'm kind of stunned at the sheer stupidity of it all. i mean. amazon? really though?

[beckaandzac]

It's BIZARRE. I can't figure out what they thought they thought they were doing (assuming they thought at all).