Amazon.com

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Imp-Chan
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Amazon.com

Post by Imp-Chan »

Apparently, they did something incredibly stupid. Many LGBTQ-sensitive books, among others, have been stripped of their sales rankings and thus do not show up normally in search results. Amazon claims this is a glitch that will be corrected. Unfortunately, Amazon's customer service has also referenced this same problem as the result of a policy regarding adult content. The result is widespread outrage.

My take is that whether this is a glitch or not, it's a good idea to give Amazon extra incentive to correct it quickly, and to revoke their adult content policy if indeed such exists (or possibly to discourage such policies at other companies in future by generating massive negative PR for the idea of such a policy now).

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Sareth
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Re: Amazon.com

Post by Sareth »

Thanks for letting us know, Impy. I have many friends in the LGBT community, so I'm a bit sensitive to these sorts of things. I'll take a look and, if I can find such a policy, spread the word.

EDIT:

I've been unable to find the policy in question. I have found policies stating nothing including depictions of graphic sex are to be sold, but if I understand it, the books being hidden away are not pornographic materials, they simply include LGBT themes. Has anyone else gotten anywhere on this?
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davester65
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Re: Amazon.com

Post by davester65 »

I just read a story in the Wall Street Journal about this. Here's a link.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123964842562214381.html
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Re: Amazon.com

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Because scary little devil girls have to stick together.
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Tiamat
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Re: Amazon.com

Post by Tiamat »

From what I've been able to cobble together, here's what happened:

On Easter weekend, somebody thought it would be a crackerjack idea to spam all the LGBT materials with complaints about adult content - the 'adult content' filter works by locking out items that reach a certain critical mass of complaints automatically. Normally, no one bothers marking this stuff, which is why you can easily find a lot of stuff like sex toys and Kama Sutras on Amazon with a simple search. But because someone felt like being an asshat, the filter triggered and the targeted materials were 'banned' from common searches.

The result is a bunch of pissed off people who think Amazon should have corrected the event immediately and are holding them responsible for an event that occurred while 99% of the fucking staff were on vacation because it was EASTER WEEKEND. Some PR representative panicked and sent out a hasty, ill-thought reply, which everyone seemed to take at face value because they were pissed and needed a scapegoat. The result? Days and days of straight bitching about how Amazon hates the LGBT community and we should all boycott it and they're horrible people and even though they're trying to fix it it's all their fault.

What pisses me off most about the whole thing is that everyone is trying to put blame on Amazon for this, and they were only following federal regulations about minors having access to sexually explicit materials by including a feature to let users report some items as 'adult.' The real culprit has incensed the whole community and not a god damned person is paying attention to them because Amazon is the juicy target.

At least, all that's what I think happened after cobbling together all the rumors and discarding the dross. No one knows for sure what's happened except Amazon, though. Honestly, I've stopped reading about it and anything to do with #amazonfail.

[Edit]Although apparently my theory was wrong, since Amazon admitted they did screw up. Well, I don't I feel embarrassed.[/Edit]
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Sareth
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Re: Amazon.com

Post by Sareth »

It was a reasonable theory, however, and you're not the only one I've seen put it forwards. Especially given some of the things that *have* happened in the past, it was quite credible, and I'm glad you were willing to present it. It shows you're not a "jump on the bandwaggon" type.

As I understand it at this point, a low level staffer at Amazon got overly cautious using their labeling system, resulting in things being tagged that shouldn't have. As you say, because it was a holiday weekend, initial reactions by Amazon were slow and ill-coordinated. Amazon has admitted to the error, and taken steps to correct it. So in my personal view, it's a done issue that can be put to rest. There will be some that will refuse to do so, but most folk, I expect, will accept that it was not intentional, nor was it done for any political or ideological purpose, and let things go back to business as usual.
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Re: Amazon.com

Post by Imp-Chan »

Honestly, I'm not sure what Amazon could do differently or better when it comes to classifying which materials are adult or not. They do have a responsibility to prevent minors from having access to adult materials. I don't particularly agree that it should be their responsibility, but my opinion there is moot. Since they do have to prevent minors having access, the simple? solution might be to only allow "adult" materials to show in search results for adult members who are logged in. Credit card verification or similar could effectively distinguish adult accounts from those belonging to minors. This does not, however, address the inherent problems of how to classify what is or is not adult material in the first place.

I have no idea what the best system for classifying adult material would be. I'm aware that my personal views on the subject are distinctly unusual, since I feel that a) it is a parent's duty to monitor their own children, b) exposure to explicit materials at whatever age a child develops an interest in them is not necessarily a bad thing to begin with, and c) children are resilient, self-absorbed little buggers and probably won't care if they accidentally see something before they're interested, anyways. My ideas of what might be adult material will no doubt differ from those of a concerned parent, which will no doubt differ from those of a former sex worker who just published their autobiography. And that, really, is the problem. There is no way to censor materials in a way that makes their entire customer base happy.

I suspect that their best bet is to use a voluntary system from the publishers, similar to what comic books used to do, except actually voluntary. Allowing the masses to decide would leave them too vulnerable, and deciding themselves puts them in an extraordinarily political position. So, here's hoping they find a decent system and implement it, and that people are willing to forgive a genuine and acknowledged mistake once it's been completely corrected.

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Sareth
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Re: Amazon.com

Post by Sareth »

Imp-Chan wrote:I'm aware that my personal views on the subject are distinctly unusual, since I feel that a) it is a parent's duty to monitor their own children, b) exposure to explicit materials at whatever age a child develops an interest in them is not necessarily a bad thing to begin with, and c) children are resilient, self-absorbed little buggers and probably won't care if they accidentally see something before they're interested, anyways. My ideas of what might be adult material will no doubt differ from those of a concerned parent, which will no doubt differ from those of a former sex worker who just published their autobiography.
Curiously, Impy, I'm the father of four daughters, the older two of which are just hitting puberty (at the same time. My cup runneth over...) and my view is actually pretty similar. I have no problem with the idea of them seeing things like Michelangelo's 'David' (OMG! I has a penis! The horror!) or Rodin's 'The Kiss' (nude lovers kissing? Vile stuff!) Or even reading the first chapters of 'Gilgamesh,' where the Temple Prostitute Shamhat lures Enkidu out of the wilderness by publically masturbating then having seven days of sex with him. Why? It's part of who we are. It's not good. It's not evil. It just is. And it's VERY powerful. I don't think they can get a healthy understanding of its benefits or dangers if the only "acceptable" presentations of it they get before they turn 18 are PG-13 movies and locker room jokes.

Does that mean I think they should get access to a 'Hustler' Magazine? No. But an autobiography about a bisexual woman learning about the joys and sorrows of life, including her sex life, is A-Okay in my book. In fact, my 12 year old got some of "the talk" yesterday and recieved it far more maturely than I expected.
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