tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1847902007209931042.post4635680517828632191..comments2024-01-05T05:46:30.140-08:00Comments on Angie's Desk: Amazon UpdateAngiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11920578701763415331noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1847902007209931042.post-68743925223085238352009-04-14T22:39:00.000-07:002009-04-14T22:39:00.000-07:00Charles -- oh, absolutely. [nod] This isn't some...Charles -- oh, absolutely. [nod] This isn't something inherent in their database, or anything their computer system came up with themselves. Even if stripping the ranking data from <I>all</I> GLBT and Erotica books really <I>was</I> some sort of error, the fact is that they <I>do</I> mean to strip ranking data from at least some books. They're shooting flies with an elephant gun, because one blam with an elephant gun is faster and a lot less trouble than swatting the flies individually.<br /><br />What they <I>should</I> do, as a few people have suggested, is provide an opt-in check box for people who actually want their searches and bestseller lists stripped. Heck, they could allow each customer to choose to never see <I>any</I> metadata term they want. It'd take more programming effort, but it's definitely doable and it'd let the people (and I'm betting it's not very many, but whatever) who actually want what they see to be censored to choose to have it so, and in what way. There you go -- everyone's happy. Instead they chose to type in a couple of commands (so far as anyone can tell, and with the caveat that I haven't read blog posts yet today, or yesterday when I was travelling) and wipe out whole categories of books for <I>everyone.</I> Ridiculous.<br /><br />AngieAngiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920578701763415331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1847902007209931042.post-88455445715149219452009-04-14T11:17:00.000-07:002009-04-14T11:17:00.000-07:00So they definitely could fix it if they were of a ...So they definitely could fix it if they were of a mind too.Charles Gramlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052592247572253641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1847902007209931042.post-12285970382255390092009-04-13T14:09:00.000-07:002009-04-13T14:09:00.000-07:00Charles -- they've got some kind of mechanism to s...Charles -- they've got some kind of mechanism to strip sales rankings from books marked (however they're doing that, whether it's metadata or something else) as "adult." It has to be something like, IF METADATA CONTAINS [keyword] THEN STRIP RANK WIDGET, or whatever, whether they're doing it automatically or by hand. I'm imagining there has to be <I>some</I> automation at work here.<BR/><BR/>According to the letter Mark got from Amazon, it's the sales ranking which determines whether a book shows up on bestseller lists and in search results; since the lists order books by sales rank, if a book doesn't have that ranking the list doesn't "see" it. So apparently the most efficient way they could think of to prevent the so-called adult books from showing up in searches and lists (oh, and in the "If you liked X, you might also like Y" recommendations too) was to strip off that ranking.<BR/><BR/>I've seen a couple of people suggest that a much better way to handle this would've been to give each customer some sort of check-box so they could decide whether or not they want adult material (and why only books? you can still find dildos with no problem) displayed to them. There you go, everyone gets what they want, no more fuss. It would've probably taken a bit more programming, but Amazon's a big company and I'm sure they could've assigned a coder or two to the project. :/<BR/><BR/>Travis -- [nod] It's just insane. Amazon's cutting their own throat, if only in terms of suppressing sales, aside from all the bad publicity they're getting. You really have to wonder who thought this was a good idea.<BR/><BR/>AngieAngiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920578701763415331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1847902007209931042.post-59079164417078263502009-04-13T08:35:00.000-07:002009-04-13T08:35:00.000-07:00I've been following all of this on twitter. Crazy ...I've been following all of this on twitter. Crazy stuff.Travis Erwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09420879160702098979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1847902007209931042.post-55875705471870036492009-04-13T07:12:00.000-07:002009-04-13T07:12:00.000-07:00I guess i don't understand why a book being liste...I guess i don't understand why a book being listed as adult would result in it losing its sales rating.Charles Gramlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052592247572253641noreply@blogger.com