With the inconsistencies that are starting to show up in all of this, more than one of my friends has noted that there's a strong possibility that this was, in fact, #algorithmfail.
I'm willing to be proven wrong on this point. I hope I am, in all honesty. But even if this was a case of "bad coder, no biscuit," it's going to be a while before the company recovers from this particular PR nightmare.
See, I kind of disagree on that point, that it's a PR nightmare that they won't recover from for awhile.
What I'm hoping is that people would actually do some research into this stuff, rather than just automatically jumping to the conclusion that "OMG AMAZON HATEZ TEH GAYZ!"
According to my roomie, there's an active and large GLBT group at Amazon. They're known locally for being a good place for GLBT folks to work.
I think this is bigger than OMGTEHGHEY, though. If the algorithm had marginalized any clear-cut subset of humanity - if I had logged on to the website and been suddenly unable to find anything written by a white male - there still would have been hell to pay.
That's how it's being presented, though. That pic you used on your LJ? amazon with the big rainbow arrow swooshie thing?
I think what it is is that there was an automated search clearing down (possibly based on a list received from a publisher, or publishers) that happened within the past few days. And it removed items with the tag of whatever (Adult, or erotica, or whatever the signifier was), and removed their rankings. as has likely been their policy to do for awhile.
And honestly, the idea that there is some amorphous "they" doing something like "removing things 'they' find salacious" is ridiculous.
Comments 13
I'm willing to be proven wrong on this point. I hope I am, in all honesty. But even if this was a case of "bad coder, no biscuit," it's going to be a while before the company recovers from this particular PR nightmare.
Reply
What I'm hoping is that people would actually do some research into this stuff, rather than just automatically jumping to the conclusion that "OMG AMAZON HATEZ TEH GAYZ!"
According to my roomie, there's an active and large GLBT group at Amazon. They're known locally for being a good place for GLBT folks to work.
Reply
Reply
I think what it is is that there was an automated search clearing down (possibly based on a list received from a publisher, or publishers) that happened within the past few days. And it removed items with the tag of whatever (Adult, or erotica, or whatever the signifier was), and removed their rankings. as has likely been their policy to do for awhile.
And honestly, the idea that there is some amorphous "they" doing something like "removing things 'they' find salacious" is ridiculous.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
I'd love to chat with you about it, darling.
Reply
Okay. I'm going to take some more Vicodin and ignore whatever I've missed. :)
Reply
I just saw your post in geek_cooks, and realized how much I miss you.
Reply
I did.
D'oh!
Ok, adding you back :)
Reply
Leave a comment