Amazon.com released a statement late Monday responding to the Internet imbroglio that arose over the weekend, when author Mark R. Probst noticed that sales rankings for several gay- and lesbian-themed books had disappeared from the popular online bookseller’s site:
"This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a companythat prides itself on offering complete selection. It has beenmisreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themedtitles — in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broadcategories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & SexualMedicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in theUnited States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but alsohad the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing theremainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement newmeasures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in thefuture."
In you face Amazon.com
very embarassing…
http://watchcelebrity.com/
“accident”??? Someone at Amazon was obviously trying to censure their selection. I hope that person is found and outed.
“accident”??? Someone at Amazon was obviously trying to censure their selection. I hope that person is found and outed.
“accident”??? Someone at Amazon was obviously trying to censure their selection. I hope that person is found and outed.
Calm down, you guys! It was a technical error, not a personal attack on gay people! GEEZ!
I love how they first called it a “GLITCH” in their system. Oh yeah, Amazon…what kind of glitch specifically targets only gay-themed books? That was NO glitch. That was one employee trying to put his or her beliefs front and center. And for that, I hope that employee is fired. Yup, fire the real “glitch” Amazon!
http://movies-tv-entertainment.blogspot.com/
Excuse me????
Does Amazon really believe that we’ll buy that explanation???
Even when I read an original article on this case, it was mentioned that there were other genre’s effected…but they all have common factors, ‘faith’ and ‘sex’.
I agree with MurMaz, someone at Amazon was trying to implement censorship. How else could all of the 50+ thousand books disappear from the rankings AND the Catalogue on the same day, at the same time.
Call a spade a spade, Amazon!!! This was sabotage, not accident.
Why do none of Amazon’s public statements address the customer service rep’s statement to Probst about so-called “adult” content being removed? And why are so many people posting ads for various websites here? Go away, trolls.
“Embarrassing” is right.
“Someone at Amazon was obviously trying to censure their selection. I hope that person is found and outed.”
Amen!
And seriously, what’s with all the spam posts?
Serious, what is UP with all these people posting ads for websites in the comments?
Honestly, those of us who actually have the slightest clue about retail systems, and who don’t need to politicize everything or whine just to get attention know exactly how something like this could happen. Actually, I can think of several ways.
One time, at a small chain of bookstores I used to work at, we had several dozen books suddenly disappear from our database. Scanning them brought up an error. It turns out that a glitch in an update process caused the entire chain’s computer system to revert to a previous setting in which several sub-categories had not yet existed. This completely erased the books from the database. Low system memory, programming bugs, and bad data backup are a few more of many ways this could happen.
To automatically assume it was intentional is very ignorant. But that has never before stopped people who have some sort of political agenda. After all, if you actually do even a little bit of research, you’ll note that it wasn’t just ‘gay’ books that got erased. But again, I’ve never known truth to be of much use to anyone who would raise this issue anyway.
Those darn catalogers.
(What’s my job? Cataloger. But not at Amazon.)
Oh you gay people just shut up! It was an error that has been fixed. You people are a bunch of sniveling crybabies, no wonder people don’t like you.
My dearest Angela, suck it. If this had involved books about religion it would have gotten nonstop coverage for a week. The reason people don’t like us is because they think a giant man who lives in the sky told them not to.