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Apr. 12th, 2009
You're ready to crash
Apr. 12th, 2009 10:31 pmInteresting. Very interesting.
I don't think it excuses anyone, but it does provide explanations of a sort, if true. It also seems more plausible than, "OMG, Amazon decided to be inexplicably asshatish all of a sudden." As far as evil magacorps go, they're really not, as far as I've seen up till now. Much like the great Strikethrough, which this author compares the current amazon situation to, amazon has not handled it well at all so far. But at the same time, amazon wasn't the one targeting glbt and related material. They just had their site taken advantage of and responded poorly (again, assuming the theory above is true. It might be totally off base).
I also expect corporations to take longer to respond to these types of things than twitter and livejournal folk can, and this definitely seemed to explode over the weekend. Thus far, I really wouldn't say they've had too much time to respond. The emails people have received seem pretty stock, and I doubt whoever responded did more than look, see that yes, the material had been tagged as "adult," possibly by an automated system, if the above link can be believed, and respond in kind to whoever wrote the email. I mean, you do get what I'm saying right? As hurtful and offensive as that stock response is, and as disgusting as the message it implies is, I don't think anyone writing those emails thought, "Yes, your book is about gay people and it is disgusting." I think they checked their system to see why it wasn't rated, saw that it was tagged as adult content, and replied, "Your book is flagged as adult content. That's why." It's not a good sign. But I'm not convinced, now that I've seen a more logical explanation, that it is a sinister sign.
I kind of doubt there's been any coordinated effort at all on amazon's part thus far. This doesn't speak wonders for their PR department, but I do think it means we can maybe agree that rather than being intentionally villainous, amazon might also be trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I doubt many people there want to jump in to the defense of glbt material if they don't have the full story, but hopefully once the picture becomes clear to people - and it might take a few days, these decisions are not made by one person - they will take appropriate action.
I already wrote my nasty letter. If I don't get a positive response, you can sure as hell bet I won't be giving them my business anymore. But I do think the above argument makes sense, and until amazon the corporation, not some lackey, responds in some form, as they will be forced to do soon at this point, I'm withholding final judgment.
I don't think it excuses anyone, but it does provide explanations of a sort, if true. It also seems more plausible than, "OMG, Amazon decided to be inexplicably asshatish all of a sudden." As far as evil magacorps go, they're really not, as far as I've seen up till now. Much like the great Strikethrough, which this author compares the current amazon situation to, amazon has not handled it well at all so far. But at the same time, amazon wasn't the one targeting glbt and related material. They just had their site taken advantage of and responded poorly (again, assuming the theory above is true. It might be totally off base).
I also expect corporations to take longer to respond to these types of things than twitter and livejournal folk can, and this definitely seemed to explode over the weekend. Thus far, I really wouldn't say they've had too much time to respond. The emails people have received seem pretty stock, and I doubt whoever responded did more than look, see that yes, the material had been tagged as "adult," possibly by an automated system, if the above link can be believed, and respond in kind to whoever wrote the email. I mean, you do get what I'm saying right? As hurtful and offensive as that stock response is, and as disgusting as the message it implies is, I don't think anyone writing those emails thought, "Yes, your book is about gay people and it is disgusting." I think they checked their system to see why it wasn't rated, saw that it was tagged as adult content, and replied, "Your book is flagged as adult content. That's why." It's not a good sign. But I'm not convinced, now that I've seen a more logical explanation, that it is a sinister sign.
I kind of doubt there's been any coordinated effort at all on amazon's part thus far. This doesn't speak wonders for their PR department, but I do think it means we can maybe agree that rather than being intentionally villainous, amazon might also be trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I doubt many people there want to jump in to the defense of glbt material if they don't have the full story, but hopefully once the picture becomes clear to people - and it might take a few days, these decisions are not made by one person - they will take appropriate action.
I already wrote my nasty letter. If I don't get a positive response, you can sure as hell bet I won't be giving them my business anymore. But I do think the above argument makes sense, and until amazon the corporation, not some lackey, responds in some form, as they will be forced to do soon at this point, I'm withholding final judgment.
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