So you don’t have a better idea than the existing system, nor do Amazon, nor do I, when it comes to the issues you are so concerned about. In that case, why not just take your business elsewhere and forget about Amazon as countless others have done before and will do so in future? [...]Oh cunning PD Harris! He just keeps coming up with new stuff...
Competely OFF TOPIC: curious article about Bergman, check it out.
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Mr. Harris seems to feel that unless one of us is capable of being the next Virgil Griffith and devising a method to clean up Amazon we should just shut up and go away.
First of all, Virgil Griffith, the Cal Tech grad student who came up with WikiScanner, was dealing with a site that wanted honesty and accuracy. Who's to say Amazon wants anything of the sort? Clearly the culture of shills, frauds, and liars of all sorts, suits Amazon just fine.
And at Wikipedia the identities of the people who were making deceptive changes were unknown, at least until the advent of the WikiScanner. Whereas at Amazon everyone knows exactly who's gaming the system. It's Amazon's reluctance to make necessary adjustments that's the problem, not a lack of "creative solutions".
We've already generated a whole host of ideas, first and foremost among them, eliminating the rankings. But I'm sure that idea would not appeal to PD Harris aka Number 17 among "Top Reviewers".
Were he speaking of politics, the Archie Bunker dimension of PD Harris' remarks would immediately be embarrassingly evident. He's saying nothing more, after all, than if you don't like the way things are being run, even though you're not in charge, leave the country. Anything is better, apparently, than blaming Amazon for its tyranny of neglect or endangering his own currently comfortable reviewer ranking.
FYI, I don't know about PD Harris, but Robert Morris, Grady Harp, and C.MCCALLISTER have all signed on as Amazon VINE (TM) participants. Each I suspect is about to experience nothing new, but instead just the burden of a classic "embarras de richesse."
gag Grady Harp a Vine!! Ugh :(
Why not? He seems like an ideal candidate for that thing... In fact, I still don't know how it's different from the current system. Except for being formal (hommage to W.Bouville :-) ; real connoisseurs will understand).
Stanely, about PDH, yes, that's a good parallel. I suppose if PD Harris happened onto a robbery in progerss he'd say, well, there's nothing I can do, so I just go home.
Speaking of the vine program, I've found some of the comments on the discussion boards concerning the new endeavor to be quite interesting. The member who calls him or herself "prisrob" says he/she should receive an invitation because "I kept Amazon afloat for the past five years", Marc Ruby, an HK advocate, wants to take part he says, "for the free goodies". Our well known Grady defender C.MCCALLISTER says to Russell Dicker, "I would appreciate an invite" and then goes on to say that he's deserving of one because he currently receives ARC's and this status conferred on him would allow him, as well as the others, to post reviews before the products are in general release.
All of this groveling was in response to the announcement of the vine voices by Amazon employee Russell Dicker. Mr. Dicker said the program was launched August 15th and "helps our vendors generate awareness for new and pre-released products". And he says that like always, the reviews would be posted as is "beyond small tweaks". Hmm, like changing one star to five? Somehow I just don't trust Amazon. It's entertaining to watch the shills begging for invitations, some of the "top reviewers" clearly had their noses out of joint because they weren't in the first wave of invitations.
I had seen those comments too. Groveling indeed. Interestingly enough, a couple of reviewers I follow as they read the same genres as I do have both received the vine voice designation. They are in the top 2000 or so ranking, so it's not just the sainted top reviewers who are getting the invites.
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