Sunday, August 5, 2007

Klausner undeterred (August 2007)

August 2007 is barely five-days old and already Hurried Klausner posted thirty-six (36!) book reviews. Eighteen of those posted today. You go, girl!

(I hope L.E.Cantrell will do the counting and post more Quality Comments soon.)

13 comments:

Cathy said...

And posting some very smutty reviews I might add.

Barbara Delaney said...

I can't bring myself to read her reviews anymore. In a nutshell it all comes down to the fact that Harriet Klausner is a liar and Grady Harp is a cheat. And I'm well aware that they are not the only two reviewers at Amazon who match those descriptions. But the so-called "Top Reviewers" have been given a type of special standing by Amazon and therefore they are responsible for the fact that so many of those people are dishonest.

I'm tired of the ridiculous crap written by their defenders. Their comments have more than a touch of the histrionic and if they want to acquiesce in her delusion there is nothing more to be said.

I'm not spending money at Amazon and encouraging other people to take their business elsewhere.

Stanley H Nemeth said...

Barbara:
You are absolutely right on all counts. I, too ,have decided not to spend any more money at Amazon until such time as its corporate aiding and abetting of patent fraud ceases. Let's hope others choose on their own to follow suit. Viva La Huelga!

Malleus said...

Hello, everyone.

What's la huelga, Stanley?

PS. I notice the Harp brigade now stretches his votes over a week -- is that true or I'm dreaming?

'Harriet' is posting far fewer reviews now too (?) That's probably just so that L.E. Cantrell can count them in the last month and victorious declare that it's like only six a day or something like that.

Our friend W.Boudville seems to have moved to general-interest and medical (!) books. That's good. Get off of the science/technical/computer books, W.Boudville ! Stick to what you know best -- brain surgery.

Gunny is all but dead.

Even Robert Morris skipped a few days...

I wonder if they (The Evildoers(TM)) simply created more sock-puppet accounts and now flood the place with their spam under different names.

Stanley H Nemeth said...

Malleus: The exhortation "Viva La Huelga!" I lift from the old Cesar Chavez battle against inequities in agribusiness from years past. In support of it, many people stopped buying California table grapes. It means something like "Long live THE STRIKE!"

By the way, Harp's voters do seem to be voting as squadrons over a week or so rather than as full battalions in a single day or two. Machts nichts! The marginal items he's picked out to review since his "Zodiac" fiasco, if the votes were given by honest, product-interested readers, would not total within a year or even all the years of the review's posting what his continue to draw, now within a week or so. To anyone with a memory, fraud slowed down is fraud nonetheless.

Barbara Delaney said...

I remembered the slogan from the December 12 2003 action day. I think it's become an all purpose strike slogan. I'm so disgusted by Amazon's complicity with this nonsense. Do you remember an author who said Amazon had requested that she comment on the HK business? I asked her in an email how that had come about. She said she had written to Amazon about one of HK's reviews with a lot of non book related comments on it. She said that Amazon responded to her and said that they were bothered by the comments also but there was nothing they could do. Then they asked her to leave pro-Harriet comments.

Clearly Amazon has a stake in this large-scale deception. I don't want to spend money at the internet site of an ethically challenged company. Harriet's lies and deceptions are just a part of an overall pattern of deceit that operates with Amazon's full knowledge and approval. Jeff Bezos can go to Mars and I hope the Red Planet dispenses some justice.

Malleus said...

Of course: this helps sell books. Well, actually, not quite: already for a month or two I've been buying somewhere else -- and so far have no reason to complain: prices are just as good (or better), shipping good, books good, book previews I now get on Google books, so all is good.

As far as Bezos's space travel, it's time for Jeff Bezos to come back to earth! He needs to fix this review-fraud monstre that he's created. (Just kidding; I'm sure he knows what's what in his kingdom.)

Barbara Delaney said...

Where are Grady's lapdogs? Shouldn't JP be weighing in with one of his gushing compliments about now?

And Dr. Boudville has some medical advice for JP: Stop picking at it!

Stephanie said...

Malleus,

What site are you using to purchase books from? Do they sell DVD's as well?

Thanks!

Malleus said...

Any of the following book-search sites:
http://www.campusi.com/
http://www.bookfinder.com
http://www.fetchbook.info/

These don't sell themselves, but they check a bunch of stores (including Amazon, actually) and give you the list of availabilities along with the prices. Errors are rare. Overall I find these very convenient. For very many books you can get a preview on Google Books (http://books.google.com/bkshp?tab=wp). Actually, there's more there than just the preview, check it out.

About CDs: not much lately, can't say anything -- though I remember using
http://www.cduniverse.com/
and

http://cdbaby.com/ (the last one is more like an independent publisher than a store, but they sell stuff that they make though).

Stanley H Nemeth said...

Harp may have made the same tactical error in posting a late review of the popular "Disturbia" that he did in his decision to review "Zodiac." When he reviews rarities, the negative votes and comments are usually few. When he chimes in, though, with usually largely derivative, not particularly insightful comments on an already much reviewed work (51 reviews for "Disturbia" before his own), there are always enough spotlight reviews of distinction (normally, with relatively few votes) to show to any fair minded observer that Harp's cronies (aka "loyalty voters) are openly gaming the system. As a consequence, comments such as "Just Me's" wholly just incredulity at these proceedings appear, and the number of negative votes Harp receives rises to as much as a third of his total. Though this might not currently interfere with his race to the top, it's certain to alert increasingly larger numbers of Amazon readers, reviewers and commentators that a pretty crude fraud is being perpetrated for ends that defy human understanding.

Barbara Delaney said...

Stephanie,
I've been buying books from Powell's. They sell DVD's as well as books and they have a great foreign film selection.

Why give money to a place that encourages Harriet Klausner's fraudulent behavior?

Stephanie said...

Thanks Malleus and Barbara. I feel the same way about Amazon. They allow too much crap. Why support it?

I'll bet Grady is happy now that the comments have slowed WAY down.