Monday, September 10, 2007

Quality Comments (TM)

Bradley Stewart, author of Kayak Reef, writes:
Brad Stewart
This review leaves you drooling for more of A Perfect Grave.

Very insightful discription.

Bradley Stewart, author of Kayak Reef.
!!! ;-)
Oops, that wasn't all. Check out Bradley's own book Kayak Reef (Eye of the Arctic). Notice the reviews -- except for one sharp-eyed passerby, they're all by single-review reviewers (I'm sorry, those look like sock-puppet accounts to me), plus a review by poster "Brad Stewart "zire" (zire)", purportedly the author's son. There must be a cabal of wannabe writers who first, self-review, and second, join the ranks of the Quality CommentsTM posters. The book's been published by something called Searchlight Publishing an outfit with a rather cheesey and disfunctional website, probably (ahem) not one of the major publishing houses.

9 comments:

Barbara Delaney said...

I am currently seeing no comments on any reviews at Amazon. Is anyone else experiencing this also?

Barbara Delaney said...

It appears the entire Amazon site has been cleansed. I checked several reviewers including some who have had nothing to do with any controversy. I either get the "We're sorry, we cannot access this at this time" or "There are currently no comments on this review".

Stanley H Nemeth said...

4:50 Pacific time-
Barbara, I'm not experiencing this phenomenon. Could your experience have been some sort of temporary glitch?

Barbara Delaney said...

Unfortunately it did turn out to be a temporary glitch. I had been receiving the message about no comments on those reviews for several hours before I posted. During that time I thought about what effect such a wholesale removal of comments would have had and I came to the conclusion that overall it would probably be a positive development.

Malleus said...

Looks good on my end, comments are there...

Why would removing comments be a positive development?

Stanley H Nemeth said...

How about this for a most needed positive development: the removal of repetitive votes by Amazon friends for every blasted review a top reviewer happens to post? Although one of the trolls continually assures us this is Amazon's policy, I've never seen any evidence of it.

Malleus said...

Neither have I. Btw, what they need to get rid of is the reviewer hierarchy (sorry, KrossD, I just had to use this word ;-) ). Then votes will be harmless, legitimate or not.

Stanley H Nemeth said...

But if Amazon got rid of its overtly peculiar reviewer hierarchy, the company would rob Harriet, Grady, et al. in one fell swoop of their only chances for fame and power.
What a heartless action that would be! In our time, after all, not hurting a person's feelings or self-esteem surely trumps any old-fashioned concerns for integrity, truth, or justice.

Malleus said...

Duly chastened. Proposition withdrawn.