Thursday, October 25, 2007
Where Have All The Comments Gone?
Amazon has an unintentionally amusing new policy for safeguarding its sales or certain of its top reviewers' feelings. It now "hides" many of the comments below reviews if they haven't received lemming-like endorsements from such cabals as the Notorious Grady Harp Voting Machine. In Amazon's words, "Customers don't think this post adds to the discussion." Usually, this awkward censorship in the Comments section is immediately undermined by the following concession," Show post anyway." Amazon here reminds me of the editors of my high school Latin textbooks. They routinely censored Ovid and Plautus, but feeling guilty, included the excised "dirty" sections in the backs of the books. Enterprising students, of course, turned to those "hidden" passages first. It might be wise now to follow the same practice when reading Amazon's Comments sections. For examples of the seller's new practice, see the instances at the foot of several of Grady Harp's newest reviews.
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12 comments:
Stanley, I have seen this before in the book comment sections. If enough people say a comment is not helpful, it's hidden unless you choose to view it. I lurk in a couple of book comment forums in genres that I read and I think I've only seen it happen once or twice, as so many people have to vote not helpful, which is rare in that forum for anyone to vote at all.
However, I can see TNGHVM swing into action and snuff out the comments they don't like.
Cathy:
Thanks for the information. I hadn't seen this "hiding" practice before. What I find particularly amusing is Amazon's slow realization that open free expression might in fact be bad for business, and that as a consequence it should rethink the format of its Comments sections, finding new ways to push such an infamous group as the TNGHVM into even greater prominence.
Oh, it's OK, as long as you can click on something and see it. Better than 'Deleted by Amazon'. I say it's an improvement.
'course, 'customers think' are weasel words: which customers? Why should customers be censoring anything to begin with? But hey... at least now all this 'unhelpful' stuff is one click away.
Malleus:
I hope you'll prove to be right. I notice for starters, though, that one of the Ghost's comments below Harp's review of "Products for a Happy Life" doesn't have a "show anyway" option for the general public, and this despite its having received 4 helpful out of 5 votes. How can one read it? What's going on here?
Furthermore, the granting of censorship privileges to some arbitrary number of disapproving customers, which you justly deplore, does not guarantee that Amazon has withdrawn from such high-handed, often baffling practices of its own. "Deleted By Amazon" may in fact just be joined now by this newer form of censorship, and, if so, I'm sure you'd agree that would hardly be an improvement. Let's hope this forecast turns out to be wrong!
Yeah, I hear you. We'll see. The message you referred to is not an Amazon message, I think. I think the poster is being sarcastic about it and posted this new beaut from Amz itself as a post. Just a guess, of course. Btw, based on the overall picture there, I think that more and more people are wising up to this reviews scam. If so, it's a pleasant development.
Malleus:
Re your final point:
"'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."
Or as the kids of today would put it, "Freakin' tight!"
One hopes :-) .
From looking at the latest comments on GH's reviews, I would say that the TNGHVM is in full swing on voting on comments. Don't they have anything better to do, like read a book? That's where I'm headed!
Cathy:
What's also interesting is that the fan club of Harpies, given the power to partially "disappear" negative postings, is now appearing in far, far greater numbers than ever before in the Comments sections. Usually, obviously inflated numbers were confined just to "yes" votes for the reviews. I suspect Harp must now be calling his batallions to defend him in both places. Whether or not this suggests insecurity on his part, it surely is evidence that his votes, even from "friends," are summoned rather than spontaneous, and thus equally fraudulent in both places.
Btw, I'm also off to read a book, and I'm happy to hear you are as well.
Another Turn Of The Comic Screw:
If you are signed in to Amazon and look up an entry of your own in a Comments section, even if a cabal such as the NGHVM has voted against its helpfulness in record numbers, it will still appear in all its glory. If, however, you visit the entry as just an unidentified, browsing customer, you will find the entry partially "disappeared" and be informed that "Customers did not find the comment helpful to the discussion." Such obsequiousness, now by Amazon, is worthy of a JP Picks or Linda Bulger. Clearly, I had underestimated Amazon's talents.
Well, this does make some sense: I mean, why obscure your own posts? Provided this pudibond covering of the 'unhelpful-by-customers' posts is done instead of 'deleted-by-amazon', I'm all for it. The do have a bunch of bugs there though; hopefully they're gonna be fixed sometime. Like for example, when you post something it tosses you to the first page of comments. Sometimes, at least... also, the 'show' button doesn't work in Opera (nothing shows). Yet Opera is supposed to be a very conforming browser... Does work in Firefox though. Also, the 'show all' button works on for a page. If you go to another comment page, the 'unhelpful' post are still hidden.
It's amazing how many typos I make in comments here. The last statement was supposed to be "the 'show all' button works only for a single page. If you go to another comments page, the 'unhelpful' posts are still hidden."
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