Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Please welcome S. McDonald, our new Friend Top Reviewer

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Check this out: this reviewer, S. McDonald "Library World", posts exact copies of "Product Description" as his reviews. Verbatim or near so. I think he deserves a place in our select group of Top Reviewers like Harriet Klausner, W.Bouville, Gunny, and the rest.

For example, here's his review of Living God's Politics: A Guide to Putting Your Faith into Action by Jim Wallis; let's quite a bit:
After fifteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, this book not only changed the conversation about faith and politics in this country, it began a movement. All across the country, wherever the author spoke, people were frustrated by tax cuts and budgets that widened the gap between rich and poor, aggravated by the government's lack of response to natural disasters, wearied of misinformation and the ongoing war in the Middle East, and exasperated by the impractical political rhetoric about sexual abstinence in lieu of policies that would strengthen more broadly family values and community health.
And here is the book page itself, scroll down a bit to "Editorial Reviews", "Product Description":
After fifteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, God's Politics not only changed the conversation about faith and politics in this country, it began a movement. All across the country, wherever Jim Wallis spoke, people were frustrated by tax cuts and budgets that widened the gap between rich and poor, aggravated by the government's lack of response to natural disasters, wearied of misinformation and the ongoing war in the Middle East, and exasperated by the impractical political rhetoric about sexual abstinence in lieu of policies that would strengthen more broadly family values and community health.
Find three differences between these two excerpts. Or, let's make it easier: find just one.

PS. Believe it or not, apparently there's been people voting his stuff "helpful" :-(

3 comments:

STepper said...

Malleus - No one seems to give a shit. Of course, this completely phoney reviewer is posting about religious books. What does that tell you? Irony to the infinite power.

Malleus said...

Hm... shame on me, I missed this important nuance: of course, he also happens to be a man of faith! Well, what can I say. I s'pose I should be tactful and say nothing.

Stanley H Nemeth said...

Amazon won't let people openly vote for their own reviews, though for years it's made underhanded actions of this sort astonishingly easy. Even more startling, though, is it's apparent lack of any requirement that people post their own reviews, rather than openly plagiarized ones. When it comes to even minimal oversight, the website is beneath contempt.