Amazon in California Update

"Remarkably cynical" tactics from Bezos and Company? I'm shocked. Shocked!

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-taxes-20110910,0,4223155.story

Harriet Klausner read 9.32 books every day in August 2011. And reviewed (natch).

Thanks to the awesome poster "buck210", we now have Harriet's updated statistical profile going over this past half a year:

buck210 says:
Stats so far this year, with a max of 306 in April and a low of 171 in May and an average of over 7.5 books per day for the year that Fraud Hattie fraudulently claims to have read and "reviewed".

185 fraudulent reviews in Jan 2011 5.97 per day
229 fraudulent reviews in Feb 2011 8.18 per day
204 fraudulent reviews in Mar 2011 6.58 per day
306 fraudulent reviews in Apr 2011 10.20 per day
171 fraudulent reviews in May 2011 5.52 per day
219 fraudulent reviews in Jun 2011 7.30 per day
218 fraudulent reviews in Jul 2011 7.03 per day
289 fraudulent reviews in Aug 2011 9.32 per day

So what can we expect for this month?? I'm predicting a slightly lower than average month, say around 200, as she just put out 79 a couple of days ago, she usually waits until the first of the month to puke them out so it's likely that this will not be a stellar 300+ month. But, knowing Fraud Hattie, it's still definitely possible...

Thumbs up, buck210! Last time I calculated her long-term average it was close to six (6) books a day over about a decade (starting late November 1999 -- the first review posted under her current account was dated something like 22 Nov 1999 or thereabouts). But now Harriet obviously went over that old parameter, hitting as much as 10.20 books a day (April 2011). Awesome! Harriet recognises no limits! If this keeps up she'll be reviewing 100 books every day.

Ferreting Out Fake Reviews (NY Times)

This article is from The New York Times online August 19, 2011. The author is David Streitfeld. It includes quotes from a freelance writer, Sandra Parker, who was hired this spring at a review factory for Amazon to pump out fake reviews at $10 a pop. The reviews were supposed to be five star and gushing...that sounds so familiar.

Which leads me to wonder what Harriet Klausner's net worth is. Think of her thousands upon thousands of fraudulent reviews. I guess the wages of sin were quite rewarding for old Harriet.

But she's still a liar, a fraud and a cheat. But a very wealthy liar, fraud and cheat, so in Klausner's world that makes it A-OK.

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Editorial Note: here's the link to the NYT article In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5 .

The I only thing I feel I can add is, how touching! It has only been going on for twelve-to-fifteen years (with Amazon, that is), and now they're waking up to the phenomenon.

Another irony (I'll quote from the article):

Determining the number of fake reviews on the Web is difficult. But it is enough of a problem to attract a team of Cornell researchers [...] They were instantly approached by a dozen companies, including Amazon, Hilton, TripAdvisor and several specialist travel sites, all of which have a strong interest in limiting the spread of bogus reviews. [...]

Amazon is interested! :-) The only reason they are intersted, I suspect, is to learn how this algorithm works so as to work around it — so as not to let this rogue research disrupt their shills, aw, sorry, I meant to say "Top Reviewers". (I think it's safe to say that the only thing they've proved they're interested in as related to fake reviews is to blow off their site everyone who raises the issue. Manny has been the latest).

OT: What happened to Amazon Shopping Lists?

I can't find my Shopping List anymore -- the link I had now gets redirected to my Wish List. What the hell is going on? Did Amazon just quietly blow the shopping lists away? (That'd be rather low... at least they should have warned us ahead of time so that we could have saved the contents for future use.)

Anyone sees what I see? Any way to recover our shopping lists?

What’s up with Harriet Klausner??

Our old friend Vic Mikunas revisits the topic, asking what's up with our Goddess.

On March, 29, 2007 I wrote a blog post here titled THE MYSTERIOUS HARRIET KLAUSNER. That was over 4 years ago. Over the past week there have been a couple of hundred page views of that particular post. Weird? I wonder what’s up with Harriet? ...

C'mon, Vick! What could be up with Our Lady of Fauxreview? You know what's up — nothing's up! She's fat and happy and undaunted and churnin' out her perky burbling blurbs every bit as unstoppably as before, five stars guaranteed!

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OT: Dear Reader, you won't believe the requests we're getting at times! But for the love of Christ we won't ridicule such people by making their imbecilities public, but we will give this charitable piece of advice to them: please read the blog before forwarding your pleas to help you with a review from our Goddess. Please give us the courtesy of learning what we're about before telling us what you think we could help you with. (And then, of course, why would we presume to believe that the Queen of Fraud needs or will heed our inferior suggestions about what she should review? She takes no guidance from the lowly. Like Berthold said, "That's why he's a baron, and I'm a prole".)

Klausner posts same review twice, under different names

First time I see that. Here Harriet posted two absolutely identical reviews, first time as Harriet Klausner and then as "A Romance Reader". Both times five stars (no surprises here). It's a great way to increase a book's average rating, of course... How many more sock-puppet accounts does she have, I wonder?

Anyway, here's a shapshot (just in case the original page gets changed; click to see normal size; I did shrink it a bit to fit on screen, but it's readable though):

Harriet busts through 300 reviews a month limit

Thanks to poster Guy the Gorilla we now have another update of Klausner stats for the last half a year.

Guy the Gorilla says:
Congratulations Harriet - I never thought I'd live to see it, but you came through with a last day mini-surge and upped your already prolific tally for the month to an amazing 301 "reviews" of books you could not possibly have read for the month of April. It has been a banner month - you must have truly had a case of Spring Fever - I can think of no other explanation for this vintage performance - other than the kickback payola checks from the publishers of the mass market paperbacks you favor.

To put this month's efforts in perspective, let's review Harriet's more recent output:

228 "reviews" of books she could not possibly have read in September 2010
296 "reviews" of books she could not possibly have read in October 2010
187 "reviews" of books she could not possibly have read in November 2010
192 "reviews" of books she could not possibly have read in December 2010
185 "reviews" of books she could not possibly have read in January 2011
229 "reviews" of books she could not possibly have read in February 2011
204 "reviews" of books she could not possibly have read in March 2011
301 "reviews" of books she could not possibly have read in April 2011

I'm glad you finally broke through the 300 barrier at this time. Because Harriet, I must congratulate you for something else. I officially surrender. I cannot keep up with you. I cannot think of any new jokes or comments to amuse myself or my sister Gwynneth the Gorilla, who still lurks on these pages as well, that hasn't been repeated in one variation or another at least a hundred times by now. I am bored with you. You're just not funny to me anymore. I am tired of you and your garbled English and your sub-genres and your silly Defense Squad. Someone else will have to pick up the standard and carry on the good fight in the trenches for a while - I am spent. Perhaps I will check in from time to time - especially to monitor your progress towards the fabled 25,000 career "reviews" of books you have not read (you are up to 24, 420 and closing fast) - but for now, Harriet, I bid you a fond adieu...

So, our dear Harriet would want us to believe that this April she was reading (AND reviewing) slighly over ten (10) books a day on average. That's double (nearly) her Amazon life-time average of about six (6) a day (under her current account, beginning in the late November 1999).