http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/04/12/re-amazon-and-the-gay-glitch-savage-responds Comments On: Re: Amazon and the Gay Glitch, Savage Responds by Anthony Hecht en-us Copyright 2009 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss For the love of God, use your 3rd grade grammar.
Posted by Copymiker]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:24:55 -0700 The Stranger
In this case, as we all know, there is a large segment of the population that is uninformed and has knee-jerk reactions to anything that suggests "gay". So you can imagine how they will classify the autobiography of an openly gay man (John Barrowman). Without even reading it, they'll assume there are chapters devoted to...well, all things gay.

Amazon's gaffe was not exercising enough control over those contract workers, is all. It is one of the most gay-friendly employers I've ever known, and I'm sorry that this happened but it was not something Amazon did intentionally.
Posted by Taxonomy Guy]]> Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:01:24 -0700 The Stranger
Um. I think you are someone who works at The Stranger with a bit of computer expertise compared to other people who work at The Stranger. Someone who truly has a bit of computer expertise would understand that doing what Amazon does is hard.
Posted by senza]]> Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:16:35 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Mr. Obvious]]> Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:44:00 -0700 The Stranger Posted by PISSED-OFF QUEER]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:29:57 -0700 The Stranger
I wish we had used the term "homoaffectionate." It would be more accurate and focus on feelings instead of sex acts.
Posted by Jigae]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:33:35 -0700 The Stranger http://blog.seattlepi.com/amazon/archive…
Posted by ann]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:42:29 -0700 The Stranger Posted by King Rat]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:34:28 -0700 The Stranger http://bryant.livejournal.com/672165.htm… claims bullshit on the responsibility claimer
Posted by twitternerd]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:55:53 -0700 The Stranger http://community.livejournal.com/brutal_… claims responsibility
Posted by twitternerd]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:53:42 -0700 The Stranger It's entirely possible that other incidents/editings are due to other policies--I can only tell you what caused the mass delisting over the weekend.

Posted by Mike Daisey]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:50:54 -0700 The Stranger Posted by derek]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:47:30 -0700 The Stranger
Well, more like user error--some idiot editing code for one of the many international versions of Amazon mixed up the difference between "adult" and "erotic" and "sexuality". All the sites are tied together, so editing one affected all for blacklisting, and ta-da, you get this situation.

The CS rep who responded that this was Amazon policy was just confused about what they were talking about, and gave standard boilerplate about porn.

The dumbest part is saying it was a "glitch". A "glitch"? Just say that it was one of your workers making an editing error. Really dumb PR move, that one.

Let me know if you actually want more details on how it went down, but it's pretty boring and technical.

md
Posted by Mike Daisey]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:16:06 -0700 The Stranger Posted by heartfelt]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:58:45 -0700 The Stranger Posted by mackro mackro]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:24:19 -0700 The Stranger
It makes more sense to me that this would be the result of an employee/hate group taking advantage of a vulnerability in the system.
Posted by Patti]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:17:34 -0700 The Stranger The Different Dragon as the first result in the US and Heather Has Two Mommies in the UK. The actual book doesn't come up until 12 as a pre-order with no image.
Posted by Jigae]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:14:59 -0700 The Stranger
I disagree, however what caused the glitch can only be that much worse. Was some kind of tag altered by employees where as amazon is tagging their books to be gay? Did a supervisor order someone to delete books with a certain reference in them and thought no one would notice?

No one is forcing you to buy from Amazon, they have plenty of competition. If they don't want gay $$ we just have to show them they won't just lose out on gay $$, you have plenty of strait allies ready and willing to pay extra at other sites and leave amazon in the dust.
Posted by Chris]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:13:41 -0700 The Stranger Hey!
I can turn italics on.
And sometimes back off, also.
Posted by really]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:11:12 -0700 The Stranger
I'm a blogger for an alternative newspaper but obviously I know more about amazon's software than people who make a living at it.

Posted by a bit of computer expertise? really?]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:58:59 -0700 The Stranger Posted by grrrrrrrrr]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:37:35 -0700 The Stranger
@ 43 This isn't a gay hissy fit. Having the sales rank removed on amazon means that the books don't show up in searches very easily and on other lists that they have. It is not appropriate to call most things with any sort of LGBT theme or content adult content, when there are things like porn on amazon without their ratings removed, and similar books with straight characters that aren't removed. Most of the books/other things that have been deranked deal with either LGBT issues (many in a very educational sense) or transgressive heterosexuality, both of which are not approved of by the conservative "pro-family" people in our country.

I feel like its not a glitch. And amazon just flipped under all the negative feedback they were getting. Or, maybe they are un-ranking adult content books, and the glitch was that LGBT themed stuff was included in that - someone thought it fit, and it wasn't well checked over, something of the like. But, I doubt it. And, I feel like its ridiculous that amazon would cave into people saying adult content things have to be deranked, because honestly, if you're worried about what your kids see on the internet, amazon really isn't the worst of it, and you really out to be supervising your children on the internet if you're that worried. Why would kids honestly be on amazon by themselves anyways, when they can't buy anything themselves, and if they're old enough to have their own credit card, they've probably ya know, watched porn on your computer already, and just aren't telling you that.
Posted by P.]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:37:29 -0700 The Stranger Posted by AndyNiable]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:37:25 -0700 The Stranger No wonder nobody likes you.
Posted by if it weren't for trolls you'd have no friends at all]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:21:52 -0700 The Stranger
If your point was that sometimes trying to do the right thing for the majority has unintended or unavoidable consequences for a minority, I agree.

After all, more than 95% of the usage of "gay" on XBox live is pejorative and we know that Microsoft has been engaged with GLAAD for some time trying to find way to balance protecting everyone from harassment with allowing a minority to express their identity.

I'm interested in hearing what Amazon has to say and until we do, I'm keeping my powder dry.
Posted by The Gay Curmudgeon]]> Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:18:25 -0700 The Stranger