Amazon.com now says a (very selective) glitch responsible for gay-panic de-listing

[Ian David]

Either way, Amazon.com is still run by reich-wing douchebags and we should all use www.Powells.com instead.

See prior thread:

Amazon.com ... god I hate them. Here's an idea.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5442852



Amazon Says Glitch to Blame for "New" Adult Policy
By Rachel Deahl & Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/12/2009 5:49:00 PM

A groundswell of outrage, concern and confusion sprang up over the weekend, largely via Twitter, in response to what authors and others believed was a decision by Amazon to remove adult titles from its sales ranking. On Sunday evening, however, an Amazon spokesperson said that a glitch had occurred in its sales ranking feature that was in the process of being fixed. The spokesperson added that there was no new adult policy.

For most of the weekend on Twitter, in conversations with the hash tag "#amazonfail," users were discussing the fact that the e-tailer was removing the sales rankings for books that it deemed featured "adult content." Many readers, and writers, decried the fact that Amazon appears to be removing the sales ranking for titles that feature gay and lesbian characters and/or themes.

The director of the Erotic Authors Association, who goes by the pen name Erastes, told PW that many of her members "noticed their titles had been stripped of their sales rankings" on Amazon. One, Mark Probst, contacted a customer service representative at Amazon and wrote about the exchange on his blog. Probst wrote that the Amazon rep responded to his inquiry by saying that "'adult' material" is being excluded from appearing in "some searches and best seller lists" as a "consideration of our entire customer base."

Whether a glitch or new policy, titles like James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room and Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain are among the titles who have lost their ranking.

More:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6651080.html

[DeSwiss]

1. Yep...

...I got a "glitch email" from those bastards after I complained and told them to reverse this stupid discriminatory policy, or I would cancel my account.

Glitch my ass. I hope this tanks the shit out of Kindle 2. :mad:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

2. wait, amazon is right wing?

bah humbug.

[WhollyHeretic]

3. That doesn't answer why the hell a lot of these books were tagged as adult in the first place

That is the real problem with what they did.

[Democrats_win]

4. If you shop Reich Amazon, you might as well join Log Cabin Repukes.

[tbyg52]

5. Details, please? I must admit that I did not know this.

Edited to add that I mean their *previous* misbehavior.

[marimour]

6. thats the real question here

Putting a blanket "adult" category on anything GLBT related is ridiculous.