Amazon, continued

[stevekenson]

So Amazon.com’s customer service reply to my complaint e-mail was:

“Thanks for contacting us. We recently discovered a glitch in our systems and it’s being fixed.”

So they seem to be sticking to the “it was a glitch” story for the moment. We’ll see how long it takes to “fix” this particular “glitch”. I imagine they “recently discovered” it when angry calls and e-mails began pouring in and over ten thousand people signed the petition about it.

Comments

[garan-du.livejournal.com]

As I posted on dewinblaidd's LJ, I'm not buying the glitch theory because it doesn't satisfactorily explain the discrepancie in how this was implemented. One cannot pin all of this on the ghost in the machine.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

It's an oddly specific glitch.

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

It was less specific than has been claimed: http://tinyurl.com/d7hlwb

I'm much more willing to believe in a universe of giant, relentlessly stupid megacorps than a universe of giant, intentionally malevolent megacorps.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

since the post where the guy "confessed" (linked to in the above) has since been locked, here's a different article (http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/04/12/amazon-possibly-using-category-metadata-to-filter-rankings) explaining how the metadata on amazon works and why it gave the results it did for the books commonly used as examples in the various articles floating around. it's this metadata that the guy (or whoever) supposedly exploited/hacked.

[whisper-jeff.livejournal.com]

Exact same response here.

[zoatebix.livejournal.com]

Someone's taken responsibility (http://community.livejournal.com/brutal_honesty/3168992.html) for this. It seems plausible:
http://tehdely.livejournal.com/88823.html
http://gawker.com/5210142/why-it-makes-sense-that-a-hackers-behind-amazons-big-gay-outrage

[garan-du.livejournal.com]

I think that the retard in question is just a troll who is screwing with everyone. And it doesn't explain the letter from Amazon nor the instances that occurred back in February.

[kuroshii.livejournal.com]

The earlier Amazon reply could have been a canned response--who knows how many TEH SEX authors complain "indignantly" about their stuff?
The instances from February could have been a test run on the part of the hacker.
Or they could both not have been. Cautions have gone out that the guy who's just "confessed" is a troll trying to cash in, instead of a griefer taking lolz in the shitstorm as they say. which is why I'm waiting to see how this plays out.

[garan-du.livejournal.com]

Good points all.

[zoatebix.livejournal.com]

I remain skeptical of just about everything right now. The response to Mark R. Probst's query (assuming that's the only response that's out there) I can easily accept as someone not doing their job right while working over a holiday-weekend. The troll pays lip service to conducting experiments months ago, but I honestly don't think he's the perpetrator.

I do know that while blogging, twitter, and the rest were great for getting the problem recognized and (hopefully on the way to being) corrected, the medium itself will probably hinder investigating and assigning blame, or at the very least the dissemination of information not colored by (un-ironically righteous) indignation, strained or severed relationships, badwill and attempts to control its damage, and self-interest like that exhibited by the troll.

Maybe someone will write something close to right months or years after the fact, like Gene Weingarten's heartwrenching piece about leaving kids locked in cars (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022701549_pf.html). The truth does not necessarily come out at the speed of blogging (micro- or otherwise); it doesn't necessarily come out at all.

[freeport-pirate.livejournal.com]

I can't pronounce planetarium because I have a bone disease.

[saxon-pagan.livejournal.com]

I was proudly signer #5,736. I do hope this was (as another of your friends has posted) a hacker's prank, but I'm still glad I signed the petition.

[gamerguy.livejournal.com]

The glitch explanation seems pretty plausible to me, now that they've apparently found the source of the problem.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/amazon/archives/166329.asp?source=mypi
http://blog.seattlepi.com/amazon/archives/166384.asp

I'm glad it was a glitch, rather than malice or spin on their part.