Baby robots and Amazonfail

[victorianpirate]

Tweenbots makes my heart glow, and that's good enough reason for anyone to go read about it. But it's also a really interesting social experiment involving low-tech robots. Yay.

The Amazon scandal has blown up faster than I had any idea something could - which is silly given the century we live in and the capabilities of instant communication. Personally I think this (and in conjunction, this) is a rather more likely explanation for what has happened than the idea of Amazon spontaneously turning into a conservative filter, but I am still not impressed with the "it's just a glitch" line. That's a pretty damn big (and remarkably selective) glitch. And it's been going on since at least February.

We'll see what they have to say today. I'm curious.




...*blinks*...

There is a heron in my backyard. Eating a fish it just caught out of the creek.

Comments

[laragoth.livejournal.com]

This is so disgustingly cute it's not funny :)

I want one now :D

[inkandalchemy.livejournal.com]

I know, me too. Especially if you look at the More Robots link, there's one sitting on a park bench with a, "Please call my mommy!" note on it. *dead of cute*

[shadesofbrixton.livejournal.com]

jhljkhkjhpiutyglkjhkh THEY'RE SO CUTE OH MY GOD. I totally just signed up for the email updates.

[fearless-son.livejournal.com]

I largely agree with those two articles explaining the more technical side of the Amazonfail. As a part of a company that has been in similar situations before (remember the young woman who got banned from Xbox Live because she described herself as a lesbian in her online profile?) I can sympathize with Amazon's position here. Amazon most likely does not have an agenda regarding homosexuality. However, they were likely exploited by an organization that does have an agenda. Consider how "glitches" are seen in competitive multiplayer computer or video games. A glitch will normally not trigger on its own, usually only a specific sequence of player actions designed to exploit such a glitch will actually cause it to activate. Players who exploit these glitches have an advantage over those who do not, and eventually it tends to ruin the experience of those who play and trust the honor system to avoid exploitation of unintended factors, often damaging the player community. The same is true of Amazon and an exploited glitch in the ranking system. I feel bad because I like Amazon's service and I hate seeing people drag it down like this out of either a regressive agenda, malice, or simple "lulz."

BINGO.

[inkandalchemy.livejournal.com]

And we have an explanation. Whether or not it was actually weev who did it, that looks FAR more plausible to me than Amazon committing retail suicide.

I still say they owe the community a formal apology though.

Re: BINGO.

[fearless-son.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains it. Like I said, exploited a glitch. Amazon should have made it more difficult to flag-by-script, for example by adding a CAPTCHA.

But yes, Amazon should apologize for allowing an oversight that caused so much offense. Like I said, I feel bad for them that someone exploited them in such a way that they have to.

Re: BINGO.

[inkandalchemy.livejournal.com]

There's also this. And yeah, whoever's fault it turns out to have been, I do feel badly for them.

Still not buying anything from them 'til it's fixed, though.

Re: BINGO.

[fearless-son.livejournal.com]

Looks like you got your wish, sort of. Amazon has gone on record as saying it was a "mistake" that was "embarrassing and ham-fisted". I got that from a PI article here (linked by the lovely and talented Neil Gaiman.)

From the look of it, the problem was one of data error that affected sweeping portions of the system. It looks like one Amazon employee in France while editing data was charged with flagging things as "Adult". Obviously such a thing would be labor intensive to do manually, so my guess would be that he put in a couple of specific search parameters to flag anything containing "gay" or "lesbian" as "adult" under the assumption that they would be erotica. Obviously, this had unintended consequences.

[proteus013.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... am still able to find the following: Erotica, Gay Rights, Diana Gabaldon and Playboy.

I don't get it. Besides Amazon making a statement that pretty much reads "We're Asshats!" I'm not seeing the difference.

*For those wondering why I keyed Diana Gabaldon; her books containg much sex and frequently uses the homosexual character Lord John*

[inkandalchemy.livejournal.com]

They've restored some, perhaps many, of the de-ranked titles. It's still in process and I still haven't heard an explanation from them that's actually any sort of informative.

[fearless-son.livejournal.com]

Also, on a related tangent, it is nice to see a major company putting in effort to be progressive.

Makes me proud to work here.

[libraryraven.livejournal.com]

Heron! Neat!

[inkandalchemy.livejournal.com]

YES. A lot.