Done a book review on Amazon? …. oh, so you have
Updated: OK, as everyone has commented, the reviews are there. Clearly some sort of database glitch. It just happened long enough for a bunch of writers to notice it and get a bit annoyed.
I’ll leave what was up, but struck out, since it’s all completely wrong, and Amazon hasn’t done anything bad. Hope that’s clear.
Where have all the user-contributed reviews for books gone on Amazon UK?
They used to exist; I know, I did one (for Louise Wener’s “The Big Blind” since you ask).
Now however you go there and there’s just a load of rubbish from newspapers and magazines.
Has Amazon gotten sensitive about the idea that some authors (no names, since I’ve no idea who) might comment on their own books? But that was demonstrated as possible five years ago by Robert Blincoe - see his demonstration at The Register.
If it’s truly taken Amazon UK five years to get round to dealing with this, then there’s a couple of things to say.
1) You’ve really annoyed a lot of authors, who liked having punters’ comments on their books. Yes, really. They don’t want the anodyne crap spouted from papers and magazines (”Fabulous!”"Mimsy borogroves!”"Like a kettle with a spout!”), they want to be in touch with their readers.
2) It would be nice if you have some sort of explanation. As it is, Amazon UK’s press releases for 2005 has no mention of this move.
These days, one can say “Just look what happened to Sony..” to companies which try to do things by stealth and annoy folk. Come on, Amazon, cough to it. Then put them all back.
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- Harry Potter and the pointless reviews (fear not, no spoilers here) (21 July 2007; score: 83.63%)
- I'll just buy this... used library book via Amazon.. uh? (25 May 2005; score: 75.54%)
- How do I use the Amazon API to get sales rank? (9 June 2005; score: 65.5%)
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November 18th, 2005 at 6:57 am
I’m afraid I can’t see the same thing.
A cursory check showed reviews just fine.
e.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/074758110X/customer-reviews/203-8187995-1081517
- for Harry Potter, which gets and insane number of reviews.
They have a link in the left sidebar for “Customer Reviews.”
There’s a seperate one for “Reviews”, however…
November 18th, 2005 at 9:36 am
Likewise: the reviews for the Wener book are coming up fine, including one by a certain C M Arthur. Looks like the disappearing reviews might have been a database glitch.
November 18th, 2005 at 10:06 am
All appears to be fine at Amazon. I can still write reviews. perhaps you have been banned charles??
November 18th, 2005 at 11:44 am
Man. I like customer reviews being a feature of Amazon, but my gosh, some of them are just so inane and useless. I guess that’s what the “no” button is for.
February 12th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
I came across this post on your site after my CEO blogged about your hatred of PR emails - it struck me that it represents one of the pains that we’re trying to relieve. We’re a UK start-up that are collecting user reviews from blogs and from confirmed customers of UK retailers. It’s a worry that Amazon owns the review content on their site, and that it can disappear without the review’s author having any recourse. With what we’re doing at Reevoo.com, you can post review content of any amazon product on your blog using our bookmarklet and review creator, and we’ll come along and aggregate it and publish it more widely. I’d be really interested in hearing your readers’ thoughts on what we’re doing.