8 ms·

The problem is not you the reporter. The problem is the automated Amazon system that processes your report and the obviously fucked up way it operates. It is a

The problem is not you the reporter. The problem is the automated Amazon system that processes your report and the obviously fucked up way it operates. It is abuseable as all hell as demonstrated in the replies to the tweet. Even when not being used to make people's life miserable it is a failure of a system.

wang_li 7y ago
>The problem is the automated Amazon system that processes your report and the obviously fucked up way it operates. There should be a button available to authors and publishers that says "i dispute these flags" and when the button is pushed, the flags are put into a temporary status and the reviewer's/submitter's real name and address is provided to the author so the author can take them to court for damages. If the flagged items are just low quality then the author would lose in court and the submitted flagged items could then be assessed against the work. If the flagged items are not legitimate, then the person who submitted the bad reports can write a nice check to the author and amazon can then drop the bad reports from their system. The idea that everything can, or should, be handled within a platform (facebook, twitter, amazon, apple, google, etc.) is idiotic. There is a legal system for a reason and it's so that we can get a consistent and fair adjudication of our disputes.
- MBCook 7y ago
  So if I mark that there are 3 commas in a row and a word is clearly wrong due to OCR errors the author can press a button AND GET MY ADDRESS? Yeah, no chance of abuse there.
  - wang_li 7y ago
    > Yeah, no chance of abuse there. The author having to file a lawsuit against you is a much higher hurdle to get over than an anti-fan falsely flagging the authors work and costing them money. The common idea that people should be able to do anything they want without consequences and with a huge corporation -- who doesn't know them from Bob -- having to provide them with cover is childish.
    - mokus 7y ago
      Does it really need to be pointed out that a name and address enable far more than a lawsuit?
rasz 7y ago
Amazon lets potential clients know of problems with the merchandise, what a terrible system indeed!
- zenexer 7y ago
  The problematic part isn’t that they’re notified—that’s the expected behavior. The problem is that the book is pulled automatically without waiting for the author to respond. That wouldn’t be so bad if there were a lot of valid issues, but anyone can get a book pulled maliciously just by reporting a bunch of “mistakes”—which, as was demonstrated here, need not be actual mistakes.
  - ajmurmann 7y ago
    Pulling a book because of a typo is also a unreasonable overreaction. It would be better without typos, but I'd still rather read a book with a typo than not having the book at all. This is even more of an overreaction than it would be to pull software that has any bugs whatsoever. Edit: typos
    - justinclift 7y ago
      > ... I'd still rather read a book with a typo than not having the book at all. For technical education material (both mechanical engineering and optics recently for me), I definitely don't buy books where the comments indicate a lot of typos. It's a real PITA to be working through practise exercises, and come up with a different result than the expected answer. Then not know if it's me, or the book author who got it wrong. :( For fiction books though, an occasional typo is not a stress.
  - rasz 7y ago
    According to tweets they get at least 5 days. I wouldnt be surprised if Amazon is prescreening user generated reports wits some basic NLP checker to filter out trolls/missclicks.
    - kalleboo 7y ago

wang_li 7y ago

>The problem is the automated Amazon system that processes your report and the obviously fucked up way it operates. There should be a button available to authors and publishers that says "i dispute these flags" and when the button is pushed, the flags are put into a temporary status and the reviewer's/submitter's real name and address is provided to the author so the author can take them to court for damages. If the flagged items are just low quality then the author would lose in court and the submitted flagged items could then be assessed against the work. If the flagged items are not legitimate, then the person who submitted the bad reports can write a nice check to the author and amazon can then drop the bad reports from their system. The idea that everything can, or should, be handled within a platform (facebook, twitter, amazon, apple, google, etc.) is idiotic. There is a legal system for a reason and it's so that we can get a consistent and fair adjudication of our disputes.

MBCook 7y ago
So if I mark that there are 3 commas in a row and a word is clearly wrong due to OCR errors the author can press a button AND GET MY ADDRESS? Yeah, no chance of abuse there.
- wang_li 7y ago
  > Yeah, no chance of abuse there. The author having to file a lawsuit against you is a much higher hurdle to get over than an anti-fan falsely flagging the authors work and costing them money. The common idea that people should be able to do anything they want without consequences and with a huge corporation -- who doesn't know them from Bob -- having to provide them with cover is childish.
  - mokus 7y ago
    Does it really need to be pointed out that a name and address enable far more than a lawsuit?

rasz 7y ago

Amazon lets potential clients know of problems with the merchandise, what a terrible system indeed!

zenexer 7y ago
The problematic part isn’t that they’re notified—that’s the expected behavior. The problem is that the book is pulled automatically without waiting for the author to respond. That wouldn’t be so bad if there were a lot of valid issues, but anyone can get a book pulled maliciously just by reporting a bunch of “mistakes”—which, as was demonstrated here, need not be actual mistakes.
- ajmurmann 7y ago
  Pulling a book because of a typo is also a unreasonable overreaction. It would be better without typos, but I'd still rather read a book with a typo than not having the book at all. This is even more of an overreaction than it would be to pull software that has any bugs whatsoever. Edit: typos
  - justinclift 7y ago
    > ... I'd still rather read a book with a typo than not having the book at all. For technical education material (both mechanical engineering and optics recently for me), I definitely don't buy books where the comments indicate a lot of typos. It's a real PITA to be working through practise exercises, and come up with a different result than the expected answer. Then not know if it's me, or the book author who got it wrong. :( For fiction books though, an occasional typo is not a stress.
- rasz 7y ago
  According to tweets they get at least 5 days. I wouldnt be surprised if Amazon is prescreening user generated reports wits some basic NLP checker to filter out trolls/missclicks.
  - kalleboo 7y ago