3 ms·

Although, to be fair, while Amazon doesn't need this, it kind of deserves it.

jrockway 14y ago
How dare they let just anyone write a book. Printing presses should be reserved for the elite and people whose opinions I personally agree with.
- enraged_camel 14y ago
  I think you misunderstood that.
  - aw3c2 14y ago
    a misunderstanding could have been prevented if the parent poster gave a reason for his hyperbole.
    - podperson 14y ago
      If you take no responsibility for what's in your store, you'll have terrible, terrible stuff in your store. Oh look.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- readme 14y ago
  s/a book/800000 books with a spam app./
- keithpeter 14y ago
  Or perhaps we need to find a filter to replace the traditional publisher's editor/market filters. Completely frictionless publishing of anything will just tend to increase the noise and make the signal harder to find.
oh_sigh 14y ago
Why is that?
- podperson 14y ago
  Well, a bunch of reasons: First and foremost -- 1) Like Google it has a "see no evil" business model. ("If humans aren't in the approval loop, we're not responsible.") 2) Its behavior as a company is generally reprehensible (e.g. strong-arming state governments into not collecting sales taxes -- it wants to have its cake and eat it w.r.t. affiliate marketing) 3) Its business models reek of dumping (using profits in one domain to unfairly compete in others). The main difference is Amazon doesn't actually make profits, so it's burning investor capital to win new markets so it can burn more investor capital to win even more new markets, etc. (It will make it up on volume...) The fact that investors buy into this is odd, to say the least, but it's still pretty odious. 4) as a small publisher, I'm still ticked off by the way it allegedly "competes" in the ebook market. (Kindles are the hardest ebook readers on which to read ePubs, KDP does not in fact pay competitive royalties, but Amazon has bamboozled the tech press into believing it does, and even seems to have several governments helping it maintain its near monopoly on epublishing.) 5) Then there's the whole fulfilment / outsourcing thing (e.g. see here http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor?page=4 http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f... and the linked articles -- if you think Walmart screws its employees, Amazon et al are far worse).

How dare they let just anyone write a book. Printing presses should be reserved for the elite and people whose opinions I personally agree with.

enraged_camel 14y ago
I think you misunderstood that.
- aw3c2 14y ago
  a misunderstanding could have been prevented if the parent poster gave a reason for his hyperbole.
  - podperson 14y ago
    If you take no responsibility for what's in your store, you'll have terrible, terrible stuff in your store. Oh look.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
readme 14y ago
s/a book/800000 books with a spam app./
keithpeter 14y ago
Or perhaps we need to find a filter to replace the traditional publisher's editor/market filters. Completely frictionless publishing of anything will just tend to increase the noise and make the signal harder to find.

oh_sigh 14y ago

Why is that?

podperson 14y ago
Well, a bunch of reasons: First and foremost -- 1) Like Google it has a "see no evil" business model. ("If humans aren't in the approval loop, we're not responsible.") 2) Its behavior as a company is generally reprehensible (e.g. strong-arming state governments into not collecting sales taxes -- it wants to have its cake and eat it w.r.t. affiliate marketing) 3) Its business models reek of dumping (using profits in one domain to unfairly compete in others). The main difference is Amazon doesn't actually make profits, so it's burning investor capital to win new markets so it can burn more investor capital to win even more new markets, etc. (It will make it up on volume...) The fact that investors buy into this is odd, to say the least, but it's still pretty odious. 4) as a small publisher, I'm still ticked off by the way it allegedly "competes" in the ebook market. (Kindles are the hardest ebook readers on which to read ePubs, KDP does not in fact pay competitive royalties, but Amazon has bamboozled the tech press into believing it does, and even seems to have several governments helping it maintain its near monopoly on epublishing.) 5) Then there's the whole fulfilment / outsourcing thing (e.g. see here http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor?page=4 http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f... and the linked articles -- if you think Walmart screws its employees, Amazon et al are far worse).