amazonfail -- Dear Author looks at the metadata

[julesjones]

Jane at Dear Author has done some digging into the metadata on the censored/not censored books, and yes, it does look like it's the category data that's being used to filter, and that *anything* with "gay" or "lesbian" in the category metadata is being hit, which is why we're seeing things like the hardback edition of Barrowman's autobiography filtered and the paperback edition left alone.

Next question -- who in Amazon decided that "gay" and "lesbian" are automatically adult content? If this came from the top, that's a problem. If it was somewhere a lot lower down, that's *still* a problem. Whatever it is, it's not a glitch.

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

As Deb said in a post, the Glitch will not have a job at the end of the week.

[julesjones]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Glitch was clearing their desk by the end of the day. But this goes deeper than one idiot -- they need to think about safeguards to stop a repeat.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. There's a bigger story here. They have some sort of systemic problem that needs addressing. I'm willing to allow that it's a mistake, and the corporation didn't intend the consequences (which is another reason I didn't go and remove all my amazon links immediately). But they're liable all the same - and it IS a big deal (even if the immediate cause turns out to be a "small" deal).