Comments on: More on #amazonfail http://www.angelakorrati.com/2009/04/14/more-on-amazonfail/ Angela Korra'ti's books and writing Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:03:57 +0000 hourly 1 By: annathepiper http://www.angelakorrati.com/2009/04/14/more-on-amazonfail/comment-page-1/#comment-37 annathepiper Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:00:05 +0000 http://www.angelakorrati.com/?p=153#comment-37 Technoshaman @ 1: "Amazon got played" implies that someone did this deliberately, a supposition for which we have no real evidence; in fact, the one public claim of having done this deliberately has already been debunked. It also goes against their own statement of "embarrassing, ham-fisted cataloguing error", for what it's worth. We have no solid evidence or even a solid statement out of Amazon on what that actually means. But as I said in another comment to Paul on this thread, since I've worked for places with large customer-facing databases, I can definitely conceive of how easy it is for one person typing in a query to fuck it up catastrophically. In the absence of any actual data as to the motive of the person who caused the cataloguing error in question, I'm willing enough to chalk it up to "horribly, horribly unfortunate screwup" and move on. And hope that Amazon will take steps to prevent any such massive cataloguing errors in the future. Technoshaman @ 1: “Amazon got played” implies that someone did this deliberately, a supposition for which we have no real evidence; in fact, the one public claim of having done this deliberately has already been debunked.

It also goes against their own statement of “embarrassing, ham-fisted cataloguing error”, for what it’s worth. We have no solid evidence or even a solid statement out of Amazon on what that actually means. But as I said in another comment to Paul on this thread, since I’ve worked for places with large customer-facing databases, I can definitely conceive of how easy it is for one person typing in a query to fuck it up catastrophically. In the absence of any actual data as to the motive of the person who caused the cataloguing error in question, I’m willing enough to chalk it up to “horribly, horribly unfortunate screwup” and move on. And hope that Amazon will take steps to prevent any such massive cataloguing errors in the future.

]]> By: annathepiper http://www.angelakorrati.com/2009/04/14/more-on-amazonfail/comment-page-1/#comment-36 annathepiper Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:55:18 +0000 http://www.angelakorrati.com/?p=153#comment-36 Paul @ 2: I'd heard about this, yeah, and fair 'nuff. I'd be more comfortable with the system if it were exclusively user-driven, though. Some sort of check does need to be in place to make sure that huge swaths of products don't suddenly vanish out from the sight of people who might actually want to, y'know, <i>buy them</i>. But as I said--having worked for places with large web-facing databases, yeah, I can conceive of how this could have been a particularly catastrophic error. Thanks for chiming in! Paul @ 2: I’d heard about this, yeah, and fair ’nuff. I’d be more comfortable with the system if it were exclusively user-driven, though. Some sort of check does need to be in place to make sure that huge swaths of products don’t suddenly vanish out from the sight of people who might actually want to, y’know, buy them.

But as I said–having worked for places with large web-facing databases, yeah, I can conceive of how this could have been a particularly catastrophic error. Thanks for chiming in!

]]> By: Paul http://www.angelakorrati.com/2009/04/14/more-on-amazonfail/comment-page-1/#comment-35 Paul Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:58:43 +0000 http://www.angelakorrati.com/?p=153#comment-35 I think this is one reason the ability to "hide" stuff exists... http://blogofhilarity.com/2009/03/30/amazons-girl-scout-cookie-sales-leave-something-to-be-desired I won't object to better checks to ensure it doesn't get misused, but I do think the ability has its place. There were a lot of issues like that that came up as Amazon moved beyond only carrying books. I think this is one reason the ability to “hide” stuff exists…
http://blogofhilarity.com/2009/03/30/amazons-girl-scout-cookie-sales-leave-something-to-be-desired
I won’t object to better checks to ensure it doesn’t get misused, but I do think the ability has its place. There were a lot of issues like that that came up as Amazon moved beyond only carrying books.

]]> By: Technoshaman http://www.angelakorrati.com/2009/04/14/more-on-amazonfail/comment-page-1/#comment-34 Technoshaman Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:04:54 +0000 http://www.angelakorrati.com/?p=153#comment-34 I gotta agree. Looks like Amazon got played like a lute, in a fashion difficult to prove especially if you want to keep proprietary code out of the public record... I am concerned that the speaking parts of Amazon didn't treat this the same way Engineering did, e.g. Sev1, worth waking people up on Easter Sunday.... and that somebody obviously thought that unmoderated deranking was a Good Idea (or at least, didn't think it through).... The word that comes to mind is "sloppy". I don't care for sloppy. I gotta agree. Looks like Amazon got played like a lute, in a fashion difficult to prove especially if you want to keep proprietary code out of the public record… I am concerned that the speaking parts of Amazon didn’t treat this the same way Engineering did, e.g. Sev1, worth waking people up on Easter Sunday…. and that somebody obviously thought that unmoderated deranking was a Good Idea (or at least, didn’t think it through)….

The word that comes to mind is “sloppy”. I don’t care for sloppy.

]]>