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Amazon.com Pierces Reviewer Anonymity
theodp writes "Amazon reviewers who anonymously posted book reviews or signed their critiques only as 'a reader from (fill in the city)' lost their anonymity this week when their identities were revealed on Amazon's site. Among those named were prominent authors who posted glowing five-star reviews of their own work. The weeklong glitch, which Amazon fixed after outed reviewers complained, provided a rare glimpse at how writers and readers are wielding the online reviews as a tool to promote or pan books when they think no one is watching. An Amazon spokeswoman told the NY Times the problem was 'an unfortunate error.'"
If Amazon.com is repeatedly stating that anonymity is guaranteed for book reviews, what the hell is the purpose of collecting full names from their creators?
There's at least one technical explanation: if Amazon didn't link each review with a reviewer, it would be harder to prevent someone from filling out a hundred reviews of the same title to skewer the average rating.
You may have come across this if you reviewed the same thing twice: you would have received an error telling you that you've already reviewed the item and can't do it again, even if you reviewed it anonymously.
If I recall correctly, Sony got nailed for using a fake critic by the name of David Manning to doctor favorable reviews for their just released movies
It would not surprise me if authors were INDEED promoting their own works courtesy of public forums like amazon and the like.
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It's ironic that this request comes from an executive officer of a security company. OTOH, their credibility had already bugun to slide since they changed their focus to litigation and Microsoft press releases.
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OOC, where does that phrase (astroturfing) come from? I don't think I've seen it before.
Astroturf is the fake grass used in (American) football stadiums -- especially those with roofs -- in place of real grass, because it's more durable and doesn't require sunlight or watering.
A "grass root" action or campaign is one that is started spontaneously, and is largely sustained, by private persons, as opposed to politicians, corporations, or public relations firms; a "grass roots" campaign comes about because of the popular feelings of some mass of people, as opposed to being the creature of the powerful.
"Astroturfing", then, is a campaign crafted by politicians or spin-doctors, but in such a way as to appear it's the result of popular feeling rather than crafty manipulation by political or corporate elites.
Astroturfing to one degree or another is increasing common in American politics (and business). In reaction to the (often correct) cynicism that politicians and corporations are not acting in the best interests of "the people", an astroturfing campaign attempts to gain legitimacy by appearing to spring forth spontaneously from "the people", like Athena from Zeus's forehead; when it's discovered that the campaign was meticulously crafted and manipulated by the same spin-meisters that public has learned to distrust, the astroiturfing adds to the very cynicism it was designed to circumvent.
One technique of an astroturfing campaign is to induce a number of its supporters to write email, letters to the editor, or in this case, Amazon reviews, in support of the campaign's goals. The campaign instructs the supporters on what to say, how to say it, and where send it, and above all, to make it appear that their indignation, appreciation, joy, or hate is entirely spontaneous and independent -- and thus "real" -- and not at all the product of an orchestrated campaign.
The idea is that the public at large will see lots of apparently "uncoordinated", "spontaneous" and "objective" viewpoints all in line with that of the astroturfing campaign, and will come to believe that if so many of their fellow "citizens next door" believe something, they should believe it too, for all those "independent" viewpoints couldn't have been faked.
With the advent of the internet, it's become even easier to whip up an astroturfing campaign, as the cost of emailing -- especially of emailing a pre-written, sign your name at the bottom email -- is so low. Anonymity, as in the Amazin case, makes it even easier, as one person can play the role of a whole group of like-minded people.
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When you need a temporary adress for registration, other useful solutions are Mailinator and TrashMail.
No GNU has been Hurd during the making of this comment.
A far nastier problem I've experienced firsthand on Amazon.com is the tendency of authors to go through the reviews and demand all of the "bad" ones be removed. Amazon.com's policy is to remove negative reviews upon author or publisher request, even if the points stated by the critic were clearly logical, reasonable, and within the guidelines. I know quite a few other people that have had it happen to as well.
The really disturbing thing in the case of the book I was reviewing was that it advocated emotionally & physically abusing adults with disabilities. Regardless of who pointed it out, the author would have any review that wasn't sterling removed, so the book still has a great rating. Most of the ones remaining are either mindless "I know the author and she's really nice" comments that have nothing to do with the book itself, or testimonials from other wives/husbands that feel it's cool to throw things at, scream in the face of, and emotionally one's disabled partner into feeling deeply inferior. VERY disturbing.