Slashdot Mirror
RIP: Prolific Amazon Customer Reviewer Harriet Klausner (1952-2015) (teleread.com)
Robotech_Master writes: Prolific Amazon customer reviewer Harriet Klausner passed away last week at the age of 67. Klausner was a controversial figure: She never gave anything a negative review, her review blurbs cast doubt on how closely she actually read what she reviewed, and received dozens of free books per week (which ended up resold on Half.com via her son's account). Nonetheless, for a time she was one of the most recognizable names to any frequent Amazon.com customer; it was rare to come across any popular title that didn't have a Klausner review.
Not many reviewers have ever inspired snarky sites tracking their contributions.
I am confused, doesn't 2015-1952=63 and not 67? Am I missing something here?
She pretty much exemplifies today's online reviewer culture.
I don't read reviews thinking about the reviewers by name specifically. I guess if you are interested in reviews of the content of a book, things may be different, in order to know if the reviewer shares your interests you may have to follow them and get to know them. Book reviews are not a review of the book, they are a review of the content of the book. Broke in 3 days, did not fit, it was the wrong color etc do not apply.
She stated in an interview that she did it for lesser known authors who lacked a publicity machine behind them; so that machine she became. Quite a noble thing to do in your spare time, which she, apparently, had quite a bit of.
Might have something to do with that story voting thingy.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
She's an obscure hero/villain, of course this story belongs on Slashdot. The question is whether you do.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Man, I didn't think they'd go that far!
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Jeff Besos
Your silence about all the MEN posting fake reviews says it all. Come and see the bias inherent in the system!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Maybe that's how she was able to read so many books.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Back in the day, she was a hugely controversial figure among book nerds. As the Slashdot poster added to my submission, Not very many people can inspire snarky sites tracking their contributions, analyzing their statistics, and outright accusing them of fraud simply from the act of posting consumer reviews to an e-commerce site.
The fact that such a thing is even possible could be taken as a metric of just how broadly the Internet has affected our lives.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Which isn't what happened.
Not sure what you mean by this, if indeed it means anything more than "life is like a glass of beer". There are at least four interpretations.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
She didn't post consumer reviews to an e-commerce site?
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
She averaged, what?, three book reviews a day, for years. Mostly new books too, it isn't like she was sitting in front of her computer writing reviews for books she had read decades before.
Unless you're suggesting she actually read all of those books the fraud accusation is just, and unless you knew her personally to have read all of those books the suspicion of fraud is reasonable
I would write a comment, but it would be a review of a review of a reviewer. If this confuses you, perhaps you should review.
What's the expression? Ah, yes:
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
How is it not? She financially benefited from writing fake reviews while claiming they were real. She violated multiple Amazon terms of service to receive compensation.
It's not that the reviews were "fake," it's that they were done for compensation (in the form of free books that she could then resell) without overtly saying so, which the FTC considers deceptive.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Well designed and highest quality. Would read again.
Spam the Amazon book reviews with tons of reviews -> receive lots of free books as a result of that spamming -> sell the free books -> $$$
Well, frankly, no matter how repugnant the person was, publicly slamming an obscure person after they're dead and have no chance of defending themselves seems reasonably petty. Given how vehement Robotech_Master is on the subject, one has to wonder how she personally offended him (note: this is rhetorical, no one but RM cares).
Don't Hate the Playa. Hate the Game.
If my wife has a free day, she absolutely can and does read three trashy pulp novels in a day. She browses 2nd & Charles and picks out their whole inventory of Eagle publishing books on a Friday and has them finished by the end of the weekend. Not saying this is proof, just that it's believable.
Right. Ignoring the fact I was wrong and she was averaging more like 6 books a day, the fact remains that suspicions and charges of fraud are reasonable.
In other news, the related stories shown for this article are
Gunmen Kill 12, Wound 7 At French Magazine HQ
10 Confirmed Dead In Shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College
Nice algorithms you have here...
Looking forward to the many eulogies to be delivered by strangers who did not actually attend her funeral.
and it was rejected. I don't know why. It was honest, objective, non-inflammatory. Just a boring review of how something broke in he first 3 months of lighter than typical usage (stopped working, no warranty).
The reason given for the rejection was that it did not talk about the product directly. I said it worked fine until it stopped working and questioned the build quality. I stopped writing bad reviews after that, not that I've had another bad or defective product.
I noticed on other sites many people have said the same thing that I did in my review. Amazon did however send me a replacement (of a different brand).
What kind of dope reads amazon reviews anyway. Anyone with a brain knows most are total bullshit.
To be fair, they can be quite funny.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it