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Happy Easter everyone!

This has been the best Easter I've spent for many years - at least three, probably... four or five. kayloulee, phrasemuffin, sommeille and cameo appearances from xxlucyferxx and tahira_saki made it so. Verily. Our cooking was more entertaining than exact, but it was a truly excellent way to spend three and a bit days, I tell you.

Awrighty...

Apparently twitter is awash with this, and kayloulee's flist are all over it like a red rash, but in case you missed the news:

Amazon have 'deranked' a whole host of supposedly adult literature. That means that the books' sales rankings don't show, they don't appear in bestseller lists, and (i think) they won't appear in the 'people who bought this also bought' boxes, since I'm under the impression those boxes run on the sales ranking data. Books affected include Heather has two mommies, Lady Chatterly's Lover, and The Well of Loneliness, as well as a bunch of LGBT non-fiction and a stash of het romance novels by female authors.

A full list of books known to be deranked can be found here. The article above, from cnet news, gives the impression that the objections are primarily from 'some in the gay community', although it closes with an excerpt from a public letter by author Kassia Kroszer (full text here), as evidence that some straight people are also miffed.

Allow me to quote tehdely:

Basically, #amazonfail is the name for a brewing Internet shitstorm that started some time on Easter Sunday regarding Amazon.com's sudden decision to blacklist any books with LGBT(QQI) content from appearing in best-seller lists or search results. The blacklist also apparently extends to books with feminist themes, books about dealing with rape, etc. Initial complaints to Amazon resulted in the following stock response, which just angered people more:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

"GAY CONTENT IS ADULT??!! RAPE SURVIVOR CONTENT IS ADULT?!!?? HOW DARE YOU AMAZON RARARGH INTERNET RAGE!" responded the masses, freely pointing out the continuing availability of straight porn and sex toys in Amazon search results (or dog-fighting books or trashy romance novels or Mein Kampf or anything else that would be found "objectionable" by any reasonable standards). Clearly a double standard was at play.

Over here, you can find a list of Unarguably adult content which has NOT been deranked. Unsurprisingly, this is predominantly hetero-centric adult content, with the added joy of anti-homosexuality books. Currently, if you search for 'homosexuality' on Amazon, you're more likely to find conservative screeds than, say 'The Dictionary of Homophobia'. Amazon are saying that it's a 'glitch', changing their tune after first saying it was a decision made 'in the interests of their entire customer base'. tehdely, who apparently worked for SixApart at one stage, suggests that Amazon have an automatic mechanism which deranks books after a certain thresh-hold of complaints, and goes on to suggest that a group such as Warriors for Innocence, the group whose agitation kick-started the LJ Strikeout, may be behind #amazonfail.

The ladies of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, a female romance authors' blog, propose a new verb, Amazon Rank, are entering it on urbandictionary.com, and respectfully request the aid of the intarwubs in googleboming the definition. They are now the number one google result for the phrase 'Amazon Rank'. As they say:

It’s time to hit ‘em where it hurts. No, not a boycott. When you want someone to pay attention, you hit ‘em in the PR.

Another fascinating tidbit: moony, while deleting her Amazon account, has discovered that if you attempt to list 'The homosexual agenda' as your interest, a profanity error occurs.

*crankyface*

Worth a read...

Glitch my ASS, by Lilth Saintcrow.