User: madrobins Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:34 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Oh my god. Search for gay and you get Not-Gay With a Vengeance? If they didn't intend this, they should be properly horrified. If they did...unspeakable.

User: scrollgirl Date: 14 Apr 2009 01:20 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: ats angel brood evergleam83

Well, not that this makes #1 and 5 any better, but #3 and 4 are actually about reconciling Christianity and homosexuality, healing rifts, etc, not about curing people of their sexual orientation.

Of course, when I do the search for "homosexuality", A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality is still #1 and #3 is You Don't Have to Be Gay: Hope and Freedom for Males Struggling With Homosexuality or for Those Who Know of Someone Who Is. *gags a little*

User: svilleficrecs Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:34 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

As much as 90% of me is reserved for outrage/hoping this is fixed ASAP, 10% of me is secretly a little gleeful that the existence of non-porn Gay Romance novels is going to be above the fold news tomorrow all over the place tomorrow. Sucks that such PR has got to come out of that, OTOH... the distinct possibility that tomorrow on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart's going to make a joke about gay pirates with the cover of, like, Transgressions or something over his shoulder. In front of millions of people. :D

Between the recent news hooks of Iowa and Vermont, and the opportunity to discuss adult material "just look at this playboy they still list" I can't imagine any outlet passing this opportunity up.

User: jonquil Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:38 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Powell's are said to be contemplating a sale on LGBTQ books.

User: qthewetsprocket Date: 13 Apr 2009 00:11 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: omg

are they? *proudly* that's my homies...

*loves having a powell's close enough to shop at every week*

User: svilleficrecs Date: 13 Apr 2009 01:20 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Whoever's in a position to benefit from selling any of the banned titles had better be positioning themselves to capitalize on the PR, I'd hope.

User: jonquil Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:39 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

It's already in the process of being fixed; at various of the blogs that publicized the problem people are showing up saying "You guys are crying wolf, I can't see a thing. Typical." Many of the books I couldn't find rankings for two hours ago are back.

User: neadods Date: 13 Apr 2009 00:15 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

I have got to give them points for backpeddling *that* fast. I guess they weren't expecting the news to spread as quickly and as angrily as it did.

User: svilleficrecs Date: 13 Apr 2009 01:22 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Good to hear! And I sincerely hope that it would been fixed just as quickly without the shitstorm. ;)

User: sabra_n Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:51 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Oh! You're so right! I can't wait until the Comedy Central crews get their hands on this.

User: danceswithwords Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:35 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: john-omgwtfbbq-sdwolfpup

Lovely. I want to blame a really crappily designed wide-net algorithm rather than moustache-twirling evil for this thing, but they HAD to have anticipated, or at least tested and seen, results like this.

Edited at 2009-04-12 11:36 pm (UTC)

User: jonquil Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:37 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Yup. If they'd just been operating on keywords, those books would have been missing, too.

User: katharine_b Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:40 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Thank you for this! Is it okay if I link to this on Twitter?

User: jonquil Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:41 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Absolutely. I'm grateful to prusik for capping it; within an hour or so people will be claiming it never happened.

User: katharine_b Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:48 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Yes, I'm so glad that was captured! Ugh.

I linked this post on twitter and on my other blog.

User: gigerisgod Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:41 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

i don't want to believe that was intentional but given they had to have tested it i don't know what else to think.

that's effed up.

User: dichroic Date: 13 Apr 2009 00:56 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

You'd be amazed what doesn't show up unless you plan your testing really, really well (speaking as someone who used to test software, at various times for both websites and life-critical applications like airplane software). I'd expect Amazon to employ some of the best in the business, but even the best make mistakes. Though I will be more likely to believe it's a mistake (or a hack by an about-to-be-fired individual) if they actually post an apology instead of just quietly fixing the issue.

User: daedala Date: 12 Apr 2009 23:55 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Heather Has Two Mommies still doesn't show up in searches from the main page. :(

If you look closely at the first 16 items listed, only 2 are anti-gay. I'd say that's not too bad.

User: daedala Date: 13 Apr 2009 00:14 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

You miss the point. I searched for a unique title by its exact name and did not find the book.

In what way is that "not too bad"?

ETA: Screencap. There's an out-of-print edition and a Spanish translation at the bottom of the page, but I don't have a screepcap tool that will pull the full window at the moment.

Edited at 2009-04-13 12:20 am (UTC)

User: serrana Date: 13 Apr 2009 01:19 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

When I look at the list in the cap above, I see only two that aren't anti-gay.

When I pulled up the list myself, earlier this afternoon, the ratios were similarly biased.

p.s. Jonquil, today I taught the Mac to screencap, which I was last able to do with my 386! Go, me!

User: jonquil Date: 13 Apr 2009 01:52 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

#technologywin!

User: serrana Date: 13 Apr 2009 02:19 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

I am glad to say that this was a skill acquired in order to submit DW bug reports, and not actually caused by internet assholiness.

And what is this hash marks stuff? Is that some Twitter artifact that I'll have to be all grouchy-old-ladyish about?

(And, you know, there is a Mac keyboard shortcut for screencapping, and of course C. knew it when I asked. I swear. *takes a commemorative screencap to celebrate own technical failings*)

Edited at 2009-04-13 02:23 am (UTC)

User: jonquil Date: 13 Apr 2009 03:15 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

It's apparently how you mark things up to do keyword search. (I figured this out today. Let us be crotchety together.)

User: serrana Date: 13 Apr 2009 03:40 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Really. Hunh. That's fascinating. Can it be used in combination with Boolean stuff, or not?

(Crotchets right back at you. Actually, did you know that in Scottish fiddling, a crotchet is, I think, a quarter-note? I may be wrong about the duration of the note, but it is how they talk about it.)

User: scrollgirl Date: 14 Apr 2009 01:35 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: misc walksawayslowly hermionesviolin

But that's not actually true! I mean, unless you think any attempt to reconcile homosexuality with Christianity is anti-gay. Yes, #1, 5, and 8 are books about "curing" homosexuality. But #3, 4, and 7 are books that try to reconcile being Christian with being gay and/or debunk the argument that the Bible is anti-gay.

I'm just sayin'. Christians can be gay too, and sometimes we write books. (ETA: Or sometimes we're straight, and we still write pro-gay Christian books.)

Edited at 2009-04-14 01:37 am (UTC)

User: serrana Date: 14 Apr 2009 01:42 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

*cough* I am aware.

I wasn't counting "For the Bible Tells Me So" as anti-gay -- I've seen it, and it's quite emphatically not. The other "Christian" materials in that list? I do think it's reasonable to refer to them as anti-gay (love the sinner, hate the sin, my ass.)

User: scrollgirl Date: 14 Apr 2009 01:53 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

I haven't read any of them, so I was kind of giving #3 the benefit of the doubt based on descriptions. But from what I've read of Justin R. Cannon and The Bible, Christianity & Homosexuality, it's not at all anti-gay.

User: dichroic Date: 13 Apr 2009 00:58 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

It's back up now, in multiple editions and languages. (I'm amused to find that the Spanish edition uses my name instead of 'Heather'.)

User: daedala Date: 13 Apr 2009 02:34 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Not when I search.

Are you using the "all departments" search?

User: dichroic Date: 13 Apr 2009 02:48 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Yes. I went to the main Amazon.com page, didn't log in (that is, it recognizes me but if I were to try to access, say, details of a previous shipment it would still ask me to sign in), didn't select anything special, and searched in All Departments. Just tried it again, same result.

User: daedala Date: 13 Apr 2009 18:53 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

It looks like the fixes are having weird propagation issues -- I can find Heather Has Two Mommies, now, but the "homosexuality" search is similar to the screencap.

User: brendalu Date: 13 Apr 2009 00:06 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: beer

Wow. Just wow.

User: qthewetsprocket Date: 13 Apr 2009 00:12 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: wtf??

sometimes, there is just not enough facepalm in the world.

User: denynothing1 Date: 13 Apr 2009 00:59 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: john + cat

Good gravy. I just sent an email after being alerted by your posts and others on my flist, because the whole thing *sounded* bad, but if ever there were an example of a picture being wort an thousand words -- Wow.

User: cindy_pon Date: 13 Apr 2009 01:10 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

serious FAIL.

sign petition :

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/in-protest-at-amazons-new-adult-policy#signatures

User: denynothing1 Date: 13 Apr 2009 01:17 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: You Are Here

Thanks -- I signed a bit earlier thanks to prompting from someone on my other flist. Thankfully, the reaction to this seems to be really picking up speed and strength.

User: veejane Date: 13 Apr 2009 01:52 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Seriously? That's a department head cruising to be fired.

User: agharta75 Date: 13 Apr 2009 10:30 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Department head? Ha ha. They're going to fire, if anyone, the person that turned on the database filter and perhaps a couple of code monkeys; and try to spin away that they've had an ongoing policy of choosing to mark specific books as "teh gay". Wonder what other tags are in their database ...

User: brewsternorth Date: 13 Apr 2009 03:34 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

Holy cow. If this was, as has been suggested, a #bantown metatrolling a la Strikethrough, it was an epic one, since clearly they were able to bid up the anti-LGBTQ books as well as bid down the pro-LGBT titles. In which case Amazon is to blame for epic security fail.

User: cofax7 Date: 13 Apr 2009 04:40 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: XF - Scully Facepalm

::facepalm::

User: kshandra Date: 13 Apr 2009 07:51 (UTC) Subject: (no subject) Keyword: Bisexual Fury

And the rankings here are changing - I don't have as deep a cap, but this shows the title you have in the #8 position now in #3; the #3 book in your cap has (as of this writing) dropped to #7.

User:	urban_homestead
Date:	13 Apr 2009 12:34 (UTC)
Subject:	(no subject)
Keyword:	Sanctuary (by eyesthatslay)

Gosh, I'd be pleased to think that the higher profile given to the books about Christianity and homosexuality would help people become more knowledgeable about that important and timely issue. Now perhaps people will read them, and become aware that the New Testament injunctions against "homosexuality" are all mistranslations of injunctions against child abuse and prostitution. That, in fact, there could not possibly be anything about homosexuality in the New Testament because Koine Greek did not even have a term to describe consensual, adult same-sex relationships.

That *is* what all those religious books about homosexuality and Jesus would be about, right?

... right?

But 'Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality' and 'For the Bible Tells Me So' are both books that confront and challenge homophobia within Christianity. The Jack Rogers books is excellent and goes through historical and exegetic reasons for fully including gay and lesbian Christians in the life of the church and for recognizing same-sex partnerships as being as equally blessed as straight ones. He comes up with some great historical material showing that the way conservative pastors defended slavery and segregation exactly parallels the language they now use when defending homophobia. And, 'For the Bible Tells Me So' is a really moving and beautiful documentary about the Christian parents of gay and lesbian children, and absolutely comes down on the side of full inclusion.

User:	urban_homestead
Date:	13 Apr 2009 15:29 (UTC)
Subject:	Re: The other books don't look so good...
Keyword:	Sanctuary (by eyesthatslay)

Huh. Well, 2/8 is a quarter, which is better than I was expecting, to be honest. Thanks for the update! I love it when my pessimism turns out to be unwarranted. :)

User: jonquil Date: 13 Apr 2009 15:50 (UTC) Subject: Re: The other books don't look so good...

Make it 3/8: King & King and Family seems to be about a gay couple.

User: pingback_bot Date: 13 Apr 2009 17:58 (UTC) Subject: Wiscon crankiness, AmazonFail, sundry linkage

User cofax7 referenced to your post from Wiscon crankiness, AmazonFail, sundry linkage saying: [...] d kicked Mark Probst's inquiry upstairs. The most telling result of all of this, to my mind, is this screencap. Pretty much says it all. * In other news, sent me this link last night, and yeah, I loved it.(Susan Boyle on Britain's ... [...]

User: agentotter Date: 13 Apr 2009 22:26 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

This is only a minor comfort, but result #4, the For The Bible Tells Me So DVD, is an excellent documentary film on Christian religion and homosexuality, and is strongly pro-homosexual.

The rest of those results almost make me want to rethink my stance on book-burning. Oh, Amazon. How come you gotta play that way?

User: jonquil Date: 13 Apr 2009 22:28 (UTC) Subject: (no subject)

King and King and Family and one other cited by urban_homestead are also gay-supportive, so that's a mighty 3 out of 8 okay!