Olivier Travers

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Home > Archives > 2004 > February > 14 > Amazon Glitch Unmasks War of Reviewers
Amazon Glitch Unmasks War of Reviewers

NYT:

"Close observers of Amazon.com noticed something peculiar this week: the company's Canadian site had suddenly revealed the identities of thousands of people who had anonymously posted book reviews on the United States site under signatures like "a reader from New York."

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 a book — when they think no one is watching."

I can't help thinking this glitch was intentional to keep people on their toes. Except in very specific contexts where anomity makes sense, I tend to downplay anything written by someone who won't stand by their words.


Category(s): meta-tagging the universe ·
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