Comments on: The case of the disappearing Amazon reviews

By: Karen Kelly

Karen Kelly — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:40:46 +0000

Hi Scott - A few days ago all 13 customer reviews of my book, THE SECRET OF THE SECRET disappeared. I have asked Amazon twice about this, and even left a “review” pointing out that the reviews were gone. I have yet to hear an answer. I think there is a story here. It’s bizarre, but somehow I feel better knowing it has happened to other people. I am glad you got all your reviews back, and I hope mine some back as well!

By: links for 2007-07-12 « Mike Does Tech

links for 2007-07-12 « Mike Does Tech — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:07:10 +0000

[...] Scott Rosenberg’s Wordyard » Blog Archive » The case of the disappearing Amazon reviews [...]

By: Anne Wall

Anne Wall — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:17:16 +0000

It seems to me that it may be related to Amazon’s new policy of reviews. They won’t allow anyone to publish a review that hasn’t made a purchase with the account they’re logged in with. That way, they’re trying to cull out reviews from trolls and the like.

I may have evidence refuting my own point, though, because the reviews for “Blue Moon Rising” by Simon Green are overwhelmingly positive, but the book itself is complete rubbish. If it weren’t for having read his other work earlier, I would have dismissed him as a hack.

Seriously. Don’t read “Blue Moon Rising.” It’s crap.

By: jeremy

jeremy — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:10:42 +0000

Censorship disguised as a database error. Perhaps they’re just running out of space, and have a new policy of deleting reviews that don’t reach a certain amount of votes in a certain time?

By: james

james — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:52:58 +0000

This also happened to me. I wrote an extremely funny, yet extremely scathing review for Stephen Kings “The Dark Tower VII” book. It generated something like 50 helpful votes over about a year, then was removed. I figured it was censorship at the time, but based on your story, maybe Amazon just has software problems?

By: Scott Rosenberg

Scott Rosenberg — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:50:37 +0000

No, this didn’t seem to be based on culling the negatives. It’s date-based, which is why it smells like a database issue of some kind to me. But who knows? I’m glad your reviews reappeared, Tim — hoping mine will too!

By: ben

ben — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:38:47 +0000

Did the bulk of your negative reviews disappear with the purge? I’ve had reasonable and informed critical reviews deleted and have seen others deleted as well — for many books. A classic case was with ‘A Million Little Pieces,’ which received a large number of negative reviews after it was revealed the author made a lot of this memoir up. However, almost as soon as the negative reviews started coming in, Amazon started deleting them. I love their review system, but find it a lot harder to trust anymore.

By: Save

Save — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:19:13 +0000

You would think they would want all that UGC on their site for SEO and testimonials

By: The Case of the Missing Amazon Reviews - Ministry of Tech - The Best of Tech

The Case of the Missing Amazon Reviews - Ministry of Tech - The Best of Tech — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:50:17 +0000

[...] to think that their review might go missing, then they’re less likely to bother writing it. ::Link Technorati Tags: Web Related Posts Confirmed: Amazon will launch DRM-Free music storePriceheat : [...]

By: Turulcsirip - hirbehozo

Turulcsirip - hirbehozo — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:30:40 +0000

[...] The case of the disappearing Amazon reviews http://www.wordyard.com/2007/07/10/disappearing-amazon-reviews/ « előző | hirbehozo — 2007. 07. 11. [...]