[EkyannusIII]

Was looking at Amazon just now for something written by a man who is a scholar of Roman law and turned up a very funny database goof:




The contrast between a dry tome on the history of Roman historiography a tween horror novel brought a smile to my face.  What other amusing anomalies have you seen at the world's largest online retailer?

[Wilshire]

lol that is awesome.

[sciborg2]

I'm very partial to the life changing banana slicer.

"What can I say about the 571B Banana Slicer that hasn't already been said about the wheel, penicillin, or the iPhone.... this is one of the greatest inventions of all time. My husband and I would argue constantly over who had to cut the day's banana slices. It's one of those chores NO ONE wants to do! You know, the old "I spent the entire day rearing OUR children, maybe YOU can pitch in a little and cut these bananas?" and of course, "You think I have the energy to slave over your damn bananas? I worked a 12 hour shift just to come home to THIS?!" These are the things that can destroy an entire relationship. It got to the point where our children could sense the tension. The minute I heard our 6-year-old girl in her bedroom, re-enacting our daily banana fight with her Barbie dolls, I knew we had to make a change. That's when I found the 571B Banana Slicer. Our marriage has never been healthier, AND we've even incorporated it into our lovemaking. THANKS 571B BANANA SLICER!"

[locke]

not quite hilarious, but this review is second on amazon, and if it gets enough "unhelpful" votes it should push it off the Judging Eye frontpage:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3KWPU098A8Q3B/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B005V22050&nodeID=133140011&store=digital-text

[Wilshire]

not quite hilarious, but this review is second on amazon, and if it gets enough "unhelpful" votes it should push it off the Judging Eye frontpage:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3KWPU098A8Q3B/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B005V22050&nodeID=133140011&store=digital-text

Downvoted, thanks for the post. Can't have the negative propaganda floating around influencing possible readership.
TJE might not have been his best book, but I'd not say it was tedious.

"Tedious: too long, slow, or dull: tiresome or monotonous." If anything, TJE was one of the least "tedious" in the series. I thought it was short and fast-paced, relatively speaking.

[locke]

the tedious comment for the fastest, most compact narrative of the series is really nuts.

[Wilshire]

Makes me think that this person started the series with TJE... Which is absurd and insane. Who starts a series in the middle, and then gets upset that they don't like it?

[Aural]

It's not on the first page anymore. Good work, but perhaps someone who writes better than me should comment on that reply explaining what's wrong with it, so people don't think that Bakker fans are campaigning to down vote negative reviews of his books for no reason (not that that's what happening here).

[locke]

no, there's plenty of negative reviews of his books I don't care about, that particular review was pretty egregiously poor, especially to be so highly rated and on the first page of the book.

[Madness]

Lol... Some people really make me feel quizzical.

[Wilshire]

By quizzical do you mean deep seeded hatred for humanity? Because if so, then I agree.

[Madness]

Nope. I was once told that when I'm at my worst I get a look of... condescension, let's call it. But "quizzical" is probably about the point that I start wondering where someone falls on the spectrum of machineness.

[Kellais]

Makes me think that this person started the series with TJE... Which is absurd and insane. Who starts a series in the middle, and then gets upset that they don't like it?

And THIS makes me think you did  not read the review

He says that he has read PoN.

Which brings me to the following - is it really "cool" to downvote someone who does not like Bakker books? Just because? For example downvoting the review without reading it just so it is not on the frontpage anymore?
I did not think it was that bad a review. I do not agree, obviously, but just downvoting his review seems wrong to me.
We might not find the book tedious but if he does...well he is not wrong.

I just think this is dangerous ground (and i even think Scott might chide us for such behaviour )....it borders on fan-boy-ism.

Just thought i'd throw it out there.

[Royce]

This is hardly a big issue is it Kellais? I do not even bother reading negative reviews of his books. I know before I read it that I will disagree. Because I love them. Simple as that.

It is great that you actually can vote it down, so if enough people do, it will vanish. Democracy in action

I actually left facebook on that specific reason. I was not allowed to show my dislikes towards certain posts, only happy or indifferent. That is not good enough.

[Kellais]

This is hardly a big issue is it Kellais? I do not even bother reading negative reviews of his books. I know before I read it that I will disagree. Because I love them. Simple as that.

I guess it depends on if you think reviews are important? If not, then it is not a big deal (but why then would you feel the need to downvote one?!)
If, like me, you think reviewers do an important job for us readers, i do think it is an issue (not a big issue if you compare to poverty and world hunger etc. sure, but i guess we can agree that we know that we are talking "in perspective" ). The up- and downvote button has a reason for being there and this is not to downvote reviews where you do not like the overall star result. It is for telling other readers which reviews are helpful as in "you can take something with you from reading it". So it is to downvote one-liner reviews like "This books stinks" or "Wow, best book ever!!!". It is decidedly NOT meant to be an instrument for fan-wars! And if you downvote a review just because you do not like the quality assignment the reviewer made (because you think Bakker should get a better one), then yes, this is not what it is intended for. Especially (but not exclusively) if you have not read the review at all.

Just imagine what you would think if, let us say, Terry Goodkind Fans would start to downvote all positive Bakker reviews on the grounds of "Just because Bakker sucks".

And just to be clear - i know that, most probably, lots of people use those buttons for exactly that. I just think this use of it is dishonest and manipulative. This is why those things are useless on amazon. Which is a shame. Because the idea is a sound one.
It's just that i kind of have higher expectations of the people on this forum.
Is that wrong of me?!

I agree this is democracy in action...but it should be democracy in action on grounds of "is this a good REVIEW" not "Is this a review i think i can agree with in its overall sentiment in respect to my favourite author"!

As to the fb comment...i agree there should be a dislike button. On the other hand, if you disagree with something, you can always make a comment to that effect. But yeah, even if i am on fb, i am not a big fan of it. I just use it to stay in touch with my friends that do not live close anymore. Everything else is of no use to me.