Amazon Pro-Scilon?

GlossLip Is Amazon.com Censoring Negative Reviews Of Scientology Books? Sure Looks Like It

I think that I brought this up once.

As far as I am aware Amazon does this with all their books. They want to keep selling and so censor away flushes of bad reviews. The weird ignorant tool who wrote about Mass Effect as if it was a sex game got a load of negative reviews. Amazon reset the scores to before the article was written.

Honestly, not surprising. When it comes to losing money, corporations really don't give two flying fucks about ethics and what the people want to say. Which is, sort of, their right as a corporation. But it still burns that they would do that.

However, a quick application of Godly Win Wikileaks Salve cures that burn right up.

For every one corrupt organization point. There are at least 15 Wikileak points.

Damn. I thought there was going to be video of a hottie wearing scraps of tigerskin, bullbaiting a mini-raid.

Originally Posted by Edges

Damn. I thought there was going to be video of a hottie wearing scraps of tigerskin, bullbaiting a mini-raid.

Won't fap won't fap won't fap....

crap.

They're pro money.

/end thread

I pointed this out when the mass down rate of all sci books started.

I suggest we email amazon with our concerns and point out that it could be worse for business to come off as pro scientology than it would be to have the books down rated.

Originally Posted by Bakebehe

They're pro money.

/end thread

They may be pro money, but quite obviously, not MY money. There are other retailers out there.

Pissing off a bunch of Anonymous people is not the best possible way to MAKE money IMHO. They have no way to know how much of their customer base will view this action on their part as negative.

If a reviewer only posts for one author or subject yes it will get pitched out. They want non biased reviews. Not so long ago Amazon got spanked when it was reveled authors were exchanging reviews for each other that were positive. Also a few publishing houses had employees going giving very biased reviews.

If you aren't a buyer/seller or a longtime reviewer then no you review will not stay on.

I sent this email to Amazon:

So, I find that it is quite true that Amazon is deleting negative reviews of Dianetics. It is a dangerous book, and I will explain why:

The book has absolutely no scientific basis (Hubbard never submitted any of his studies or experiments to anyone for peer review) and is based solely on Hubbard's own opinions and assumptions that we have a "Reactive Mind" that stores all of our painful memories and that it can be overcome by auditing. When first published, doctors, other authors (even Hubbard's friends), and psychiatrists denounced it as pseudo-science. With no scientific data to back up his claims, this seems more than appropriate.

This book is dangerous: it claims 70% of all illnesses are only in our minds. That means that some people will forgo actual medical treatments in favor of "auditing", which this book claims will cure you of these illnesses.

People have died because they chose Scientology instead of a doctor. You refuse to allow people to point out this danger and sell this product at the extreme risk of any and all of your customers. You take the stance of supporting this dangerous material. Why can the other side not be expressed? Why must you continue to protect this religion? Let people read both sides and decide for themselves.

This is censorship and is outrageous. I can guarantee this will not go unnoticed. The media will be contacted and Anonymous will spread this around as much as possible until you stop censoring our freedom of speech.

jeff bezos jeffb@amazon.com kind of clamped down when I wrote reviews as the author of the bible, sorry about that anon. the real scandal is that amazon puts dianetics and scientology under the category of psychology, or so i've heard. srsly the review system there has been fucked forever. last time i looked they were requiring you to be a paying customer to write reviews, which was new to me.

More likely CoS simply has a program in effect to have people go to places like Amazon and give rave reviews (similar to how they had people getting dozens of ISP accounts in order to flood ars), the more fanatical followers wouldn't even need to be told. It'd be interesting to see how many of the writers of glowing 5-star reviews have reviewed anything else.
They haven't managed to do it on urbandictionary though, look at pages 8 & 9 for the term Scientology

As a pre feb 10th activism, there was a mass down rating of dianetics books and there were at one point as meny negitive anon reviews as there were positive sci reviews.

A suggestion for amazon to allow them to continue selling things dispite hainvg -ve ratings, would be to have a 'this book has been rated 1/5 by our customers, perhaps you'd prefer "link to different book" that has been rated 5/5' section for all book.s

Originally Posted by ravenanon

If a reviewer only posts for one author or subject yes it will get pitched out. They want non biased reviews. Not so long ago Amazon got spanked when it was reveled authors were exchanging reviews for each other that were positive. Also a few publishing houses had employees going giving very biased reviews.

If you aren't a buyer/seller or a longtime reviewer then no you review will not stay on.

Actually, if you review the underlying situation, Amazon actually expressed a reason for the deletion of the reviews in question.

According to Amazon’s final email, a review is improper if it discusses personal opinions regarding the “subject matter,” i.e. Dianetics.

Of course, its written policy does not support even this position.

Moreover, Amazon ignores that Dianetics is a book which actually creates its own subject matter, i.e. “Dianetics.” Thus, this not an instances where, for example, someone reviews a book on WWII and spends the whole time discussing that they hate WWII. Here, the “subject matter” and the book are one in the same.

Thus, Amazon’s position is not only incorrect under its own written policy. It is also circular and dishonest at its core– it can be applied to all meaningful reviews of Dianetics, or any other self help book. This turns the concept of the book “review” on its head.

I see the possibility of a deceptive trade practices act– I would gather that Amazon is removing negative reviews, but not positive, thereby creating a false positive impression for a book that they seek for profit through sales. It is the act of inappropriate systematic deletions of negative reviews that constitutes the misrepresentation, if one is required in the state someone chooses to sue them in.

If someone can punch holes in my position, I would like to hear it. I do not think there is a case out there that says its not a deceptive act for a internet seller to systematically delete negative reviews for the products they sell.

That Amazon's conduct disregards its own policy, and that Amazon has provided an inexorably false and circular explanation would make them look bad before a trier of fact.

Originally Posted by Edges

Damn. I thought there was going to be video of a hottie wearing scraps of tigerskin, bullbaiting a mini-raid.

oh...my...

:D

I also wrote them a really harsh letter last night and the gist of it was basically that I buy a lot of books and some high ticket items from there and really use their recommend this system and reviews (even though I dont review anything myself) and it is wrong for there to be a book with 245 reviews and not one 0 or 1 rating, mind you a book that is ranked 20000+.

I am gonna wait till the guy in India responds to my email.

I'm sorry, but I'll need to research further. I'll write back to you with an answer within the next 1-2 business days.