The People’s Republic of Amazon

In 1958 Chairman Mao decreed that all the sparrows in China should be destroyed to prevent them from eating the wheat in the fields.The result? Mass famine as locusts devoured the wheat with no sparrows to keep them in check. 40 million Chinese starved to death over the next three years.

Recently a bureaucrat at Amazon decided to clean up customer reviews by removing “suspicious” favorable reviews. I suppose this is a response to the paid-review mills across the Internet. Personally, this resulted in the removal of positive reviews posted by my good friend, Sue, for my stories. Sue reads my stories; she likes them; she likes me; she supports me by posting a nice review. Is that sinister?

Conversely, Amazon is not being diligent about removing whacko 1 star reviews. We all get them. One customer admitted she hadn’t actually read Ain’t Love Grand?, but from other reviews thought the couple engaged in sexual intercourse before marriage. "Everyone knows that’s wrong" and thus, she gave it a 1 star rating. My spoof on the Robin Hood legend, Royal Rebel, earned a 1 star rant from a historical purist, even though the description clearly states, “any historical accuracy is pure coincidental.”

Did I scream at Amazon to remove these unfair reviews? No, I figured people are smart enough to recognize bogus thinking. But now Amazon is skewing the ratings in a capricious sweep of positive reviews.

It’s a lot like killing the sparrows and letting the insects eat the fields.

Dana Taylor

www.BookLuvinBabes.com

www.SupernalLiving.com