something that i consider to be very stupid
well, i normally try to come up with something i think is a witty title for my posts. i didn't bother with this one.
i read an article recently that actually woke me up to the reality that people can be more stupid than i have ever given them credit for (you can read the article here). to sum it up, it used to be that when you search for the word "abortion" on Amazon.com, the search feature spell-check suggested that perhaps you may have actually intended to search for "adoption" and then listed "abortion" related search results below the suggestion.
well, someone who is no doubt way too politically correct wrote amazon an e-mail to complain that this was, to put it plainly, discriminatory. the e-mail raised the concern that searches for "adoption" don't bring up a suggestion that the user may have intended to search for "abortion" related entries. the article explains a very legitimate reason why this would happen.
amazon has since changed code for its search engine that would avoid such suggestions. bear in mind, this is based on 1 person complaining. not millions, not thousands, not hundreds or tens...just 1. what i consider most stupid is the complaint.
are you so worried that your stance on abortion is being challenged by alternatives that the slightest possibility of another suggestion being made would set you off?! is your political view on the issue so fragile? really?! how about you get over yourself for 2 seconds and realize that it's so ridiculously unlikely that this is an intentional assault on the method of abortion and more likely that it's just a programming quirk that your complaint is unnecessary? how about you do something more constructive with your time than fight every battle that you perceive to be before you?
i'm actually not even sure what i find more perturbing: the fact that a complaint was e-mailed or the fact that the site changed the search engine based on the one complaint.
posted by johnny m @ 3/21/2006 09:41:00 AM
12 Comments:
On a less serious note, how would you feel if you were a Panda?
probably defensive (?).
read your comment on my blog and had to see yours to get some context. i immediately love yours. would you mind if i post a link on mine?
I think you're right. I think Panda's are quite sensitive, if a little stupid.
Very kind of you to put a link - not sure I merit it.
that's for the masses to decide.
i've read articles similar to this about amazon before; i think it might have been on www.danielpipes.org - not that i'm promoting his ideas, my current job leads me to read up on terrorist related stuff. i think he talked about an incident where someone had purchased a used Koran from a third party seller. it turned out that whoever had owned that particular print of the Koran had written their thoughts on what it had said - and they weren't nice about it to put it mildly. in short, whoever bought it found all this stuff written inside, and immediately took it to some muslim organization, who then threatened amazon. all because of one used book from a third party merchant that only uses amazon as an intermediary. so, it seems amazon likes to play keep away when it comes to any sort of issue, no matter who it is, or how many people bring it up.
here's the link
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2634
wow, MPAC isn't demanding at all is it? you see, for some reason Amazon's response to MPAC in this case makes a little more sense to me. it's an activist organization.
although, there may be a point that if Amazon hadn't responded about the abortion/adoption issue the way they did, they would have the ACLU on their case or something.
also, i think a bit of an overreaction on the part of the buyer of that copy of the koran. it couldn't simply be returned with a note that the book should be replaced?
mmm interesting. i'm a bit too tired to write much now but you are right. they are riduculous complaints when there is so much more important stuff to get riled up about nowadays, and although i'd love more institutions to react so quickly to complaints it does strike me as silly this time... but fear is also ripe...
i'll be back to read more when i'm less sleepy*
there may be more important things, but how perceptions get influenced is important no matter how subtle it is. i recently heard about the spin Eskimos were given about the "benefits" of nuclear blasting in the 60s (yes it is an unfair comparison). to johnny, i think there are way more important stupid things going on too. yes my response is reactionary without having looked into any details about said topic. too busy, too tired . . .
always happy to see comments from a spectrum of people.
dave, notice that i haven't said anything about how this is the most stupid thing going. however, your qualifier of "more important" does make me wonder. is my blog too trivial for you?
of course there are plenty of other stupid things happening...what do you think keeps me blogging...? never a shortage of stupidity.
not too trivial at all.
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