Tanka

I'm not really doing the April tanka challenge, but this came to me as I was getting ready to leave the living room. It would seem the November challenge had a somewhat lasting effect (encouraged no doubt by the various tankas some friends on LJ have been posting).


I keep forgetting
That she is no longer here
By habit I look
Before turning out the light.
Goodnight my dear one, Goodnight.

New Patterns from Reconstructing History

14th Century Patterns by kass_rants! Also, a Tax Day/Week Special: Reconstructing History 14th Century Patterns

Amazon

Okay, I'm getting confused. Some folks are saying that even books like Heather Has Two Mommies is unranked (part of process of being relegated to the dust bin without actually removing the books from the sales shelf).

I'm assuming that if there are stars with a book, that means it's ranked. If yes, then every time I've done a search and come across Heather Has Two Mommies, it has been ranked.

??

Also, searching for "homosexual" vs "homosexuality" gives different results. And while the top search result for "homosexual" is
Dark Obsession: The Tragedy and Threat of the Homosexual Lifestyle , there seems to be a mix of books on the page...

And if the stars are the ranking, then why is that so-called parents guide book at the top of the page for "homosexuality" when it has fewer stars than other books on the page (both pro and anti)?

Or are books listed on the page in the order of the number of times people have looked at it, regardless of whether the reviews are positive or negative?

Amazon in the News

'Gay writing' falls foul of Amazon sales ranking system

Apparently some of the inconsistencies have to do with the categories books are listed under. So for instance, the same book might be unranked because it's categorized as 'adult', but another version of the same book is ranked because it's categorized as 'memoir' (example from the article). Oh, and the Playboy stuff was still ranked because it was listed under 'photography'. Oy.

Very bizarre, and they're taking lots of heat. Go team! Whatever their real reasons for doing what they did, they did it very poorly.

That, on top of the way they punish self-publishers who don't use their software/printing system, makes me very glad I mostly order from other places. And now, I'll be working even harder to not order from them.... I think I'm down to once or twice a year, when I can't find something at my usual places. Shouldn't be impossible to make that zero.

Quote of the Day

Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern; one is apt to grow old-fashioned quite suddenly.



- Oscar Wilde