they've removed gay/lesbian lit. from "amazon sale ranks" and have essentially removed gay/lesbian lit. from searches.

i can understand if amazon was put in a hard place as a target in a situation similar to that of the LJ/sixapart incident, but even if it went down like that it doesn't completely absolve amazon from the responsibility for me.

in the entry above with the sixapart pedophile incident, it's mentioned that sixapart "reacted rashly". in this case amazon could have similarly "reacted rashly", but as a company that has such widespread presence, i strongly feel that they have a duty to not react rashly.

*laugh*

i don't see my reacting rashly as being analagous to them reacting rashly. it has to do with who delivers it and who the audience is.

consider if i accidentally utter the words "fucking shit". the impact of that coming from me depends on various circumstances. If i say it accidentally in front of my college students, no harm or foul. if i say it in front of some of my high school students, it's a much bigger deal. but i understand that as someone who is impressionable in a public school system that it's my responsibility to not let slips like that happen.

now consider if it's not me who utters "fucking shit" but if it's George W. Bush or Barack Obama. we've already seen how W's lack of eloquence as a public speaker has had such a negative impact on him. we've already seen how something as little as Obama not following the inaugural script exactly caused a stir in the people saying "he's not really president!" If they were to accidentally utter "fucking shit" then regardless of whether it was an accident or not, it would have a huge impact on the world, and even if most of the impact was the public "reacting rashly", they understand as politicians that that can have long-lasting affects, that it's their duty to ensure that such slip ups would never ever happen.

amazon understands this responsibility too as a global presence, as a company who is ranked number 1 in the UK as a music and video retailer; that's why there's such a thing as UAT testing and a migration process that likely requires a huge number of signatures before it can move from UAT into production. regardless of whether it was deliberate, a result of a scapegoat, incompetence in IT, or whatever, better measures could have been taken to prevent it.

do i sympathize with them for such a thing? surely. does that change my perspective on it? not really. will i ever change my stance on it? it's hard to say. i still refuse to get gas at an exxon because of that whole oil spill incident, and that was what, 15 years ago?

that said, that LJ entry was a good read. and it brings to light somewhat of a double standard because i sort of *do* forgive sixapart for the pedophile glitch that happened, although similar to this i acknowledge that they have to take responsibility for it being a similar prominent global internet presence. i know i'm not perfect. :D