Amazon gone wild!

March 26, 2005 9:52 PM

Another victim of 'The Amazon Treatment'.Remember the Amazon post from the other day? Well, if you liked that, you'll love this one. This time, it's an anal douche getting what I'm calling "The Amazon Treatment". Amazon's going to scope this out and delete the 'reviews' - therefore if you're so inclined here's your chance to wallow in the merriment. If it's gone by the time you read this, I've copied some of the posts here.
posted by humannature (19 comments total)

I wonder if this kind of thing is becoming widespread on Amazon?
posted by humannature at 9:59 PM on March 26, 2005

Woot the hizzyell?
posted by Vulpyne at 10:02 PM on March 26, 2005

Classic. That second review is pretty nasty, with the whole curling iron thing - taking it a bit far! But humorous, none-the-less. How do these types of products get added? Just who is the class clown??
posted by shoppingforsanity at 10:40 PM on March 26, 2005

Order it used!

Have one to sell?

Add to wedding registry!

Automation really serves up some comedy gold. (All cleverly noticed by the reviewers.)
posted by ontic at 11:22 PM on March 26, 2005

I feel dirty...
posted by Dizzy Bint at 1:09 AM on March 27, 2005

Yes, I do remember that amazon post from the other day. It's still on the front page, even. Do you?
posted by mek at 1:30 AM on March 27, 2005

You didn't even try to disguise that self link.
posted by rhapsodie at 2:07 AM on March 27, 2005

There should be a "Best of Amazon" collection, ala Craig's List. I recall that there were several brilliantly satirical reviews of Bil Keane's Family Circus books before Amazon caught on and wiped them out.
posted by Down10 at 3:01 AM on March 27, 2005

But this...it gets right to the point. ANAL DOUCHE. This was my ray of hope, and I ordered it, hoping for the best.

In principle, I feel like I shouldn't encourage posts like this, but ... this truly is the best of the internet.
posted by blacklite at 3:18 AM on March 27, 2005

There are some completely hilarious things in the Family Circus reviews. There really does need to be a list.
posted by blacklite at 3:29 AM on March 27, 2005

Family Circus
posted by fluffycreature at 6:06 AM on March 27, 2005

Does anyone know if Ping was the first to be bomb with fun reviews on Amazon? That was a good one from many years ago.


Ha! to get the link for this post, I found the first review is still there.

Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and intuitive explanation of one of Unix's most venerable networking utilities. Even more stunning is that they were clearly working with a very early beta of the program, as their book first appeared in 1933, years (decades!) before the operating system and network infrastructure were finalized.

etc.
posted by fluffycreature at 6:11 AM on March 27, 2005

Farking Heee-larious!


MetaFilter: If you read Fark, Kottke, and Yahoo News, you've read 80% of what gets posted here lately.
posted by MadeByMark at 6:29 AM on March 27, 2005

Kottke has a list called 'feel free to leave at any time', subtitled "I steal all my links from these people" (intended I guess to cut off trolls at the knees). It includes 142 sources, one of which is Waxy. Didn't see a link to this particular item on Fark, although maybe if I wade through enough 'Man gives beer to 3 year old' and 'Melissa Midwest' links in their archives, I'd find it. I did search the MF archives for a similar post, and found none. If MF actually did want to be 'first on the net to link', it should request that posters also search a given list of other sources (Fark, Yahoo, whatever). The search engine could be built right into the new-link process, and posts found breaking those rules could be deleted. (I'm personally glad to comply with any rules agreed upon by MF's owners.) I'd be hard-pressed to say that Fark posts wind up here - it's just as likely, if not more so, that some MF posts wind up there.

I come here because (unlike lowest-common-denominator Fark) there are generally a higher caliber of links, and posted this one because the previous Amazon post was well received by this community. Also, I wanted to see if people had spotted a trend in this direction on Amazon, since I was surprised to see another situation in such short order after the Viewsonic piece. Now that we've seen two in a row, and eyes are on it, maybe we'll spot a trend. Or not. But that, too, was a consideration in this post - and a suggestion to look out for a trend wouldn't be possible on Fark or most other sites.

And I made a clearly-labeled archive for everyone's convenience, since the Amazon/Viewsonic post (unlike the MF reference to same) has already been deleted.
posted by humannature at 7:17 AM on March 27, 2005

Just like Fark threads have endless comments moaning the non-inclusion of certain links on the front page, MeFi will have endless comments moaning the inclusion of the links on the front page... that is as certain as night follows day.
posted by clevershark at 9:12 AM on March 27, 2005

Actually, my comment has less to do with MeFi being "first on the net to link" to an item, and more to do with the increasing trend toward what appear to be impulsive, single-link posts (to news blurbs, to previously discussed sites, and to "cute" items with little depth or context).

I come here because (unlike lowest-common-denominator Fark) there are generally a higher caliber of links.

We are likely agreed that there are other places that do a very good job of posting single links. That's why I'm delighted when MeFi community members invest time and effort into well-researched posts incorporating insightful commentary and relevant links.
posted by MadeByMark at 9:15 AM on March 27, 2005

Remember the ad campaign they used to do? "Amazon.com wouldn't fit here." We had one on these huge grain silos here in Portland, Oregon.

Turns out Amazon.com can fit just about anywhere!
posted by nacho at 1:20 PM on March 28, 2005

Oh, Nacho. That's... low.
posted by humannature at 11:13 PM on March 28, 2005

(As anticipated, Amazon removed the 'reviews' today. But the archive lives on.)
posted by humannature at 10:55 AM on March 29, 2005