jenk

I was in Windows tech support on the day that some random ~~asshole~~ computer consultant got on the radio in New York and claimed that "NYC" in Wingdings was a Super Secret Special Anti-Semitic Message that Microsoft wants all New York Jews to be killed. Yeah....

I got called a liar on the first call because I hadn't even heard about it (obviously I was supposed to be listening to a particular New York radio station at work, in my cubicle in Bellevue, Washington, in 1992) and I didn't immediately admit my membership in the KKK. By the second call I'd been forwarded the MS press release denying it, so I read the official quotes from Brad Silverberg ... and was called a liar because obviously that name was "so Jewish" it couldn't be someone's real name much less a Microsoft Vice President. *headdesk*

I was also on the Windows 95 team when it had to pull the click-on-your-time-zone feature because of geopolitical issues.

So I guess you could say I'm a bit predisposed to consider Amazon might actually be dealing with an poorly-written algorithm or misrepresented "adult list" data-import or other sort of actual glitch, to realize that tech support isn't always the first people to be notified about anything (and in fact is often suffering from the corporate telephone game), and not expect a full accounting on a Sunday.

Update: No press release yet, but the PI quotes an Amazon spokesman:

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon's main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Of course, as Kate Harding notes on Broadsheet:

[I]t's still not a real apology to all the authors and publishers affected, or the customers who had pretty good reason to wonder if Amazon had indeed instated a homophobic and misogynistic corporate policy, but "ham-fisted and embarrassing" is a surprisingly honest and accurate start.

I also note Women En Large is still unranked. And Essential Dykes is down to #2 in Lesbian Studies! oh noes!!