This is an interesting clip from YouTube which seems to explain what´s happening over at Amazon. Fore some years, Amazon had problems with third party sellers and/or paid reviewers gaming the review system. Apparently, Amazon has now decided to "go nuclear" and purge more or less everyone suspected of posting fake reviews, while also punishing the sellers (for instance by banning reviews of their products altogether for some specified time).
I have a theory about why I was purged from the site, despite not breaking any Amazon rules for the past 12 years. Yes, the All-Knowing New Algorithm thinks I´m an, ahem, biased fake reviewer.
For a long time, I´ve been reviewing a certain kind of products only available from one particular third party seller, let´s call them Vendor X or VX. The last two weeks or so before I was purged, I posted at least 20 reviews of VX products. In total, I probably reviewed 100+ of their products, perhaps much more. So obviously, the Eye of Sauron assumes that I´m paid by VX to "review" their products. I hope VX doesn´t get into trouble because of my reviews! It just struck me how easy this system could be misused by somebody who wants to hurt a certain third party seller: what´s to stop them from opening a fake account and flood Amazon with "positive" reviews of the seller´s products, which then lead to Amazon punishing, perhaps permanently dropping, said seller?
Amazon is said to "audit" the offending sellers to see if they *really* broke the rules, restoring them to their good & tender graces if they didn´t, but since the company seems to operate as a cross between a secret society and the bureaucracy of the Byzantine Empire, I somehow doubt the veracity or efficiency of these "audits". Besides, no audit for purged reviewers seem to exist, and how the hell do I prove I´m *not* on VX´s payroll anyway? I´m one of their most avid afecionados, after all!
So no, I won´t sail upstream the Amazon river again, not unless Jeff Bezos personally sends me a cheque worth $500 so I can buy VX products of my choice and review them at my discretion.
Brace yourselves, guys, we´re gonna have a lot of fun this week, when I commence the Great Orinoco Reposting of Reviews. However, I promise not to post any VX reviews...
Not that many, anyway.
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