Various stuff and AMAZON FAIL again....

[erastes]

The sun has really been glorious today, and we’d better make the most of it, apparently, as the cold weather is coming back next week. Perhaps we’ll get a white Christmas. Hope so!

I downloaded the Director’s Cut version of Broken Sword 1 and it’s a JOY. There’s a ton of extra content, the game has been mildly revamped with updated dialogue and new graphics without losing any of the look and wit of the original. I hope they do a director cut of the second game too. OR DO MORE GAMES. THANK YOU PLEASE, REVOLUTION. It also runs in a nice little DOS type pop out window so you don’t have to keep tabbing back to Windows to check your email.

Why do some editors question an author what a word means before looking it up themselves? I wish they wouldn’t. It’s very annoying. Just because you don’t know a word, don’t ask the author what it means. If you think it’s too obscure for the reader, then, yes, point that out, although I’ll generally disagree, because I don’t think readers needs to be dumbed down to, but if YOU don’t know what it means, look it up! *smitey* +

I haven’t seen this on my flist anywhere yet, but I’d like to broadcast this regarding Amos Lassen who is one of the top reviewers on Amazon.  Due to jealous and vicious attacks from other people on Amazon, Amazon have removed all of his reviews and have removed his posting access.  He’s now set up his own review site, which I’m sure will soon become “the” review site for GLBT books, as he’s an amazing reader.

Here’s his statement under the cut. I’d be very grateful if we could get this broadcast widely, because ONCE AGAIN Amazon fail. MASSIVELY.

To those of you who want to know what happened at amazon: a group of jealous reviewers who felt I reviewed too much and had risen to fast decided to accuse me of plagiarism and mocked up reviews that I did not write and used them for evidence. Amazon believed them and decided to delete all of my reviews and take away posting privileges. This means that I will not be posting on amazon again but on my own review blog at http://www.facebook.com/l/7b971KtzkcWvkZp8H-qVZHYah_w;amoslassen.wordpress.com/ as well as my home board http://www.facebook.com/l/7b9711pgTsZ2bHpKCM20yTNoBGQ;eurekapride.com. http://www.facebook.com/l/7b971Vtca7pUBbJft9vdZi-kfJQ;tla.com, facebook, Your review on amazon was not lost—they are all on http://www.facebook.com/l/7b9711pgTsZ2bHpKCM20yTNoBGQ;eurekapride.com which is in the process of moving to a new server and will be down for a few more days, None of the reviews are lost.

LiveJournal Tags: amos lassen,amazon FAIL,broken sword

Eventually they wil find their way to my review blog but there are 5000+ reviews to move. This is nowhere near over. I am working with Lambda Legal and we are slapping these people with a slander/libel suit and charging them with a hate crime. We are also suing Amazon for non-protection of a top reviewer since I notified them the day this started and not one of my emails was answered. These people called the universities here in Arkansas, wrote to Lambda Literary, contacted publishing houses and authors and showed them that I am a plagiarizer. They have pulled part of my world from under me and broken my spirit—I am a good man devoted to seeing GLBT culture move forward but not everyone feels it should. Look at DADT and here it happened in our own house. I am really sorry for those of you who wanted Amazon reviews but we now know how Amazon feels about us.

+this was not prompted by anything that’s happened to me recently, in case anyone says “thou should not slag off the industry.”

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Comments

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[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

I've had editors flag words they didn't know with incorrect definitions on more than one occasion. I've referred them to specific online sources to verify my usage of the word. It really irks me when an 'editor' doesn't know and can't bother to find the meaning of a word before they flag it in my story.

I am really starting to loathe Amazon. Unfortunately I can't even look at anything regarding the incident--other than what you have posted here--because I don't have and refuse to get a facebook account. Like MySpace it seems like a grand waste of time to me.

Clicked the dragons.

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[enolabloodygay.livejournal.com]

Broken Sword??? OMG, I want! Does Nicole still appear to 'get it from down my bra'? And could I still go round shrieking ' 'ave it!' WHY did I ever sell it?

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[erastes.livejournal.com]

seriously - you will love it - and it's only about three dollars. it's COMPLETELY worth the very small expense.

(frozen) Links without FB redirects

[psion67.livejournal.com]

http://amoslassen.wordpress.com/

and

http://www.eurekapride.com/ - although this is not working for me at the moment

(frozen) Re: Links without FB redirects

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

The wordpress site just has his reviews. I was interested in reading his comments regarding the amazon fail issue which I didn't see here.

The second site listed there won't come back until someone who runs the site notices and fixes the access problem.

(frozen)

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Amazon's too big and too powerful--absolute power is never used for good. Here's a timely article -- maybe Amos should contact this site and let them know the latest.

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/149124

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[enolabloodygay.livejournal.com]

Where??? How?? Tell me. Now.

I'm sorry, I can string more than two words together, honestly.

Now. Tell me.

(frozen)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Gog.com

they have some great old school games.

(frozen)

[devilmet67.livejournal.com]

This is amazing. As one of the persons Amos Lassen is referring to in this misleading manifesto (John Green) let me tell you he's working very hard to hide this ehind a mask of GLBT outrage to deflect the real issues. Lassen's entire history on Amazon was revealed to be one of plagiarism- he was discovered because he'd stolen from another Amazon reviewer and had to apologize for it. A few others also complained and he responded with some venom; a closer look at his works showed a concrete pattern of behavior. As it's been said- 'it's only the first time once'. His sources of material included- IMDb, The New York Times, Booklist, DVD Talk, cinemattraction, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, TheAdonisFactor... maybe you've heard of these organizations.

When confronted about his actions he took the only options available to him: misdirection and harassment. He's even gone so far as to openly urge supporters on his FB page to troll the personal emails of some of the people from the Amazon forum which exposed him.

All of the above is readily available for you to see for yourselves at the Amazon Plagiarism thread: http://www.amazon.com/tag/top%20reviewers/forum/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2Z5LRXMSUDQH2&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx3G2K48RKN2YEP

If this seems too big a pill to swallow a Reader's Digest version complete with screen captures is available here: http://www.todayiread.com/amos-lassen-plagiarist/

Only thing I'd ask of you is to kindly pass along this information, regardless what you think of it, so that a more complete picture of events can be seen.

(frozen) Just a thought...

[the-ann-kat.livejournal.com]

I found my way here via my website's referrer stats and I must applaud Mr. Green, but there's something else I'd like to add:

Lassen said, "I am really sorry for those of you who wanted Amazon reviews but we now know how Amazon feels about [the GLBT and Judaic communities]."

I call B.S.

Amazon rescinded Lassen's reviewing privileges and deleted only *his* reviews. All other reviews on the products he reviewed are still there and they have not stopped anyone else from reviewing those products. I can only hope that someone with a bit more integrity will step up and write proper reviews for those products.

(frozen) Re: Just a thought...

[amos lassen (from livejournal.com)]

and for someone who has no real idea of what is going on you certainly consider yourself to be an authority. The real BS comes from people like you who jump on a vigilante bandwagon so people will know who you are. Do your research, post your garbage and watch true justice win out. What a sad excuse for a person you are, hiding behind a computer screen playing God. You jumped on this because it could benefit you, you thought. And you too shall go the way the rest of the group will go. So you feel like a Joan of Arc? Remember how she ended up..................My garbage has more value than you. You have posted on every blog you could and I have ignored you but that is over--keep posting--you need the ego trip. What a sad unhappy person you must be and what an opportunist.

(frozen) Re: Just a thought...

[amos lassen (from livejournal.com)]

what in the hell is a "Judaic community"? I call you bs--shows your integrity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(frozen) Re: Just a thought...

[the-ann-kat.livejournal.com]

Nice deflection, Mr. Lassen, however, it still does not change the facts:

1. Amazon reviews under your reviewer account contained content lifted from other copyrighted sources. This is verifiable using Google cache, the Internet Archives, and some of the reviews were missed in Amazon's sweep so are still accessible.

Here is but one example that Amazon missed in their mass deletion: http://www.amazon.com/Mans-World-Rupert-Smith/dp/1906413800/ (That first paragraph of your review looks stunningly similar to the product description and that second paragraph looks stunningly similar to the second paragraph of the review which came 10 days before yours.)

2. You were found out and Amazon rescinded your reviewing privileges and deleted your standing reviews.

3. You're upset and sought the GLBT community's help to blackball Amazon (and the people who reported you)--leaving out a good chunk of the story--rather than try to right your wrongs.

So let me repeat: Amazon has not deleted any other reviews on the books/DVDs/products you reviewed and others are still welcome to leave their own feedback.

This entire mess could have been avoided had you: a) removed the plagiarised bits from your reviews; b) properly attributed the lifted content; or b) simply not copied anyone else's words in the first place.

By the way, you should look up the definition of integrity because it seems you don't quite understand the meaning of the word.

As for my response to your personal attacks against me, see: http://www.todayiread.com/amos-lassen-responds/

(frozen) Re: Just a thought...

[amos lassen (from livejournal.com)]

you are a clever opportunist you are but you are that much less of a person--ride the wave to victory, you think? For I shall watch your ship and your nasty self sink.

(frozen) Re: Just a thought...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

kindly take this to your own forums. i'm freezing this thread.