People Are Idiots
I managed to miss the broohah of the past few days regarding an apparently clinically insane romance author who managed to get a user banned from Amazon for giving her a 3-star review, and I’m only catching up with it now (for a good summary, Steve is your man).
Tess Gerritsen wrote a tongue-in-cheek ‘there but for the grace of god’ piece of musing of her own, whereupon a bunch of people in the romance world responded. Starting (mostly) reasonably sanely and largely concentrating on the issue of the original Amazon thing, before some slowly went mad.
(Edited chunk here following Tess’s comment. Mea culpa, etc.)
The whole argument is one of those quite barkingly stupid shouting matches that only happens on the internet or between drunks. I’d recommend reading it only for trainwreck rubbernecking.
I hope Tess eventually reconsiders putting an end to her blog because she’s always been well worth a read. I hope that the original psychotic romance author gets the treatment she deserves.
I also hope that everyone who gives me a bad review on Amazon is gored to death by water buffalo in heat.
Am I being serious? Am I not? And what’s that distant mooing sound?
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I'm John. I'm a professional writer, a student photographer and a dabbler in web design. I live in a dull English seaside town with my girlfriend and our little boy. When I'm not involved in any of the above, I spend my time gaming, following football and reading 'n shite. You can reach me here, or by emailing yemighty [at] hotmail.com.
5 comments on "People Are Idiots"
John,
I must tell you that I added the “other” a day later, in hopes that the post would be better understood. So they didn’t really get the orignal blogpost wrong.
But thanks for the comments.
- Tess Gerritsen @ 22.04.08 / 01pm
p.s.: I’ve gone back and enclosed the updates (new link explanations, etc.) in parentheses.
- Tess Gerritsen @ 22.04.08 / 01pm
I did wonder that after I posted. D’oh!
- John R @ 22.04.08 / 03pm
I saw a little of this and was baffled. And poor Tess must wonder what she did wrong. I too hope she sticks with the blog because she writes plenty of interesting posts about the frontline of being a writer.
As for Amazon, I solve the problem by writing all my reviews myself, including those that appear under the name of “Harriet Klausner”.
- Kevin Wignall @ 22.04.08 / 04pm
Every time this happens, it’s the writer with humor and intelligent insight that leaves the internet and the hateful and patently bored ones that self-righteously stay. The use of such strong wording in what is a difference of opinion and taste is flabbergasting.
I have a don’t like it, don’t read it stance.
Tess was always a good read because she had something to say that went beyond superficial self-promotion. She is one of the most intelligent and thoughtful people I’ve meet. As others have said, at least we still have her books.
Damn.
- Jen Jordan @ 28.04.08 / 05pm