You Don't Mess With The Klausner

[penpusher]

In case anyone was wondering about my amazon.com issue, here are the pathetic, sordid and embarrassing facts.

I might never have discovered any of this if someone hadn't made a comment to one of my reviews. So I replied by crafting a well formed answer. When I hit return, the system erased my reply and told me I was "not a member in good standing in the Amazon community," so I was not permitted to post anything to any reviews.

I wrote to amazon for an explanation. They told me I had been "harassing" and that I had lost my "good standing" privileges. Therefore, I could not ever post comments.

Upon further explanation, the "harassing" I did was directed at Harriet Klausner, who is one of the top reviewers for the website, and who was (and continues to be) frequently criticized for her book reviews, as she can't possibly be reading all of the books she reviews in the time she gets her reviews written. At best, she's reviewing the book jackets. But ok, that's not my argument. It was the argument of some very harsh critics who constantly complained about her reviews. I mean, there was a severe battle royal going on between the people who were against her and her team of supporters, and, being new to me, I sort of found it amusing, in a way. I wanted to have a little bit of fun with this, without stooping to the tactics some of these vehement vocal vanguards were voicing.

So, I decided to write "The Top 25 anagrams for HARRIET KLAUSNER." I had some free time one Sunday afternoon, and this must have been nearly two years ago, actually. Some of the better ones were "A SURREAL THINKER" and "RITUAL RANKER SHE." Really I pulled my punches, because there are a lot of very nasty ones you could make from her name. I wanted to be amusing, not insulting!

At any rate, I placed each of the 25 anagrams used under one of her reviews. That probably was my mistake, as that amounted to twenty-five different "attacks," instead of just one. Each listing appeared exactly like this:

"The Top 25 Anagrams For HARRIET KLAUSNER."

"UNEARTH REAL RISK"

Find them all!

No commentary. No criticism. Simply what the rearranged letters spelled. And I even tried to place them under appropriate books where possible, like the anagram "RAREST LUNAR HIKE" I put under a book review about space travel.

I suppose Harriet or one of her many minions considered this an attack, reported me to the amazon abuse team and the rest, as they say is history. I am now a permanent pariah in the Amazon community.

There it is.

Comments

[phrawzty.livejournal.com]

That's actually really clever. Good on you. :)

[antonstrout.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she flat out got major details of my book wrong in her "review"... but I suppose that's bound to happen on a light skim of the book.. maybe reading the first fifty, middle fifty and last fifty? I'd like to be a fly on that crazy wall for a day... just one, to preserve my sanity...

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

One person's opinion, and you're done, huh? Nice. No better than LJ, huh?

[lisa-e-is-me.livejournal.com]

So she's basically a critic, who has super thin skin. What a non-shocking combination. I think it's BS that you got banned over that.

[twopiearr.livejournal.com]

Murphey's Law of the Internet:

If anything in your comments can be misinterpreted, it will be.

[pageeater.livejournal.com]

She reviews writers but you can't reveiw HK the writer? Bah. I think you should have received free shipping for your cleverness. I also think she would have been wise to laugh along with you. Amazon corporate = stupid in this case.