Matt Forde Cries Over Bad Amazon Reviews

[DrGreggles]

I suppose reading between the lines isn't for everyone.

[Zetetic]

No one liked the book.

a thought experiment: Aaron bastani's book has been targeted by gammons with fake one-star reviews. he asks readers to leave positive ones in response. does this action attract the amusement of CaB?

No, this state of affairs would be upsetting because of the wasted attention all-round.

[JaDanketies]

I don't think it is if you're not undertaking it as a commercial practice. Doing it for a laugh is fine as far as I can tell.

Yes I think that is correct.

[NoSleep]

a thought experiment: Aaron bastani's book has been targeted by gammons with fake one-star reviews. he asks readers to leave positive ones in response. does this action attract the amusement of CaB?

He wouldn't do that. He might suggest people have a laugh reading them.

[NoSleep]

he's asking for positive reviews from people who liked the book. that's not exactly controversial or unheard of in the world of authors, podcasters, etc

Why would somebody beg for people to write "positive reviews"? He doesn't even ask for them to read the book. Remember how another comedian collected all the negative comments he could find about himself and posted them on his own website?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

He wouldn't do that. He might suggest people have a laugh reading them.

Quite.

We're excused from answering that because it isn't something Bastani would do, or if he did as you say above - it would be from the Stewart Lee angle of amplifying the dumbest or most pompous sounding ones.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Dunno about Bastani, but Jones and Sarkar basically do that anyway by replying in quote-tweet to crap trolls.

But anyway, it's about time someone stuck up for pointless centrist hacks.

[Bernice]

Can't believe people are bullying Matt Forde by being disparaging about the crap book he wrote and all the shit things he says.

Though experiment: what if someone was being mean to Nelson Mandela, or feeding strychnine to a guide dog?

[Sebastian Cobb]

One person's 'bullying' is another person's dissent against the hive-mind of the commentariat.

[Bernice]

I don't think you realise that the dog in this thought experiment would likely die.

[NoSleep]

Things are looking bad for Corbyn, then?

[Blinder Data]

Can't believe people are bullying Matt Forde by being disparaging about the crap book he wrote and all the shit things he says.

If all the people leaving one-star reviews had read his book, then obviously that's fine. Leaving fake reviews en masse is the work of twats (unless the target is genuinely a racist or something).

But anyway, it's about time someone stuck up for pointless centrist hacks.

I'm not sticking up for him, really - as I said, I don't rate him or his politics - I just don't like self-righteous organised online targeting like this when the justification is: he's an unfunny centrist comedian. Jon Ronson's public shaming book has made me wary of this sort of stuff. I also feel like it's more interesting to be the grit in the CaB oyster when it all feels a bit back-slappy

[Astronaut Omens]

The historian Orlando Figes , author of a very well-respected book on the Soviet Union, ended up paying damages to two other historians in the same field after putting anonymous negative reviews of their books up on Amazon- nothing exactly libellous as far as I can see, just calling their books dull and pretentious mostly. I suppose, say, questioning someone's research skills might just about count as a libel, but there doesn't seem to have been anything explicitly like this here.

This Guardian story gives the details of the fake reviews:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/23/historian-orlando-figes-amazon-reviews-rivals

This second story deals with the payments for damages:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jul/16/orlando-figes-fake-amazon-reviews

The most embarrassing thing here is probably about the reviews he wrote for his own books":Beautifully written, it is a rich and deeply moving history, which leaves the reader awed, humbled, yet uplifted" etc.  But I don't quite see how the negative reviews count as libel, since, his malicious intent aside, the negative things he said about the books are, ultimately, opinions which a genuine reader might have held.

[king_tubby]

a thought experiment: Aaron bastani's book has been targeted by gammons with fake one-star reviews. he asks readers to leave positive ones in response. does this action attract the amusement of CaB?

Ah, but what if a thing that didn't happen actually happened? Aaaaaaaaaah. Check mate, Jezmy Crobins.

[DrGreggles]

If all the people leaving one-star reviews had read his book, then obviously that's fine. Leaving fake reviews en masse is the work of twats (unless the target is genuinely a racist or something).

But the same applies to all the fake 5 star reviews, which appeared as a result of his tweet - which definitely wasn't his intention...
Some of the earlier bad reviews appear genuine.

[Bernice]

If all the people leaving one-star reviews had read his book, then obviously that's fine. Leaving fake reviews en masse is the work of twats (unless the target is genuinely a racist or something).

I'm not sticking up for him, really - as I said, I don't rate him or his politics - I just don't like self-righteous organised online targeting like this when the justification is: he's an unfunny centrist comedian. Jon Ronson's public shaming book has made me wary of this sort of stuff. I also feel like it's more interesting to be the grit in the CaB oyster when it all feels a bit back-slappy

So what, the issue is that people are undermining the integrity of the amazon review system? Or its bad because it involves a lot of people coming together to do something? It's nothing like anything covered in Ronson's book. It's someone who spouts off shit, self-aggrandizing, actively harmful political opinions on stage, on twitter, and (presumably) in his book getting bad amazon reviews. People are not obliged to facilitate this prick building a career and platform from being a twat, and a bit of collective action to knock him down a peg or two is a) the inevitable cost of having the platform he's chosen to have and b) a way for people without outsized platforms to redress the balance a bit. Get over yourself.

[BritishHobo]

I do think it's complete bollocks that Amazon still haven't really bothered to change their website to prevent issues like this. The fact that reviews are freely open from basically the moment a product's existence is announced, long before it's released or anyone could possibly have consumed it, is stupid. Over the years it's meant loads of loads of products have been swamped with one-star reviews because, for example, people have been furious about an announcement about a TV series that hasn't even aired yet.

Don't really know who Matt Forde is. SORRY.

[BritishHobo]

Although I will say even if we're being uncharitable, yer man did explicitly say 'if you read the book and enjoyed it...' Sorry again.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Of course the REAL cunts are the ones who leave bad reviews because the item turned up late/broken/covered in gibbon shit.

[idunnosomename]

this is hilarious and i hope matt suffocates in tonty blairs arse

[pigamus]

So what, the issue is that people are undermining the integrity of the amazon review system? Or its bad because it involves a lot of people coming together to do something? It's nothing like anything covered in Ronson's book. It's someone who spouts off shit, self-aggrandizing, actively harmful political opinions on stage, on twitter, and (presumably) in his book getting bad amazon reviews.

They're not bad reviews though, they're fake reviews. It is quite funny but it's also counterproductive because it's handing him the moral high ground.

[king_tubby]

https://twitter.com/TheIDSmiths/status/1314142507899457536

[Bernice]

They're not bad reviews though, they're fake reviews. It is quite funny but it's also counterproductive because it's handing him the moral high ground.

So the issue is the integrity of easily (and frequently) manipulated/falsified amazon reviews? What moral high ground? When did fucking amazon reviews become the moral rubicon?

[Bernice]

https://twitter.com/TheIDSmiths/status/1314142507899457536

The scouse Greta Thunberg one got me good.

[idunnosomename]

https://twitter.com/TheIDSmiths/status/1314142507899457536

wow thats actually really funny

[pigamus]

Yeah that's brilliant.

[Cursus]

Two more extracts (originally cited by @amphitryoniadeson Twitter):

[Bernice]

Searing political insight there.

[phantom_power]

Making a "Carlsberg don't make..." joke in 2020? Fucking hell. And that description of "the hard left" of Corbyn is straight out of the fucking Daily Mail

[Jockice]

For fuck's sake.