Or Blessed Ostara (though it has passed). Or Happy Passover! Or just plain 'whee, Spring!' It's true, I'm Pagan and have been for about nine years now. But old habits die hard and I woke up this morning with a terrible craving for chocolate and dyed eggs. And hey, the bunnies and eggs thing is pretty much as Pagan as it gets. So after a trip to no less than five stores to find a place that still had dye (or even food coloring!) in stock, I now have pretty pastel eggs. I made the house a basket with Robin Eggs, Cadbury Mini-eggs, and a Lindt rabbit. No jellybeans, 'cause ew. And Peeps. Also not something I like all that much, but it is fun to watch them explode in the microwave.

( Eggs!Collapse )

On a more serious note, AMAZON, YOU FAIL.


Amazon.Com has slapped a staggering number of LGBT books with the tag 'adult,' which means they have been excluded from sales rankings. Sales rankings are what many booksellers use as a guide for what to purchase. (More details on that here.) In other words, it's like saying "hey, you don't really deserve to be represented." It also means that 'adult'-labeled books will not appear on their Bestseller lists, nor will they appear in all searches, even if you type in the complete title of the book. Their official reasoning is this:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

But that doesn't really hold up, you see. To add insult to injury, many of the stripped books contain little to no sexual content, while het/mainstream books with explicit sexual content remain in the sales ranking. Here is a list of the books that have been stripped. They include everything from Annie Proulx to the Kushiel's Legacy books to biographies of/by gay authors (including Oscar Wilde and John Barrowman). Furthermore, here is a long list of links about AmazonFail.

What we can do:

1. There is a petition.

2. Get the word out. Make a post. Notify media outlets. Hell, even freaking Twitter about it if that's your thing.

3. Write directly to the CEO.

Jeffrey Bezos.
1200 12th Avenue South
Seattle
Washington 98144-2734
United States
Phone: 206-266-1000
Fax: 206-622-2405

4. Vote with your dollars. Sorry, Amazon. I was all ready to buy that double set of Planet Earth/The Blue Planet. Not so much anymore. I want sales rankings reinstated and a sincere explanation/apology before you will EVER get any of my cash again. Note to friends who occasionally buy me things from my Amazon Wishlist: please don't. In fact, I will likely be erasing my wishlist.

5. Googlebomb the fuckers.

Okay people. Let's make it happen. This is censorship, this is homophobic/transphobic, and it is not okay.