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'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

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Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#141

Post by ldbooth »

skohan wrote: post #3

I feel like authenticity of online communication is an unsolved problem. The web was supposed to be a democratizing platform: all you need to communicate with the world is an ISP and a keyboard. But if there's no way to control for authenticity, online sentiment will just be an arms race for who can pay for the best astroturfing.

I just got a clearly fake robocall, from "amazon" about auto renewing prime but my renewal doesn't come up til December. There is a campaign here and I doubt it is amazon. And I'm not renewing prime, all companies turn evil at this size.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#142

Post by brown9-2 »

booleandilemma wrote: post #100

Why can't we just have a social network that requires you to sign up using your government ID? No bots, no fake accounts - problem solved. There won't be any anonymity on that network, sure, but there are plenty of other social networks where you can be anonymous.

Why should I trust a social network company with my government ID when often they can’t even keep my password secure?

Or why would I want to use a social network with onerous signup terms?

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#143

Post by Judgmentality »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #118
Judgmentality wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never felt like critical thinking was part of the curriculum in the United States. I've always been kind of amazed how poorly it's taught if it's taught at all. Since we're just comparing anecdata at this point (or at least I am), if you have any data/studies or anything like that it would be appreciated.

To be honest I don't want to go into JStor to search for studies that support my viewpoint and lob them at you in a game of citation tennis. But, I will distill my viewpoint down as best I can and leave it at this: People claim that critical thinking is not taught in schools because it's an easy claim to make when you perceive that so many other people are thinking uncritically. But, make a claim they disagree with a…

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with you. Allow me to respond with my own anecdote.

I remember when I was dating a doctor being appalled by her complete inability to think through a problem, and I later learned medical school is basically mass memorization. I am obviously cherry picking medicine here, but if doctors aren't even taught that by the time they're practicing in the United States I think it's fair to say critical thinking is sorely lacking in our education system. She was a neurologist who was unable to help me with my migraines, and I later figured them out on my own using ~drumroll~ critical thinking. I also saw at least a half dozen specialists at prestigious hospitals, all of whom were equally unhelpful in solving my problem. They were all very quick to prescribe pain medication though, in fact it seemed to be the only thing any of them were ever interested in doing. Some of them accused me of lying about my symptoms, and some told me I shouldn't even bother trying to get better.

If US doctors - some of the best educated and most highly trained professionals in the world - aren't good at thinking critically about medicine, I'm not confident that it's being taught in the US. In fact I'm quite confident it's not taught in the US (or at least it wasn't). I was never taught critical thinking in a classroom setting, and I have multiple degrees from the US.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#144

Post by TriNetra »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #93
tablespoon wrote: post #24

This old TechCrunch article from 2018 ( https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/23/what-is-this-weird-twitter... ) posted at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26636153 has a former "Amazon Ambassador" actually explain that job: > An actual former ambassador and three year Florida warehouse veteran Chris Grantham explained it in more detail to Yahoo Finance’s Krystal Hu, who shared the information with TechCrunch: >> When I…

For decades, I never thought people who kiss ass could have been serious. I was sure they were just cynically playing a game of advancement, and I despised them for it. What I've come to learn -- as disappointing as it is to me -- is that some people view this sort of thing as actual, legitimate opportunity, and are acting out of internal integrity. They don't see the hypocrisy of the power imbalance and how the comp…

You'll get millions of dollars invested in hype-and-nothing-really-to-show-for-it startups, or sold for hundreds of millions of dollars to a fortune 500 the product which is then phased out into a black whole in an year two from the buyer company's portfolio for the same reasons – having found a right connection at one of those three levels.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#145

Post by brnt »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #93
tablespoon wrote: post #24

This old TechCrunch article from 2018 ( https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/23/what-is-this-weird-twitter... ) posted at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26636153 has a former "Amazon Ambassador" actually explain that job: > An actual former ambassador and three year Florida warehouse veteran Chris Grantham explained it in more detail to Yahoo Finance’s Krystal Hu, who shared the information with TechCrunch: >> When I…

For decades, I never thought people who kiss ass could have been serious. I was sure they were just cynically playing a game of advancement, and I despised them for it. What I've come to learn -- as disappointing as it is to me -- is that some people view this sort of thing as actual, legitimate opportunity, and are acting out of internal integrity. They don't see the hypocrisy of the power imbalance and how the comp…

The things people will do for crumbs.

The poor or middleclass aren't the only ones mind you. You find willing lackeys at every paygrade.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#146

Post by natosaichek »

542458 wrote: post #130
caseysoftware wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But if there's no way to control for authenticity, online sentiment will just be an arms race for who can pay for the best astroturfing. If you strike the word "online" this statement works for most of history. The only things that have changed are the sheer scale, speed, and cost of it. We have small teams that can generate more noise than a nation state could have prayed for just a generation ago.. and they're do…

What about just requiring companies to identify paid messaging (like political ads: “Paid for by XYZ”)? Obviously this doesn’t solve any messaging coming from overseas, but it at least helps with companies with an American presence astroturfing their own reviews etc.

Enforcement is the challenge. Without tracking down every reviewer, there is currently no way to determine whether a review was left by an employee of a covered/relevant company, or just a 'civilian.'

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#147

Post by disabled »

snarf21 wrote: post #123
disabled wrote: post #87

Some bots producing fake reviews on Amazon are just too funny to write off. My favorite ( https://www.amazon.com/Evaluation-Astroskin-Behavioral-Self-... ): "Wow!!!!! this product exceeded all my expectations. When I travel through space, I have always wished there was a way to measure my vital signs without bulky hardware and uncomfortable wires! Arun's project report taught me everything I needed to know about the…

I don't think they are making it illegal to go the bathroom they are just making it economically awful. If you miss X minutes in an hour, the whole hour doesn't count. You have to deliver X packages per hour everyday and one miss gets you written up, which can lead to firing. You seem to forget that a lot of these workers are unskilled and have few choices. Amazon may be paying $15/hr but they will work you like dogs…

> I don't think they are making it illegal to go the bathroom they are just making it economically awful. If you miss X minutes in an hour, the whole hour doesn't count. You have to deliver X packages per hour everyday and one miss gets you written up, which can lead to firing.

It's called disability discrimination. Getting paid less on the sole basis of your disability is generally considered to be disability discrimination in the US. Having to use the toilet every hour or so for 1-3 minutes to take care of business in this case is a reasonable accommodation legally mandated in US law. Considering that it is /immediately life-threatening/ and /immediately quantifiable/ (via blood pressure readings-continuous, spontaneous, or otherwise), it is very clear that Amazon would have an extremely difficult time weaseling their way out of trouble with their strict enforcement of a zero-tolerance, all-or-nothing, policy.

> You seem to forget that a lot of these workers are unskilled and have few choices.

Congratulations for pointing out the obvious. There are a ton of people who have ended up with UTIs and other health consequences from having to not only hold it at Amazon warehouse, but also being forced to purposefully dehydrate themselves, in the short term and long term. The toilet issue is so ridiculous that somebody who can should take them for a ride and fight for the people who are less fortunate. I would look to it as an adventure and a "summer job". I have legal authorization to work in both the US and the European Union on a long-term, permanent basis, so why not test the waters?

As I said, the condition I have is immediately life-threatening, so it's pretty clear cut that they would be putting my life in danger (strokes, seizures, retinal detachment, etc.) by "punishing" me for using the toilet.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#148

Post by danaliv »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #2

Why is "fake" in scare quotes? The accounts are fake.

They're not scare quotes; they're someone-said quotes. It just means someone from the Beeb hasn't personally gone and physically investigated the authenticity of the accounts. It's the difference between the BBC claiming "these accounts are fake" vs. them claiming "so-and-so says these accounts are fake."

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#149

Post by stnmtn »

fenderbluesjr wrote: post #124
gsk22 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Financial worth absolutely has to do with the fairness or lack thereof. Bezos has created nearly 200 billion dollars (!) of wealth for himself since founding Amazon, so debating the moral value of those gains in comparison to how everyday employees are compensated is well within reason. And if my employees said I was treating them unfairly, I would try to understand their perspective and make changes to improve worki…

Some people don't think that 'fair treatment' should be determined with the bosses wealth as a factor

Why not? The workers have created enormous value, more than any other time in the history of humanity. Why shouldn't we frame this in terms of where that value goes to?
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