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Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

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Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#31

Post by insane_dreamer »

ungreased0675 wrote: post #5

The focus of the article is on charlatans selling courses, but I think Amazon deserves more scrutiny. They enable this entire ecosystem of fake books and fake products. I have to imagine that with the amount of data Amazon collects, they could do a lot more to counter the epidemic of fakes.

> they could do a lot more to counter the epidemic of fakes

they are not incentivized to do so, since they profit from the fakes; only if/when this results in customers disengaging from Amazon altogether and total sales decreasing, will it be seen as a problem

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#32

Post by cheese_van »

webwielder2 wrote: post #6

Stick to checking out books from your library / Libby. You'll save money and might end up making discoveries you otherwise wouldn't.

Libraries are excellent gatekeepers for content quality. Generally, library books are scrutinized and determined as "worth paying for".

Previously, publishers would do similar due diligence - someone at the house would actually read the book, if not work with authors.

Due diligence of this nature is not now particularly common. There is no cost risk with a digital book. It could be, and often is, written by those without the talent to match their ambition. If one is looking for new authors to read, it's very difficult to sort through the dreck.

Let the libraries sort through the dreck for you. Pro-tip: gift your local library a mere $100. They'll love you for it and invite you to all sorts of interesting gatherings. You might meet a good book, or even better, a good person.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#34

Post by pquki4 »

ungreased0675 wrote: post #5

The focus of the article is on charlatans selling courses, but I think Amazon deserves more scrutiny. They enable this entire ecosystem of fake books and fake products. I have to imagine that with the amount of data Amazon collects, they could do a lot more to counter the epidemic of fakes.

Amazon is not incentivized to do so for as long as they maintain a monopoly in the book market, just like they are not putting enough effort in removing knock off products.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#36

Post by nytesky »

cheese_van wrote: post #32
webwielder2 wrote: post #6

Stick to checking out books from your library / Libby. You'll save money and might end up making discoveries you otherwise wouldn't.

Libraries are excellent gatekeepers for content quality. Generally, library books are scrutinized and determined as "worth paying for". Previously, publishers would do similar due diligence - someone at the house would actually read the book, if not work with authors. Due diligence of this nature is not now particularly common. There is no cost risk with a digital book. It could be, and often is, written by those wit…

If you look for a reputable publisher like McSweeney or Scholastic, does that help?

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#37

Post by blululu »

VHRanger wrote: post #30
ori_b wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*looks nervously at the AI revolution*

AI content generation is only different in scale to content farms. Not in principle. All this means is that relying on an algo to filter things for you will become less useful (easy to game). You'll need to rely more on real humans you actually trust.

That’s sort of like saying a ripple and a tsunami are the same thing and they differ only in terms of energy, or New York City only differs from Utica in scale. Maybe it is true in some technical sense, but that is missing a lot of important information. Being able to churn out content fast, cheaper and with algorithmic optimizations starts to look like a different beast. The level at which human overrides can keep this process in check has a limit and it can be inundated. New solutions will be needed.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#38

Post by pquki4 »

webwielder2 wrote: post #6

Stick to checking out books from your library / Libby. You'll save money and might end up making discoveries you otherwise wouldn't.

In principle yes, but it is often far less than ideal. Popular books often have only 2 copies, physical or digital, so you need to wait in the queue for a while before you can get to read it. And that's only if your library carries the book, physical or digital -- there is often a long delay before you can find book in a bookstore and you can find it on the shelve. For various reasons the library might not want to purchase a book so you are on your own.

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#39

Post by [deleted] »

swatcoder wrote: post #4

Example #732453111 of how the 2000's-era dreams of technology-enabled infinite scaling were misguided and potentially damning for the Internet. Turns out scammers and spammers can technologically scale their side too, and can even do so in a way that the host profits from so that the host is disincentivized from doing anything about it until it's already gone too far. Now everything is flooded with noise and supporte…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made

#40

Post by [deleted] »

swatcoder wrote: post #4

Example #732453111 of how the 2000's-era dreams of technology-enabled infinite scaling were misguided and potentially damning for the Internet. Turns out scammers and spammers can technologically scale their side too, and can even do so in a way that the host profits from so that the host is disincentivized from doing anything about it until it's already gone too far. Now everything is flooded with noise and supporte…

[deleted]
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