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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

#41

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#42

Post by GuB-42 »

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…

I prefer it like that than how it was before.

Sure, lots of noise, but lots of signal too.

Meaningful human participation in content approval is still possible of course, with social networks. It can go from getting recommendation from an influencer you align with (for once "influencer" is an appropriate term), or join a community, for example on a Discord server, or for something more public, Reddit. For customer service, Amazon is surprisingly human, at least for the few times I had to deal with them, but generally, it is something you have to pay for, and most people don't want to, but if you do, you can get a human on line.

But the most important part is that you can explore now the wild on your own. Of course, you will be bombarded with noise, but the stuff is there for you to find. Before, it was made much more complicated. For example, now, getting a book in a foreign language may be one click away, before that, you had to hunt for some specialized bookstores, regular bookstores only have best sellers, and ordering, if successful, was slow and sometimes expensive. So, sure, few garbage books, but also a much more limited choice of good books.

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

#43

Post by kiernanmcgowan »

well_actulily wrote: post #27
mey wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His other long form videos are also a great combination of research and comedy. Worth your time in my opinion.

Highlights include: - "In Search of a Flat Earth" (2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTfhYyTuT44 - "Line Goes Up" (2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g - "The Future is a Dead Mall" (2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiZhdpLXZ8Q

This is Financial Advice (2023) is also excellent - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pYeoZaoWrA

Its about the fallout of the memestock craze and where the community ends up.

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

#44

Post by grugagag »

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…

It’s true that nooks could be written by novice writers but even worse they could be entirely generated with LLMs, never even read end to end by the presumed authors. Sometimes there’s no human in the loop, just some scripts running.

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

#45

Post by beezlebroxxxxxx »

pquki4 wrote: post #38
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 pu…

If you want to purchase a book on Amazon, then your best bet is to just only look for books sold and published by a reputable or at least known publisher. This is especially true for a lot of older books, which often have great editions in the midst of awful "print on demand" versions or new typesettings of old public domain version with awful quality and editing.

(Then, even further, you might as well just cut out Amazon as the middleman if you're so inclined, or look for a local book store that has online purchases.)

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

#46

Post by alexashka »

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…

Take it to its root, the only reason we have spammers is because people who control technology instead of reducing work hours created marketing and advertising agencies to create artificial desire to buy useless garbage.

If you think spammers are the problem, you're missing the bigger picture, by a lot.

Technology should've brought about fewer work hours, instead it brought about mass insanity.

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

#47

Post by all2 »

blackhaj7 wrote: post #15
csours wrote: post #2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYciU1uiUw Linked doco by Dan Olson. Strong recommend.

Damn this is so good

I watched the whole thing. I was bummed that he didn't do the whole course; have the audio book made, sell it, profit.

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

#48

Post by Dibby053 »

The web has been filled with garbage books since its inception. Now it's Amazon, before that it was SEO-optimized e-book landing pages that showed up on Google searches for barely related topics. As long as there are people who buy them they'll keep popping up.
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