Unable to place a WikiReader review on Amazon (was: Congratulation, Wikireader! 7th in Amazon TOP 100)

Joshua Judson Rosen rozzin at geekspace.com
Mon Nov 16 16:03:29 CET 2009


Sean Moss-Pultz <sean at openmoko.com> writes:
> 
> You made everyone in the Taipei office so happy with this post. This
> is exactly the type of experiences we had in mind when creating
> WikiReader. Please do post on Amazon if you have a bit of extra time:
> 
>   http://bit.ly/3spvKq
> 
> It really does help us a lot!

Hi Sean,

I'd really love to post a review on Amazon, but it seems that Amazon
actually won't let me: apparently, because I placed my order through
http://thewikireader.com/store.html instead of going through the main
amazon.com site, only the *payment* for my order was processed through
Amazon(?), and there doesn't appear to be any way to connect the
`Amazon Payments' information (which shows a record of my order) to
the `Amazon Orders' database.

I think I'll try calling their support line, today.

I see that there's a button marked "Leave seller feedback" on the
Amazon Payments page--do you know if that does anything useful, or
does it just send you guys an e-mail?

> On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 9:35 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen
> <rozzin at geekspace.com> wrote:
> >
> > Thomas Otterbein <th.otterbein at gmx.net> writes:
> > >
> > > On Wednesday 28 October 2009 22:08:00 Rui Miguel Silva Seabra wrote:
> > > > http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/172594/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_e_1_
> > > >3_last
> > > >
> > > > Wow, just wow!
> > > >
> > > > It's an interesting device, not for me, but quite interesting.
> > > >
> > > > What I never expected is such a success.
> > > >
> > > > Quite a comparison to the Freerunner's success :)
> > > >
> > > > Congratulations, guys!
> > > >
> > > > Rui
> > >
> > > Hmm, a lot of devices made by Palm, some of them already stone old,
> > > are the Bestsellers at Amazon? Where is their own Kindle?
> >
> > The Kindle is listed as a best-seller, but in a different subcategory
> > of `electronics'. Actually, it occupies multiple spots in the top-10
> > listing in the *overall* `electronics' category, while WikiReader is
> > #4 in a much more restricted category. Not to downplay whatever
> > success the WikiReader is seeing, though--I got one, myself, and I'm
> > very impressed by and happy with it; a few of my technically-minded
> > friends have remarked critically, merely on a conceptual basis, but
> > those who have actually seen it (especially the `normal people') have
> > responded very positively.
> >
> > It's really not evident just how profound the device is until you find
> > yourslef amongst friends who are trying to remember the details of
> > something of which you've never even heard, and then suddenly `you're
> > the expert' in the group. My first experience with this: a couple of
> > friends were trying to make sense of their memories of `trying to
> > read' Nikolai Gogol's book, `Dead Souls'..., and there it was in my
> > WikiReader--suddenly I was an expert on the book (the big question was
> > `what was the point of the protagonist's scheme to buy already-dead
> > serfs who counted as taxable property for him'; the answer was `he was
> > going to retire by *mortgaging* them'). My wife and I received a `this
> > is what the mercaptan additive in Natural gas smells like'
> > scratch-and-sniff in the mail from the local gas-supply company, the
> > other day, and I was able to instantly start a conversation with my
> > wife, in our kitchen, about the history behind these odour-additives
> > (and this history turns out to be quite an amazing story,
> > actually). We're having amazing experiences like this semi-regularly,
> > thanks to this device.
> >
> > People do say `$100 seems a little expensive', but then they concede
> > that maybe it /isn't/ so expensive when reminded that just an 8-GB
> > micro-SD card by itself retails for as much as $50 (and I note that
> > more simplistic devices than the WikiReader, on that Amazon list--like
> > the Scrabble-dictionary--also sell for $50+...).
> >
> > After actually having the profoundly-wowing `instant expert'
> > experience a few times, it becomes easy to accept that the device as
> > being worth $100, even though it's terribly difficult to `just explain
> > it' to someone who has the perspective of `well, *I* already have a
> > $500 device with a $100-per-*month* subscription and a favourable
> > location that alows *me* to be connected to the Internet all the time,
> > anything that doesn't provide wireless real-time updates and *news*
> > with updated charts and graphs has all the appeal of the Pet Rock'.
> >
> > I guess I should post this on Amazon's review-page for the device....
> >
> > Regarding the Amazon best-seller list per se: I'm not sure that I'm
> > entirely clear on what exactly Amazon's `bestseller' rating means--
> > is the `current ranking' just based on the rate of sales per hour,
> > averaged over the last 1 hour? Do they explain it, somewhere?
> >
> > --
> > Don't be afraid to ask (Lf.((Lx.xx) (Lr.f(rr)))).
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Openmoko community mailing list
> > community at lists.openmoko.org
> > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community

-- 
"Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))."




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