Community Chat

[Moonchilde]

Wow, @gardenman, it sounds like Amazon has been counting the hours! They must really not care if they annoy a lot of loyal customers. Yeah, it is Amazon, they don’t have to care, but still...!

ETA: Perhaps they’re shutting down different forums at different times. The Kindle forum date says Oct 13th is the last day, but the last posts were all registered at midnight. Will check back in an hour or so to see if they shut a week early.

[Spurt]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

Wow, @gardenman, it sounds like Amazon has been counting the hours! They must really not care if they annoy a lot of loyal customers. Yeah, it is Amazon, they don’t have to care, but still...!

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@Moonchilde @gardenman

I may be biased because I'm not a fan of Amazon (due to my various experiences with them--they seem to be getting a bit big for their britches and are starting to care a little less about their Customer Service)..I'm sure that at one time Sears, Montgomery Wards, and Kmart felt they were on top of the retail world and could do no wrong....and look at them now..... 

Amazon seems to be spreading themselves out more and getting a bit too thin.....one of these days....to quote John Donne, "ask not for who the bell tolls, it tolls for thee".  And there's already talk that they could be  forced to break up much like The Bell Group.........and the way they handle their finances is a bit quirky too.... and there are a few customers that have noticed that their prices arent as good as the used to be on some items.......... 

As far as their Forums it sounds like they decided the time, effort, and expense (of tech maintenance and paying moderators) wasnt worth their return...........As far as getting a Forum balanced, the guy that owns the website and runs the Forums for my NFL Team runs it with an iron fist...the people that didnt want to tow the line left in a hurry, leaving a long time group that knows the rules and the group still manages to have a lot of fun and good discussion.........He even created a space called "The Parking Lot" where you can discuss politicis, current events, other sports and "duke it out"....but not on the NFL side of it....I was a bit leary when he opened our teams forum to a group of Forums for NFL teams....but he maintained control and there are a few fans from a few other teams that chime in....but even they know the rules....he owns it, he pays for it, and he takes control...He puts a lot of time and effort and he cares and that's the difference..............

[gardenman]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

Wow, @gardenman, it sounds like Amazon has been counting the hours! They must really not care if they annoy a lot of loyal customers. Yeah, it is Amazon, they don’t have to care, but still...!

ETA: Perhaps they’re shutting down different forums at different times. The Kindle forum date says Oct 13th is the last day, but the last posts were all registered at midnight. Will check back in an hour or so to see if they shut a week early.

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Interesting. The ABNA forums and the video games forums are both supposed to be shut down on 10/6, but you can't post on either right now. The last post on either forum was on Tuesday. They are keeping the forums up however, just not letting anyone add anything new.

[Moonchilde]

@Spurt, that’s pretty much how I see it. They wanted to remove controversy and contention from their own-named back yard, so to speak. They’re okay if it’s on Goodreads (also owned by Amazon, which many, myself included, find creepy), but not on the public face of Amazon.

You can create closed, private, invitation-only groups on Goodreads like you can on FB, so I’m sure that those who go that way will not just stick to book conversation but will make their Goodreads group like their Amazon forum threads - everything but the kitchen sink.

I have a love/hate relationship with Amazon. I don’t like a lot of things they’ve done, centered around the forums and Kindle and going back years and extending to IMDB, Zappos, etc. BUT - since I’ve moved and live in Outer Sticks, I couldn’t survive without them. So I kinda grit my teeth sometimes and just use them as I need to.