I write a fair number of online reviews…I did so even before I retired! While I will write reviews on many websites, they are concentrated on a few. I am fairly active on Tripadvisor. I am a Top 100 reviewer on Wondrium (Great Courses), which sells and streams educational videos. And, of course, Amazon, although I am hit and miss on there as to whether I review a purchase or not.
I have never had a review rejected on Tripadvisor, but on Wondrium and Amazon I have had two on each site rejected. At least on Wondrium there is a method in place for discussing with them why the review was rejected. Amazon has an email address for this, but it strikes me as not being monitored.
Wondrium Rejected Reviews
I know Wondrium does, and I suspect that Amazon does too, that is that they use 3rd parties to monitor the reviews. I had one review rejected then later accepted on Wondrium as I used the “foreign” phrase, “C’est la vie.” The reviewer, most likely with English as a second language, rejected it as they did not understand the phrase.
Wondrium also initially rejected my review of Sex in the Middle Ages. I had a huge problem with this course as it was taught by a quartet of overly woke college professors. One of the professors, a young Asian woman, had wanted to cancel Chaucer as he might have been a touchy boss with one of his female servants. As it turned out, the scholars decided that it was more a problem of not understanding the legalese of 14th century England. But cancel Chaucer, give me a break. Between my review addressing the sexual practices covered in the class and ranting against wokeness gone overboard, they rejected it initially. I was so bothered by the course that I pulled a bit of a Blues Brothers and went on a mission to get my review accepted, which I eventually did.
Cultural Appropriation
Just as an aside the word woke could be considered a case of cultural appropriation as it originated in the Afro-American community to remind Afro-American folks to be on guard against subtle and systemic racism.
Amazon Rejected Reviews
The first review I had rejected by Amazon was when I reviewed a friend’s book on Amazon, I Want to Live!: My Journey Beyond Generational Child Abuse I had originally reviewed/discussed the book on Curmudgeon-alley.com: I Want To Live by Helen Imagene (Jean) Jones Felfe. I took that review and eliminated any external links and posted it to Amazon. After taking an inordinate amount of time, they rejected it. No real explanation except their standard form letter for rejections that left me pretty much clueless as to why. I waited a few months and reposted almost the exact same document, but this time I eliminated a couple curse words that, while applicable, were probably red flags for Amazon. This time they accepted it.
What was interesting to me is that they rejected my very next review for an air filter for a lawnmower which was something along the lines of, “it fits, it works, the price was right.” It made me wonder if their computer system had confused the two reviews.
Now to the review that Amazon surprisingly accepted.
Friends!!!
Some friends sent me the following birthday card that reminded me of a recent purchase from Amazon and motivated me to write a review. I suppose the best thing to do is to make fun of the way our bodies are sagging in various places at this point of the journey called life.
Amazon Review Accepted!
I have worn standard boxer shorts probably for the last 25 years. I started with them as I was having a hard time finding briefs that fit correctly, if I bought them to fit my waist they were too tight on my (then) muscly thighs, if I bought them to fit my thighs they were too big in the waist. All has been fine for this time, except of late, like the divorced mother of 5, I have been looking for a bit more support. So I went on a search, concentrating on boxer briefs as they seem to be the most common undergarment worn currently.
After reading and watching a ton of reviews on men’s undergarments, I ended up purchasing a package of Separatec Men’s Dual Pouch Underwear Comfort Soft Premium Cotton Modal Blend to give them a test drive. The purchase was totally by accident as I had early rejected the design as not for me. A reviewer on YouTube waxed so profusely that I forgot what seemed an obvious drawback for me… personally. Just in case you have not clued in, these garments have two pouches for the male anatomy. One for the part that comes as a single and one for the part that comes in pairs.
I wrote the review not doubting for a minute that it would be rejected. Surprisingly, they approved it and it now sits on the page for this garment.
Just in case you cannot read the screenshot above:
I have been looking for a while for a new style of men’s underwear rather than my standard boxer. I had rejected this product early in my search for reasons soon to mentioned. Watching a YouTube video on recommendations for these type of garment, the reviewer waxed so enthusiastically that I forgot why I rejected the style and ordered the smallest package I could for a test drive.
Men are commonly classified into growers and showers. I am sure this style works for showers, as a grower I found them problematic. For the first 30 minutes or so after a hot shower, they were just fine. But my natural, “but the water was cold” took over. At that point there was just a bunch of excess cloth where it was not needed or wanted. So, my advisory would be: growers take your proclivity into consideration.
Ahhh…. the things that fly and don’t fly today. Criticize someone for being too woke, and that is rejected. Talk about the male anatomy with your tongue in your cheek, all is good.
And so it goes.
Yeah, the Zon bots have no common sense.
I love that card btw…got a great morning laugh from it.