Hello All!

This is (mostly) to the Book Powers That Be, but anyone who can help, please chime in!

I reviewed an omnibus version of a book some years back (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Millennium) and in linking to it, I've discovered it has fallen out of the Book category. In my review list, it is listed as "product" and "category" "temporarily unavailable." When looking at the actual review, it shows the line "Back to All Reviews" where there are usually the home-category-etc. lines.

So, the question: For books like this that disappear, should I just fill out a SAP and move the old review there when the new spot becomes available? Or is there some other procedure for finding the products?

Thanks!

-W.L.

The question of how to handle various versions of "gray ghosts" has been asked and answered half a dozen times in the past nine months. Just for grins, I'll answer it one more time:

If a listings says "category temporarily unavailable" and/or "product temporarily unavailable," first take note of the word "temporarily." Member concerns notwithstanding, people can still reach the review from the link on a profile page and from search engines, since the URL remains valid.

The condition arises from a merger of the Epinions and Shopping.com media databases a couple of weeks ago. Some 99.703%¹ of book, music, and media reviews made the transfer untouched, transfer of those not handled automatically is being performed by hand. Of my 640-odd (some exceedingly odd) media reviews, 28 didn't get transferred automatically, somewhere between a third and a half have since been moved by hand.

I suggest that you not ask for a "SAP" addition at this time, since it likely will be assigned a low priority because of the protocols in place at Epinions. If you can find an existing listing for the product, however, you should feel free to move it on your own.

HTH

-30-

rex

¹ number pulled out of... ummm... the air.

Dear Rex,

Thank you for the response; I appreciate your restraint in the use of irony or sarcasm in light of how this is the first time I've ever posted in books. My thanks.

Yes, I've noticed a considerably higher number of books (as opposed to any other of my reviews) that were adversely affected by the move and none of them have a new place where it is appropriate to list them, or else I certainly would have done that as opposed to bug you (or anyone else) with my question. I suppose the supplemental question(s) are: How much time are we giving before we consider "temporary" "permanent?" And/Or is there a simple list started perhaps where we might have listings of books (say, title and author) of our "temporarily" gone products that The Powers That Be are looking into? I suspect such a thing would be far more useful than the idea of people pawing through 24 pages on my Profile page or assuming people will find the lost book reviews using outside search engines . . .

Thank you for the help.

-W.L.

I have one from back in Januaryish that has been like that way before the changeover a couple of weeks ago. It went to ghost like within days of me submitting the review and hasn't come back up. It is a cute 'kissing' book too!