http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=15193&hed=Wal-Mart+Stops+Recommending+

are you serious?

here is part of it:

Quote :

"Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retail chain, shut down its movie recommendation software after it was discovered that the company’s e-tail web site was suggesting movies about famous African Americans such as Martin Luther King, Tina Turner, and Jack Johnson to those looking at boxed DVDs of Planet of the Apes, a science-fiction movie about intelligent apes."

i mean, come on and give it a break.

1/6/2006 3:34:51 PM

assuming that it is true, I'd have to say that its a pretty damned serious "mistake" to have "Planet of the Apes" linking from "Martin Luther King, Jr."

1/6/2006 3:38:26 PM

Quote :

"assuming that it is true, I'd have to say that its a pretty damned serious "mistake" to have "Planet of the Apes" linking from "Martin Luther King, Jr.""

Yes, it is true (confirmed by CNN and USA Today), and that is a damned serious "mistake".

It wasn't "Other shoppers bought these ..." ... it was "Similar Items ..."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-01-05-wal-mart-offensive_x.htm

[Edited on January 6, 2006 at 3:46 PM. Reason : linkl]

1/6/2006 3:39:52 PM

not if they actually bought both on purpose

1/6/2006 3:40:16 PM

haha now that's great

btw, u guys know about walmart's DVD shenangians right? where they illegally edit movies to cut out illicit material.

1/6/2006 3:41:46 PM

^ they cut out all the "offensive" ish in their cds too

1/6/2006 3:43:34 PM

brianj you typically have to post links to back that up here - it's not chit chat

1/6/2006 3:43:58 PM

AHAHAHH

1/6/2006 3:45:15 PM

o damn i didnt know they did that with CD's too. i thought it was kinda common knowledge they did that with the DVD's. hang on, let me find some linkages.

1/6/2006 3:50:59 PM

it is known that they censor their cds - they do not cut out material - but blank out/bleep out sound

1/6/2006 3:53:27 PM

that is too funny

1/6/2006 3:55:28 PM

i cant find any direct links but walmart's dvds come from ClearPlay which is a company that does the editing. this article is about congress approving a bill to allow dvd censorship but does not allow edited movies to be sold, as walmart is doin.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/11687

on a side note, i know this is true. i have 1st hand experience with this when i've purchased dvd's from there in the past. i purchased R rated movies not knowin my brother had them and after watchin them knew somethin was wrong. i took his copy and watched the same exact scene and could see how they edited it and what they took out.

1/6/2006 4:01:55 PM

Why is it illegal ?
If it is illegal then why do the recording companies/studios continue to choose to
market their products through Walmart ? I mean it's no secret that Walmart is going to edit
some media to make it less objectionable. I don't see the problem, people can buy that unedited version elsewhere if they are so inclined. What's your beef?

1/6/2006 4:06:35 PM

You're taking a copyrighted work and changing it without permission. Do you not see what's wrong with that?

1/6/2006 4:12:26 PM

yeah, violating copyright laws is only cool when it gets me free shit

1/6/2006 4:20:31 PM

damn right

1/6/2006 4:27:54 PM

pardon mathman's ignorance, he believes that we should live in a theocracy anyway

1/6/2006 4:42:01 PM

customers should at least be warned they're buying censored DVD's and cd's.

1/6/2006 4:47:28 PM

If it was really illegal then Walmart would not still be doing it. I was in like 5th grade the first time I heard about the Walmart edits. And again, if the artists/studios think it's illegal then they could just as well not sell their products to Walmart.

1/6/2006 5:20:22 PM

companies do things even though they're not legal

1/6/2006 5:34:07 PM

I dunno, a small company like Wal Mart has so little power in these matters, I bet it's hard for them to get away with things.

1/6/2006 6:01:03 PM

Quote :

"If it was really illegal then Walmart would not still be doing it."

i think i pissed my pants when i read that

1/6/2006 6:13:40 PM

oh who the fuck is mathman?

1/6/2006 9:48:45 PM

ps

this is some serious fucked up repugnant shit right here
with martin luther king jr day right around the corner, i'd love to see walmart take some hits

1/6/2006 9:49:17 PM

Quote :

"I dunno, a small company like Wal Mart has so little power in these matters, I bet it's hard for them to get away with things."

On what planet is "not for sale in wal-mart" a major problem when it comes to music? People go to the music, not the other-way-around. Sure, if you were selling plastic bins then you'd have a case, wal-mart could simply go to another supplier. But for MC Hammer music, Wal-Mart customers would be left with one message: if you want to purchase music, go elsewhere. And while you are there, check out the new ultra-low prices on plastic bins!

1/6/2006 10:23:54 PM

Quote :

"oh who the fuck is mathman? "

Mathfreak's less enthusiastic brother?

[Edited on January 6, 2006 at 11:30 PM. Reason : ]

1/6/2006 11:30:17 PM

MathFreak's doppelganger

1/7/2006 12:19:28 AM

See this is why racism will never die. If you searched for Tom Cruise and Planet of the Apes came up, no one would give a shit. Why should people give a shit if planet of the apes comes up when you search for Martin Luther King; Do black people think they look like apes? Fix the glitch and move on.

1/7/2006 6:03:25 PM

are you really this dumb

1/7/2006 6:10:39 PM

I thought the Planet of the Apes was supposed to be a criticism of european colonialism and racism.

And Ive got a film studies book that says so

1/7/2006 7:45:36 PM

wow. its not like "monkey" was a derrogatory term for black people back in the day or anything.

1/7/2006 9:50:00 PM

Quote :

"See this is why racism will never die. If you searched for Tom Cruise and Planet of the Apes came up, no one would give a shit. Why should people give a shit if planet of the apes comes up when you search for Martin Luther King; Do black people think they look like apes? Fix the glitch and move on"

that's kinda my take

live and let live

the less of a big deal we make about racial issues, the better

i mean, if someone is really doing something truly discriminatory, then that's different...otherwise, i think we're FAR too sensitive about it, as a culture (both as whities and minorities...both sides are guilty)

1/7/2006 10:04:11 PM

uh

no

1/7/2006 10:16:08 PM

I'm not normally one to buy into a claim of racism, but this is just fucking stupid. there is no way the link between the two was accidental, because if you are programming the thing, you will make damn sure that a "link" between black people and apes is never made

1/7/2006 10:59:47 PM

lmao the links aren't selected by hand, they use data from previous purchases in i'm guessing some sort of neural network to decide which ones to link

1/7/2006 11:11:33 PM

^no

its already said in this thread it isn't based on other customers purchases

1/7/2006 11:16:07 PM

i missed that, where did it say that?

1/7/2006 11:17:35 PM

3rd post

Quote :

"Yes, it is true (confirmed by CNN and USA Today), and that is a damned serious "mistake". It wasn't "Other shoppers bought these ..." ... it was "Similar Items ..." http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-01-05-wal-mart-offensive_x.htm"

1/7/2006 11:26:32 PM

it doesn't matter what they call it, they are using previous purchase data to automatically generate the links

1/7/2006 11:28:01 PM

would you like to verify that?

the usa today article you were just linked to suggests otherwise

Quote :

"but the world's largest retailer said the automated system that generates links for shoppers from one movie to others of similar interest is malfunctioning and is in the process of being shut down."

not similar purchase, but similar interest

1/7/2006 11:31:55 PM

Quote :

"but the world's largest retailer said the automated system that generates links for shoppers"

Thats the key part, and what other type of data would they use? Not only is purchase data the easiest for them to get, it would be hard to find another other measure of related interest stronger than customer purchases. Plus I had a class on the subject and I know thats what businesses typically use.

1/7/2006 11:39:15 PM

ha.

1/7/2006 11:41:17 PM

so why wouldn't they provide data that suggests people who bought the Planet of the Apes tv show also bought a lot of african american leader films

and the part of the article that you bolded does not preclude the part i bolded


and i'd love to know what class that is that dealt with the dvd suggestion system of walmart

[Edited on January 7, 2006 at 11:57 PM. Reason : you, i/i, you]

1/7/2006 11:55:41 PM

I'm sure they could provide data linking the two since it was generated automatically from the data, but that won't make the linking ok in the eyes of most people. And the class was Predictive Data Mining.

1/8/2006 12:15:22 AM

I can't believe anyone on this thread really believes that Walmart did this on purpose. For what
possible gain? It's either an accident or some disgruntled employee.

1/8/2006 12:22:01 AM

no coder has ever done anything cheeky, insulting, or maliscious

ever

1/8/2006 12:42:26 AM

Quote :

"I thought the Planet of the Apes was supposed to be a criticism of european colonialism and racism. And Ive got a film studies book that says so"

1/8/2006 5:31:53 AM

Swing Low, Sweet Charriot

1/8/2006 11:52:09 AM

My take on this. I'm black and would not even have noticed it if noone had pointed it out. Obviously there are people out there with too much time on their hands. Whether the coder intentionally set it up this way or it was an accident, I don't know but either way it's not really that important in the grand scheme of things and people would do better focusing their energies elsewhere (like government reform). Walmart itself is not to blame for this but whoever wrote the software for them to use.

1/8/2006 1:09:34 PM

If loving walmart is wrong, I don't want to be right.

1/8/2006 1:42:58 PM