Questions about this blog

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Why Do All The Amazon Widgets Link To Amazon.com?
I Want To Buy From Amazon.co.uk.

I joined Amazon.com Associates several years ago. I make very little money out of it (all in the form of credit to buy stuff from Amazon) and would be unlikely to get rich from Amazon.co.uk either. Still, I might apply to join Amazon.co.uk Associates one day. Whether they would let me in is another matter, if they read this blog. I'm still not sure how I would adapt this blog to include UK widgets.

Usually, you can find the page you want in the UK by going to the American page and changing the website name in the URL. This does not always work because the UK and USA editions sometimes differ, but it works most of the time.

But You Are British. Why Did You Choose Amazon.com In The First Place?

I joined in the early days and had serious doubts about Amazon.co.uk's enthusiasm for anything beyond fulfilling orders. But really, the main reason for joining at all was so that I could practise HTML and decorate my blog pages and to make the pages look nicer. Yes, Amazon supply the HTML for the widgets, but the extra scope for designing blog posts provided by those widgets provides more variation for setting up other HTML.

Why do some pages have the text on a blue background while others have a white background?

I don't like too much white on a page, preferring a pastel background. However, some pages don't work so well with a blue background while others have too little text to make the use of blue worthwhile. Amazon's widgets all have a white background and I can't change that even though sometimes I'd like to.

Why is some information repeated on different posts?

Remember that people often look up web pages in isolation. While duplication can be annoying to anybody who reads the whole blog, I feel that it is necessary to strike a balance. I do try to avoid excess reetition, not least because I'd have to update more pages if I need to change whatever they say.

Why is there information that helps people to cheat?

I think that a lot of those people who want to cheat generally know how to, while a lot of customers don't know how to spot them. It is a sad reality that you can't help people to spot cheating without also helping other people to cheat.

As I point out elsewhere in this blog, trolls have learned how to use ARAT to aid their stalking. Some of these trolls discovered ARAT because of my blog post or the guide that it replaced. That's the price of providing information that helps reviewers who appreciate being able to use ARAT for its intended purpose. Of course I could have kept quiet about ARAT for fear that trolls would discover it, but that's not my style.

Some people prefer to err on the side of not saying anything publicly that helps trolls or cheaters, but I err on the side of disseminating information. It's not as if any of this stuff is endangering life. I can see that there would be situations in real life where I would err on the side of secrecy.

Ultimately, it is up to Amazon to update their software to deal with the problems that arise.

This blog doesn't look like other blogs. What gives?

Like most of my blogs, it is a website in disguise. I set it up that way because I never wanted to buy webspace. Of the various free space options available a few years ago, Blogger was the most appealing. I learned that it isn't meant to be used the way I use it, but this was another case where I used my programming skills to figure out how to set up websites within the Blogger framework.

The main disadvantage is that I can't add new posts without messing up the indexing, although I can easily update existing posts, so I put new pages in Amazon topics extras and link them from the appropriate pages here. If that becomes too messy, I'll reorganize the blog to absorb those pages and take the opportunity to look at other possible improvements. Having done so in July 2011, I don't expect that to happen again any time soon. See Blog setup for more information about why and how I set up my blogs, including technical details.

I posted a comment on this blog. Why hasn't it shown up?

I check posts before allowing them to show up, so either :-

• I haven't seen it yet - and if my home internet connection is down or if I am otherwise busy, it might be a while before I do.


• I have seen it, but I am thinking about how to respond prior to posting both your comment and my response.


• I have decided that I can't or won't post it.

See Add your comments.

The question I want answered isn’t here. Why?

One of the following reasons :-

• I don’t think it’s relevant.


• I haven’t thought to include it.