Rand Simberg blogged on this issue
here, and cited the Amazon reviews of Glenn Reynolds'
An Army of Davids as an example. The review written by C. Henderson "kharma" of Melbourne, FL is typical of this kind of trollage - off-subject attacks against the author, little to nothing about the book's contents:
so where is the small government? Where is the fiscal responsibility? Where is the honest open accountability? Reynolds pretends conservatism but in reality is another failed neo-con shill.
Amazon.com has already taken steps to prune some of these non-reviews. The first time I checked out the review of Glenn's book there was one "review" than ranted about Bush, Halliburton, "oiloiloil" and the Iraq War. Wish I had saved it.
Reviewer Shamm Gold notes how Amazon's troll problem validates the theme of An Army of Davids:
I'm a moderate Dem, and very much like this thought-provoking book.
It is interesting to see those on far left who clearly haven't read the book post negative reviews. In a way, the Amazon reviews themselves are a case-study of the expected progression that is the thesis of Reynolds' book.
1. Davids versus Goliaths - like Amazon letting readers rate books, rather than only including newspaper book reviews. This is where Reynolds spends most of his time.
2. Bad Davids (those who review book without even reading it) versus "new Goliath comprised of Davids" (the Amazon book rating system).
3. Good Davids (I would include any negative reviewer of "Army" who has actually read the book) to take on the "Bad Davids," by writing posts such as the previous one, alerting readers to existence of Bad Davids.
4. Armies of Davids-and-Goliaths against other Davids-and-Goliaths, sort of like B-2 bombers and infantry of two sides...
Update: One of Rand's commenters transcribed the "oiloiloil" review - I was one "oil" short:
The usual far-right crap about how Rush and Hanity and wingnut Freeper bloggers are going to censor the "big" media and pimp corporations and the GOP. This is just more examples of the vile Halliburton Enronism crony capitalism. In the "Army of Davids" it's all about oiloiloiloil, cowboyish disregard for allies, see the photo of Rummy and Hussein. I'd rename the book "Amry of Warmonger Chickenhawks Who Pimp For Wal-Mart and Karl Rove."
This is the first time I saw anyone link Bush to Wal-Mart. Maybe I haven't been getting out enough.