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interesting. ebay app hides seller description but shows AI generated description w/o clicking
I just noticed that when viewing a listing on my phone android), the pages shows the complete item description without any extra clicks- BUT ONLY IF YOU HAD USED THE AI GENERATED DESCRIPTION TOOL.
If you view a listing that the seller put time and effort into an accurate description themselves- the view as you scroll down still hides the description behind a "see full description" button, requiring extra click to see the most important part of the listing.
Why the hypocrisy? - So a sellers description clutters the view and needs to be hidden, requiring an action to see but the Ebay generated AI description is shown on main page, in plain site??
And i am confused- for 20 years ( and as recent as last week) ebay has been telling sellers that clean simple descriptive bullet points and not repeating any info from the title. Even the listing tool chastises you and makes you click 3x to add a color font or change the size of the print! A simple listing is betterit warns you...........
Enter new AI description generator- Makes a 8 sentence paragraphs to describe simple attributes. It uses flowery descriptions that are more fluff and poetry than anything. 9x out of 10 it is completely wrong and needs to be corrected anyway. It is long form and artsy. And that is shown to buyers without extra clicks???
I just don't get the logic here. Exactly opposite of what ebay tells us to do.
Not even to mention the user fatigue of seeing the exact same written format for every listing whether it is a shoe or a pool light , or an antique vase, or 10 pack of #2 pencils. The result will be - buyers quickly skimming over to run-on sentence of a description looking for the actually details of the item, possibly missing the details that are buried in "a story."
Push comes to shove i could not care less about the AI story teller BUT ebay should show the rest of our descriptions ALSO instead of forcing extra clicks to see it.
kh-cathy
·1 year agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
nmcm5213
·1 year agoThe AI generated item “descriptions†are not descriptive in any sense. eBay took a turn to the flakey, tacky and deceptive when they allowed listers to populate their listings with this garbage nonsense AI ejaculation.
brightlightbookseller
·1 year agoThis thread hasn't had a response in a year, and you didn't really need to come add to it. The mods will close it soon anyways.
siamjane8
OP3 years ago@devon@ebay
Any thoughts on what ebay is doing here guys-anyone at ebay?
Just a bunch of sellers trying to figure out what we need to do to use this platform and all we are getting is tests and changes without any information or explanation from the very teams that we pay their salaries....
Do we use simple description box to have our descriptions show up without the extra click or does that not matter?
Do we have any control
Is this just a test or is it a new better design (obviously showing the description is a better design)
Why are we the customers left totally in the dark?
All we want to do is optimize our listings to have the best chance of making sales- please stop playing games with us- we want to be professional and only ask the same of ebay.
devon@ebay
Hey @siamjane8! I have this thread shared with the product team in charge of this. Once I can get some more clarification on this I will be sure to share with everyone here.
iamonourside
·3 years ago@devon@ebay
Thank you for your help. I really appreciate your use of quotes. The team's response was clearly a blow off (of the seller, not you) rather than a thoughtful, helpful answer.
Along these lines, what happened to the "condition summary" aka "seller notes". Is it ever displayed? When was it ever announced that it was no longer shown. Imagine, the condition description, if not repeated in the actual description, could never be displayed for app users. And eBay is okay with that.
The team's answer belies the reason given for eBay's present crusade to eliminate formatting (i.e. "consumer trust"). What is the real reason? Reducing the computing resources needed to save descriptions with formatting tags? Why not do away with descriptions all together? Why not just generate AI descriptions on the fly?
I always doubt eBay reasons. No formatting is degrading the product. Bland descriptions make items less attractive. That is NOT what the consumer wants.
iamonourside
·2 years agoSince @devon@ebay @ shared with the responsible eBay team, the condition description has begun appearing on the eBay app.
(Thank you Devon and team!)
It appears as the item description on the first view item page without additional clicks.
FYI, ac-green, value added, and others: Html of any kind - even paragraph breaks- is stripped from this part of the descrption.
Now, if only I knew whether it is being shown on purpose rather than as part of a test, I'd know whether to invest the time to use it again.
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoAlso @devon@ebay here's another example which includes emojis in the description - I'm not 100% sure, but I would think if the issue was with non-standard formatting, additional html, special characters, or anything that isn't just standard plain text that it would have hidden this due to those emojis.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@devon@ebay I'm not sure what to make of the emoji example above, but I played around a little with this and it looks like what the team is actually saying is (at least if you are using the ebay listing form):
Use the default box to provide the description. This will then show up as the full description in the app.
If you use the "show all options" HTML feature, your description will end up with the "see full description" link only. So, stick with what the listing calls "simple formatting" (the default) and you get the benefit of a full description in the app.
Can you check with the team and see if I'm interpreting this correctly?
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@devon@ebay
Another question for the team: Just listed this item. I used the default description box, no HTML, no "show all options" (although I might have opened the "show all options" box, I didn't use it)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/386019397269
Looking at this on the app (Android), I'm seeing only "See full description", no actual description, and no truncated description either.
However, this is an unusually long description for me, and now I'm wondering if there is a character limit? If my description exceeds a certain number of characters, does the app default to "see full description", even if it is non-HTML?
And if so, what is the limit?
Hoping to hear from you soon.
melmurdock
·3 years ago 
I don't know if this helps but . . .
I create all my listings on a desktop using the Description field.
I don't use the "Show All Options" HTML feature.
But sometimes I use the Ebay app on my iPhone to edit my listings Descriptions.
When I edit the Descriptions field I get an "Unsupported Formatting" message.
To continue editing the Description I have to click on "Remove formatting and continue"
Listings that I do this to end up with just a link to the Description instead of showing the full Description.
I have not found a workaround.
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoYeah I'm going to have to agree with @robbie31415 on this one - it appears to be random (or at least some other criteria besides just the AI tool alone).
I was able to find several examples that appear to be AI generated that show the full description but looking at those sellers' other items they also have some that are clearly not using the AI that are also showing the full description and others that aren't.
Maybe to go along with all the other view item page they are doing for desktop, they are also testing this part of the app experience.
@devon@ebay @kyle@ebay - any details you can provide?
devon@ebay
Hey @valueaddedresource! I do not have any details on this as of now but we can reach out to see if there is any insight that we can share here on community.
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoThanks @devon@ebay ! Looking forward to hearing what you find out.
devon@ebay
Hey @valueaddedresource! I heard back from the design team and this is what they said:
"We show item description on View Item (without a click) if the seller has provide text description. If the description is HTML then we show it only upon click. That is the key difference."
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@valueaddedresource @devon@ebay
Given that many sellers believe it is important to show the full description rather than have the buyer click to get to it, isn't this precisely the sort of information ebay should share , say, in the listing process? And in the Help pages? And perhaps an Announcement?
Could you maybe suggest to the listing form team that they add one of those little pop up "Information" things in the description area?
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@my-cottage-books-and-antiques not sure if this is new but thought I'd point it out because you asked for it - I am seeing an info pop up about this *after* you switch to the HTML editor.
However, I think it would be even better to put that "warning" in this box that pops up when you select the "show all options" link to switch - it would be much more noticable and helpful to give sellers that warning at this point so they can back out and continue with the simple editor if they don't want to risk having their description not shown on mobile.
@devon@ebay
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@valueaddedresource Thanks for catching that. I don't recall every seeing that before, and agree, it would be better to have it in the original pop-up. However, I'm just glad to see they added this. (assuming it is new, which I think it is)
a_c_green
·3 years agoI'm not sure that's really the whole story, because even if you type the whole description directly into the editing window, it's still getting HTML added by the interface itself. You can see it by opening that HTML checkbox and viewing the description that you just typed in. You're always going to have some HTML behind the scenes; its presence does not mean Something Nefarious needs to be dealt with.
I'm often in there doing cleanup, because the listing form coding is pretty bad when it comes to the hidden HTML markup that is added around new content but never removed from text that's deleted. You can wind up with eight-zillion redundant or empty tags surrounding material that is no longer there, and it can often confuse or badly represent the content that is still there in terms of font sizes or text positioning.
It would be good to have some sort of HTML cleanup algorithm go to work on the description text when saving the listing, but I suspect that would require a higher level of coding ability beyond what is seen there now.
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoThanks @devon@ebay but are you sure they are talking about the view in the app?
This sounds more like what @itsjustasprain and @chapeau-noir are talking about where in the past http vs https elements and other formatting may have resulted in a "click to see description" button, but that's not what we are talking about here.
Here we are specifically talking about in the mobile app under "Item description from the seller" sometimes it will show some or all of the description text without needing to click anywhere and sometimes it will show a link that says "see full description"
@my-cottage-books-and-antiques out of curiosity on the test AI listing you did for the tie, did you add any html or other formatting or was it just plain text?
a_c_green
·3 years agoI'd like to point out that all the descriptions contain HTML; if they didn't, you'd just have a sea of unformatted Courier. (You can see the HTML coding by clicking the link above the description window for enhanced formatting. I sometimes have to go in there and clean out multiple layers of blank coding left behind after editing changes.)
It was indeed the insecure external HTTP links brought in via copy-and-paste that eBay was concerned about in the past, which led to that isolation behind a See Full Description button. (I'm wondering whether someone may have typed "HTML" in their response when they meant to write "HTTP" instead.) There may also be other higher-risk HTML coding that triggers the same thing. I can see why they might be reluctant to talk about security countermeasures in any detail.
Incidentally, I noticed recently that the listing test I'm encountering in my buying account has changed slightly. Now the listing comes up with the description tab showing in full, and the Item Specifics tab minimized, instead of the other way around.
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoThanks @a_c_green - you're right that all listings will contain some amount of HTML and it was the secure vs non-secure issues that resulted in some descriptions being hidden.
Your comment about description being shown in full and IS tab being minimized, is that on the app and if so, iOS or Android?
22bluebricks
·2 years agoUnfortunately, the description still comes up intermittently regardless if how it's listed. It's probably something the developer can adjust.
itsjustasprain
·3 years agoI remember that from some time back long before the ChapCPT thing came along. I think it had something to do with whether the description had been pasted in from someplace else rather than written directly in the description field on the site. I assume the description written ON the Ebay site would have really simple formatting and a minimum of hidden coding that Ebay presumably supported.
If a formatted description was pasted in from someplace else it went into a separate stored element in the listing that had to be accessed by the reader clicking a separate link. I think the isolation was an attempt to limit problems with hidden third-party formatting commands or something like that.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoIIRC, it had to do with whether elements of the description had unsecure origins, i.e., http rather than https. In the latter case the description was hidden and had to be accessed with a redirect button.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoI mean in the former case (http). Too much blood in my caffeine stream.
robbie31415
·3 years agoI've written multiple descriptions that show up without the see full description link.
I'm not exactly sure what does it. I thought maybe if it was short or had a short paragraph then that was it, but that result isn't consistent.
It just randomly happens for all I know, but I do know it's not only because of the AI tool.
iamalwaysright
·3 years agoInteresting
Hmmm, maybe it was never ebay that actually decided to hide your descriptions with that extra click. Bare with me here. Maybe, just MAYBE, it's the AI itself that went into ebay's developers programming code and decided to hide all human generated descriptions and only allow it's own AI generated ones to be shown.
That would totally explain ebay IT and developer's obliviousness to some of these designs that they don't know how to remedy.
The reason for the AI's actions here remains to be seen. It may be the first step to a much larger global plan to conquer all things that we know and hold dear.
hartungcards
·3 years agoI think you may be confusing "hypocrisy" with "incompetence" in the IT Department.
brightlightbookseller
·3 years agoHanlon's razor comes into play here: "Never ascribe to malice that which can be attributed to incompetence."
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years agoI was going to try to duplicate this, because I used ebay's magic on one of my listings, but can't remember which one LOL. I'll try adding it to a new listing today and check my phone (Android).
I agree, if ebay is going to show the entire Magical description but continue to hide my description....I will not be happy. Maybe the trick will be to let ebay work its magic, then basically completely rewrite it by editing it, and see what happens to the heavily edited "magic"?
stacy_pme
·3 years agoI've been using the AI, and then pasting my own description and stuff below it...? I wonder if that works the same?
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years agoIf by your own "stuff" you mean the multi colored stuff that takes up most of the description box? That pretty much ensures that your listing on a phone will show the "see full description" link instead of your description.
You need to decide whether it's more important to have your description show instead of just "see full description", or whether it's more important to keep all that stuff.
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@siamjane8 how can you tell the description was written with the AI tool? Do you have an item number for reference?
siamjane8
OP3 years ago@valueaddedresource I know because I know the seller and they tried the Al out on their most recent 2 listings and the rest of their listings are not with the tool. Also you can spot the tool magical description from 1000 miles away because nobody writes description like that.
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@siamjane8 thanks but....if you could share an item number that would help those of us who would be interested in testing this out so we don't just have to randomly click on thousands of items hoping to find one that looks like it used the AI generator. 😉
itsjustasprain
·3 years agoI have to say that it is PAINFULLY obvious when a lazy seller has used a ChatGPT description generator. While I agree that examples will help - I think that pointing out individual listings for their useless descriptions might fall under the Naming and Shaming rule... 😉
If someone wants to volunteer one of their their own listings to demonstrate this issue that might help.
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@itsjustasprain good point but I don't see any reason we have to comment one way or the other on the description itself and wasn't planning to violate that rule.
I agree that the style does often provide a strong hint, I'm just trying to avoid having to go through who knows how many listings before finding one. 😂
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoJust to add - if anyone wants to provide an example but not publicly, feel free to PM...I'm just really curious to test this one out.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years agoJust listed this, with only slight edits to the ebay supplied description. Yes, I must be lazy LOL: