Weekly Community Chat, July 19th @ 1pm PT - General Topics

[alan@ebay]

Hi Community, 

Please join us here for our weekly Community chat at 1 pm Pacific on Wednesday 7/19. There isn't a set topic this week so feel free to ask us your eBay buying & selling questions. 

Talk to you then!

[mg152]

Thanks all! See you next week! 😀

[mam98031]

YES !!!

"I find it funny that one of the ones who likes to stir the pot is posting a thread about the community. Your friend with 5 or 6 different posting IDs - who would kudo your posts under every ID as well as promote his own negative posts by kudoing them was a disruption to the community."

I've brought this up before.  It use to be in the rules that posting with multiple IDs on any given thread was against the rules.  Yet you see it from time to time on threads.  Usually when no one is agreeing with that they are say, so they have the need to agree with themselves to get any traction because it makes it seem as if multiple posters are agreeing.  This behavior is often used by those that are just trying to stir things up and/or create friction on a thread.  I say bring back the rule that you aren't suppose to do this.

[alan@ebay]

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@timemachine777 wrote:

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@bigmotormania wrote:

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alan@ebay wrote:

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Hi @timemachine777

We completely rewrote our guidelines in October 2016; there are no current plans to rewrite them again. 

I wouldn't agree that they're "draconian." We have thousands of active users in our Community each day who do not experience post removal or moderator action.

Our team has a duty to keep all users in the Community safe, and posters in the Community have a duty to ensure that they adhere to our usage guidelines when posting. 

The eBay Community Team regularly meets with the Lithium moderation team to review all moderation action taken. 

We do not enjoy moderating, but having a safe and enjoyable environment is very important to us. 

If you ever have concerns with moderation action taken on your ID, you can contact me via Private Message, and I will personally review the situation. 

Thanks. 

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I would note that subjectivity has been seen as a factor in the moderation of messages, it seems some messages get removed when they were simply stating fact, but other extremely toxic and hostile messages were allowed to stay, for reasons unbeknownst to myself.

This might be where the word "draconian" came from in regards to how some of the policies work.

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In part. The other reason for my use of the term is because I remember a lot of the posts that I read that disappeared at the time, and I didn't see anything wrong with them, and then I also found out the poster was also banned for writing it. Yet, like you said toxic and hostile messages would still remain, along with the poster. Makes no sense. One gets unwarranted harsh treatment and the other that deserves a little time off the boards gets nothing.

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PM me more info! If incorrect action is being taken we'd like to address it immediately.

       

[bigmotormania]

alan@ebay

Hopefully I type this and get it out before the chat ends.

I had a suggestion I had been thinking about and wanted to see what you thought. I think on top of the weekly chat there should be a post where a person can ask a question at any time of the week but can only post once every xx hours or whatever, and you guys can reply to it if necessary. 

Then the weekly chat would be for more specific Q&A discussion, as opposed to simple "ask question, get answer, no discussion" type setup.

I hope you know what I'm getting at, just a thought.

Would allow for more specific answers to more complex questions, without interfering with the way the weekly chat works, in my opinion.

[timemachine777]

Before time runs out here. What's up with the new seller to-do page that is replacing the active sell page (My selling page)? Now you have to use 3 to 5 diffwerent pages to get work done vs one page.

[vrykalak]

searching the product catalog for a box set of books. The series is named "felicity". Even though I say "Felicity" and that its a box set of books, not even ONE of the 15 results I get contains that name. This is really annoying. can anything be done?
BTW, when I do a basic search with the same keywords I see 54 entries for the book set I have for sale.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Trinton,
There are now going to be two ways for IPR to appear , I choose it or ebay forces it if the criteria are met. I get that. Fine. My question is: If ebay forces it, will I still have to remove it for the buyer to be able to request a total?

In other words, you are going to require IPR on most if not all of my FP listings, but you are NOT going to alter the shipping cart to provide an easy way for the buyer to get a combined shipping invoice? (I do not use "Combined shipping rules" as they are impractical for most of my stuff)

I do not see this as an improvement. IF you add the ability for the buyer to request the invoice from the shopping cart, yes. But otherwise? This change will just be counter-productive.

[Anonymous]

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@critter_mama_2007 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@critter_mama_2007 wrote:

thanks, i just sent an email.

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Sounds good! They should be in contact soon with next steps. Thanks, @critter_mama_2007! 

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Well I just got my reply.  A canned email telling me how to use the contact us button on ebay.  sigh.......

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Hi @critter_mama_2007 - That shouldn't have been the response you got at all. I'll partner with them to see what happened and be in touch with you via email.

[vrykalak]

another question about using the product catalog: If I'm selling several items in a series, can I pick one of the items and use it's catalog info? or is that misrepresentation?

[scribe.adept13]

Thanks for sharing! There will still be other listings visible (say the seller is running a promotion on similar items, a Markdown Manager sale cross-selling etc) as well as sponsored listings for other sellers below the description itself. Ultimately we want you to find what you're looking for and getting the information on the item you're looking at in a clear, concise way. 

If that is the case, you are failing.  The screen was so full of the other sponsored listings - and I'm talking 4 tiers of listing boxes at the top(ish) and several below the description!!! (wish I'd gotten a screenshot now) - that I almost clicked out of the listing altogether although that would not have been fair to the seller who was simply trying to sell something.  It's not his/her fault that eBay has decided that using his/her listing is a wonderful and acceptable way to advertise other people's stuff.

There's a local store that I began refusing to shop at when their weekly flyer began looking like a really bad collage created by sugared-up kindergarteners.  It was busy, considerably too much crammed on each page and very difficult to read.  The ad wasn't even just things on sale.   I mean, the sheer amount of stuff listed made it physically uncomfortable to view.  I actually complained to upper management (they're a chain grocer) - and so had many others.  They learned through a decline in sales that their brilliant idea of advertising to the max regardless of buyers' reactions wasn't so brilliant.  Their ad is now better and considerably moderated.

If I am having that kind of a reaction to eBay - and I work for a business which does eBay sales as a living, what must the average Joe who comes along for a quick shopping think?

~M

[outofroom]

I use Seller Sourcebook for many of my listings. These all contain borders and interesting graphics of some kind, framing my descriptions and other information about my offerings.  The code is in HTML, which eBay supports.  To the best of my knowledge, this is not in violation of any eBay policy. I feel it enhances my listings and would hate to stop using it.

[timemachine777]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

I find it funny that one of the ones who likes to stir the pot is posting a thread about the community. Your friend with 5 or 6 different posting IDs - who would kudo your posts under every ID as well as promote his own negative posts by kudoing them was a disruption to the community.

The discussion boards are no longer discussion boards but Ebay Bash boards. Memebers who try to help people with their problems are accused of stalking when all they are trying to do are help a post formulate their listings so they'll be picked up in search or we try to help them rethink their business policies which may not make them as attractive to buyers.

The purpose of the boards is to help sellers with problems - not to make them feel good about their rants when we know many times they themselves are causing their own problems.

A suggestion may be to have a board where posters can ask questions concerning the tin foil hat theories like regional sales, blackouts ect... and maybe the blues stopping by to explain the situations and either why they occur or explain why they are nonsence.

We have lost many good posters due to some on the boards attacking them because they didn't follow the blame Ebay for everything train of thought. Copper has left due to being attacked. Castlemagic has left after an altercation - and I'm on my last leg as my patience is wearing thin.

I was one of these negative nellies a few years back until I smartened up - took advice from the supposed Ebay plants and changed my listings to get better views in search and be more appealing to a buyer. Too much time is lost complaining instead of trying to do something - often simple steps - to make things better. 

Every business has faults, every business does what they have to do to make money - every other venue has it's share of problems and dissatisfied sellers if you look at their discussion forums. Ebay is no better and no worse - but it's where I have sales because I have learned to adapt and listen instead of complain about everything.

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I don't control who gives me helpfuls and I don't personally know them, Plus I'm not their keeper. 

[tyler@ebay]

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@wendybac wrote:

Is IPR forced for auctions also?

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Hey @wendybac - @mam98031 gave you good info. To elaborate: because there isn't a way to guarantee a buyer would be present at the time the listing ended there isn't a way to force immediate payment. 

[alan@ebay]

Thanks again for joining us. 

We're closing the thread as we've run over the hour. There will be no weekly chat next week as the team will be at eBay Open. 

[Anonymous]

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@duchess-at-speakeasy wrote:

On Tuesday, China banned images of Winnie the Pooh from the internet.  The Chinese president does not like being compared to the pudgy fictional character.

Does this mean that Chinese sellers will henceforth be prohibited from advertising and selling counterfeit Pooh merchandise on eBay?  How will eBay help enforce the ban?  Will U.S. and other eBay sellers be able to offer Pooh merchandise to Chinese buyers via the internet?

Source of information:  ABC News  and NBC News. both radio.

~~C~~

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We do not allow any kind of counterfeit items to be sold on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/replica-counterfeit.html 

Additionally, while we do not have a site domain for China, we of course will comply with any applicable laws and regulations.