For @chapeau-noir and anyone else who may be interested.
Sorry for the length of this post but shortening the post would mean shortchanging you by leaving out important observations.
First, those who are adamantly opposed to change for the sake of change are going to hate it. The entire layout has been reworked, rearranged and visibly changed for what I see as no good or particular reason. Other than some programmer wanted to show off. STOP DOING THAT.
There is one useful consistency
I accessed the program using a template made under the old program. The information carried forward with out any apparent loss of information. In other words, your existing templates will still work. You do not need to create new ones.
There is one major positive change.
I sell, among other things, many aluminum license plates featuring, individually, the flag of pretty much every country in the world. On the current system for example when I insert in the title line “Aluminum license plate flag of Canada” the program tries to make seemingly endless (and incorrect) attempts to automatically make insertions in the various specifics fields such as (in this case) “Country/region of manufacture: Canada”. If you overlook it (i.e. forget to delete it) then potentially that sets up an “Item not as Described claim”. Many of us in the US like to buy US made goods. It is reasonable to believe that someone in Canada might like to buy Canadian made goods. Except the plate is not actually made in Canada. “But you said”.
That quirk is gone in the new program.
There is one marginal positive change - the addition of a video.
Inserting it was as simple as drag and drop from my PC in the same way that I drag and drop pictures..
But I say marginal because out of my 11,000 listings I can think of only about 1/2 dozen that MIGHT benefit from a video. Others of course may have better use of the program for demonstrating things that move when the movement becomes an important part of the presentation. Music boxes, things that have active and changing lighting or holographic patterns, the swirl of fabric (a dress for example) and other such uses.
Videos do not enhance my listings but might apply to yours. So it is a matter of personal need or choice.
But for me it is pretty much never going to be used. Yes, I could put in a generic “Hey - look at me” video but then that would draw attention away from what I am trying to sell. What would be the point of that? And anyways I already have that on my eBay store home page. If I really wanted a video I can add it to the body of my listing in the same way that I now show pictures in the body of my listings (No, I do not mean using YouTube but a direct link from my independent wholly owned web site)
HOWEVER there are MANY negatives.
The biggest generic complaint is that it now takes longer and requires many more steps to do the simple things that the current program does OH so much quicker. WHY ???
Entering and/or changing item specifics
Specifics used to be listed in open boxes that you could just overtype if you needed to change them. Now you need to click a link to open the list of specifics, then click another link to open the particular specifics line, make the change or addition then click save to close that particular line, (and then “rinse and repeat” for any other lines you need to add/change) and then finally click “save” to close the box. WAY TOO MANY extra clicks for no good reason.
eBay is in a tear concerning required and recommended specifics to the point of flagging you “items for sale” page and being a royal pain about it. The original had a clearly visible blue circle to ell you at a glance you’re done. New program hides that “flag” until you click “edit” button. So where I could tell at a glance that all the required/recommended specifics were filled in now I have to make 2 unnecessary clicks just to verify what was clearly obvious before.
Entering or changing categories
They used to be open boxes you could overwrite. Now you need to click to open, make the change and then click to save. Unnecessary clicks
Entering or changing shipping
Used to be the items were listed in the open so making any changes were just overwriting what was there. Now, for example, it shows the weight and size of a package on one combined line. It used to be you could just overwrite it. Not any more. Now you need extra clicks to open the information to change it and then another click to save it and close the link.
One button to open dialog box then you need to click another button to open that line so you can edit either of those and then click save to return to the dialog box to then make changes to international. That’s a WHOLE LOT of extra clicks for no good reason.
Entering descriptive text
When you get to the box to insert your typed description the original had 2 tabs: standard and HTML. New program foes not automatically show the HTML option. I do all of my listings in HTML. You need to you click the “show all options” button off to the right. But then a dialogue box opens and tries to convince you NOT to proceed. You are being treated like a child who doesn’t know what is best for them. And only if you insist does it then offer “continue anyways” (note the negative approval?) Then the HTML check box finally appears. Again unnecessary clicks
Saving your work
A minor irritant. On the original program there were 3 buttons. “List”, “save as draft” and “preview”. The “save as draft” is now changed to “save for later” but it does exactly the same thin - it saves it as a draft. A little confused as to why they thought it was necessary to change the label other than some fool deciding that generic language was better than specific language. STOP DOING THAT !
Summary
One definite positive - getting rid of the annoying and potentially troublesome program of automatically entering incorrect item specifics based on what it usually misunderstood from the title key words.
One potential positive - the addition of a video.
BUT WAY TOO MANY negatives.
Far too many extra and unnecessary clicks to do on the new program what it used to do with far fewer clicks than the current program.
Until and unless I decide to add a video (which is really the only advantage to the new program) I will stay with the current program.
Switching back
If you try it and then want to return to the original (which eBay calls the “classic” program) they HIDE the switch back button. On the upper right corner of the page are three vertically stacked dots. Click on those and a return box will appear. Although they do ask why you want to switch back.
I can only hope that, given the length and detail of this post, that someone from eBay will take the time to peruse it and clean up the unnecessary folderol. (Yeah I know - wishful thinking).
And I will close with my favorite line to those who change things that do not need to be changed.
HEY YOU - don’t just do “something” - STAND THERE.
"Laissez-faire capitalism (AKA The Great Material Continuum) is the only social system based on the recognition of individual rights and, therefore, the only system that bans force from social relationships." ~ Ayn Rand
