evry1nositswindy • seller since 2013
ShipScript has been an eBay Community volunteer since 2003, specializing in HTML, CSS, Scripts, Photos, Active Content, Technical Solutions, and online Seller Tools.
There is one Mentor who is quite vocal about not liking MP, but the answers are accurate. I don't study policy and procedure because I have a life, but I do like selling here and answering questions and discussing eBay keeps me from boring my family! Hubby doesn't "speak eBay"!!
@chapeau-noir wrote:
@evry1nositswindy wrote:There is one Mentor who is quite vocal about not liking MP, but the answers are accurate. I don't study policy and procedure because I have a life, but I do like selling here and answering questions and discussing eBay keeps me from boring my family! Hubby doesn't "speak eBay"!!
I have a life, too, and I manage.
Sorry, didn't mean to imply anything by that. Just meant I didn't search the help pages for all the answers, but it's a good thing many people do. You always have great answers! @chapeau-noir
I think I can answer a lot of the questions here, and would be happy to address any that I missed.
The Member to Member board was created in 2015 as a Customer Service overflow from eBay's help pages. The only way a question could be asked on the Member to Member board was through the Help portal. You will see the link on all help pages. Otherwise, the board was not accessible unless found by other means, like "new posts" or popular questions.
As an intermediate step between CS and the forums, the Mentors responding on the Member to Member forum had to be vetted for an ability to remain calm and friendly and to be able to stay current with eBay policies. Many knowledgable people have considered the program, but knew they could not operate within the deportment constraints, so have declined invitations to join.
With the community overhaul, the board was renamed Ask a Mentor, and it appears in the menu list, rather than being hidden. This appearance (and a recent fluke in the eBay UK pages that redirects UK members here) has created a sudden influx of questions, and of course, many are going unanswered. On top of that, the forum structure is now making it difficult for Mentors to sift through the pages to locate the unanswered. More infrastructure work is required.
The number of available Mentors is at a low ebb right now with summer vacations, private lives, normal attrition, and with a few of our more prolific Mentors tapping into the UK pilot program.
So with that bit of a backgrounder, I do know that the Community leaders will be looking for new Mentors when they can get out from under the overhaul here. I would urge regular posters to apply if you enjoy helping others, can hold your tongue, walk away from arguments, and deliver help with a smile. eBay knowledge is a huge asset, although the Mentors do support each other in cross-training and sharing knowledge; and getting up to speed and remaining there is always a group effort. One of the benefits of the Mentor program is that the Mentors have better access to pursuing answers to community questions, due to the quasi-CS nature of the program.
@wesk_36 wrote:
I have noticed a sharp upswing in questions in the "ask a mentor" board today.
---It seems that maybe the "mentors" are overwhelmed. Ebay must be pushing this on questioners?
"An eBay user who volunteers said the new practice of paying some people is leading to fewer questions being answered."
As someone who has contributed to the general eBay Community thru these message boards for a very very long time, I would agree that knowing that someone else was getting paid to do what I'm doing for free would be viewed as extremely rude by the organization making the payments. Do these paid persons have to identify that they are being paid to answer your question? Are they considered eBay employees/contractors and therefor required to identify themselves as such on the boards?
It sounds more like eBay wants to ensure there are "members" who are trumpeting the company line, thinking this will help balance the other, true members who speak from personal experience and have no interest in ensuring eBay continues to profit from seller activity - rather, they have a great interest in ensuring eBay sellers continue to be able to profit from their labors, with eBay receiving a fair amount for the service of bring buyer/seller together and for ensuring both parties behave them selves.
Well... this is eBay... so why should I even pretend to be surprised?
-Bob.
@gosimus wrote:
< the new practice of paying some people is leading to fewer questions being answered >
Surely you can appreciate how preposterous that statement would be if such payment were based on the number of answers. Bean counters – and I do use that term as a pejorative – value quantity over quality. I don't know how payments would be calculated, but I've seen a lot of one-line answers, as if the responder were knocking them out as fast as possible so they could quickly move on to the next one. I don't know who the payees are, or even if there are any in the first place, but I'm not one, and my answers tend to run pretty long ... some would say too long, LOL out loud.
This is exactly why there would be fewer answers - folks like you and I would be more likely to stop answering questions if we were to unequivocally learn that eBay was 'salting the boards' by paying some members to post answers. Mostly because quickie answers tend to be less helpful, but also because these paid "members" should be clearly identifying themselves as profiteers from the answers they provide. ie: they are paid to trumpet eBay's company line.
I think the common term is 'a shill'.
-Bob.
