@gracieallen01 wrote:
There are 2 very distinct possibilities: 1) There are more complaints because there are more and more people using the various platforms to sell/make a living/make money, 'now' compared to 'then' and, 2) The forums are like the 'news'. 'Good news' doesn't sell or entertain nearly as much as 'bad news'. Good news isn't nearly as note-worthy or pique one's vicarious interests as does 'bad or shocking or risque news' . There is money to be had in bad news, but not nearly as much money in movies that are made from good news.
(personal opinion - your mileage may vary)
Regarding #1, I think it's possible. But I doubt that simple, as there's been trends that I think could be noticed along the way.
Throughout 2018 onward there was a lot more people posting that for the first time they had to diversify because eBay alone could no longer cut it (this one is including ourselves). Most of the rest of the year was a lot of worry about the changes in returns which hit stores a lot harder in terms of profit margins.
Throughout 2019 there was a lot of worry surrounding the GTC changes, which don't seem to have worked out well for many sellers. Also Sponsored Listings became a common complaint.
If we look at the history, I definitely thing these trends are red flags/warning signs that, at the very least contributed to the change of tone on here.
Regarding one that's personal opinion, I think one of the big contributors is also that sellers have much less control over their own store and business model than they have in the past. They have dipped their hands and now have control in every area, from visibility to pricing to returns to setting features on/off on your listings at their whim. We can't really properly take care of customers in a way that will differentiate us from other sellers anymore, we have to followed eBay's policies, and the good or bad that comes along with that.
In terms of #2, I don't believe that one applies to a forum. Nobody is getting paid per clicks on the forums here like they would on a news site. This one for sure applies to news sites, but not the community forum.
One variable I wish I had access to was how the traffic changes in the last year on here. Are there more community members, and more complaints? Or are there less community members, and less complaints? Less members, more complaints? I think that would give us a more clear distinction.
From how it looks to me, it seems like the forums have much less traffic than before (posts stay on the first page far longer) but more complaints. But admittedly, this is just an assumption.
Final note: While it's true we can't really go based on forum traffic alone, we can see trends that affect sellers in the stock reports as well. And those certainly do not look good. Nor does the statistics we can find in our Terapeak access.
Ignoring anything said on the forums and only basing it off of the statistics in the reports, eBay is doing worse, sellers in general are doing worse, and top sellers are doing FAR worse.
