Why is eBay hiding descriptions again?

[gear-house]

Seems eBay is hiding descriptions again and making buyers click a 'Show More' button to see it. Can anyone explain what the benefit of hiding the seller's description might be? We just go through the effort of making that so they don't see it? It's already bad enough that so many people don't read anyway.

They experimented with this before and I thought it resulted in problems. 

[house*of*paws]

Hi @gear-house 

I have never seen a screen like that.  I can see Descriptions easily ... so I assume that eBay is NOT the cause of what you showed us in your OP.

[obtanium_enterprises]

The "Show More" button is all over eBay.  I _was_ browsing for stuff I need earlier but now I'm exhausted from showing more so I'm searching on Amazon.

[cardsforauction]

That's one example of eBay doing silly changes.  They also are hiding sellers feedback.  Before you could easily click on the feedback number and see All the feedback now you have to navigate around to locate it.  Another one, eBay hides the seller feedback on your Purchases section which is really annoying because again you have to navigate to find a lot of information about the seller, purchase details, and other items for sale, according to the last time I checked. 

[cardsforauction]

Purchase details you can find.  My mistake.

Also, sometimes I have a hard time getting to see other items for sale  by a seller in "List View"  it seems there is some kind of bug once in a while that only shows Gallery view, because when I look for "List View" the feature is missing.   

[shipscript]

@house*of*paws 

This is an eBay test that only some buyers are seeing.  It affects listings with either HTML or plain text descriptions, as shown in my tests. From a programming standpoint, the addition of the "show more" button can only occur if eBay programmed it to be there. It is not a browser thing or a malware issue.

Here are screenshots of what I saw when viewing my own listings from a different account...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Why-is-eBay-hiding-descriptions-again/m-p/33608927#M2176206

While I don't see the issue when using this account, I checked again in incognito mode, and still see the same from that other account.

But here is an interesting side note. In both versions of the listing description for my first sample listing, the description frame opens partially with a scrollbar. The page then continues to load (as can be seen by the spinner at the top of my browser). For one view, after loading is complete, the description frame opens fully and there is no interior scrollbar for the description. On the other view, the frame opens and then closes back to a partial, where a fadout and a "Show more" button are added.

[gear-house]

Yeah, it's definitely eBay. When they do tests like this not everyone sees the same thing. When I browse eBay every listing I look at has the listing description hidden until I click the 'See More' button, I must be part of the test group, whereas you're part of the control group. 

[carparts4sale_inc]

What is the point of having an item description just to have ebay make it so difficult to see. Does ebay want to create more returns?  What is the best way to send ebay a comment letting them know this is a bad idea? 

[globeminerals]

It appears to depend on the browser; my listings display the "Show more" button from Mozilla Firefox, but I can see the entire description using Google Chrome.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

I would like to see a response from eBay on this. This not the only post on this issue. 

This just opens more doors for fraud, false claims by buyers who didn't read full details or did not ask questions. They never clicked on the new "GLORIOUS" 'show more' button in item description. 

I had a recent offer from buyer. They either were playing a word game with me or trying to act dumb. I don't know.

My listing is for pick-up only. They made an offer. LOW BALL! They then made another offer with this comment: I saw that some names are in it. But 2$ a card for the others is very fair. I just want to finish a few sets and your lot would help.

Key word for me is 'I saw that some names are in it'. Are they just looking at photos only? Did they not use the "GLORIOUS" 'show more' button?

My response was: the complete list of cards & qty is in the listing details / description and that this listing is for pick-up only. 

They are in MN and I'm in IN. 

[wastingtime101]

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@sextons-sweet-deals wrote:

I would like to see a response from eBay on this. This not the only post on this issue. 

[...] Did they not use the "GLORIOUS" 'show more' button?

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eBay's response is they're testing some new views on the listing page (LINK). Anybody that doesn't like it should use the feedback links to let the developers know.

Is "glorious" a comment directed towards me? That's part of the signature that appears on all of my posts which links to a funny video of my avatar. "Glorious" does not describe how I feel about these tests. Any time you see that horizontal line with text below, that's a poster's signature appearing on all their posts.

[wastingtime101]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

I don't remember when/where but eBay did say at one point they were going to remove the seller info panel from the top of the page and move it lower to make the view more consistent with mobile website. Might've been the Spring 2022 seller update?

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Found one of the references. Winter 2022 Seller Update.

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/resources/seller-updates/2022-winter/business

Section titled "Your brand and feedback will be more visible across all platforms"

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Now it's official @shipscript - seller info removed from right side panel. Clicking on the userid will take you to the seller's storefront, but the formal "see other items" and "visit store" links are gone from the top of the listing. So you can either click on the seller ID or you can go to the seller info panel below description to see other items.

I expect next they'll move TRS and MBG info. Question is will they fill that real estate with ads, or will they widen the item info, perhaps with a different photo layout or something better for variations (I said, laughing)?

I'm dreading that space being filled with ads. They already tested filling that space with ads for stores which was awful because it looked like the listing was part of the advertised store so when the ad prompted you to click it gave an impression you were looking at more items from the same seller.

[rugerskick]

This confirms yet again ebay uses the live network and live seller accounts to test site changes on.

I already had pointed out that one longtime ebay seller reported that ebay does testing using sellers lie accounts, which knocks their store traffic and sales out while its occurring.  Its why they report large blocks of inactivity for many hours to days.  Then all of a sudden traffic and sales goes back to normal, like a switch is thrown.

We now have another confirmation ebay tests out things on sellers live acounts.  Without telling anyone it's going on, they have to notice it and its usually noticed because its negative.

[valueaddedresource]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

I don't remember when/where but eBay did say at one point they were going to remove the seller info panel from the top of the page and move it lower to make the view more consistent with mobile website. Might've been the Spring 2022 seller update?

---

Found one of the references. Winter 2022 Seller Update.

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/resources/seller-updates/2022-winter/business

Section titled "Your brand and feedback will be more visible across all platforms"

---

Now it's official @shipscript - seller info removed from right side panel. Clicking on the userid will take you to the seller's storefront, but the formal "see other items" and "visit store" links are gone from the top of the listing. So you can either click on the seller ID or you can go to the seller info panel below description to see other items.

I expect next they'll move TRS and MBG info. Question is will they fill that real estate with ads, or will they widen the item info, perhaps with a different photo layout or something better for variations (I said, laughing)?

I'm dreading that space being filled with ads. They already tested filling that space with ads for stores which was awful because it looked like the listing was part of the advertised store so when the ad prompted you to click it gave an impression you were looking at more items from the same seller.

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@wastingtime101 that was exactly my thought when I saw this - those ads they are testing for stores will be even worse now if they keep them in the same place because they will be where buyers expect to see the store info for the seller whose listing they are on.

eBay still hasn't given us any info about those ads but I am still seeing them on some listings now with actual stores, not just eBay test accounts.

[partfinds]

@rugerskick  They do that. I vopen the browser and ery often see random Ebay site opened instead of what I was last looking at last (not Ebay home page) for example I was at active listings but then  it switched to messages or something else I wasn’t looking at .  My sales this month are 25% of what they were a year ago with outage lasting several days of inactivity followed by a sale that later becomes cancellation or return. 

[sailinship]

I so agree with the op. I can't for the life of me imagine why they are doing this, but, I don't run ebay, and I never buy on ebay using the app. It's too hard to get the search results I want.