Community team to start accepting solutions for posts

[sheila@ebay]

I'm recapping some of my comments made in this post, to my original post:

• We want to make sure all Community members see a great solution and sometimes that solution can be buried in a thread. We want to help those who aren't going to read 40+ posts in one thread

• The Community team will not jump into every post and mark solutions, but they do spend a lot of time on the boards and when they come across a post that has a very clear answer and within policy, they'll accept solutions.

• The Community team will also not change solutions that was previously selected by the OP. 

• If the OP isn't happy with the solution, they're free to change it
• Only the Community team and the OP can accept solutions, though I am aware of the problems with the OP selecting solutions.

• Our current team. even though they have less than a year of experience on Community, have many years of eBay support support experience (10+ years) so they're very well versed on all things eBay. They'll be very thoughtful when it comes to selecting solid accepted solutions that follow eBay policy.

• Sometimes an OP might not realize there's an option to Accept a Solution

• A lot of our Community members come to Community through Google searches. For someone who's brand new to the platform and who wants to find an answer right away, having an accepted solution will be helpful.

• Here's a sample question: 

  Q: How do I reverse negative feedback I left?

  A: Use the contact link to ask your seller to send you a Feedback Revision Request.

• We're staying out of opinion based posts or posts seeking general advice. For example, if a member is asking for advice on the success sellers have had running promotions, there could be several helpful posts from sellers. In this case, we won't accept a solution.
• Lastly, we want to give credit to those who provide great answers

Update as of 05/04 - I've made note of all the feedback from this post and will make modifications to the process if needed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starting today, the Community team will start accepting solutions for post that have a clear answer and within policy. This will apply to all boards except for the Ask a Mentor board.

Short and simple announcement so you're aware. 😊

[pburn]

---

@itscalledapostingid wrote:

While you are cruising the boards to accept solutions maybe you should remove some of the patently false information that people are posting.

I believe the sheer volume of misinformation being posted lately is making the community practically unusable for someone trying to find accurate answers to their questions.

It's getting really bad!

---

And, in my experience, the mods are not very responsive to reports of violations of Rule #10, but we live in hope. There's at least one particularly prolific member who posts almost laughably misleading, inaccurate and sometimes just downright bizarre advice on threads, and it's impossible to get the mods to edit or remove it.

"10. Sharing patently false information.  Posting patently false or unsubstantiated content is harmful to other members and goes against the spirit of the Community."

It's as though the mods (or whoever interprets the rules for the moderation team) think the word "patently" means "intentionally," when all it means is "clearly or without a doubt" or "provably."

[nobody*s_perfect]

sheila@ebay 

Here's a thread in which the OP claims that a reply has been selected as the solution by somebody other than himself. Was it you guys?  There's nothing wrong with the chosen reply, but it was incomplete from the OP's perspective and he wanted to check off a post that offered more hand-holding.  

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/USPS-postal-insurance-question/m-p/32900722#M416163

The original post in this announcement thread says "If the OP isn't happy with the solution, they're free to change it" But he doesn't seem to see a way to do that.

[wastingtime101]

That OP was active in the discussion - a solution should not have been chosen for them. It's unclear if the OP chose the solution by accident or if the Comm Team did it for them.

If it was the eBay team then perhaps they should give OPs more time to choose their own solution before stepping in - isn't that why e-mails are sent out a few days after starting a thread asking if you got the solution needed?

If the team is going to choose solutions while the OP is still actively participating and asking further questions, then the solution acceptance should trigger an alert to the OP telling them how to change the solution if they disagree with the one that was chosen for them.

I remember an older version of the forums where you didn't have to find the option to unmark a solution through the down arrow, but instead you could see it below the post as a button to unmark solution - it replaced the accept solution button. Going back to that function design would be beneficial if OPs can't figure out how to change a solution on a post.

[pburn]

---

@wastingtime101 wrote:

If the team is going to choose solutions while the OP is still actively participating and asking further questions . . .

---

Perhaps the Community Team member who chooses the solution to someone else's thread could then simply lock the thread, thereby eliminating any further discussion from the OP or anyone else.

[wastingtime101]

Replying to end of thread.

The shipping thread is an interesting one because the original solution was more correct than the one ultimately chosen by the OP. The original solution would help more people that found the thread through search because they had the same issue which is the eBay team's goal. The newer solution the OP accepted was the final step that got them where they wanted to go, but out of context as a stand-alone solution, it's unclear. Someone would need to read the entire thread to understand it. But it's the OP's choice and they retained the ability to choose the solution they wanted.

That thread is an interesting example and I do believe an OP should be given either the chance (ie: a few days) to choose their own solution, or else a clear path to change the solution if one is going to be chosen for them early on in an active discussion. Many people won't care if a solution is chosen for them and many will, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out and how frequently OPs ask how to change a solution.

I'm still for giving this eBay-appointed-solutions thing a fair shot and speaking up when we see examples where things could use improvement. At this early stage I think the potential good outweighs the potential bad - depends how it's executed.

[a_c_green]

---

@wastingtime101 wrote:

The shipping thread is an interesting one because the original solution was more correct than the one ultimately chosen by the OP. The original solution would help more people that found the thread through search because they had the same issue which is the eBay team's goal. The newer solution the OP accepted was the final step that got them where they wanted to go, but out of context as a stand-alone solution, it's unclear.

---

I've read that thread (in which I was a participant) all the way through, but which of the replies was originally tagged as a solution?

[wastingtime101]

Yours was @a_c_green. 😂 Post 5.

[a_c_green]

---

@wastingtime101 wrote:

Yours was @a_c_green. 😂 Post 5.

---

Oh, that's priceless...

But wait! It gets better! That's me being quoted in Message 12 of that thread as well: a more-detailed answer to the same question that I originally posted in another thread somewhere else. I would have picked that one myself as a better solution than my own Post 5 if I had the chance. 🙂

[pburn]

---

@a_c_green wrote:

---

---

I've read that thread (in which I was a participant) all the way through, but which of the replies was originally tagged as a solution?

---

You got robbed! 🤣

[itscalledapostingid]

I just had one of mine accepted as solution. The OP Immediately replied to me asking how that happened.

So whoever predicted that would happen is right.

BTW my notification did not mention that it was a blue who accepted.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Neutral-amp-Negative-comments-all-removed-for-about-a-year/m-p/... 

[pburn]

@itscalledapostingid 

The solutions selected, whether by an OP or by Community Team members, won't be identified as such on your list of notifications on your actual notification page; however, if you hover over your little notification bell on the top righthand side of the screen (on the desktop anyway), it will show you who selected it.

I'd post a screenshot, but I don't have any solutions showing on my notification dropdown at the moment.

[itscalledapostingid]

I looked under the bell too when it first came up and it didn't say there either.

Maybe they did click the solution by accident.

[a_c_green]

---

@pburn wrote:

@itscalledapostingid 

The solutions selected, whether by an OP or by Community Team members, won't be identified as such on your list of notifications on your actual notification page; however, if you hover over your little notification bell on the top righthand side of the screen (on the desktop anyway), it will show you who selected it.

---

The congratulatory email you receive in your outside email account when a post of yours is marked as a solution will also identify who chose it: 

[pburn]

---

@a_c_green wrote:

---

@pburn wrote:

@itscalledapostingid 

The solutions selected, whether by an OP or by Community Team members, won't be identified as such on your list of notifications on your actual notification page; however, if you hover over your little notification bell on the top righthand side of the screen (on the desktop anyway), it will show you who selected it.

---

The congratulatory email you receive in your outside email account when a post of yours is marked as a solution will also identify who chose it: 

---

I don't use that email option. You mean you get an email from eBay on every notification? Helpfuls? @ mentions? Solutions?

I'd sign up for that, but I don't hate myself that much.

[a_c_green]

---

@pburn wrote:
I don't use that email option. You mean you get an email from eBay on every notification? Helpfuls? @ mentions? Solutions?

---

Solutions, yes, as in that screenshot, and also @ mentions will trigger an email. Helpfuls do not. I get so few mentions and solutions that the emails don't bug me. 🙂 Helpfuls might, but I don't get notifications about those. I suppose there's a choice menu for these in my account preferences someplace, but to be honest, I haven't bothered to look for them, and I don't remember if I set those, or if eBay did as defaults.

P.S. Sorry to whoever actually has the mentions ID, as I accidentally pinged you just now before fixing my text above...