Regards,
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.
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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 wrote:
@mr_lincoln wrote:
How do we alert your team that an OP marked an incorrect answer as a Solution?
You have pointed out the bigger concern, IMO. If the Community Team were charged with somehow identifying incorrect solutions instead of interfering with a member's right to choose their own solution or to not choose one at all, I might be able to accept that, depending on how it was accomplished.
As you, I also question the Community Team's discretion in determining which of several similar responses will be selected as the solution.
It's unclear to me exactly what this new process is supposed to address. I certainly have issues with the "solution" process as it stands:
- People who select their own post as the solution.
- People who select just any post as a solution, sometimes merely because it's the last post in the thread, thinking it closes the thread from further posts.
- People who select an incorrect answer to their question/situation.
- People who select whatever post seems to best agree with their rant.
This new approach doesn't address any of those issues, so what is the point of having a Community Team member select the solution for someone else's thread? Why has the Community Team decided to implement this practice? What did the Team identify as problems with the solution process, and how does this practice resolve those problems? It seems to me to be nothing but intrusive and self-serving.
eBay uses this Community as a de facto Customer Service option when CS can't or won't provide assistance on a particular issue. To have eBay interfere with the "solution" process without giving an explanation of why this decision was undertaken undermines posters' confidence in the process.
As stated by the OP, this change will not affect the "Ask a Mentor" board--which eBay controls via their Mentor program--and there's already a partnership with Limitless that eBay controls through their supervision of those participants. If eBay wants to now control the "solution" aspect of these discussion boards, what's next?
Maybe they should just invest a little more--or a lot more--in the training of Customer Service reps so members wouldn't have to rely on other members to help resolve their issues. So many of the threads started on these boards refer to previous contact with Customer Service that was not at all helpful. It might be a better use of the Community Team's time to help develop training tools for CS instead of monitoring these discussion boards looking for "solutions" to other members' threads.
I'll try to get something posted in today's Weekly Chat as well. Maybe not everyone feels the same as I about this decision.
@pburn You and others have posed very good questions and points of concern ... it might be time for a meeting with the Community team to discuss this further ... on a certain level I can completely understand and agree with an "oversight" committee to insure that those who need a correct answer get them. But I am curious about the implementation and guidelines that will be used.
Let me explain one aspect of Limitless (in general terms) that may be something similar coming in to play here ... Experts actually grade the replies of other Experts , they never grade their own answers to Sellers' posts (called a "Task"). Other Experts can agree or disagree with a post made by another Expert. When a completed Task is up for Review by other Experts it is on a first come first serve basis. So I might Review one and submit my Review to Limitless ... that Task may or may not appear on other Expert's list for Review.
There is no perfect system out there, that much I know. I "think" this latest initiative by the Community team is to try to deliver a better product for the end user, meaning those who have questions and issues and come here to ask questions.
We want to make sure all Community members see a great solution and sometimes that solution can be buried in a 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 be marking those as solutions. They will also not change solutions that were already selected by the OP.
If an OP isn't happy, they can uncheck the solution.
Only the Community team and the OP can accept a solution.
@mr_lincoln wrote:
sheila@ebay Will the Community Team be making their determination on the following?
-Chronology of the correct response?
-Thoroughness of a correct response?
What I've seen are some very short correct replies followed by comprehensive correct replies. So while the first reply might be correct it may also lack the support information or Help Page explanation that would benefit the OP more then say a "yes" of "no" answer: Example below
OP: Can I sell some old African Elephant trunks on eBay?
First Responder: "No"
Second responder 10 minutes later: Unfortunately that would violate eBay's Animal Products Policy and here is a link the Help Pages that covers that policy in more detail. (link)
There are other scenarios where two or more responders provide an accurate answer but the OP's question could apply to different issues AND they (the OP) have not provided enough info so the real question is unclear AND different accurate answers 'COULD" APPLY.
Some OPs never come back to their thread to read the replies we have given them, some come back and say thank you but don't click accept solution because 1) they are so new they don't know if the answers are correct of 2) they don't feel qualified to verify the answers given or 3) they go off and try what was suggested, have success but then fail to find their thread to mark an accepted solution or could care less about marking a solution. If this new process is to basically do that form them then it makes sense.
How do we alert your team that an OP marked an incorrect answer as a Solution?
Regards,
Mr. L
Our current team. even though they have less than a year's 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.
Some posts go on for pages and pages and the answer gets buried in the post, and sometimes the OP might not realize the option to accept a solution.
In addition, a lot of our Community members come to Community through Google searches. For someone who's brand new to the platform and that might want to find an answer right away, having an accepted solution will be helpful.
@gracieallen01 wrote:
Hello Sheila,
Does this mean, by determining a solution from one of the posts on a thread, that the community team is going to decide questions about, and confirm, what an item is, confirm whether it is real or fake, if it is new or old, or verify a name or confirm the translation some calligraphy - determining which is the clear answer?
No, the Community team will not step into posts like the example you gave.
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.
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