Wouldn't It Be Nice If Some Discussions Were Not Moved So Quickly?

[patd3283]

There are currently 10 discussions that have been moved on the first page.

There may be better places for them but there are highly qualified peeps here that can help.

The folks who posted them thought this was the correct place for them.

Also noted that some discussions just disappear.

What's up?

[oldwestgold]

Oops!  You just got moved again.  You better start putting in for mileage.

[pburn]

As I look through the list, I see the topics that are about selling remain on this board. If the topic is about shipping--like USPS shipping delays, for example--the thread is moved to Shipping & Returns. If the topic is about Managed Payments, for example, the thread is moved to the Payments board, with the other bazillion posts on the topic. If the thread is about a return situation, it gets moved to the Shipping & Returns board. If the topic is about not being able to log in, it goes to the Technical Issues board. If someone is questioning their eBay invoice charges, it gets moved to the My Account board.

I don't know about the ones you've spotted that "just disappear," but I've seen threads where the OP posts nothing but, we'll say, another member's id and posts one line about a "scam," the mods probably can't edit it enough to leave it up and make any sense, like if it says "pburn scammed me out of $100" and that's all it says. Those might be deleted completely; otherwise, the mods leave a "bread crumb" leading to the correct board for the thread. The "highly qualified peeps" can follow those bread crumbs and answer the questions on the appropriate board. No one is restricted to responding questions on the Selling board only.

Again, the threads about selling within the context of the Selling board are not moved.

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[luxgoods]

The moderator picks and chooses which discussions he/she does not like.  He is like a guard dog who watches the board in case anyone says something negative about ebay.  

[readabouthorses]

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@luxgoods wrote:

The moderator picks and chooses which discussions he/she does not like.  He is like a guard dog who watches the board in case anyone says something negative about ebay.  

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But at some point it begins to look like job justification.

And if they happen to miss a discussion and then move it after it has 50 or 60 posts to it, it makes you begin at the beginning again to read it because it can't remember where you left off when it gets moved from one board to another which is beyond annoying.

And most of the time when they get moved there is a time period when you can't read it at all because of all the errors.

[pburn]

That is not true. People post negative comments about eBay ALL THE TIME--yourself included. As long as posts don't violate the Rules of Engagement, the mods don't edit or delete anything just because it's critical of eBay.

[calntom]

The mods have been most active in recent months. EBay has less help these days as help desk support for buyers/sellers. (mostly less for sellers)  They are doing like Amazon and relying more on the forums and eBay members to provide frontline help. 

I have not called eBay in almost two years. I always come here 1st to get my questions answered as a seller and buyer.

Whatever Amazon does, eBay follows up with the same strategies in due time.

[dhbookds]

I have a problem with alot of the threads that are moved......... Many are "within the context of selling"......... i.e. how do I set up shipping for an oversized box, is anyone else experiencing slow shipping, These are the new shipping rates.etc. I've even had threads announcing ebay announcements about selling moved. The questions are for and about selling.  Shifting them to "their" boards is a disservice to sellers who come to the "Selling Board" for information, in my opinion, and has demoted the Selling board to  a board about scamming, feedback removal, and Sri Lanke. 

To me the "other boards" should be about general or buyer topics......I would also note that I don't see many threads moved from other boards.......which mystifies me.....

If you want a community, there has to be the basis of giving people what they want.......and sellers want to talk about all aspects of selling.......not being made to feel like kids who have to be sent to a different room.

I think the one removal that frosts me the most is the "is this happening to anyone else"........... people aren't reporting a tech problem, they are genuinely asking is this just me......  They want some validation that it's happening to more than just them......at which time they can call ebay/report on the tech board.........  But BAM it goes to the dead letter Tech board and there, Burton, Bless him,  tries to answer..........if it weren't for him, well, no one would get much of answer at all........

Blowing in the wind................

[pburn]

Then you're suggesting there should be only two boards: Selling and Buying.

There are definitely stars on certain boards/topics. There are some members who know so much about shipping rates or tech issues or Managed Payments, for example. Unsurpassed amount of knowledge. The best way for them to address threads in their particular area of expertise is to have those threads in one place.

There is nothing stopping any and all members from reading and responding to threads on ANY board. While I prefer to read the Selling board, does that mean everything I'm interested in should be posted on the Selling board? It's up to me to wander over to the other boards from time to time, to see if I have anything to add to a thread. If frequent posters would look at all the boards they're interested in instead of choosing to post on or read only the Selling board, the community would be a better place.

These are the main boards I look at and their stated purposes. It's pretty clear to me on which board any particular topic should be posted. IMO, in order for this to be a robust, thriving community, with threads on a range of topics being posted among a variety of boards, threads should, in a perfect world, be posted on the appropriate board in the first place. If members can't manage to discern where their thread should be posted among the different boards, it's up to the mods to move them.

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[coffeebean832]

Since this topic has been brought up…..

Some threads should be moved, sure. But many threads are moved that shouldn’t be. Here are a few examples-

I saw this thread moved the other day to the My Account board-
https://community.ebay.com/t5/My-Account/Where-did-my-listings-go-HELP/m-p/31535484#M78273

What does that thread have to do with the OP’s account? They weren’t restricted as far as anybody knew. This wasn't about updating their address or other generic account issue. Posters were trying to help the OP figure things out- did their listings vanish because of a payments deadline or for some other reason? Was the OP looking in the wrong place? The thread was moved before anybody could determine what was going on. So how was moving it to the Account board appropriate? If the issue was solved that it was a payments problem, I could see moving it to the Payments board after the fact- but the discussion didn't even have a chance to be solved. (It has an accepted solution- but obviously that didn't actually solve the OP's problem.) As the thread stands, it’s a general selling inquiry. Unless it's a regular poster- chances of an OP finding their moved thread are slim.

Every thread about the Unified Listing Form (https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/bg-p/Announcements)  is being moved to the dead-as-a-doornail tools & apps board. The tools and apps board is for discussing optional and often complicated services like file exchange, the extinct turbo lister, etc. It's not for banishing posts about the general selling form- especially one that every seller is going to be forced into this Spring and is a total abomination. (After seeing and testing this form, it's the first time I've ever seriously considered leaving the eBay platform entirely.)

eBay staff read the Selling forum. They don't read the tools and apps forum. All our feedback on this is being moved out of sight, out of mind. Then eBay wonders why posters around here get so angry and frustrated with the way eBay handles things.

I posted the below thread on Selling a few weeks ago. It immediately got moved and there wasn’t even a move notification. 45 minutes after I first posted it, I thoroughly checked 3 pages of Selling posts for a move notice when my thread vanished. This was during a time when all the post history was gone from our profiles so I couldn’t even find the new location.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Collectibles-Art/Expert-advice-needed-rust-removal/m-p/31482617#M13257...

This topic is about item preparation- specifically rust removal. There was a time when a post like this would result in tons of replies about item preparation and would evolve from rust removal to anything and everything related to cleaning (or leaving alone) different items- what methods work best, etc. It would inevitably turn into the kind of “community” discussion that sheila@ebay has been looking for. The vast numbers of regulars that have been banned also contributes to the lack of that type of discussion these days- but that's an entirely different topic.

Discussing item preparation isn't any different than discussing photography. If I start a topic about the best way to photograph something not in my wheelhouse- will that get moved to the Collectibles board, too- just because the item in question is old?

I wasn’t asking to ID a piece- if I was then I could see moving it. If it was about IDing a piece I wouldn't have posted it on Selling to begin with. I was asking about item preparation which is a general selling topic.

I have to agree with @dhbookds who said-
I think the one removal that frosts me the most is the "is this happening to anyone else"........... people aren't reporting a tech problem, they are genuinely asking is this just me......  They want some validation that it's happening to more than just them......at which time they can call ebay/report on the tech board......... 

What I just quoted also falls in line with the first linked thread above- we aren't even given a chance to find out what an issue is before the thread is moved. Often it's not a tech issue at all- it's something simple like a setting in seller preferences.

It’s as if the mods are being so literal in moving things because they aren’t sellers here and don’t understand that some of these threads do belong on the Selling board. I'm not against all move actions. A lot of threads are appropriately moved. The problem is that a lot of other discussions are not appropriately moved- a noticeable amount. It zaps the energy out of this place and causes a lot of frustration and resentment towards the platform.

[pburn]

I think the threads you cited have all been directed to the correct board. It's so interesting that we all have different perspectives on this subject! 😊

I remember your rust removal thread. I think how to remove rust from a collectible item is appropriate for the Collectibles board rather than the Selling board.

Selling

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Take your thread on "Helping a buyer checkout" as another example. It was posted on the Selling board, but the only decent response was from someone called over from the Technical Issues board. Maybe it wouldn't have gotten any better responses on that board, but I have to wonder.

I still contend that if frequent posters--like all of us participating in this thread--made an effort to read, reply, and/or start threads on other boards, the entire community would benefit from boards having roughly equal status, rather than one board (Selling) being used as a catch-all for all the topics covered by other boards just because the person posting happens to be a seller.

[coffeebean832]

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@pburn wrote:

I still contend that if frequent posts--like all of us participating in this thread--made an effort to read, reply, and/or start threads on other boards, the entire community would benefit from boards having roughly equal status, rather than one board (Selling) being used as a catch-all for all the topics covered by other boards just because the person posting happens to be a seller.

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I can't speak to others- but I know that I am very intentional with where I post something. I've started many threads on Buying, Shipping, Technical Issues and other boards. If I post something on Selling I firmly believe that's an appropriate board.

It's not black & white. There is gray. Someone can post about how eBay hides certain shipping options on their listings and if a mod has a black & white view they may move it to shipping. In reality- that topic may very well belong on selling because the big issue is about eBay making changes to what we set up in our listings and how it affects our customers, our sales, the way we may have to change other things to accommodate these actions by eBay, etc. It's a much larger issue affecting many aspects of selling- it's not just, "eBay hid my shipping options."

The thread I started yesterday is not a confirmed technical issue. I'm waiting to hear back from the buyer- but it could be a case of them trying to pay multiple sellers (some in MP, some not in MP) at the same time. That is not a technical issue, but rather an intended eBay setting. Asking for advice on helping my customer is a selling topic until/unless I can confirm there actually is a technical error at play.

I think the mods are viewing posts on Selling too literally black & white instead of with a Seller's view.

Like I said- a lot that's moved should be moved. A lot that's moved really shouldn't.

[moo*cow*corner]

Selling

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To me, this says it all right here. The selling board is for any and all aspects relating to selling on ebay. Period.

I think we need to consider the thought that many first time posters will automatically choose the Selling board if they have questions. Many will read other threads while they wait for replies. It's a great opportunity to help teach sellers by giving them some other selling topics to read while they are there. 

I'm also VERY annoyed that the discussions about the new Unified Listing thing are not being allowed to stay on the Seller board. As it rolls out, there WILL be more sellers coming to the boards with questions, and certainly with complaints. That's how it's supposed to work. Hiding it in a place where there's just no traffic is a bad, bad thing. Both sellers and ebay will suffer. Why even do that? 

The other boards are more specific, sure. However, that doesn't mean that any general selling discussion about any given aspect of selling needs to be immediately moved. 

Too many threads that could easily stay on the Selling board are getting moved for no good reason. It stinks.

[moo*cow*corner]

I also think that many discussions could benefit from being allowed a bit of time on the Selling board to develop more organically. They can always be moved later, or simply allowed to slide down the board in the usual fashion.

Moving a thread immediately after it's started probably scares some new posters away. I can see where someone would feel that it's evidence that they did something terribly wrong. They go away and never return. It's probably an unintended consequence, but it shouldn't be overlooked. There's no welcoming feel, that's for darned sure. Especially if we are trying to build an actual community again, not just have dry, boring Q&A type boards. 

[sheila@ebay]

I think it's certainly subjective on which posts belong on which boards. I'll certainly pass along all the feedback from this thread to the Team Lead for the Moderators.