Prohibited Information.

[wan303win]

I've been an ebay member since the 1990's.

I've seen many changes in ebay policy in that time...changes mostly for the benefit of the firm, not too many for the buyers & sellers.

The opening of these info forums could basically be a good idea, if you were allowed to name & shame crooked sellers & buyers, or show the item numbers to which you are referring, however, I've found this is not allowed.  Legal reasons I guess.

As I'm recently retired & have lots of time on my hands nowadays, I've been following these boards quite a bit in the past few months. 

By having these forums, the main purpose by ebay management appears to be to get members to answer questions that should be referred to ebay to respond to &/or clarify. Must save the boss a lot of staff = more money for management. 

Most requests for info appear to be answered by the same group of people, who have an astounding knowledge of the rules & regulations applicable to buying & selling, I've never delved into that side of things, I'm interested only in staying within the law. I note there is a moderator who never appears to buy or sell anything, so I assume they are employed by ebay. (I did ask them that question, but never received a yes or no).

It's a shame that what started out as a great avenue for buying & selling, has just become a cash cow for those in control.

[*tippy*toes*]

Geez, if they are concerned about private feedback, I'm glad I didn't contribute!

[thecatspjs]

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@go-tazz wrote:

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@thecatspjs wrote:

As I understand it, a very small group of eBay members seem to think they "run the boards"

It's actually only a small group of members that answer most queries quickly and correctly,(the "seem to 

think they run the boards" is usually put forward by members that either don't answer the questions quickly

don't answer the questions at all or just want to complain about those members).

There aren't a lot of members on the boards that do answer most queries,(I don't post in the Answer centre,

the same as a lot of the original helpful posters no longer post there)

eBay promote the boards as being a place for all eBay members for discussion as community members of eBay. 

Unfortunately many new posters are not made to feel very welcome and do not return.

That can be a "problem" at times but there is also a high number of new posters that aren't interested in help

and they just want to vent or argue with someone as they feel wronged by eBay,(most don't realize that they

aren't talking to eBay).

They come to "argue" and members will oblige.

Then you have the ones that only want their answers to be correct and the ones that never return after

posting a query.

This in turn reduces the contributions that might otherwise be made.

The downturn in member participation started when the boards were hidden and taken over by Lithium,

(which of course also included "changes".

Some may be turned away from the boards due to "abrupt" type answers but that's part of the boards,(

some members say it straight as the Op's are either,"aggressive",they have given no relevant info,or those

answers can be quickly found).

.

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it would be great if you read the posts in the thread to date, then your responses may change.

Being abrubt and rude and unwelcoming to new posters is not a culture that should be promoted or taken as a given.

Thank you 🙂

[chameleon54]

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@wan303win wrote:

OK! What it means is that you have nothing to hide...but still hide it. I'm very proud of my feedback and don't mind any other member knowing what I buy or sell, There again...I have nothing to hide.

Nobody hides something that they don't feel needs to be hidden. It's that simple. I couldn't care less what you buy or sell, I only care about a personality that would want to hide that information. I can envisage all manner of reasons. However, your attitude says a lot about you even if your feedback doesn't. 

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The following is not meant to be directed particularly at you wan303win, just addressing some of the misconception around hidden feedback and buyer feedback in general.

1) hidden feedback can only be used by accounts which are buyer only. Sellers can not have hidden feedback

2) Buyers can only recieve positive feedback. Sellers dont have the option to leave negative or neutral feedback for a buyer. If a seller leaves a positive green dot feedback with negative comment, the buyer can have it removed by ebay and the seller may be sanctioned.

3) this means that accounts with hidden feedback will ALWAYS be 100% positive with "good" feedback.

4) Most medium to large stores use an automated feedback system that rotates 5 pre-selected comments for buyers, once the buyer leaves positive feedback. This means that often, the comment you recieved for fast payment or stating what a great buyer you are is simply computer generated, meaningless spam.

5) this cheapens buyer feedback to the point that frankly it is a meaningless count of how many purchases you have made..

6) I havnt checked recently, but in the past it was very easy for anyone to see a buyers recent purchases. Ebay traders often buy items on ebay and re-sell them for double or triple what they pay for them.

7) it used to be possible using a simple process I wont divulge here, to link traders buyer and seller accounts and find out their ebay buyer code. The danger here is that those inclined could then interfere with the buyers account in future. Again I wont go into details, but it did happen on occasions.

😎 The forums are not always a safe place for sellers. There have been many instances where sellers accounts have been tampered with following posts made on the forums. I have personally experienced the worst of this, resulting in me closing my stores for a number of weeks with the loss of many thousands of dollars in sales and profits. Not to mention the worry when your accounts are sabotaged.

These stores where my primary source of income two years ago and having them shut due to interference as a result of a forum post was frankly devastating at the time.

9) Following this unfortunate experience I chose to post on the forums with an ID with hidden feedback to make it as difficult as possible for other people to track down my selling accounts.

10)  The reasons I chose to post on the boards is out of a genuine wish to assist newer members with problems as well as to discuss ideas with others and learn new things myself. ( and I have learnt a huge amount here ) If the hidden feedback feature was not available I would not post on the boards at all.

[wan303win]

If you take the back arrow to "Buying" you'll find it, along with "Selling", under the heading of "Discussion Boards". A discussion is not the same thing as a "Help Page", but that's what it's become to some people.

Why these people see it as their god given duty to instruct others on matters that should be the responsibility of the management of ebay is beyond me. 

No wonder you are so popular with the moderator, you save ebay a small fortune in hiring informed staff every year. I noticed on another posting in "Selling", that all replies by other members pertaining to an insulting remark  made by one of the "help" members have been removed, however, the insulting remark is still there...nice work mod.

[thecatspjs]

Yes I noticed that too

Moderation seem to only remove the reported posts.

There is a question and answer board, so its such a shame that a few actively seek to curb more general discussion and comments about trading on eBay because of a misguided understanding about the purpose of the boards.  

[chameleon54]

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@wan303win wrote:

If you take the back arrow to "Buying" you'll find it, along with "Selling", under the heading of "Discussion Boards". A discussion is not the same thing as a "Help Page", but that's what it's become to some people.

Why these people see it as their god given duty to instruct others on matters that should be the responsibility of the management of ebay is beyond me. 

No wonder you are so popular with the moderator, you save ebay a small fortune in hiring informed staff every year. I noticed on another posting in "Selling", that all replies by other members pertaining to an insulting remark  made by one of the "help" members have been removed, however, the insulting remark is still there...nice work mod.

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As mentioned before one of the reasons I post on the forums is to assist newer members with problems. I dont view it as a "god given right."  Its more the case that over the years I have recieved a huge amount of help from older, more experienced people not only in establishing and running businesses, but on personel issues as well.

When I was younger I didnt have things easy. I wont go into my personel details here, but I have had a huge range of business and life experiences

I have seen some very low lows and a few highs. Some successes and some spectacular failures. Through all of this I have learnt a lot and valued the experience of others who had already trodden the same path and made the same mistakes I was making. Participating in forum discussion is a way for me to share and pass on some the advice and experience I have recieved over the years................ The perfect circle of life really.  

Ebay help may be able to give an automated cut and paste answer to a technical question, but they can not help with questions which have a personel element or those pertaining to product selection, sales secrets, building succesfull ebay businesses or interpersenal disputes regards the sales process.. These are the sorts of questions forum members are suited to discussing and assisting with.

[digital*ghost]

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@wan303win wrote:

If you take the back arrow to "Buying" you'll find it, along with "Selling", under the heading of "Discussion Boards". A discussion is not the same thing as a "Help Page", but that's what it's become to some people.

Why these people see it as their god given duty to instruct others on matters that should be the responsibility of the management of ebay is beyond me. 

No wonder you are so popular with the moderator, you save ebay a small fortune in hiring informed staff every year. I noticed on another posting in "Selling", that all replies by other members pertaining to an insulting remark  made by one of the "help" members have been removed, however, the insulting remark is still there...nice work mod.

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Personally, I think that is an unfortunate interpretation and supposition of someone else's intentions. (It's not clear who the 'you' you're talking to is, not to me anyway, since you have replied to yourself and haven't specified who your comment is directed at [last paragraph, I mean]).

What you're interpreting as 'duty', the vast majority of particpants in the forum would call 'opportunity'. The opportunity is provided to particpate, so why the heck not, for those who are so inclined? 

Sure, these are named discussion boards, but just as many questions are asked that have a singular, factual answer than those that are open for personal opinion and debate / discussion - and besides which, isn't 'discussion' supposed to be helpful (in essence) at the end of the day? Otherwise, what's the point? 

[lyndal1838]

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@wan303win wrote:

Why these people see it as their god given duty to instruct others on matters that should be the responsibility of the management of ebay is beyond me.

I doubt that anybody sees it as their God given duty to instruct others.  The very simple fact is that if the information does not come from other members then members will not get it from ebay staff.

No wonder you are so popular with the moderator, you save ebay a small fortune in hiring informed staff every year. I noticed on another posting in "Selling", that all replies by other members pertaining to an insulting remark  made by one of the "help" members have been removed, however, the insulting remark is still there...nice work mod.

If ebay were to hire "informed" staff to answer questions then sellers would be up in arms at the huge increases in seller's fees that would surely follow.

Not many posters found the remark in question insulting....there were as many posts in support removed as those who did not support the remark.

And just another bit of information about these boards...you are not supposed to discuss removed posts.  That is grounds for your remarks to be removed and you can also have your posting privileges revoked.

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[go-tazz]

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thecatspjs wrote

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it would be great if you read the posts in the thread to date, then your responses may change.

I read all previous posts before posting and you post had no relevance other than having another go at

those members that in your opinion you believe "run" the boards.

They answer questions like anyone else and it's only contempt for others that came up with:

As I understand it, a very small group of eBay members seem to think they "run the boards"

The boards are run by Lithium,(no one else).

Being abrubt and rude and unwelcoming to new posters is not a culture that should be promoted or taken as a given.

If the opening poster posts in that manner then they can't be expected to be treated differently,(if the poster

comes across as genuine and with enough relevant correct information then there usually isn't a problem).

Doing the same thing to other members shouldn't be either but some consistently attack them for no reason

other than to satisfy their own agenda.

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[thecatspjs]

I think you have missed an ealier comment made in this thread by a poster who statef  "the boards are run by volunteer members who often know far more about the rules and regulations than ebay staff".