Watchcount closed at ebays request

[justcruising48]

Pity watchcount has closed at ebays request. Was excellent to check on non paying bidders to see if they were still active and buying while giving lame excuses or ignoring emails 

[digital*ghost]

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@amber-eyed-girl wrote:

How? Interested to know.

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As most people know (or might be able to tell from my post count  ), I've been reading / posting in the discussion boards for several years now, so if I may offer (what I hope is) a mostly impartial point of fact, based exclusively on what I have seen transpire on the boards, on the odd occasion (that is, it didn't happen every day, or every week, and with the sharp drop in board particpation, it wouldn't even happen every month...)

-But- did the site ever help? Yes, just usually not the person asking for said help.

Being able to check out a listing without waiting for an OP to come back and provide further details is only part of it - that just means someone might get faster, more accurate help. And that actually matters, since many times I have seen (and even been guilty of giving) responses based purely on the info in the OP, to the detriment of the seller (and sometimes buyer) that's the subject of the question. (As a really simple and unfortunately not unprecedented, example - help, my seller never sent my item - response, neg the jerk! Then it turns out the buyer only bought the item a day or two ago and the seller has a lovely red dot). 

Sometimes an OP would purposely omit certain details, or post deliberately misleading information - such things could potentially be with the intention to scam a seller and glean the best way to succeed from replies in the forum (yes, it has happened, and yes they have been caught out after someone decided to use the buyer search tool when that still existed, or WC after eBay retired it). 

This post is not intended to advocate for the history search tool, or lament it's loss. But it can and did help catch people out.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Thanks Digi.

[harley_babes_hoard]

really,  You should be outraged at people snooping at your sold list working out how much you make. Good for the government departments to check on cheats I suppose though.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@harley_babes_hoard wrote:

I wonder why these members that were so outraged that watchcount breached privacy laws are not concerned about ebay allowing anyone at all to see how much they have sold within a certain time frame through completed listings. Ebay give you no opt in or opt out yet you are not complaining about that.

Perhaps those members don't sell?

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actually, eBay do give sellers an opt-in and opt-out option regarding display of sold/completed items . . . . . . it is commonly known as the User Agreement.

To opt-in, you accept and agree to the User Agreement.  This means you choose to sell on eBay AND accept that eBay will display your recently sold items.

To opt-out for display of sold/completed items you agree to the User Agreement but you simply choose to not sell on eBay.

It really is that simple, I'm surprised you didn't know this.

watchcount, however, opted everyone IN without member consent unless the member contacted them to opt-out.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Nope. I had more sales through that, I know from enquiries.

Doubt the government trawls ended listings. That's what declarations and random audits are for. Interesting you should think of tax cheats. I hadn't. I was thinking about the positives.

Buyers get the chance to see if you are more likely to know what you are doing if you sell specialised stuff, too.

Also, unless listings say seller interests, listings don't say a damn thing about a seller personally.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

   watchcount, however, opted everyone IN without member consent unless the member contacted them to opt-out.

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and the watchcount site still displays how many members had opted out . . . . . . 187 out of the many many millions of eBay members.

I think it would be safe to say that this number would have been significantly higher, possibly by a factor of over 1000, had eBay sent a message to all their members giving them a link to watchcount so they could opt-out if they chose to.  They can, and do, currently send messages via eBay messages to every member, so this is possible.

I was being conservative with the factor of 1000 as this would only mean that 187,000 would have chosen to opt-out, but I reckon world-wide it would have been in the millions had ALL members known about it.

[skyrider12-au]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

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Time to move on.  When I read comments about how good watchcount was for helping posters who didn't provide enough information, or come back to provide more information,  all I now see is BLAH BLAH BLAH, wah wah wah,  I want my dummy"

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Thank you...nice to see your opinion of me!

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actually, it was a comment about my current mindset, not other posters' comments, and certainly not yours.

watchcount is gone, life goes on, we will adapt, the boards will not cease to exist.

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Bit of a slippery slope for you to be standing on. Do you really think you have explained youself successfully and the kudo gave cause for a warm and fuzzy feeling for a fellow group member? I woulfd have thought that you would have been a little kinder to a fellow circle member but, on the other hand, it can be difficult, sometimes, to conceal true colours ....

Don't you think?

Just an observation I made that has been, for want of a better word, troubling me ever since I first read it and probably doing the same to others, one in particular.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

skyrider, I don't have to explain myself or my actions to you.

You are free to stir the pot make your observations as it is consistent with your posting style of not ever offering advice that would be helpful to the OP but just designed just to sh*t stir.

[padi*0409]

Don't sweat it slr, they're only a faceless keyboard warrior after all with no real input into the boards.

[donnashuggy]

I tend to agree with Amber on the Unpaid Item Disputes, mine have been automated for many years, unless a buyer messages me and asks to pay at a later day(I turn it off for them manually)

It frees up so much time and since doing this I have had less than a handful of problems, I don't ever need to look at awaiting payments.

Prior to this I was VERY reluctand to file disputes, I did not like the way eBay messaged the buyer with demands, their terminoligy may have changed???