why can I not list a plant called Golly

[scruff1936]

I am trying to list a plant which is registered with the Bromeliad Society International. I am told that I can not list a Golliwog Doll or anything related. The name of the plant is Golly. To me this is a perfect example of how stupid political correctness can be, The word Golly is in the dictionary. Whoever made this ridiculous rule needs to get a life and get in the real world. I am still fuming.

[digital*ghost]

I'm not going to comment on the golliwog issue (for reasons some other regulars may be aware)... 

But I will say I agree that not being able to list a plant and use its common name as a keyword due to the doll issue, is ridiculous.

It's similar to when eBay decided "not" was a keyword universally in breach of their listing policies (due to sellers using it to precede brand names on generic items, eg "Generic Headphones - not Sony, or Beats by Dr Dre), resulting in listings with things like "Forget Me Not" in the title being pinged and the sellers issued a policy violation. >_<

I supppose you're relegated to using all the other names? 

[imastawka]

If it is the name of the plant, then it should be allowed.

Restricted

Art and media listings (such as books and music) where the offensive word or phrase is part of the title of the work may be listed.

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/offensive.html

I would call ebay to get it sorted.

Otherwise just list it as 'Neoregelia Bromeliad' and maybe put Golly down further

in the listing

[6508.froggy]

I am afraid the word golly will not be able to be used anywhere in the listring including the description.  Ebay obviously run a program searching there serversd for certain words and once found the listing is automatically removed. 

I would suggest you try for an exception through ebay but think you would still run the risk when they run the search programs.

Best of luck.

[heihachi_73]

Because eBay's software is generated by a bunch of clueless w[anchor]s, and the bots are no different (after all, they are made by the same people). eBay's original designer probably cringes every time they update the site.

Why can't I sell a video game which happens to have the word "Rocket" in its name? Because fireworks and other explosive items cannot be sold on eBay, of course!

Why can't I sell repaired or region-free game cartridges on eBay? Because eBay thinks I'm selling a pirated copy, of course! Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf (Mega Drive), of all games, has been removed at least once. I'm waiting for them to remove HES Total Funpak next; it's a genuine region-free (dual PAL and NTSC) game that was not made or licensed by Nintendo; HES (Home Entertainment Suppliers Australia) simply licensed the games from Asia (China/Taiwan etc.), put them on a Nintendo NES cartridge (as the smaller Japanese Famicom cartridges don't fit, and don't have any regional lockout chips) and released them as-is.

[justkidzbiz]

Could you maybe try "Goleigh" and just out an additional comment that the correct spelling had to be omitted due to eBay policies. Something along those lines may work, unless of course the stupid system doesn't like the word Goleigh

[kopenhagen5]

Try g*o*l*l*y 

[imastawka]

   There must be exceptions.

There are currently 207 listings under 'golly'

[*tippy*toes*]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

Try g*o*l*l*y 

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If you put that in, will it still come up in search results for people searching for golly? Maybe the bots should just been looking for the word "wog" instead of "golly" because I'm sure there are other things that use that word that don't fall into the offensive category.

I listed something a few years back that had "diamond" in the title. I got a big message saying I couldn't use that word unless the item was a genuine diamond. I hit the submit button any way and it went through OK. I was half expecting eBay to remove it and slap me for a policy violation, but they didn't.

[imastawka]

Good point Tippy.

Maybe the bots didn't remove the OP's listing.  We all assumed it was removed.

Maybe the warning came up and they thought it was a no go.

The should try again and hit the submit button anyway.