"We will be back later in the year”
Summary: The discussion centers around eBay's promise in May 2026 to implement community-refreshing changes and members' subsequent frustrations with lack of updates. Participants express dissatisfaction with the current forum format, describing it as confusing and less user-friendly compared to the previous version. Technical issues, such as difficulties following threads and tagging users, are raised, along with complaints about the nested reply system reducing the visibility of critical threads. Participants highlight that the changes may be driven by cost-cutting and discuss how a well-functioning forum could benefit eBay by addressing customer queries and feedback.
In the now-defunct Community Chat on 20 May 2026, ebay announced that they were working on "something a little different and hopefully more in line with the suggestions we have received from you all”. They promised to back later in the year. I wonder if @marco@ebay, @kat@ebay or @dave@ebay could give us an update? Thanks.
theelench
·Sep 12, 2026 at 8:21 AMWell, I've added a couple of "Replies". They don't show up reading "Recently Engaged" and have been tacked onto yesterdays posts. Using Recently Engaged the latest addition appears to be mine at 9:23 a.m.
Good luck to anyone interested enough to want to read them and who tries to find them.
moonlight-rhapsody
OP3 weeks ago · Edited"Good luck to anyone interested enough to want to read them and who tries to find them."
I tried to find them, but only because I'm the OP, I wouldn't have bothered otherwise because it's too time-consuming. It made no difference whether I sorted by "Newest" or "Recently Engaged" - your recent post about the benefits of a forum was still buried way down, beneath older posts.
Edit. Same with a post made by the_book_seekers a short while ago - buried deep in the thread irrespective of which sort order I used.
theelench
·3 weeks agoThat's what happens when anyone uses the 'Reply ' button. The post will be lost in the morass somewhere along the thread.
Even using 'Recently Engaged' which shows 'Comments' in chronological order, Replies are not included. According to Recently Engaged the most recent post on this thread was added by me two days ago. What a stupid way to design a 'Discussion' board.
Seems to me the only way to make it readable is for everyone to post as a Comment, tag /quote the post they're replying to and forget about replying a previous post. At least then posts would be in SOME sort of order.
moonlight-rhapsody
OPSep 11, 2026 at 1:49 PM · EditedSo ebay are definitely reading this thread because I've just had a post removed, and pretty swiftly too. There was nothing untoward in it, it was just saying how I was getting unwanted emails about replies to this thread. I've now been able to stop them (fingers crossed) but I had to go to the settings on my forum account. Still doesn't explain why I suddenly started getting them though.
Anyway, thanks for confirming that you've read the thread, ebay, sorry you haven't felt inclined to reply.
sml192
·Sep 11, 2026 at 2:32 PMThat is very strange. I saw the post you mention before it was deleted and there was definitely nothing untoward in it.
Note the moderators are separate to the eBay team members you tried to tag in ypur original post - you need to type @ebay after their names for the tags to work.
moonlight-rhapsody
OPSep 11, 2026 at 3:45 PMAh, thanks for letting me know. I'll see if I can edit my Original Post.
sml192
·Sep 11, 2026 at 4:03 PM · EditedYou still need the @ symbol before their names aswell. It should turn blue when done correctly.
moonlight-rhapsody
OPSep 11, 2026 at 6:55 PMI've done that, thanks, but it's still not working (hasn't gone blue) 😟
moonlight-rhapsody
OP1 week agoI've just seen a mentor tag kat@ebay and dave@ebay and the link has turned blue. Perhaps mere mortals like myself aren't allowed to tag the powers-that-be 🙁
boundarycoins
·1 week agoIf you add @ before the name it should work.
jonatjonatjonat
·Sep 11, 2026 at 2:36 PMIt was a duplicate post
sml192
·Sep 11, 2026 at 2:44 PMAh, yes, that explains it.
moonlight-rhapsody
OPSep 11, 2026 at 3:44 PM · EditedYes it was a duplicate. When I posted the first time, I inadvertently did it as a Reply instead of a Comment, so it went to the bottom of the thread. So I did a new Comment at the top of the thread, because at that time I still hadn't discovered how to stop notifications and I was hoping someone would explain. But I couldn't delete the original Reply post. So then the mods deleted my Comment post, but subsequently reinstated my Comment post and deleted the Reply post. Phew, probably TMI!!
moonlight-rhapsody
OPSep 11, 2026 at 12:50 PMI suddenly started getting email notifications for this thread, even though I hadn't asked for them. I went to "More" and turned them off, but I'm still getting them. I haven't changed any of my settings so I don't know why I've suddenly stated getting them.
theelench
·Sep 11, 2026 at 8:23 AM"Perhaps the development is taking longer to better appease the demanding clientele around here"
I don't think half a dozen regulars plus a few others with questions, posting on 10 threads yesterday is all that demanding.
Today I was going to tag and quote one of your posts.
The "@" sign freezes the cursor but finds "No Result" for jonatjonatjonat.
My quote of your post is not quite right because I can't get the "Comment" box to stay anywhere near your post I want to quote from and reply to.
Just two of the basics they haven't got right after 4 months.
Usage of this board has crashed, even the "Are you correctly registered" crew and the "ebay fan club" have mostly gone elsewhere for lack of anyone to 'advise' how wrong they are to criticise ebay.
Despite looking in most days, I've yet to read a post saying how much easier it is to engage, connect, get answers and have yet to see a lucid discussion about anything where more than a handful of people join-in and express any views on any topic. I have to say I don't find doing any of those things easier, in fact I find it more difficult to the point that, more often than not, I don't bother.
That on some days there's been more activity on the other site, I occasionally mention, boards says it all IMO. Any objective ebay had, other than cutting costs, has been a dismal failure.
suelel1968
·Sep 11, 2026 at 11:52 AMThe "@" sign freezes the cursor but finds "No Result" for jonatjonatjonat.
My quote of your post is not quite right because I can't get the "Comment" box to stay anywhere near your post I want to quote from and reply to.
Just two of the basics they haven't got right after 4 months.."
Could I add that you can't change a picture size like you could before and totally random things go to moderation before they post.
sml192
·Sep 11, 2026 at 12:43 PM · EditedCertain posts (usually those containing a link or image) needing to be moderated before they appear is definitely a nuisance especially when it can take several hours for them to be moderated sometimes! Really annoying when you can see that someone has posted something but you can't read what they have posted or conversely if you have posted something but nobody else can see it!
sml192
·Sep 11, 2026 at 12:15 PM · EditedThere were around 60 new threads posted on the Member to Member Support forum yesterday (those threads no longer appear on the general feed) so the boards aren't quite as quiet as you make out although the general usage has definitely declined.
How bizarre! Typing @jonatjonatjonat produces 'No result' for me aswell. Well that's a nice way to treat one of their most frequent posters!
Edit: Their community profile is currently showing 'Page doesn't exist' for some reason which is probably why they can't be tagged.
You need to use the 'Reply' button, instead of insisting on using the 'Comment' button, in order for it to be associated with the post you are replying to. It will always stay with that post then.
I do appreciate that the threaded format takes a bit of getting used to, compared to the old flat (chronological) format, and may not be to everyone's liking but not using it correctly just makes trying to follow discussions more difficult.
theelench
·Sep 11, 2026 at 6:26 PM"You need to use the 'Reply' button, "
By doing that my reply would stay with the post I'm replying to, but nested. Which makes it disappear If, as I've been doing, reading the thread using 'Recently Engaged' which does keep additions in chronological order, although backwards.
I'm sorry but I don't think I want to be re-educated by ebay in order to read a discussion board. It is far better if replies or comments remain in the order they were posted in. Nesting is an un-necessary distraction and like so many other changes they've made, counter-productive and helped to make ebay less popular.
But thanks for your suggestions.
department28
·Sep 11, 2026 at 1:16 PMThe cost-cutting has come at the expense of having a busier, more interesting, user-friendly forum, that anyone could join in and actually enjoy using. I would have thought it would be in eBay's interest to have the best possible forum, but maybe not?!
I do think this sort of forum is simply not suited to the 'nested reply' system. Some of the queries & topics can be quite complex, and are often added to at intervals, as a situation unfolds. It made it so much easier to be able to follow - and add to - a thread in chronological order.
jonatjonatjonat
·Sep 11, 2026 at 1:30 PMI would have thought it would be in eBay's interest to have the best possible forum, but maybe not?!
To what benefit? It doesn't make them money!
the_book_seekers
·Sep 11, 2026 at 5:47 PMHow many calls to customer services have been saved by the forum over the years? It might not make them money but it has saved a few dollars.
department28
·3 weeks agoYes - when Simple Delivery was launched, Seller Central was swamped with threads, with many users turning to the forum for the first time, looking to find answers that CS seemed not able to provide - not surprisingly, as they would only have had the same 'basic' information that the rest of us were trying to make sense of...
If CS had had to handle any more exasperated queries about Simple Delivery, I reckon they would've imploded... 😤
I think eBay undervalues the forum, as it would appear they do not see it as an asset worth nurturing.
moonlight-rhapsody
OPSep 11, 2026 at 7:13 PM · Edited@jonatjonatjonat
I would have thought the benefits were obvious, and they've been mentioned numerous times before when this topic has cropped up. 1.Getting their own customers to deal with queries instead of paying more customer support people is a massive benefit, would you not agree? 2.The forum in the previous format was also very useful for containing dissatisfaction. The current format doesn't lend itself to discussion, and I doubt if I'm the only person who now voices dissatisfaction elsewhere. 3.Companies with forums have the opportunity to take feedback and suggestions from forum members to consider change and innovation.
If ebay didn't find the forum beneficial to themselves, do you not think they would close it down, or do you think they keep it going for altruistic reasons?
theelench
·Sep 12, 2026 at 8:13 AM"It doesn't make them any money"
So is a prime target for further cost cutting enshi**ification of the site and any usefulness it might have to its buyers and sellers. All to make more money for the shareholders.
Look around you at the boarded-up High St shops and the homeless sleeping in their doorways. Proliferating food banks for workers on falling real-term wages. Crumbling infrastructure because corporations like ebay avoid paying the taxes they should. Ultimately leading to aircraft crashing because their computer systems haven't been tested enough and atrocities like Bhopal. All brought about by the doctrine of Cost Cutting.
jonatjonatjonat
·Sep 12, 2026 at 8:31 AMOn the plus side, you’ve managed to post this as a Reply.
theelench
·3 weeks agoOh absolutely.
A civilisation is on the edge of falling apart because everything must be cut back to the bare minimum.
But my reply can be read by a dozen people.
Great ideology for the few.
theelench
·Sep 12, 2026 at 7:57 AMAnother advantage for ebay is that 'nesting' soon reduces any critical thread to an incoherent muddle. I've read 4 threads on ebay's latest shot at its feet, Standardised Clothing Sizing, all less than a month old. It seems to be the all too familiar badly thought-out idea that requires masses of editing to existing listings and makes millions of items impossible to list accurately.
Has there been a massive outcry from the large number of clothing sellers that ebay has been trying to attract to the site ? NO, just 4 threads, the longest having 16 posts. I doubt there will ever be another pages long thread of complaint about anything ebay dumps on its sellers. Effectively they're saying you can be as critical as you like, but only in tiny groups that don't have any groundswell, don't look too bad and can be easily ignored.
the_book_seekers
·3 weeks agoI have to agree with you. On the subject of the clothing sizes, before ebay introduced the new board format there would've been thread after thread on the subject, with some of them recording high post numbers.
wheretheloveb
·1 month agoI keep trying but cannot make head or tail of this new thread format whatsoever
department28
·1 month agoYes - I find it very difficult to follow a thread when more than one post has several 'nested' replies. The longer the thread, the more confusing it gets, so it is no wonder there are fewer longer threads developing, which is a shame. I tend to find I miss posts, because I still expect to see them either at the beginning, or the end - not somewhere higgledy-piggledy in the middle... 😖
theelench
·1 month agoI think they'll be unlucky, it's still pretty rubbish trying to follow a discussion that's more than a handful of posts long. No matter which method of reading the thread I chose.
the_book_seekers
·1 month agoThe banner on my seller hub reads
Explore the eBay Community’s brand new look
With improved navigation and updated features, it’s now even easier to find resources, connect with fellow members and join the conversations that matter to you.
Get involved
ebay is trying to drum up some traffic to these boards.
moonlight-rhapsody
OP1 month ago · EditedThat can't be it surely. All that does is direct people to these boards, and surely that couldn't have taken them 4 months to work on. And in what way would that be "more in line with the suggestions we have received from you all"?
@ebay - is that it? Please could we have clarification, ebay?
jonatjonatjonat
·1 month agoThey aren't exactly going to be devoting a lot of dev time to this free resource that they in no way have to provide. There have been some incremental improvements to the forum since the relaunch. Maybe the developments taking longer to better appease the demanding clientele around here.
What I'd do, is maybe wait until the end of the year - given that would still be within their statement they'd be back 'later in the year'
moonlight-rhapsody
OPSep 10, 2026 at 7:34 PM"What I'd do"
That might be what you'd do, but I chose differently! An update as to progress would have been nice, but it seems it's not to be.
suelel1968
·Sep 10, 2026 at 8:19 PMHi @moonlight-rhapsody I think an update would be good too, however, I think the Community Team have popped up and answered some questions raised on the forum here and that works quite well. It's hard to see how they could improve on what they used to do when they clearly have little support from the wider business.
department28
·Sep 10, 2026 at 9:56 PMAnd I don't think forum members are being demanding. It is a fact that we lost a nicely designed, easy-to-use forum, and had it replaced by a cheaper, less accessible/more fiddly version.
Any service or product that is replaced by something inferior is going to be met with disappointment & disgruntlement. Like having to make do with snook instead of haddock... 😼
department28
·1 month agoHmm... 'something a little different'... let's hope they're not getting ready to unveil 'Pat Ansa', the new AI Community Chat Assistant... 😱