Stifled?

[cee-dee]

Has all discussion been stifled now?

Is it because of the lack of discussion by the Community Manager or is it because the last comment on the UK Community Update thread seems like a Fait Accomplit?

I see very little activity as far as the Round Table goes, the only sign of life is on the Gif thread:-

Solved: Gifs, pics and graphics - Page 998 - The eBay Community

Is this it as far as the discussion boards go, that is, the absolute end?

[theelench]

I'd say it has been totally stifled and for good.  

   I've just had a quick look over the first three pages of new(ish) posts on the Seller Central and Business Seller Boards.  Two threads about the outage at the week-end had over 20 replies each.   Another, possibly started some time ago, had 45.   A few more had replies in the teens, but  by far the majority had either 0 or less than 10.

   Now have a look at the boards on .com, etsy, PP and for all I know amazon as well (I won't even go to that site).    .uk looks so similar to the others and has been brought into line with the others with just a handful of replies to most threads before they disappear for ever.

   As someone once said "The lights are going out all over .......".  The Oligarchs of Wall St don't like their serfs talking to each other and will not be allowed to do so, even in Oz for much longer.

[cee-dee]

Well now, it truly looks like everyone has deserted the place now? No-one's posting much? If they are, how the heck can we tell if it's on a thread that was first posted a while ago? All the threads are buried under the date the thread was created. Are we supposed to keep on creating new threads so we can find the latest posts?

I've looked at five ebay forums and can't see any new posts so is that it? Not a word from "management" either?????

[theelench]

And so they should, IMO.   

   Management (including the "Community" manager Katie) have done their usual trick of disappearing, having given a resounding slap in the face to everyone who used the boards that ebay have now wrecked.

   The only thing that the "Question" answering volunteers should be posting in reply to new (or not-so-new) problems is a brief statement referring the questioner to ebay CS for an answer and giving their reason as a refusal to serve on such a parody of a discussion board.  Or, as the "Community" has been silenced, that they have resigned as the ebay community problem solvers and will now let ebay sort out its own messes.

   I don't see any reason why ebay should profit from the combined expertise of a community that it despises, treats with utter contempt and ignores.  If ebay wants its users problems solved on the cheap, it needs to recognise that its unpaid advisers want the freedom to discuss those issues as they see fit.  Not in the dumbed-down circumscribed manner that ebay wants.

   If that results in ebay shutting down the UK boards completely, at least that will be honesty of a sort.  Showing that even the policed and limited free-speech that we previously had will no longer be tolerated in ebayland. 

[suzieseaside]

I think it is very clear that ebay do not give a stuff about customer opinion unless they benefit directly.

I see that the community manager replied early on after 2 feedbacks but they have been silent since with no explanations as to why our concerns are not valid (if that's what they think).   They are wrong though, there are things that are not possible to do any more.

CD  You have posted what we need to be able to do but there have been no satisfactory responses from them. 

Not one positive comment about this shambles from those of us that use it, but you can be sure that ebay don't care. As you said - a fait accomplis.  They will have done very nicely out of this pandemic with shops being closed.  I wish I didn't have to use it but I don't like supporting the tax evading amazon site.

I don't do other forums or twitter or whatever and it was nice to come on here to read and post even though there wasn't a lot going on, especially during the pandemic when we are stuck at home.

Now I find coming on here utterly depressing and have pretty much given up as it is so frustrating to see this great mess.

I am only here now to say thank you CD and others for sticking at it.  I'm afraid that being ill has left me with no steam to battle on as I might have done in the past.

Q

[*wild*rose]

One would think the opinions of the people who actually use the Community Boards, especially those who spend their own time helping other eBay buyers and sellers, would be relevant  and valued....but no, apparently not.  ☹️

[cee-dee]

Hi Suzie, I'm sorry that you're still not well. I'll have a shot at ebay tomorrow but as I said it certainly looks like a fait accompli now. Not a word, not a breath, just silence. Perhaps that's because lips have been sealed and hands tied behind their back?

I'm doing tea now but I'll make another post later.

A couple of things would be helpful. The last post bringing a thread to the top for a start?

[cee-dee]

Well now, I posted what I thought the regular posters (like me) would like to see and invited our Community Manager to comment on each point. Result? Ziltch.

I thought it was plain enough (did you?) and not beyond the ability of any programmer or developer to achieve without too much of a problem so does anyone else see a problem or have an issue with what I posted here?:-

What would we like to have? - The eBay Community

[gallovidian]

It hasn't been stifled. It has been starved. I post almost entirely on Buyer Central, where people bring problems which can lose them both their rights and money, sometimes a lot of money, and send scoundrels off chortling. I can't believe eBay imagine their best interests to lie in those people going without the most effective help they can get. Oned bad transaction might lose eBay fees - and hundreds of transactions a disillusioned member might have made in the future.

The start date for a thread  and the numbers of posts and views are still displayed, albeit very inconspicuously.  For me there are two main areas of disaster in the new system. One is that the order of threads is displayed in order of their start times. OPs do make mistalkes after the first few hours, or admit information that we didn't have at the beginning. Sometimes they are given information which is superficial or erroneous. Just a couple of days ago I saw someone told to open a case they would inevitaly have lost.

A couple of weeks ago we could see at the top of a compact list which posts were still alive, and see the names of posters we could count on to have given good advice. Now we can't, and even a thread vigorously alive - if vigorous life isn't gone from the boards - could slip down a long page, below any trivialities that turn up.

I don't think we suffer at all badly as a rule, from censorship by eBay or its contracted board monitoring services. The only logic I can see in the new system would be a desire to cool down disputes on the board. But there are already the means, underused in myt opinion, to deal with undue hostility. (I eventually ceased to be amused by attempts to disguise distinctively British obscenity in terms which those well brought-up Filipina ladies wouldn;t understand.) I don't believe that is a reason to reduce the boards' ability to do the job they exist for.

[theelench]

I agree with you that censorship here has become markedly lighter and we suffer less from it than on the other site I use.  There they very often don't bother to censor individual comments, they just vapourise the whole thread.

   Yes, the moderators these days do often seem lethargic when left to their own devices, which is why the Community Manager should be in evidence.   I (just about) remember Allen, who was a real prescence on the boards, he managed the community.

  They are now rarely seen or heard, are certainly in no way authorative and appear only as the bearer of tidings from above.

   It appears to me that "The Community" is no longer regarded as "an entity" at all, or deserving of a dedicated Manager or any independence.   It is now, since this redesign into oblivion, to be controlled simply by making it unfit for any purpose other than short Q & A threads.

   I've already noticed that a couple of comments that I intended to reply to, have just disappeared,  no warning from a Moderator.  That's the way things will go IMO.  Amid all the chaos, anything that ebay management doesn't like, will just be "disappeared" and no-one will ever notice.

[cee-dee]

The above two posts really say it all? No word from ebay or the community manager but I see we now have "Latest reply by ########" along with the date and time but what a pity it's not a link to go straight to the last post? Also, is it me or has this reply box been enlarged? (yeah, we know we can already drag it bigger).

As I look now, the time's a bit too close to the date??

[cee-dee]

Are they still messing about with it? Looking at it the time's wrong?

The time of my post was 05-03-2021 4:03PM so why is it showing "latest reply by cee-dee 05-03-2021 5:03:42PM"???

[cee-dee]

It seems they've decided we're already on BST when adding "Latest reply"?

Perhaps they don't know that BST begins on 28th March?

[gallovidian]

I expect the people who perpetrated this new system told themselves that we would get used to it in two or three weeks.

Thanks to those ridiculously short but long pages, the list at the bottom of the Buyer Central board now extends to  126 pages. Here is the last of those, composed mainly of posts  made in 2016:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Buyer-Central/bd-p/21900000767/page/126

It needs to be compared with page 1, and I am sure the same tendency is visible in other boards.

Does anybody see the numbers of  views, of posts or of posts marked as helpful, as supporting the avowed intention of the new system, i.e. making it more helpful to members? It looks like it was something else.

Will more weeks change this? I doubt it. I doubt if eBay would have to spend more money on a new system. They have the old one still available.Unless Phouros have forced this on them, and if so, there are other discussion board website companies.

[theelench]

Yes the same tendency is visible on other boards.  My first port of call is usually  "Seller Central" and over the last week most new topics have received 10 or less replies, one has 19, another 23.

   What strikes me is that these boards are now almost exactly like the paypal boards and have the same faults.   The threads disappear out of sight far too quickly, with little chance of new replies after a couple of days (on PP).  Trying to get a reply regarding a problem relies almost entirely on one of their "Esteemed Advisers" deigning to bother.

   Is that what obay is hoping for?  I've seen zero participation by any PP employee coming to their boards to make any sort of "official" statement.  Katie has now locked two threads that I've seen, saying that it's getting too long, in itself part of the reason for locking.  But made no attempt to correct the inaccuracies or remove off topic ramblings.

   We now have a list of "Most Helpful (ed)" soon to become "esteemed advisers"?

   On paypal topics are regularly but mysteriously marked a "Solved" although no satisfactory answer has been given.

   One thing that the PP boards have shown me is that I can find most of the threads I've replied to through my Profile although there is little point adding to any topic that has sunk out of sight.  But then that seems to be ebay's intention.  I've no doubt that any thread that is locked will not show up if the subject is "Searched" for, so those who run the boards can now effectively ensure any criticism of ebay disappears without trace and all done without visibly heavy-handed censorship.  

   I'd guess that in only a few months, instead of being an accurate reflection of users concerns, fears and criticisms, all the boards will show is that ebay is working perfectly, is getting better every day and all its sellers ecstatically happy.