UK Community Update

[katie@ebay]

Hi Everyone!

Today we launch the updated eBay community in the UK. 

As you will have noticed, the eBay community looks different. We have launched the updated design of the community with a few new features:

• Mobile experience enhanced
• Reduced load time
• Quicker navigation through the site

Of course, all your previous posts, messages and comments are still where they were before. The changes to the community are focused on the look and feel, to enhance your experience and allow mobile users to fully utilise the community, too.

If you have any questions about the new eBay community, feel free to ask below in this discussion board.

[*wild*rose]

Yes, I'm sure she is, DNA.  😊
I had to translate 'inkwenkwe ephosakeleyo. '   It came out as 'wrong boy.' 🤔

[cee-dee]

Remember Alan? Past community Manager? This is what he said 6 years ago (28-01-2015):-

The eBay Community is a meeting-point for eBay members to ask questions and exchange advice and tips with each other. Here, you’ll find many features such as the Answer Center, Discussion Boards, and Groups - all built with you in mind so you can connect with fellow buyers and sellers who share your interests and passions. Be aware that this is a peer-to-peer support Community; eBay does not provide direct customer support to you via these boards.

That rings more than a little hollow now if ebay does want to "shorten and cool down discussion on the boards"?

[the_book_seekers]

I know the US warrants a much bigger community site but there appears to be much more interaction with executives popping up from time to time. With respect to Katie the UK boards feel like an after thought. Community staff interaction is limited with no sign of staff for weeks at a time apart from moderator intervention. The community here is left to get on with things so no wonder we feel so strongely about changes to our boards without consultation.

[i_failed_my_dna_test]

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@cee-dee wrote:

Remember Alan? Past community Manager? This is what he said 6 years ago (28-01-2015):-

The eBay Community is a meeting-point for eBay members to ask questions and exchange advice and tips with each other. Here, you’ll find many features such as the Answer Center, Discussion Boards, and Groups - all built with you in mind so you can connect with fellow buyers and sellers who share your interests and passions. Be aware that this is a peer-to-peer support Community; eBay does not provide direct customer support to you via these boards.

That rings more than a little hollow now if ebay does want to "shorten and cool down discussion on the boards"?

================================================

There was a time when community managers actually managed .

At times they even reached out to speak to some of us.

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[i_failed_my_dna_test]

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@*wild*rose wrote:

Yes, I'm sure she is, DNA.  😊
I had to translate 'inkwenkwe ephosakeleyo. '   It came out as 'wrong boy.' 🤔

==================================================

Boy Blunder is a bit closer 🤗

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[cee-dee]

I don't know what others think (please tell me?) but I find that no matter what part of modern life you look at, the longer something has been in current use, the more and more new versions have more and more functions.

Take a microwave, I've used them for many years. A while back I decided to buy a new one as my old one had deteriorated inside, it still worked though. The new one.... yes, works just fine but the buttons are touch buttons and there are sooooooo many of them. Why the heck do we need three Auto defrost buttons? Bread, meat items, meat joints. 3 Auto reheat buttons: Curry, Chinese, Pasta. 3 Auto cook buttons: Jacket potatoes, fresh vegetable, fresh fish.  There's other functions I don't want/use too. Lots of "modern technology" is dreamed up by people who just like to fiddle about, they never actually do anything much.

The reason for all the above is that this current layout is of the same ilk. Someone wants to add all sorts of stuff that just overcomplicates what should be a very simple thing.

It all started I think in the early days of chips. No, no, not the sort you eat. I mean microchips. If you're not in to messing with such things you might not understand what I mean when I say that back in the day someone would say "Oh look, if I apply a voltage to pin 5, ground pin 8 and inject a 225khz signal in to pin 14, I can make it do...... this". Often, my reply would be "But I don't want to do that. I've no need to do that, I've no use for that and neither has anyone else." The reply back would be "Oh but it's really cool to get it to do that."

Cool it might be mate but it's overcomplicating something simple. Isn't it just the same here?

Just look at the GUI? Why reverse the position of things which have been in place for a long time? What's the point? As the final words in the Aviva advert "Nobody knows"????

[wyntersemporium]

Hardly come one here now, 

[the_book_seekers]

You put me in mind of the latest updates in my seller hub - the performance > traffic page - where I used to have impressions - page views - sales. I now have impressions by organic v promoted. & Impressions by placement (Top 20 search slot impressions/Rest of search slot impressions/Non search impressions). More figures that appear in angry red to worry me - but if I look at my year in its simplest form - in item numbers I've sold 3 times more than the year before and 3 times more in £s shillings and pence. These new figures will mean something to bigger sellers, but not for me. I'll continue to look at ebay in the simplest way (I am allowed to).  Buy Sell ebay ?

[Anonymous]

Absolutely dreadful. Looking at the mass of comments over various forums both here and elsewhere, it is safe to say this is another step backwards for something that was atleast ok. Meanwhile the masses of proper issues on eBay remain ignored.

[the_book_seekers]

Make a bog of renewing listings at the end of the shortest month of the year is one way of getting posters back to these boards. Nothing like having 4 days worth of listings disappear to sharpen the keyboard skills. 

[cee-dee]

Katie, I think you've been thrown a poisoned chalice! If the developers or programmers who've created this format are unwilling to see that it's completely unworkable in it's present form, they're leaving it down to you to to attempt to justify their fiasco which is more than a little unfair to you.

You've been given ample feedback in a variety of places and from what I can see, that feedback is all critical and all say similar things. Are you passing on what's said about it and if so, will you give us, in return, some feedback on what is going to be done about it? (anything?)

If that answer is that we're stuck with it, then, as has been said several times, that this will be the end for discussion boards in the UK.

I'll conclude by repeating what a previous Community Manager (Alan) said six years ago and point out once again that in it's present form, what follows isn't what this new format is about:-

"The eBay Community is a meeting-point for eBay members to ask questions and exchange advice and tips with each other. Here, you’ll find many features such as the Answer Center, Discussion Boards, and Groups - all built with you in mind so you can connect with fellow buyers and sellers who share your interests and passions. Be aware that this is a peer-to-peer support Community; eBay does not provide direct customer support to you via these boards."

Note the bit "all built with you in mind". This new format certainly is not.

[the_book_seekers]

I hope Katie and her bosses notice that in the confusion caused by the technical failure tonight a lot of the most experienced community members didn't comment. These new boards have alienated so many. 

[robmar0se]

Since this change was announced some 10 days ago, the small amendments made around the edges, has done nothing to change the basic flaw in this design - it does not provide a coherent way to navigate, search and respond to issues in a way that users would find constructive and helpful.

Just pander me a little, have a look at other forums, there is a consistency which Ebay has buried its head in the sand over.  All provide indices, with latest posts first, together with # of views & # of responses, that with a search option showing most recent items first, usually with some indication of # of items in the thread.

It’s not rocket science.

The "white" stuff is a distraction, and only serves to compound the idiocy of Ebay's mindset. Really can't respect your management Katie who clearly are leaving you to face the users' music.

Overall its rubbish, bit like England's rugby performance at the w/e!

On top of that this post also crashed as below!

An Unexpected Error has occurred.

Your request failed. Please contact your system administrator and provide the date and time you received the error and this Exception ID:

[bravergrace]

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@the_book_seekers wrote:

I hope Katie and her bosses notice that in the confusion caused by the technical failure tonight a lot of the most experienced community members didn't comment. These new boards have alienated so many. 

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As CD so admirably explained with the microwave, once a familiar and simple tool is made complicated, the result isn't (as the developers fondly hope) that everyone uses it more and more because they enjoy all the bells and whistles.  On the contrary, my own super-complicated microwave stands in the corner of the kitchen and gathers dust. 

I need 3 buttons on it 

Add 30 seconds, START and STOP.

The fact that it has 12 buttons and 3 dials just means that I can't use it without searching for my spectacles and leafing through an inadequately indexed instruction book.  And frankly, my love of microwaved food is not sufficiently strong to justify this.  In due course, my heirs will advertise "Vintage microwave, 30 years old but only used twice.  Suitable for period drama or re-enactment".

Maybe in due course eBay will be able to sell this forum design on eBay as "nearly new".

[i_failed_my_dna_test]

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@bravergrace wrote:

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@the_book_seekers wrote:

I hope Katie and her bosses notice that in the confusion caused by the technical failure tonight a lot of the most experienced community members didn't comment. These new boards have alienated so many. 

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Maybe in due course eBay will be able to sell this forum design on eBay as "nearly new".

I think if they did that , Trading Standards would have to consider warning ebay to behave .

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[cee-dee]

I know it's only just gone 11am but I note a silence on this subject from ebay? As to other forums, as robmar0se said, they all have the latest posts at the top.

I suppose ebay will say "We don't want to be like other forums"?

It's OK saying that they've introduced the floating feature and if you experiment you can get a thread moved to the top, with fiddling you can get it to show as "pinned" but what's the point of that? I've not experimented with doing it to several threads but does it work for more than one? Be fun finding out I suppose? How could more than one be "floated" to the top?

For goodness sake, stop messing about and return the boards to some semblance of what passed for normality.

[katie@ebay]

Hi all,

I hope you are well.

 We were able to implement some of  the feedback given and we are not finished yet! I am continuing to work on the feedback given on this thread and appreciate all your input.

I will now close this thread, but you are still welcome to contact me via private message! I will be available there and across the community to assist.

Many thanks,

Katie