What's this new ebay lark?

[cee-dee]

Engager? Contributor? Guide? Specialist? Helper? Conversationalist?  Member? Any more?

What's it all about?

[cee-dee]

I think we can add to that "Experienced Mentor".  Who thought up all this and what for?

[thesmi42]

Yes, apparently I've just "Ranked Up To Member" - the mind boggles!

If there are going to be Guides, perhaps there should also be Beavers for those who work tirelessly for the cause, and Brownies for those who kowtow to the management.

[right-then-petal]

 I'm A Specialist

[bidicus*maximus]

I don't know who thought it up, or even what it's for, but my best guess is that it's meant to be similar to the "badges" that you can earn for achievements in posting or the different colored stars that you get for larger quantities of buying and selling.  Probably meant to give us goals that we can work towards... though I don't know why anyone, including eBay should expend energy caring about such things... especially these days when the chat boards are just the merest whisper of a ghost of what they once were.

[cee-dee]

Yes, Petal is a specialist. He specialises in spelling words wrongly 😀😁

Sorry Petal........ I can resist everything but temptation.

[margaret*e]

Maybe they think we're all five year olds needing a badge to encourage us to buy.😁

[1956glyn]

This is what it is all about. 

As a member of the eBay community, you’ll be able to join discussions, ask questions, and search for answers.

While you use the community, you may receive notifications about your Community rank increasing.

Your rank helps you understand how helpful your community contributions are relative to others. Each rank on the community appears next to a user’s name and signifies their contributions to the community.

You can view your rank on your profile page, as well as next to your name across the community. You can also see other members ranks in the same places on their profile.

The community ranks are separated into three categories. These are Passive Ranks, Active Ranks and Mentor Ranks.

Passive Ranks are for members who sign in to the community to take actions such as give kudos and read posts but do not take actions such as posting or replying. The ranks classified as Passive are:

Member

Visitor

Observer

Explorer

Active Ranks are given to members who take actions on the community such as starting a thread, replying, accepting posts as solutions, giving and receiving helpful kudos and being a regular user of the community. Earning Badges on the community is a great way to help advance your rank. The ranks classified as Active are:

Contributor

Engager

Conversationalist

Helper

Guide

Ace

Advisor

Specialist

Champion

Guru

Mentor Ranks are for our members who volunteer to be Community Mentors on the boards. They use their knowledge to support peers on the boards. You can see more on the Mentor Programme here. Mentors can earn ranks by starting a thread, replying, accepting post as solutions, giving and receiving helpful kudos and their level of activity. The ranks for Mentors are:

Mentor

Experienced Mentor

Pro Mentor

Genius Mentor

Einstein Mentor

Thank you for your continued engagement and for being a part of the eBay Community!

[bidicus*maximus]

So... when you post, you see your id and your rank is listed below, but those who have "passive ranks" by definition never post, so I'm wondering how these folks know what their rank is?  Also, how do they advance in rank?  Just by reading more?

[1956glyn]

There is a long thread discussing it

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Community-Platform-Discussion/What-s-with-all-these-ridiculous-new-q...

[cee-dee]

After thinking about all this I've come to the conclusion that they're all childish things which are totally meaningless dreamed up by those who are equally childish with nothing better to do! Does any of those responsible realise they've "ranked" some active posters the same as people who are no longer with us?

What do any of those ranks mean to someone reading the boards (well, what's left of them) for the first (or if they venture back the next) few times? By what standard or number of posts have they been defined and how does any poster "advance" in rank, that is if one rank is "better" than another after all, a rank is a grade of some sort? 

[hill-walker]

The old system of ranks seemed pretty logical, and fairly easy to understand.

The new system is a nightmare, for anyone that can actually be bothered to try and understand it (I can't).

The idea that we are, presumably, expected to be able to remember the 19 different ranks, and then know what order they appear in, is simply ridiculous!

The titles themselves are meaningless; why would I think a Helper is somehow "better" than a Guide, or an Advisor, or not... and who cares anyway?

Yet more unwanted, un-asked for, unhelpful, nonsensical gibberish, foisted on us by those in control, for no reason that anyone other than themselves will understand.

Whatever this dog's breakfast of an idea is meant to achieve, I am pretty confident it will do exactly the opposite.

K.I.S.S.

[pixiesen2012]

read the 'blog' here:-

(1) Community Ranks - UK eBay Community

[bidicus*maximus]

Thanks for the link, but I was hoping for the short answer... 😆

[1956glyn]

Ha ha i did post the Ebay short answer earlier.

Even shorter answer......some at Ebay obviously have too much time on their hands 😂

[tuckerbigdaddy5ngv]

What title do you get for getting a pinky slap ?

[cee-dee]

If you get enough of them I think you get chucked off and your ID changed to something meaning not known?