eBay Curbs Internet Revenge
by in The Lab on Thursday, March 8, 2007
Beginning in May of 2008 sellers on eBay will no longer be allowed to leave negative feedback about buyers.
Oh man. I’ve left some fucking negative feedback in my day. Oh yes.
Isn’t that the whole idea though? Isn’t the eBay feedback system supposed to operate as a self-policing open forum where you’re scared to screw people because they might destroy your reputation? What was wrong with that system?
As with any internet project: the users ruin everything. God damnit, why can’t everyone just be a developer?
Yes, of course there has to be a whole group of people that post negative comments (sometimes very negative) at the drop of a hat — or at least when that used hat they ordered came with 30% sweat stains instead of the 5% as per the item description. There is then a prompt retaliation by the seller to post another negative comment in response about how said buyer doesn’t understand the metrics of sweat measurement as is probably a meth addict.
It’s a vicious cycle.
So what can be done? Apparently, not much. You just can’t trust internet users to police themselves, there are too many idiots. I do hold out hope for Wikipedia but even there we’ve been seeing a steady increase in pseudoscience idiots trying to market their alternative medicine bullshit and spin the facts in their favor.
Are self-policing internet communities still viable? Can such a system be sustained when average-joe user starts becoming part of a site’s demographic rather than a more early-adopter crowd?
I am not looking forward to this at all. If a buyer takes 4 weeks to send payment, why shouldn’t I be allowed to tell everybody about it?
I understand the vicious cycle thing, but this just makes me want to move my business to amazon.
I think removing the feedback system will allow people to get scammed by unscrupulous users now. It’s way too bad.
Its definately not a good thing, people need to be warned about dodgey sellers, I certainly do! I’ve had a few experiences in my time where negative feedback needed to be left, what if it happens again?
I’m an active seller with 399 positives and just the 1 negative. That came from a guy who claimed not to have received digital media, then tried to black mail me in eBay messages. Even though I promptly reported the mails to eBay, they did nothing ab out it. He had even admitted he lied (:
So, my concern is trying to avoid dodgy buyers. I can just see it now “give me a discount or I will leave negative”.
A negative hurts a seller far more than a buyer, so this is a crazy move.