eBay Workshop: Recently Announced Feedback Changes, August 4, 4-5 PM EDT

[carly@ebay.com]

Topic: Recently Announced Feedback Changes

Host: eBay Staff
Date: Thursday, August 4,2005
Time: 04:00 – 05:00 EDT
Location: Canada Town Square

Recently, at eBay Live! 2005, Bill Cobb, President of eBay North America, announced upcoming changes to the feedback system. Please join us in this workshop if you have any questions about these changes or would like to get more information. Brian Burke, Senior Policy Manager/Feedback, will be joining us to answer your questions. We hope to see you there!

Carly
eBay Community Development

[nicki9912]

Hi Carly, I like #1 and #3 a lot...

Not really clear about rule #2 though...

Does this mean that my feedback score of 190 will drop down to 170 if twenty of my sellers have been unregistered?

[carly@ebay.com]

For those of you who were unaware of the upcoming changes, here’s a brief summary:

1. Removal of feedback ratings left by members who don't participate in issue resolution processes. We believe that members unwilling to participate in processes designed to help resolve issues, such as the Unpaid Item process or the Item Not Received process, shouldn't be able to impact another member's reputation. After this change is implemented, if a member leaves feedback for a transaction and does not participate in these processes, eBay will remove their feedback rating. This means the rating (whether positive or negative) will not affect the recipient's feedback score. While the feedback comment itself will remain, it will include an administrative note from eBay indicating that the feedback doesn't count towards the member's total score.

2. Removing any feedback from users who are indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registration. We believe that members who are indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registering on eBay were never truly members of the Community, and so their feedback comments and ratings should not count. We will automatically remove feedback (positive, neutral, and negative) left by such users.

3. Requiring new members to complete a tutorial before leaving neutral or negative feedback. This change will require all new users (members with a feedback score of less than 10) to complete a short tutorial before leaving neutral or negative feedback. We hope that the tutorial will educate new members about the feedback system as well as ensure that they are aware of the various communication tools available to them prior to leaving feedback for their trading partner.

For greater detail on these changes, feel free to read through the article that ran in last month’s US Chatter

http://pages.ebay.com/community/chatter/2005july/marketplacesafety.html

Carly

[shwachick]

I really do NOT like the #2 proposal.

If I completed my part of the transaction in a positive manner, why am I in effect being penalized for another person's poor payment record. As someone who is getting close to getting an new colored star, I truly think this is unfair. JMHO, Tracy
It's a dog's life for sure.

[secondtimesthecharm]

How about an additional change in eBay's feedback system with regarding unique users?

I may not always have a great transaction with the same seller. Each transaction should count towards the feedback score.

[secondtimesthecharm]

with

[moira@ebay.com]

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our workshop on our recently announced Feedback changes. We have Brian from Trust & Safety joining us. Please feel free to submit any questions you have about the new features as we go along.

Kind regards,

Moira
eBay

[moira@ebay.com]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for participating in today’s workshop. My name is Brian Burke, I’m the Senior Marketplace Policy Manager for Feedback. I’m joined by Matt Halprin, my boss, and Vice President of Global Marketplace Policy Management and a few other eBay staffers. For the next hour, we’d like to answer your questions about the recently announced feedback changes that Bill Cobb, President of eBay North America, announced in his eBay Live! keynote address. These changes, which are expected to go into effect in September of this year, were met with enthusiasm by most of the thousands of eBay Live! attendees at the HP Pavilion. Here’s a summary of these changes:

1. Removal of feedback ratings left by members who don't participate in issue resolution processes. We believe that members unwilling to participate in processes designed to help resolve issues, such as the Unpaid Item process or the Item Not Received process, shouldn't be able to impact another member's reputation. After this change is implemented, if a member leaves feedback for a transaction and does not participate in these processes, eBay will remove their feedback rating. This means the rating (whether positive or negative) will not affect the recipient's feedback score. While the feedback comment itself will remain, it will include an administrative note from eBay indicating that the feedback doesn't count towards the member's total score.

2. Removing any feedback from users who are indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registration. We believe that members who are indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registering on eBay were never truly members of the Community, and so their feedback comments and ratings should not count. We will automatically remove feedback (positive, neutral, and negative) left by such users.

3. Requiring new members to complete a tutorial before leaving neutral or negative feedback. This change will require all new users (members with a feedback score of less than 10) to complete a short tutorial before leaving neutral or negative feedback. We hope that the tutorial will educate new members about the feedback system as well as ensure that they are aware of the various communication tools available to them prior to leaving feedback for their trading partner.

For greater detail on these changes, feel free to read through the article that is running in this month’s Chatter .

So why don’t we hear from you? What questions do you have about these changes?

Again, thanks for participating in today’s workshop on the Major Feedback Policy Changes.

Moira

[moira@ebay.com]

Sorry, here is the link to the Chatter article:
http://www.blackthornesw.com/jerry/chatter/july/tempmarketplacesafety.htm?ssPageName=CMDV:AB

Moira

[shwachick]

re: point # 2, does this mean I could have feedback removed and then restored if the offending member is restored with eBay?
What is your time line for "indefinitely"?

Thank you, Tracy
It's a dog's life for sure.

[bburke@ebay.com]

nicki9912,

If a member that you had a transaction with is indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registration, any feedback they left will be removed. In doing this we know that we will be removing some feedback associated with legitimate transactions, but believe this is outweighed by the removal of negative feedback left by members quickly suspended after registration as well as removing positive feedback from members attempting to pad feedback scores.

Brian Burke
Senior Manager, Marketplace Rules & Policy

[bburke@ebay.com]

shwachick,

Actually, not all suspension reasons will qualify for automatic feedback removal. Billing and temporary suspensions are just a couple examples of suspension reasons that won't qualify. The goal is to remove feedback from people we are indefinitely suspending, not those we expect will again be active members.

It's a relatively small percentage of all suspensions.

Brian

[shwachick]

tapping fingers in anticipation..... Tracy (nee Burke)
It's a dog's life for sure.

[shwachick]

Thank you, but does this mean indefinitely is a suspension greater than 90 days?
It's a dog's life for sure.

[bburke@ebay.com]

secondtimesthecharm,

Great question about repeat transactions. We need to do a better job providing credit to members with repeat buyers. However, counting all feedback left by a buyer would undermine the credibility of the system. We came close to doing this in early 2001, but decided against it after realizing that two members working in concert, could easily inflate their feedback score, thus undermining the value of the system.

We will continue to evaluate how best to display repeat transactions on the member profile without undermining the credibility of the system.

Thanks.

Brian

[bburke@ebay.com]

shwachick,

If we suspend a member and remove their feedback, even if they successfully appeal and are reinstated we will not restore the feedback. The intent is to only include those where we are suspending a member and don’t expect them to return.

Indefinite means that at the time of suspension we don’t expect to ever let them back. Think of someone committing fraud or a malicious bidder. This isn’t for someone suspended due to non-payment of their eBay bill which they can rectify by paying the bill or for temporary suspensions such as 7 day or 30 day.

Thanks.

Brian

[moira@ebay.com]

Sure is quiet in here....

[moira@ebay.com]

I dare you to ask us a question in the last few minutes!

[secondtimesthecharm]

Do we win anything for being the last poster?

[bburke@ebay.com]

All,

Here are a couple additional questions that we received so far.

What constitutes a response to the Unpaid Item Process?
Any response to the Unpaid Item will count as a response. We know that this isn't ideal since some members may not respond in good faith (for example, "I'm not paying!" or "You're a jerk."). However, this isn't likely to happen that often. Regardless, we believe that the announced change is a step in the right direction and will address much of the current issue based on the current response rate to the Unpaid Item process.

Are only negative feedback ratings removed if a member doesn't respond to the unpaid item process?
When a member fails to respond to the Unpaid Item process, three things will happen: 1) the feedback rating will be removed, whether it is positive, negative or neutral; 2) the red, gray or green circle next to the comment will be removed; and 3) an administrative notation will be placed under the comment stating that the rating was removed because the member did not participate in the Unpaid Item, similar to what we do with Mutual Feedback Withdrawal, just a different message.

Thank you for the questions today and look forward to any other thoughts you have about the upcoming feedback changes.

Brian