mtfman
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/forum.jspa?forumID=76
Just for you, I've clipped the statement that pertains to the Taiwan FB loophole. This originally was posted on the Feedback board, but was discussed on the U.S. Powersellers Board:
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If a member uses the Taiwan site to leave feedback, and that feedback contains more than 80 characters, and the transaction didn’t take place on the Taiwan site, or the buyer wasn’t registered on the Taiwan site, and the feedback is reported to us, we will remove the comment and the rating.
That sure was a mouthful!
Not removing the feedback is unfair to those members that are not aware of the Taiwan site capabilities.
The eBay system provides 80 characters to leave feedback (except for Taiwan and another double-byte site). Therefore, it is expected that when trading with a person on a site that only permits 80 characters, both individuals would be held to the same standard. Using the Taiwan site to leave 125 character comments undermines the integrity of the system.
If you use the Taiwan site to leave a glowing positive, the member that received the positive would likely not report it as a violation. If, on the other hand, you left a scathing negative that is 45 characters longer than they could leave in retaliation , they likely would report it.
The reason for the difference in the capabilities between the sites is when we migrated Taiwan they had the capability, before migration, to leave very long comments – much longer than 125 characters.
Because of this we chose not to limit Taiwan to 80 characters.
We will evaluate eliminating the difference, but until then, comments left via the Taiwan site will be removed if the above criteria are met.
On a side note, I agree with monster_goose that FB padding and shill also undermine the integrity of the system. I encourage you to report violators, and we continue to invest in tools that improve our ability to identify shill and FB padding.
Thanks.
Brian Burke
Senior Manager, Marketplace Policy