eWBNqp99CHcg~~_7.JPG "zee-chan"){kind=avatar}
@ricarmic wrote:As I mentioned in other, earlier threads, my plan was to ignore the HTTPS stuff because it simply hides the problem and it was only affecting my oldest listings.
However last week I got a fairly dramatic ebay message telling me immediate action was required on 380 of my listings. (however buried in the wording it said that I was "encouraged" to make the changes).
Sadly these suckers reach back to 2007 so there are a lot of things that need to be modernized in the descriptions etc. The good news is that as I am fixing them I'm correcting, upgrading the descriptions and categories which I think will help them move faster (they have been selling since I use a progressive "on sale" program with the oldest stuff most on sale).
Yes, I got one of those sinister-sounding emails from eBay too. Any time an email arrives from eBay that includes the words "policy violation", it's time to pay attention. Like you, I had been under the impression from eBay's original announcements that this was recommended, but wasn't going to be mandatory, at least not immediately. It appears otherwise.
I have far fewer old listings to clean up than you, but you're right that it does create an opportunity to refine and improve those languishing listings to help sell them.
One other point I thought I'd mention (aside from the obviously important security considerations that 'cumos' brought up) is that I looked at a few of those listings on a friend's mobile device. The entire description area was missing, replaced by a link to "see full description". In some categories, especially where items are mass-produced and consistent, the Item Specifics are probably sufficient, but in my world (and likely yours as well), a detailed description of a OOAK item is important.
A tangential thought -- I wonder if eBay would have done anything about this security issue had Google not imposed it on them?
In my case, since there are only about 30 such listings involved, I'll probably just end them all and start over from Auctiva, where I know absolutely everything will be checked and compliant before I upload to eBay.
Always more busy-work on eBay... 
@rose-dee wrote:A tangential thought -- I wonder if eBay would have done anything about this security issue had Google not imposed it on them?
In my case, since there are only about 30 such listings involved, I'll probably just end them all and start over from Auctiva, where I know absolutely everything will be checked and compliant before I upload to eBay.
Always more busy-work on eBay...
Ebay would have been fine security-wise. They are setup like every other internet site/business that collects user information/payment details are, SSL where needed. The reason for updating is simply because the padlock warning appears in the chrome address bar when a site has mixed http/https (perfectly normal) content implying to the user that there is a security issue when there really isn't one.
For most people it's just a matter of ensuring the external links in their descriptions are compliant and that their listing service generates compliant links for anything it converts/displays as html links. You are best off copying any text from the description fields in your listing service into a text editor (like windows notepad) and ensuring it doesn't have any extra code in there that you are not expecting. The description fields as shown on many listing services are not actually raw text, and you may have to load the "source" version of the description to see what is actually there.
If only any of this busywork would generate new sales.
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