posted on June 6, 2001 02:02:56 PM
What Are Some of Our Previous Sucesses When Acting Together as a Group?
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There is much talk of working together more, as a group, to effect positive changes on behalf of independent online sellers.
If we don't believe it can happen then why bother?
I saw groups on the eBay boards stop the "Buyers, click here to start this transaction using escrow" Button that was within days of being launched during a Bid page revision.
I also saw the cross board efforts, centered on the book board, when eBay suggested it would restrict books to the book category and not allow them in categories which displayed their subject matter. (A book about cleaning a specific collectable would not have been allowed among the collectable offerings etc.)
If you are aware of any case when the efforts of any individual or group have brought about positive change regarding online selling, please share it here.
If it happened before, it can happen again.
Two, twenty or two hundred voices may not yet have been strong enough to be heard and effect changes we want but some number is.
posted on June 6, 2001 02:53:46 PM
Were any of those changes (and the others that have occurred) the results of a concentrated group effort to change or were they the result of just many individuals who each decided to voice disaproval at the same time?
The difference CAN make a big differnce in the success of any group effort IMO. The reason is this...can anyone really organize a group that will agree on a question about ebay...or online auctions? Would ebay listen to an organized group? Or is ebay more ready to listen to many of their users if it seems the users are spontaneously and independently voicing the same concern?
posted on June 6, 2001 03:22:14 PM
When eBay motors launched, they dumped all the boating items into "parts, other vehicles" where it was lost among headlights for school buses, landing gear for airplanes, and seats for farm tractors. After fighting the "good fight" we did manage to get the "sports, boating" catagories restored. (and we listed in the "old catagories" thru ebay canada for 3 weeks while the fight was going on.)
posted on June 6, 2001 04:21:32 PM
Microbes...that is what I'm wondering and thinking may be true.
Many (if not all)of the changes that the user base has done seems to be the results of many people independantly letting ebay know how they feel about something. Sometimes the users descend rapidly on ebay about something like the reserve fee thing and its "starting prices have to be 1/2 to 1/4 the reserve price" that was rescinded (not the fee, just the starting price thingy)...or the "gift wrap" fiasco several years back. Ohter times it is the results of many users voicing the same opinion over a period of time...like the ability to respond to feedback and the transaction related only feedback.
But I wonder if anything is ever changed based on an organized "user group" lobbying/protesting about something?
I just wonder if ebay doesn't feel that they want to see what the full user base feels about something and not just what a small "organized group" thinks before they act.
posted on June 6, 2001 04:37:22 PM
>what a small "organized group" thinks
I don't think eBay would care what a "small" group thinks. Any Organized group would have to be large to get their attention. (like a labor union, they would need enough members to be able to pull off a "strike", or they would be wasting their time and effort.)
posted on June 6, 2001 04:57:59 PM
Well, I don't think there ever will be a "union" or a strike...to many different desires and agendas to get enough to agree on much of anything
