Question
Well, tonight my favorite ebay bookmark - my 'Go Local' bookmark, stopped working.
Now it gives me the entire freaking world.
I went hunting for an announcement about the problem and when they expected to have it fixed, only to discover that they intentionally removed the function.
Seems they are planning some sort of 'sort-by-distance' feature - eventually.
However, apparently that does not help buyers that only want to look around across all catagories in their area for things to buy.
It seems that the new, eventual feature will only allow distance results when used in conjunction with a keyword or specific catagory search.
The area this is being discussed at ebay is:
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/forum.jsp?forum=80
Mike.
Answer
Ebay.
So, after 3 days and 13 responses my thread at ebay complaining about the completely unnecessary change, it get's deleted, and I get this wonderful email:
Hello power-house,
Recently we became aware that your eBay registered account was involved in the
following activity:
Including profanity, vulgarity, hate speech, disruptive or hostile comments,
interpersonal disputes, or threats of violence in a post.
which is not permitted at eBay.
This is a copy of your post:
I Want to Browse ALL CATAGORIES Locally!
power-house (171) (view author's auctions)
07/22/04 02:00 PM
Now - In response to the G^% D^*N post stickied at the top of this
forum but which no one can respond to, but it doesn't say you can -
it just won't! :
Thanks, but it doesn't really help me much.
I want to continue to "BROWSE" all sellers in my area - all
catagories displayed from A to Z just as I have in the past.
How do I do that now?
I use this feature to 'window shop' sellers near me for deals on
items that usually cost more to ship than they are worth or have
local-pickup-only clauses.
Thanks.
Mike.
We realize that you may not have been aware there was a rule against this
activity. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to
review our site policies, which can be found at:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/...ne-boards.html
Please understand our goal is to help you understand our policies to ensure
successful experiences at eBay. Therefore, we respectfully request that you
refrain from this activity in the future to avoid the possibility of a
suspension of your eBay registration.
Thank you for your cooperation in this important matter.
Regards,
xxxxx (ID removed to protect the guilty)
eBay Moderation Team
What a bunch of crap. Rather than facing the issue they want to play word games with symbols that are not words as an excuse to silence dissent.
They must be writing the book for the government on how to silence protest any way possible.
Answer
profanity, vulgarity, hate speech, disruptive or hostile comments,
interpersonal disputes, or threats of violence in a post
Wow, that covers just about anything they want it to, huh?!
As one freely indulging in disruptive comments in my personal life history (both un and intentional), that statement is chilling.
Answer
Yea, it really is a pisser.
Anyway, I noticed today that many of my locally bookmarked favorite sellers have fallen off their normal listing counts MAJORILY. I wonder if the change has anything to do with that?
Could be just vacations or something else, but I would expect that to normally result in no listings not just a lot fewer..
I was thinking about listing a bunch of stuff in a houseclearing kind of way, but since most of it would only go for a few dollars apiece and wouldn't be worth the long distance shipping and local people can't find it on ebay browsing anymore I am just going to join up with a local group that is having a big sale at the fleamarket in October. Also save the hassle of listing each item individually and dealing with the usual delays in payment, feedback, etc.