cloneone wrote:

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Since the mobile application even you can see the number of the article and the link

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Par for the course at ebay.

When they changed the shill bidding policy and tutorials, they left remnants all over, and make blatant mistakes in the attempted cover-up, more-less telling on themselves. In contrast, they never told exactly when and why that was changed.

Back to this change though, it will be a boon to scammers and others who use the 'sleeper cell' methods to game their feedback. Should be interesting to see how many snatch & run scams will materialize this Holiday season. They have at least a couple every year.

I doubt people will be willing to do all the workarounds to investigate before bidding/buying, when they can just go to a site that doesn't have all the trust and safety issues.

Each reduction in visibility and/or transparency degrades the ebaY site and makes it less trustworthy.

What other effects might/will this have? I get the feeling there is something not obvious they wish to achieve with the change.

Wed Oct 23 2013 22:46:43

Survey on eBay Changes to Feedback and Bidder Anonymity

and, from ebay community forums.

(does it really seem like these changes were something they had planned for well in advance?)

anonymized buyer block activity reports

10-24-2013 01:46 PM

just had 2 bids blocked (2 items, same person) for 2 UID strikes.  Problem is, today the blocked name was anonymized on the activity report (available in account site preferences), so I don't know who I blocked which leaves us with No way to follow over time or to tell if this is a prior customer or what...

Let's break this down in easy to understand terms.

You're seeing classic sleight of hand misdirection in action.

On one hand they are removing key visibility/ tools which allow for a safer trading environment etc.

With the other hand they are waving some shiny, glitzy flash and glam, saying "Look here kiddies! Ooooh-wheeee! Looky what fun! Don't look there, nothing to see there..."

"Oh the blindfolds? You asked we listened. But the proof to back up that claim is a secret." "Trust me! Our integrity is beyond reproach, because we say so."

Sending you off on a fool's errand to their idiotic diversion while the site continues to go to hell on a bucket, as they set the stage to profit from new levels of fraud.

Set that on the backdrop of invisible listings, increase fees, decreased sales, the purges... more of which may be on the way, and all the bleeping lies....