Thoughts.com Blogs - BETTER OUTSIDE THE TENT THAN IN

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BETTER OUTSIDE THE TENT THAN IN

The ebay forums, in whatever country's ebay site they're hosted, are meant to be places where users can go to share their thoughts and help each other out. However, anyone who has been foolish enough to stray onto those forums have found a completely different environment!

I visit the UK ebay boards from time to time, but I've never posted on them (I'm not that stupid!) Everytime I read some of the threads on there, I see the usual petty remarks aimed at unsuspecting members who've innocently gone there for advice. They've been ripped apart by zero ID forum trolls, with their listings reported for the most insignificant of infractions that most wouldn't bother about, who then continue to stalk these users long after they've left the boards. Such people have nothing better to do, as it gives them the cheap thrill they've always failed to get themselves out of life.

It's quite sad really.

They're even quite happy to be used by ebay when it introduces a new policy. When this happens there's always a storm of complaints from them, and the pink posters (ebay staff) only pick through the questions they want to answer and not the multitude that should be answered. That way they can say that they've discussed and resolved any problems with members - even though they haven't.

Also, ebay prefers to keep all complaints and criticisms on their own sites where they can manage them. You'd think, with all the hate towards ebay and paypal that gets posted on there, ebay would consider curbing such posts, or even shutting down these forums. Not so. You may rant and rave on there as much as you like about any problem you're having, but nothing will ever get done about it. As long as you've let off your steam on there, you're less likely to do it again anywhere else. In other words, you're inside the tent pissing out, rather than outside the tent pissing in. Ebay doesn't like it when an outside influence, out of their malignant control, starts ripping into them, as they have been known to threaten legal action against those that do.

Me? I prefer to be on the outside of the tent. Which is one reason I'm writing this blog here, rather than going on their forums or using ebay's own blogging feature. Do you think I'd get away with the stuff I write here on an ebay blog? I might do, but I'd be in the uncomfortable position of being under their roof.

Which does bring me onto another problem I've had here at Thoughts.com. I did have to repost my blogs because I had my entire account removed. What was my crime? Apparantly, I was accused of spamming with continual links to ebay! The last place on the internet I would ever spam if I were a spammer - which I'm not. There was one link to a powersellers account and their ebay fan site (Tamebay), but these were used well within context of the post that was originally posted on the 7th of February. It certainly didn't value the removal of the entire blog, the post perhaps, but not the whole account. I know that users can flag a post as inappropriate, but I can't believe that a user here would be that petty, considering the links many others get away with in their blogs.

There is another company on the internet that uses such sledgehammer tactics. Ironocally, it's the one that this blog was set up to slate

But I'm pretty cool about what happened to my account and am willing to give Thoughts.com one last chance.

Because I can always repost these blogs on another blog site if it happens again