A Tour Through The eBay Community Area
by Kelley
eBay Staff Member

What is this eBay Community everyone talks about? If you look in the dictionary, you'll find a number of definitions for "community", including "a group of people with a common ... interest ... within a larger society." We can see that eBay members have a common interest, and that we live in a larger society. One becomes a "member" of this Community by virtue of registration at eBay.

As with other communities, there are levels of involvement in the eBay Community. You may limit your involvement to browsing, bidding, listing, or you may be interested in more involvement. Some of the resources available to the Community can be found at the Community Overview page.

You are already reading the Community Chatter within the News section. You should know where to find the Announcement Boards, since those have information vital to your eBay activities. You want to keep up on planned events - make sure that you don't miss any! Below under People, you also have the eBay Values at your fingertips -- or mouseclick. And you can see another member in the Spotlight.

Turning your attention to the upper left quadrant of the page, you will see Talk, a place that will take you to the eBay boards. This is the heart of the eBay Community and the place where our Community is most mutually supportive.

If you have a question, and you want a quick answer, the Answer Center is your first stop. There you can post a question, request an email notification when someone replies to you, and then see up to ten responses from members with at least ten feedback points. In most cases, a fellow-member can give you good information based on experience. If you still need more assistance, you will be referred to the Help system to contact eBay.

If you want to discuss the pros and cons of an issue, get more in depth help for the various listing tools, or do anything that is other than a quick question, the Discussion boards are where you want to go. There, you can post with other members and read about other points of view. Discussion boards use "threads," and each subject being discussed is its own topic with a subject line and associated posts.

eBay has different discussion boards for various Help topics and categories, as well as boards specifically for spending time with others in the Community. On boards such as The Park and Night Owls, you can enjoy games, jokes, mutual moral support, and social interaction. You will find the weekly Share Your Wares threads in The Park, and the monthly Street Faire in The Park and on the category boards.

The Chat boards were the original eBay boards, all spinning off from the original single bulletin board now known as The eBay Café. These boards have a one-page format, where each board holds 200 posts that you can view. As each new post is made, the oldest scrolls away. There are no threads to follow, no "drilling down" to follow a particular discussion. All conversations happen on the same page much like a number of conversations going on at a party.

Members of the eBay Community meet on the eBay boards, laugh with each other through the good times, cry with each other in the bad times, and become fast friends. Some take the friendship further and get together in person—we have even had some romances! The eBay Community offers companionship and support to eBay members, and is open 24/7. Stop by…there is always someone up!