Two of these Answer Center legends recently achieved a phenomenal milestone – they each crossed the 25,000 post mark! The Chatter team went to talk to them about their passion for eBay, their dedication to answering members' questions on the Answer Center, and their own personal lives – these two members, glenda and bobmill, also happened to be married to each other!

The very first answer
glenda has more than 25,000 helpful posts on the Answer Center to her credit, but she still vividly remembers her first one. It was on November 19th, 2002, the day the Answer Center opened. glenda began posting there that same morning. Her first answer was to direct a seller whose listing hadn't indexed yet to a Frequently Asked Questions page she had created, titled "Why Can't I Find My Listing?" From that point, she has been going strong on the Answer Center. She said at one point she made more than 50 posts per day, and now she averages 15 to 20.

It wasn't long after glenda started posting on the Answer Center that she introduced it to bobmill. Delighted by the Answer Center 's straightforward format of answering specific questions in a limited number of posts, bobmill also started answering members' questions. Like glenda, he also quickly developed a reputation for giving people quick and reliable help on the Answer Center.

A convenient format for questions and answers
bobmill believes that the Answer Center format is especially suited to getting rapid and concise information from helpful members in response to a member's question. Each thread on the Answer Center is limited to only ten posts. This makes it a venue where members can get quick answers to their questions and move on to applying them in their eBay transactions. It contrasts with the formats of the discussion boards and chat rooms, where threads often remain active for days and months, sometimes drifting into off-topic discussions.

bobmill also liked something else about the Answer Center. “I liked the fact that it was recording how many times I was posting and answering questions.” Nothing like recognition of your own achievements to inspire you to keep breaking your own record.

“Just people who want to help”
bobmill and glenda both share their expertise on a wide range of eBay areas on the Answer Center. bobmill likes to answer questions about Trust and Safety, listings and payment. Typically he trawls the Answer Center once, and sometimes even twice, every day, looking for questions where his experience can help provide informative answers. He prefers to leave questions on areas like photos, HTML, eBay tools like Turbo Lister, and eBay Motors, to other regular Answer Center contributors, admitting that he's not an expert in these areas. “I've never sold a car on eBay, so I don't know anything about eBay Motors.”

bobmill

glenda feels comfortable answering questions about auction listings, My eBay, Search, policies, and “assorted general questions.” She also answers questions on the My eBay and Search discussion boards, and still occasionally visits the Auction Listings discussion board.

The Answer Center is a member-to-member forum, with very little participation or intervention from eBay. bobmill explains why having such a forum is in keeping with the spirit of the Community Values that are eBay's foundation:

“When Pierre Omidyar founded eBay, he started with an assumption that people are basically good. He was right. People are on the Answer Center primarily because they want to help others. They don't get any reward for it. It's done because eBay is a community. It's done because a lot of good people among eBay's 147 million members want others to succeed on eBay, both as buyers and sellers. They have the knowledge and expertise and are willing to share it. And it comes out every day in all of the various categories. Just people who want to help.”

Sharing the knowledge
bobmill also provides a glimpse into why so many members are motivated to contribute regularly to the Answer Center. “Knowledge is useless if you're not willing to share it. What good does it do me to know a particular fact and keep that to myself when I could be spreading it around, to help other people, not only for the person who asks that question but also for someone who comes in a few weeks later and searches to see if the same question has been asked before—and finds the answer.”

bobmill, glenda, and other Answer Center regulars are also motivated by an indirect self-interest in making the eBay marketplace better for everyone. “Of all the people I've helped on the Answer Center over the years, maybe about six have actually bought something from me,” laughs bobmill. He adds, “I'm a full time seller on eBay. I want eBay to prosper. I want the buyers who keep coming in to have good experiences. If we can stop somebody from sending a Western Union payment to a phony escrow company in an Eastern European country, that person's going to stay on eBay. If we don't help him, he's never going to be seen again. He‘s never gonna buy from me or anyone else.”

Over the years, the Answer Center has become home to a dedicated band of regulars who fiercely defend its integrity. “If someone posts an incorrect answer to a question, they can expect to be pounced on by about seven of the regulars, who are sure to correct that answer in no uncertain terms,” bobmill says.

Question. Answer. Done.
The 10-post limit and the dedication of Answer Center regulars have made it one of the most efficient ways of getting useful information on how to do something on eBay. “I have never ever seen any question that couldn't be answered within 10 posts,” says bobmill. Adds glenda, “the format prevents threads from going on forever, stops the chit-chat, and most importantly helps answer members' questions. The whole purpose of the Answer Center is to answer questions and that's what we do here. It takes only a few messages to do that.”

She points out another reason why the Answer Center is so popular among members. “eBay has an excellent Customer Support department, but sometimes when you send them an email, it takes up to 48 hours to get an answer. On the Answer Center, it's almost instantaneous. You post a question and twenty minutes later – boom! – there's your answer.”

It may be a reason why many members who have had their questions answered keep coming back. Often, when asking a question, they express a hope that a particular Answer Center regular will help them with their answer. And while the regulars are occasionally frustrated by members asking the same basic questions again and again, bobmill philosophizes that it's human nature. “Basically every little question that you answer contributes to the bigger picture. Keep on pegging away at the mass of people who don't know the answer.”

He encourages people to follow some basic guidelines while posting to the Answer Center. “Use the search button to see if your question has already been answered. Don't argue with the answer. If you get a wrong answer, the Answer Center regulars will spot it immediately and quickly give you the correct answer.

glenda explains how the Answer Center helps people who are intimidated about the prospect of selling on eBay. “One of the key things about gaining confidence on the site is being mentored by veterans like the Answer Center regulars. No matter how seemingly simple the question, if it's a legitimate question, we will answer it. We get basic questions ranging from ‘what is a money order' to ‘I ship only to the US but my buyer is in New Mexico!' ”

Balancing business with the Answer Center
Apart from their Answer Center activity, bobmill and glenda are also active eBay users themselves. bobmill sells stamps and stamp collections, while glenda is mostly a buyer. Her self-described “phases of collecting” include furnishing an entire room with nautical items, filling up two or three albums with postcards from her hometown, collecting Gene Barry memorabilia, and more recently, African violets.

In response to The Chatter team's question on balancing his eBay business with his dedication to the Answer Center, bobmill is characteristically modest. “The nature of my business makes it easier for me to be an active Answer Center contributor. I have an outstanding assistant who helps me by scanning item pictures, pulling up order information, and shipping. Because I sell stamps, the packaging and shipping parts of my operation don't take up too much time, leaving me more time to devote to the Answer Center.”

bobmill is full of admiration for other dedicated Answer Center regulars who have more complex challenges in managing their eBay businesses, and still find time to maintain a presence on the Answer Center.

Married with eBay
Until recently, relatively few people knew that bobmill and glenda are actually married to each other. bobmill laughs as he recounts the wave of speculation that was unleashed on eBay's forums when he put up a post on the Answer Center to congratulate Glenda on hitting the 25,000 post mark:

“My post read: ‘25,000 times you've helped somebody. 25,000 times you've dealt with a question and given them the proper correct answer. You done did good, dear, and I love you.'"

This resulted in many people who knew them as individuals on the boards posting questions like, "bob and glenda?? Are they an item?" Eventually another poster solved the mystery, "It's pretty well known that bobmill and glenda share the breakfast table."

This year, they will be sharing yet another achievement. In addition to being dedicated eBay members and making over 25,000 posts each on the Answer Center, glenda and bobmill are both winners of the Community Hall of Fame awards. glenda won hers at eBay Live! in 2002, and bobmill matched the achievement at eBay Live! 2005.

We congratulate glenda and bobmill on their astonishing achievements on the Answer Center and celebrate their lasting contributions to the eBay Community.

To get to the Answer Center, click on Community at the top of most eBay pages and scroll down to the Answer Center in the “Connect” section.