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We're starting a project to review the Feedback Forum. eBay will work closely with the community to determine how to improve the current system. Here is what we are doing:
What is feedback?
"Feedback" is a comment left by one eBay community member to another. It reflects how one user views the other as a trading partner and a community member. Currently, there are two types of feedback:
All of a user's feedback is summarized in his or her Feedback Profile, like this one:
In this example, eBay1 (347) means that user eBay1 has a balance of 347 points from the feedback comments posted by other eBay members. That is their Feedback Rating. Each positive comment from a unique user counts as +1 point, each neutral comment is worth 0 points, and each negative comment counts as -1 point.
To find out more about how the current Feedback Forum works, click here.
Why is it important?
Every eBay user has a Feedback Profile made up of comments from other traders—your reputation on eBay. eBay users routinely check one another's Feedback Rating before deciding to participate in a transaction. A high feedback score with many positive comments indicates that the member is active in the eBay community and probably well regarded. The Feedback Forum is one of the most powerful tools to build trust and safety in our community.
How has it changed?
When eBay first started, all feedback was non-transactional (unrelated to specific trades). We were a much smaller community back then and users knew each other, much like in a small town. As we grew, some changes to the Feedback Forum became necessary. In February '99, we introduced transactional feedback and required that all negative feedback be transactional (related to a specific buy or sell transaction). We also allowed users to respond to feedback left for them and introduced a pagination feature to make it easier to access Feedback Profiles.
Some things have not changed, though. We have always remained true to the principles that we believe should guide the Feedback Forum. What are they? Read on.
The Feedback Forum is the very core of what eBay is about. Over the years, your active participation in the Feedback Forum has helped build a great community and a safe trading environment. Since we started the Feedback Forum, many things have changed on eBay. But the philosophy that guides the Feedback Forum has not.
eBay believes that the following principles should govern the Feedback Forum:
When you think about changes to the Feedback Forum, we ask that you keep these principles in mind. They helped the community grow successfully and will allow us to continue building trust and respect on eBay.
Step 1: We'll present to you the most common improvement opportunities and ideas that we have received from our community in the past.
Step 2: We'll collect your opinions on those problems and suggestions through emails, board discussions, and customer research.
Step 3: We'll use your input to help us define the best approach.
As we review your suggestions, we'll let you know which areas we'll be able to address right away and which ones will follow. Because each improvement requires a careful rollout, we'll start with the top priorities, monitor the results, and only then move on to the next areas.
| Feedback Area | Opportunities for Improvement |
| Feedback Count | Non-transactional and transactional feedback share the same Rating system (i.e., are counted equally). However, many users believe that transactional feedback should weigh more than non-transactional in the Feedback Rating.
Also, even though users can leave multiple comments in someone's Feedback Profile, they only count once. Many users believe that every feedback comment should be counted in calculating the Feedback Rating, even if several of them are from one person.
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| Shill feedback or feedback bombing | Any user can leave positive or neutral non-transactional feedback about other users. While most users use their right to leave feedback responsibly, a few users abuse it, causing many problems (some of them serious). For instance, users might use a bogus alias to leave positive feedback for themselves and falsely build their Feedback Rating. Even worse, they might use an alias to leave "nasty" neutral comments about other users.
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| Ability to amend (add to) feedback you left | When a user leaves a feedback comment, that's it. Users are not allowed to change feedback that they left—that's why we ask you to think very carefully before leaving feedback. Yet, many users have told us that they would like to be able to amend comments or even Feedback Ratings that they left if they make a mistake or if a situation changes.
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| Fear of retaliation | The seller and high bidder in a transaction are allowed to leave transactional feedback for each other. Even if the transaction is not completed, with or without mutual agreement, both parties are entitled to leave positive, neutral or negative feedback.
Because of this ability to reciprocate, some users fail to leave negative feedback for others in situations where it is clearly appropriate, e.g., in the case of a high bidder who fails to pay a seller for an item. As a result, negative feedback is often not used effectively, and the community suffers.
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| Feedback display | To make Feedback even more useful, many users believe that we should increase the amount of information available in the Feedback Profile. Currently, we summarize for you the number of positive, negative and neutral comments that each user has received in the past week, month, and 6 months. We also indicate how many comments come from unique users and how many comments come from users that are no longer registered.
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| Restriction on leaving feedback | A time gap is required to leave multiple transactional feedback for the same buyer or seller, which discourages some users from leaving feedback. There is also a maximum period for you to leave transactional feedback in the auctions that you closed as a buyer or a seller, based on the time that the transaction is recorded in our systems (currently 60 days). While this is enough for some users, others feel they need more time.
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| Bid retraction | We strongly discourage buyers from retracting their bids unless there is a legitimate reason. However, there are no mechanisms to track how often a buyer retracts their bid. In case of a frivolous bid retraction, sellers cannot leave negative feedback. It is not easy to identify buyers that routinely retract their bids.
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| NARU ("Not a registered user") feedback | When a user is no longer registered on eBay (either voluntarily or involuntarily) the feedback comments that they left remain in other users' Feedback Profile. Previously, eBay used to convert all of those comments, positive and negative, to neutrals and assign zero points to each of them. Again, for the last three months, NARU feedback is no longer being neutralized, but rather kept as it was originally left.
We need to find out what you prefer. There are several alternatives on how to handle NARU feedback. If we neutralize it, both positive and negative comments change to zero, while the comments themselves remain on the Feedback Profile. If we choose to keep the current model, all Ratings and comments stay the same. Or we could completely eliminate NARU feedback from your Profile as it comes up.
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Every aspect of the Feedback Forum is interrelated. Because changing any of the rules and policies will impact other parts of the system, we believe that it is best to evaluate the improvements to the Feedback Forum as a package. Think of it as a platform for change. We can discuss the platform and then add, drop or modify any of the elements depending on the feedback that we receive.
Through surveys, emails, and public discussions, many of you have shared with us your ideas to solve the problems listed above. Here are some common suggestions we received that we would like to discuss with you:
| Feedback Area | Suggestions |
| Feedback count |
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| Feedback shilling and bombing |
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| Amend a feedback comment or a feedback score |
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| Minimize fear of retaliation |
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| Display functions |
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| Restrictions on leaving feedback |
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But that's not all. Other topics that we need to discuss include how to handle feedback from non-registered users (NARU), what to do about neutral self-feedback (feedback you left for yourself), and most importantly, how to handle the existing feedback if we implement any of these changes.
Please send us your comments or suggestions. Specific suggestions will help us the most. We will not be able to respond to every single email, but rest assured that we will take all of them into consideration as we move on to the next phase.
Also, you are invited to participate in the public forum discussions that we'll hold on the Feedback Forum. We'll be hosting one-hour discussions on the Discuss eBay's Newest Features Board on the dates below. Keep an eye on the Announcements Board because these times are subject to change.
That's it for now. Thank you for all of your time and support.
If you have suggestions about other features or services, please let us know.
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