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Bruce is right that eBay's basic approach to feedback is flawed. We tried
to come up with something that would work better on MoviePosterBid and I believe
we have -- when we calculate the percentage feedback score, we only count the
latest 100 feedbacks. So, if you had two negative feedbacks in your last 100
transactions, you would have a score of 98%. Someone with no negatives in the
last 100 feedbacks would have a score of 100%.
This approach keeps the feedback score a much better indicator of how a
seller has performed recently, particularly if they are a large-volume
seller.
On the other hand, you still only have a difference of 2% between the guy
with two negatives in the last 100 and the guy with none. It would be great if
you could make the difference more distinct, but how could you do it? 2
negatives out of 100 transactions still leaves 98 positives ones. The only
thing we could think of was to give negatives a "greater weight" in the scoring
system, like counting each negative as minus 5% instead of minus 1%.
That would create a bigger gap between someone with two negatives and
someone with one, but it isn't mathematically correct and in the end we weren't
prepared to go quite that far. At least at first. But at some point we will
probably "take a vote" among our sellers and see how they feel about the
idea.
But at least for now, when you look at a percentage positive score on MPB,
you know it has been calculated on only the most recent 100 transactions and is
not including stuff that the seller did years ago.
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2004 8:55
Subject: [MOPO] A Tale of Two Feedback
Ratings
Look at my (emovieposter.com's) eBay feedback
rating (14,440) and "Positive Feedback" score (99.9%) and compare it with that
of "superposters", which is 12,849 and 97.8%.
They seem very close to
each other, in both numbers, and I would think most casual eBay users would
think we are similar sellers in terms of volume of sales and customer
satisfaction, WHICH IS JUST WHAT EBAY WANTS THEM TO THINK.
Look closer.
I have 95,258 total feedbacks, indicating that a huge percentage of my buyers
have gone on to buy many times. Superposters has 15,831 total feedbacks,
indicating a tiny percentage of their buyers have ever bought even one more
time.
Look at negatives and neutrals. In the six months, I have 17,728
feedbacks, and I received one negative and no neutrals in that time, and going
back a full year I have received 34,513 feedbacks, and have received 3
negatives and 7 neutrals. In the past six months, superposters has received
1,470 feedbacks, and they received 21 negative and 38 neutrals in that time,
and going back a full year they have received 4,311 feedbacks, and have
received a whopping 156 negatives and 89 neutrals!
So these two sellers
are about as different as night and day in every possible way, and yet eBay
purposely presents the data in such a way as to cover up the differences as
much as possible. Why? I contend it is because they are more concerned with
making money than with screening their site in any way, and so they not only
don't kick off bad sellers, they go out of their way to help them find more
victims, so as to increase their "bottom line"!
I believe this is a
major flaw in eBay that surely will greatly hurt them in the long run. I don't
believe you can run a business where you gather together sellers, and you do
next-to-nothing to stop the dishonest ones. Eventually, as word gets out, the
site is sure to be overrun with thieving sellers. I hope eBay wakes up before
it is too late!
Note that I am not posting this message to boast about
how good my feedback is, but rather to point up what I think is a terrible
flaw in the eBay system. Imagine a shopping mail where they rented some
of their stores to outright crooks who sold fake items as real. Imagine
that when you discovered you had been cheated you reported to the mall owners
that you had been cheated in their mall, and their response was that they
didn't care! How often would you return to that mall, and how long do
you think it would be before the mall went out of business?
If this was
not the Internet, there would be a criminal investigation of how eBay allows
crooks to operate freely. But because politicians are afraid to be seen
as "anit-Internet", no one does anything, which is a
shame.
Bruce
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