Rick Evans wrote;
>then it says,.."AOL presents----EBAY"....(the ebay logo).
>What the heck does that mean??
Not sure what it means these days, but in the late '90s, when "Almost
On Line" was my isp, Aol made a deal with ebay to the tune of some
$12 million. Aol devised what came to be recognized as a scheme for
herding their customers to ebay, and a particularly insulting way of
informing said customers, especially those who frequented Aol's
many "communities" of interests, such as those discussing our beloved
hobby. For years, Aol members could post "for sale" messages in the
regular discussion groups. There was even a special group devoted
to "for sale" posts exclusively. Then, one day ('round about late
1998 as I recall), folks' "for sale" messages were being deleted by
the "board monitors" that Aol unleashed on their unsuspecting
customers. At first, the reason given was that Aol was
receiving "complaints" about so many "for sale" messages. When Aol
began receiving humongous piles of real complaints from customers
angry about their posts being deleted, Aol explained that they were
trying to make the boards "more intuitive". What was so counter-
intuitive about "for sale" posts advertising trains in a discussion
board about trains? Aol could never give a coherent answer to that
question, at least not to me, a contributor to that afore-mentioned
pile of complaints. Most of us (Aol customers) on the boards
suspected an ulterior motive for the deletions, and as time wore on
it became painfully clear what the real motive was.
You see, there was ONE type of "for sale" post which would suvive the
board monitors' delete key. You guessed it, any post including a link
to an ebay auction. Somehow, THAT made everything "intuitive", you
see. Aol's real intent was, of course, to "encourage" their customers
to use ebay instead of simply offering items for sale on the boards.
I'm not so sure which was more aggravating, Aol's manipulation, or
their expectation that nobody would see through them. In any
case :^), it cost them this customer.
As for ebay, yes I've used it, with mixed results. It isn't
necessarily the seller's paradise that some think it is. I auctioned
a like-new AF Southern Railway set a couple years ago that should've
brought me $300 minimum. Got only $225 for it (much less than I
paid), minus ebay charges. Oh well, the buyer bought it to replace a
set he lost in a fire, so I don't begrudge him the deal.
Chuck F.
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