Creative Compulsion

A couple of changes were announced yesterday that would make it appear that eBay is actually listening to “the noise” created by eBay sellers angry with the recent changes.

Feedback is being changed once again. As of May 19th, neutral feedback began to be counted as a “negative” in calculating sellers’ feedback percentages. Many sellers, including myself, thought this was ridiculous. After all, neutral means, ummm… neutral. Not good, not bad.

Effective in late August, they are rolling back this change. According to an announcement made by Lorrie Norrington, neutrals will once again not be counted:

Recalculating Feedback percentages without neutrals: Effective in late August, neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the Feedback percentage. This means we will be recalculating Feedback percentages retroactively for users worldwide. In the interim, no one will lose their PowerSeller status as a result of neutrals being included in their Feedback percentage.

Great news! Granted, they never should have made this change in the first place, but reverting to the old way of feedback calculation is a step in the right direction. At this point, eBay needs all the good will they can garner from angry sellers.

The second change is related to the new Links Policy announced in May, that would have gone into effect this month. The policy, as it was written, will not be enforced. Instead, a new policy will be forthcoming in mid-August. Last night, on his eBay Radio Show, Griff confirmed that the new policy will be much less restrictive than it was originally written.

The Feedback FAQ page on eBay has already been updated to reflect this change:

Links Policy

17. Which links will be allowed under the new Links policy?
We will not enforce the links policy in July as we originally announced on May 19, 2008. We will introduce a revised policy by mid-August, 2008 that will allow links to your ProStore and to non-transactional sites from your About Me page. To give sellers time to adjust, enforcement of the policy will begin four weeks after the revised policy is introduced.

18. When will you introduce the revised policy and by when do I need to comply?
We will introduce a revised policy by mid-August, 2008 that will allow links to your ProStore and to non-transactional sites from your About Me page. To give sellers time to adjust, enforcement of the policy will begin four weeks after the revised policy is introduced.

Again, a step in the right direction. My hope is that eBay will continue re-visiting and re-working some of the ill-thought out plans they’ve announced over the last few months.