Feedback 2.1

by Sue Bailey

This post was written in May 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

There’ll be more whinging about feedback this morning as eBay have changed the way feedback stars work. Rather than rounding to increments of half a star, they’re now in tenths of a star.

I’ve previously commented that - though eBay touted this as a system to allow buyers to distinguish between sellers - it failed on that score because most sellers have scores of 4 stars or more on all criteria. I’m sure that this latest tweak is an attempt to fine tune that system, but frankly it seems a bit pointless: there’s no real difference between a seller with 4.8s and a seller with 4.9s, just as there’s no real difference between a seller with 99.8% feedback and 99.9% feedback.

Of course, if they really do need to make site changes, we have a list of things that would actually be useful: maybe the star-makers could have a read.

Updated to add a link to the announcement.

Tags for this post:
Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 8:06 am
Filed Under Uncategorized
 

Comments

11 Responses to “Feedback 2.1”

  1. Mark on May 3rd, 2007 8:18 am

    The maddening thing isn’t that they’ve done this, just that it’s been given priority over *so* many other problems.

  2. Chris Dawson on May 3rd, 2007 9:07 am

    At least they didn’t change the way buyers leave feedback - they still choose from five stars. Imagine trying to have to decide whether to give 4.6 or 4.7 stars when you really wanted to leave 4.65 :-p

  3. Biggles on May 3rd, 2007 9:53 am

    :D @ Feedback 2.1.

    Has FB2 reduced the number of negs given? Or is that another ebay statistic we mere mortals are not allowed to know?

  4. Dan on May 3rd, 2007 12:47 pm

    I have been peering at my own Feedback to work out whether one of mine is 4.8 or 4.9 and I can’t decide…. must get out more.

  5. Sue Bailey on May 3rd, 2007 12:48 pm

    Dan, hover your mouse over the stars and the pop-up alt text will tell you.

    I too must get out more :-D

  6. Dan on May 3rd, 2007 1:12 pm

    Cripes. It’s a 4.7. Well-spotted Sue.

    Whoever thought up the tenths of a star surely has an MBA from Stanford or Harvard.

  7. Sue Bailey on May 3rd, 2007 1:33 pm

    I must say, I feel my fees are well spent on the salaries of those responsible… /sarcasm :-D

  8. Chris Dawson on May 3rd, 2007 3:04 pm

    Only 4.7 Dan! You must be gutted :-p

  9. Josordoni on May 3rd, 2007 4:21 pm

    Well I never, now I can see that the teeny little pointy bit of a star is grey….. are their artists on short rations or something that they needed to give them some work??

  10. Nick Talley on May 3rd, 2007 9:31 pm

    I though the paint was peeling off my stars :-0

    Rumour has it that a clap-ometer is planned for feedback 2.2

  11. Josordoni on May 4th, 2007 10:18 am

    (Re: clappometer) Oh yippeee…. Maybe we’ll get Monica Rose as well.

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