eBay members who volunteer on the site's Answer Center are considering going "on strike" over a new rating system. eBay announced the new rating system on March 3rd (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200603031322512.html), and it went into effect on March 7th.
The Answer Center is eBay's member-to-member help areas (http://pages.ebay.com/community/answercenter). Members can post question about using eBay, and other members post answers. Last week, eBay added a rating system that allows users to vote "Yes" or "No" to indicate whether an answer was helpful. Results are shown to the right of each answer (for example, "4 of 5 members found this answer helpful"). eBay then allows users to sort search results by the ratings so the answers voted most helpful are at the top.
eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy said eBay had been hearing complaints for years regarding Answer Center posts, "how do we know what is accurate and what isn't?" He said eBay is entirely based on being able to rate one another in a transparent marketplace, and it makes sense for people to be able to rate answers.
But some members who participate on the Answer Center have objected to the new rating system for several reasons and report it is "unreliable at best."
One volunteer said, "There is no way to determine if the "voters" know if certain posts are helpful or not. The answers may be correct, but if the voter doesn't recognize the correct answers as policy or regulation, they'd simply be voting on a topic they have no knowledge of." Others claim it is a popularity contest, complain that trolls can vote, and say that "good correct answers are getting poor votes and vice versa."
A volunteer said she was upset that eBay did not consult them before making the change and said they feel "disrespected and commoditized." "No instructions have been given about the new tool, and eBay is now ignoring us."
eBay's Durzy said eBay consulted with Voices members - users with whom eBay regularly consults for feedback - on two calls that were very well attended. He said a couple of people were upset, but the new rating system was overwhelmingly well received. Durzy also said eBay informed people about the new system through a post on the Announcement Board a few days before it was rolled out. There were over 200,000 unique visitors to the Answer Center in January, Durzy said, and 25,000 of them actually logged in to ask a question, post an answer, or file a report.
One volunteer estimates there are at least 200 members who answer on a regular basis. She explained that each thread consists of one question and a maximum of ten replies. "Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 additional posts to get the entire picture in order to answer a question, so while the first few replies may not be particularly "helpful," they are absolutely necessary, for that thread, in order to come to a correct "helpful" conclusion."
Some volunteers have formed a public group on eBay Groups called, "Volunteers Against Voting in the Answer Center." Of three volunteers interviewed by email for this article, one said she spends 2-3 hours a week answering questions; another said 15 hours a week and often as much as 30 plus hours a week; and another said she spends about 30 hours a week reading, researching and answering questions.
One volunteer pointed out that because people can't see who left a rating, there is no personal responsibility built into this system and asked, "how does an anonymous rating system fit in with eBay Community value of an "honest and open environment"?"
Another said, "Personally I will not rate my colleagues. I value them too highly to do that. None of this fiasco has in any way conveyed a sense to me that eBay values us at all."
Durzy said only a handful of people was upset over the new rating system, and he said he could not speak to their motives or mindset. For members who don't like the new rating system, Durzy suggested, "don't post answers, or make sure the answers are accurate."
He said it is important to note that ratings are associated with specific answers, not with the User IDs of the members who wrote the answers. "So, a volunteer member who nicely chooses to help other members by answering questions won't have a "scorecard" associated with their user ID, showing a ratings summary of all their answers."
