10-6: eBay: The Jilting of Positive Feedback
The essay, "What Am I Bid" by netgrrrl and chicoboy, raises many issues. Are in fact "new literacies" present in both eBay and the education world? Yes. In addition, the various forms of writings by participants give some sort of identity to the user that may not have existed. In simpler terms, people hide and/or act like their eBay user name. But, their writing pattern, word use and grammar illuminates a bit about their formal education.
An eBay user said that "she is more likely to 'win' a bargain" from a person who misspells words in the item description. To further illustrates this point imagine a collector going to garage sells. The collector obviously knows a rough price of what he collects. If he or she finds something, he would know if the person may be informed of the value of the item or not. This is true of eBay. On a bigger level though, inferences can be made about a person through word choice and minor errors in the item description. Furthermore, eBay could be considered a cyber mall.
Users log-on to find items. Disagreements happen. Transactions go forth. Feedback is left. A typical day on eBay pits people against one another like a one hour sale at some retail shop. Everyone wants to rip through the crowd to by some stylish item (that will only fade into obscurity, ei: snap bracelets and zubaz pants). eBay seems to be a lot like real-life except without the face to face dealings. People are out there to be make a name for themselves no matter what the cost. On the other side, there are sellers who wish to impress the buyer so they will not receive negative feedback. Then, the consumers get stuck acting properly by the rules established by the sellers and administrators on eBay. While outbursts by consumers happen, the power remains with the sellers. For example, the essay points out that many sellers do not leave feedback until positive feedback is left by the buyer. So, like the real world, many people wait to be helped until they offer out a sign of friendship.
An eBay user said that "she is more likely to 'win' a bargain" from a person who misspells words in the item description. To further illustrates this point imagine a collector going to garage sells. The collector obviously knows a rough price of what he collects. If he or she finds something, he would know if the person may be informed of the value of the item or not. This is true of eBay. On a bigger level though, inferences can be made about a person through word choice and minor errors in the item description. Furthermore, eBay could be considered a cyber mall.
Users log-on to find items. Disagreements happen. Transactions go forth. Feedback is left. A typical day on eBay pits people against one another like a one hour sale at some retail shop. Everyone wants to rip through the crowd to by some stylish item (that will only fade into obscurity, ei: snap bracelets and zubaz pants). eBay seems to be a lot like real-life except without the face to face dealings. People are out there to be make a name for themselves no matter what the cost. On the other side, there are sellers who wish to impress the buyer so they will not receive negative feedback. Then, the consumers get stuck acting properly by the rules established by the sellers and administrators on eBay. While outbursts by consumers happen, the power remains with the sellers. For example, the essay points out that many sellers do not leave feedback until positive feedback is left by the buyer. So, like the real world, many people wait to be helped until they offer out a sign of friendship.
posted by Red Head Matt at 12:25 PM
1 Comments:
I'm curious about your conclusion that sellers have the power. I wish you would write/talk about that a little more. If they don't leave feedback first, I guess that is one indication of power, but it seems to me that sellers might be more vulnerable to poor feedback, especially if they sell lots of things on eBay.
Also, I am wondering what will happen to Ryan when, sometime in the not too distant future, he will neeeeeed/waaaant and item that can OOONLY be purchased on eBay. It could happen. And then. What will happen.
I am still wondering what is safe and what is not, and what literacy has to do with trust and confidence with regard to social interactions on the net. It seems to me if you "know the ropes" eBay would not seem so bad. And if you get cheated once in a while, well I've had some terrible experiences with F2F purchases. There's no guarantee.
I guess I assume that you win some you lose some when buying and selling, and that's the way it goes.
So there is lots to think about here.
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