Drive-by emoji reactions on marketplace posts are unhelpful and should be disabled

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:waving_hand: Before reacting to this post, I’m not implying that feedbacks as a whole are bad — I’m only talking about the emoji reactions. Well-intended and reasonable pricing comments and other forms of feedbacks are actually great and I’d also encourage them since it gives both prospect buyers and sellers safety and information helpful in conducting orderly trades. That is something that makes TE marketplace sometimes great.

I recently created a marketplace post — MacBook Air M1 (2020) — Space Grey, 16GB Memory + 512GB SSD — which attracted many drive-by reactions, some, presumably from members who didn’t even bother reading the listing, assuming the price is absurdly high or from those who personally feel stuff should be much cheaper (don’t we all?). I don’t believe these kind of reactions are helpful in conducting respectful sale on this forum and I believe they should be disabled.

I priced my listing after checking TE and elsewhere on the web. Only three members actually cared to post a feedback on why they think the price is high, for which, I’ve responded amicably pointing to the spec and what exists elsewhere on the web for something similar. I even DM’d two other emoji reactors early when these where piling up to ask why they did that. One responded mentioning they saw a lower price on CeX. I checked CeX and that feedback price was for a 256G variant and I pointed this out to them but they still felt personally it can be cheaper. The other replied they think price is high, they haven’t checked other prices online and quoted a different product+spec listing here that went for cheaper and personally felt someone is better off buying that plus buying and carrying a dongle.

After these few feedback interactions, I don’t think I was in wrong to have this initial listing price nor do I think it was absurd. Of course I never expect listed items to sell for their initial prices and I was always planing to adjust if no buyers express interest or if someone had valid feedback with other general, valid listings. It’s not fair to always expect “loot deals” here and if such deals aren’t posted, somehow indirectly negatively affect the sale post for it. I believe the damage is done though as these drive-by emoji reactions only possibly sour the original listing post for some future prospect buyers, even if I bump and lower the price as the reactions will persist.

I’ve seen similar reactions from some members on other listings here, including in the form of comments that add nothing of value, are snark which sometimes even bully people out of doing trades in TE. People either misunderstand/or intentionally clown on sometimes the value of listed limited edition items, or collectibles or platforms/titles that still hold great value after all these years/decades. While comments are harder to moderate and need manual intervention at the moment, I firmly believe emoji reactions add zero value to the marketplace posts.

Only possible rebuttal I see for not disabling it is from the people who want it for the lols. I’d ask them to think from their shoes if they list products in the future on TE, would they feel the same way if others leave similar reactions?

So, I’m requesting @moderators to consider this and disable these reactions inside Classifieds. Valid, thoughtful, informational feedback comments in the sale thread should be the norm.

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I disagree. There are hundreds of posts that doesn’t get such reactions, so there must be something wrong with your post, no?

I would rather take it as community feedback. Yes, a comment would be more appropriate, but I would consider an emoji as implicit comment. You can ignore it, instead of demanding a blanket ban on the feature as a whole.

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it can be frustrating at times but it adds a charm to the marketplace

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This is the kinda reaction I pretty much am talking about :slight_smile:. There are enough posts here from sellers who had this kinda experience where I even (once, twice?) asked folks to refrain. As for this listing since it was polluting the sale thread, I did my fair amount of research on the pricing myself, which some don’t even do when listing it. That’s not entirely a complaint — there might be valid reasons for that (busy, better condition etc.) and those are the cases when good feedback comments are useful.

Except, leaving a pointless reaction helps neither person and just negatively contributes to the appearance of the listing.

You can the research yourself and let me know, since I pretty much did that myself across a few popular places and found not a single listing in stock at the moment going for vastly lower prices. As I said, even exchanged interactions with some members who either reacted, commented or DM’d and confirmed the same.

I’ll ask once again ask you to think from your shoes as a seller for an item like this. I see you haven’t sold any so far here, so I can understand how you might’ve come to that conclusion. I can definitely ignore it if it weren’t prominent enough in my listing that adds no value other than making the buyer question if something is wrong with the product or the general pricing. Neither is there in my case, except for wanting another loot deal from the forum.

Feedback is encouraged as I mentioned already, but seeing a dozen LOL emoji isn’t valid feedback especially given all the things I’ve stated above.

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From my POV, I’m expecting TE marketplace to be a safer, more reliable and friendly space for sellers and buyers to do trades. Isn’t that the best sort of charm?

I absolutely don’t think 12+ LOLs on a sale post where you priced things reasonably is charming even in the most remote sense. I think you’d be thinking different if you were selling something similar and members reacted the same way.

FWIW, it shouldn’t be a crime even if someone prices things higher for whatever reason they might have in mind — valid or otherwise. This is why some members here take their time to leave good, positive and helpful feedback to guide the buyer to a better pricing strategy and inform sellers on potential deals that might be more suitable for them.

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I dont have any alternative with me as of now, but I dont think blanket ban is a solution to the problem.

I feel, as Indians we buy stuff only after checking out multiple places and doing a intense cost benefit analysis. So, how much ever you get ridiculed, a good buyer will buy it if they see value in it.

I do sympathize with you bro, as a seller getting mocked based on baseless allegation does hurt but on a positive side, the impressions on the post made me do my own research for the correct price though I wasnt going to buy one, lol.

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Let me put this straight, apart from pricing there was nothing wrong with post. This feature has been there since I have started using TE from last year. People do add good emojis on posts with good pictures, rare products. I wonder why do you feel this feature should be disabled when you get 10 lol emojis on post? Also what’s wrong even with that

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I’m still thinking “likes” are fine, it’s either yay or nay but I’m not asking here to ban feedbacks in general. The emojis just don’t add any value in marketplace setting right now, at least from my view of TE as a safe, trusted space for buyers and sellers.

Possibly, but I still think it sours the experience. Same reason why we generally tend to browse most upvoted comments/posts on social media vs sorting it by new, even if someone must’ve left informative stuff.

Thanks, at least a few did or bothered to actually do some research and leave/DM feedback comments. Look, even when someone decides to comment and say they expect pricing to be lower (which, some good folks did and I responded), that’s still be fine. Onus will be then on buyer to justify their pricing and the community can pitch in to see if there’s value in it or if it’s full of BS and respond accordingly. Ideally, it’ll be a short song and dance until it’s calibrated to reasonable levels and not polluting the sale thread. This too unfortunately happens but it’s a harder problem for the mods to tackle and hence, I’m not asking about it right now but I hope they are aware of it as well. Thereafter of course, it’s upto the demand from someone in the forum or some passerby.

I’m not saying that I expect from an imaginary ivory throne for my listing to get sold at exactly that price I listed. TB(perfectly)H, I never did but was expecting reasonable negotiations and that’d be okay.

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Respectfully, I’d ask you to imagine yourself from my shoes as a seller even though you haven’t sold anything here yet, and trying to sell a product of such value or higher after carefully researching the pricing (which we already discussed in DMs), in the same situation and ask how you’d feel about it. I don’t think you’d feel pumped.

Already mentioned multiple times above — it’s an unnecessary negative reaction that adds nothing of value but a perceived negative effect on the post.

Edit: To be perfectly clear, I’m only talking about disabling emoji reactions in Classifieds posts.

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It’s really not that deep , and tbh a serious buyer wouldn’t care about the reactions etc. , if he feels the price is right he’ll buy it anyways .

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afaik, You dont see emojis on the page and there is only option to sort by replies and also you only see the emoji once the listing details get over. So a prospective buyer will get to know all the listing details before even seeing the emoji

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I disagree with this as I already stated above. Let’s think of it this way and imagine this were Amazon. If this were a 5-star rating system, the analogy of a LOL would prolly be a 1/2-star that members can leave to express their disapproval for the same pointless reasons. Would you feel inclined to bother to interact with a listing that has many 1-star reviews? I’m guessing the answer is no. And to note, you seem to have made no trades here yet.

Look, I’m not telling you absolutely can’t expect lower pricings and loot deals here. You can! Even I do!! But, why would you want to go and spoil someone else’s sale thread just because it’s not fitting your personal imaginary expectation of a steal deal? The only right option here is to leave the seller and the sale post alone, not add a knee-jerk LOL that negatively affects the sale thread.

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This is far but I’d also argue someone might gloss over it and get to the point where they see the reactions and will wonder “huh? something is wrong here? maybe this price is too bad, I should back off”. Of course, like some said, the ones who might actually be used to this place and have seen all these sort of nonsense reactions will go the extra mile and be bothered to read the rest of the comments.

But, why even have that in the first place? What value does it add right now keeping it (especially, everything besides likes)? I’m merely suggesting that removing it only makes this place net positive for deals.

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I completely understand why you’re not fond of the emojis based on your experience, but I’d like you to consider it as an exception and try to see the benefits as well.

I believe that a serious buyer who is aware of the market price would have to double-check things due to the negative reactions, but I don’t think it’ll make you lose the sale. Although for less serious buyers (impulse ones as well), yeah, it may put them off. I agree with that. I think the odds of this situation happening when a price is legitimate aren’t that high, and some outliers may occur (mostly when the product is a bit expensive, as yours was), so you were sadly caught in that.

But there is definitely a positive aspect to it as well. While your situation was genuine, some people price things outlandishly. And the reactions serve as a safeguard to make buyers double-check prices and the product condition itself, which is something they might have overlooked. In this situation, I wouldn’t consider the seller to be hurt due to the crappy pricing, and the buyer would be saved from a bad deal, so it’s a net positive in my opinion.

As a seller, you’re obviously right to worry about your sale thread having a bad perception, but a blanket reaction ban doesn’t seem warranted, and in my opinion, does more harm than good.

What I do feel is that comments with no clear pricing alternative, or a baseless comparison (objectively), should be removed, and a strike system may be implemented as well, to deter them from doing so. In the long run, I think this might lead to a better marketplace.

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Systematically I don’t think it’s possible but @Renegade can confirm. But then it’s all or none so positive reactions will also get blocked.

I do think you are making a mountain out of a molehill. This has always been there and in my all these years in TE, it has had no effect on sales. It may have an effect on your psyche though, no denying that. But you will develop a thicker skin over time.

I would be more worried about the fly by useless comments rather than the reactions. Some folks are bound by habit so they dump their daily shit here instead of the loo. Thankfully you can report those.

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You’re selling half a decade old relic for 70k man. The reaction is well justified. And will discourage similar post with just exhorbent pricing.

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The same spec version was sold for 52k on Cashify in superb condition , How are you justifying the 70k price ?

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i did not react to your post - I generally dont tend to mock posts.
but for some listings, i wish i could just write “price sucks”. but TE now asks for more characters to accept a reply.
i’m too lazy to write more when i dont plan to buy the item so a simple emoji would make sense to me.
p.s. can the mods remove the lower character limit. i just want to write “pmed” instead of “sent you a message” sheesh

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Thanks for this valid and thoughtful criticism of my proposal. You’re right that there can be some few net positives if done right but I’m going to say largely, this depends on a reasonable and just crowd. Can’t expect that from here.

I’m going to say if someone does do that, why not leave a feedback comment? Many do that here and it’s actually one of the few good things that make the marketplace great. Some actually go out of their way to valid links to items that are sometimes even few 1000s cheaper but fresh, which makes me believe this system is effective and works.

Still, I get your point and if things worked ideally as it should, the reactions would never be a problem.

I’d also state the previous example again of thinking about this in terms of star-rating for why I feel as a seller, this sucks. Most of us completely ignore even 3/3.5 rated items on Amazon and rather trend towards the better rated ones for the same reason. While for sure, some determined buyer will break through all that and still reach out, I don’t think there’s any reason for sellers to risk losing out on some sales because of a pointless reaction that doesn’t serve anything.

Yet, I do agree — if there was a way to keep the reactions and reprimand/undo the case when some folks raid someone’s thread because it didn’t fit their imaginary perceptions, I’d also be fine with that. But I’m presuming that this might be complex to do at the moment and will probably be more manual work for the mods. If mods chime in (hope they do at some point), would be glad to know. Honestly, would extend that then even for unnecessary negative comments on sale threads but again, I doubt this.

My proposal as it stands now, have more to gain IMHO for sellers and less to lose for buyers and the rest of the community.

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I’m just calling it out as I see it and I think it’s better to fix a broken system to allow a friendlier/safer space than leave it as it is. If anything, I’d just hope the folks who want sell pricier, limited edition and collectible items actually prefer this more than other places.

This too :100: and they largely, seriously suck. I didn’t mention this because I’m thinking there’s no easy way to fix that besides manual intervention. One can imagine some perfect LLM system to help moderators or something but I think they come with their own cons and imperfections.

Nevertheless, happy if both can somehow get addressed.