So eBay has removed the ability to leave negative feedback, finding themselves unable to manage abuse of this feature. IMHO really bad idea. I’ve already written about how not opening up their reputation system to the web was a huge missed opportunity. Now they are further kneecapping one of their largest assets.
How will negative transactions be dealt with? By direct conversation with customer service reps, meaning this data is now walled within a customer management system and not part of the internet ecosystem. They are shrinking back to a core business of onsite transactions (return to fundamentals?) but the larger play – reputation and transaction system for all web-based peer-to-peer transactions – remains the more interesting growth engine to me.