~ HEY, FELLOW E-BAYERS ~

  HELP US COME UP WITH A GOOD NAME FOR
REVIEW WEASELS!

        Okay, you guys.  I'm an ordinary E-Bayer.  I don't write reviews:   I read them.  I depend on them to find out about items I buy, and most often to find out how to avoid fraud on E-Bay.  I notice that when some of my favorite review sources start approaching review numbers like "TOP 5000" or "TOP 1000"  or "500" or "100" or whatever, that some weasel goes through and negs them.  When I see this, I figure some guy out there thinks he'll improve his rank by dumping on other people.  (Whoever you are, Get a life!)    This is a disservice to E-Bayers. To us, "helpfulness" feedback votes give us some sense of what our fellow E-Bayers have found helpful.  Reviews with higher ratings are also easier to find. 

       This is why a few weeks ago, we posted a guide that said: We'd like to ask all of you out there to come up with a word for these weasels who are doing this to other reviewers.  I like to think of them right now as WEASELS.  Maybe you can think of a better, funnier, more suitable name for them.  A name that can enter E-Bay lingo along with words like "sniping".   If you have a good word for these tentatively nicknamed WEASELS, send it to us at Oxbeetle through E-Bay's message system.

     Many thanks for all your suggestions so far!  We're received great new names for weasels, and also some great ideas for tracking down and identifying weasels, which are now in effect.  Here are the names E-Bayers have suggested so far for the now tentatively named weasels:

                      Feedback zombies

                      E-Negmen

                      Review-eating Viruses

                      Nega-turds

                      E-Bay's Top Bottom-Feeders

                      Review Meth-Heads

                      Reviewer suckers

                      E-worms

                      Wormies

                      Review Creeps

                      Negapoops

                      Pond Scum

                      Review climbers

                      E-Bay lice

                      Negaholics

                      REVIEW MAGGOTS

                      $%#$@&*  (quite a few suggestions in this category) 

                      Review fixers

                      E-BAY's LONELIEST     

                      Negviewers

Progress!  We've asked E-Bay to start keeping track of people who leave high volumes of negative review votes by flagging the following:  votes given all in the same day, or in rapid succession -- so you know the guy couldn't have read the reviews;  votes that show a pattern of returning to certain areas of the review list to continually add on negative votes to one reviewer, or to a group of reviewers with a particular review rank.  Several E-Bayers have joined our request, and the list is growing.  We also have received offers from E-Bayers to keep track of negging patterns in reviews in order to identify Weasels!

We've also received the following suggestions:

(1) Have E-Bay display the number of negative and positive review votes any member has given since joining e-Bay, just as "feedback given" is displayed now.

(2) Let reviewers opt out of public display of their E-Bay Review rank. 

We will keep you informed of future updates and suggestions.   KEEP SENDING US YOUR IDEAS AND WEASEL-NAMES.