Just wanted to post a link to this news article I spotted today, in the San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate).

Article says:

Article here

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eBay? Got the t-shirt?

I think Mr. Omidyar needs some education. We need an anon-e-Bay where all the buyers and sellers don't have to identify themselves, ever. Then it would be something like Wikipedia.

Myself, I don't like eBAY. They lost all my account info and had to ask me for it again. After I sent it, they started charging me for stuff I never bought. Can you believe this? It's such a bummer.

I'll ask them to support me create the History of Logic article then.

Matt Halprin's advertised biography is here.

The issue of "global trust and safety at eBay" is a bit of a con. Ebay had a terrible reputation for handling fraud seller complaints, I do not suspect it has improved that much. Basically, it took no interest beyond copy and pasting "it's your fault, we are not responsible" replies and their "global trust and safety" went as far as covering their own asses.

The department handling such problems was called the "compliancy department" and that is all it did. Made sure that Ebay "complied" with laws enough to cover its own ass ... and screw the consumer. At that time (I have no idea what is going on now) - as a seller, Ebay stinks now and I would not touch it any more - EBay was rife with particularly Romanian thieves and fraudsters selling non-existent high value products. Many activist were tackling them. Ebay had no interest and did next to nothing.

What I also noted was that, during this period, Ebay would outrightly lie to its consumers and contradict the actual position of the law in an attempt to renege on its responsibilities and mislead its ripped off consumers.

For example, legally, if one wishes to start legal action against another party Ebay is bound to hand over personal contact details for the purpose of starting legal actions. One is not bound to have to use an solicitor (attorney) to do so, nor would a law enforcement officer become engaged in a civil case. But Ebay routinely told ripped off purchasers that they had to be a law enforcement officer to receive such information, which is not true, and made it as difficult as possible to get to the information required.

When it says "Mr. Halprin joined eBay in 2002 from 15 years at the Boston Consulting Group. While at eBay, he was charged with providing safety and security for eBay Marketplaces globally."

It is a joke. His job must have been to cover Ebay's ass but, Ebay did go on to employ ex-law enforcement officers from what would be called, oxymoronic as it sounds, "intelligence" divisions.

Halprin is also on the board of Sunlight’s, a foundation dedicated to "a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the conduct of lawmakers and the public’s confidence in government." So how will that effect the Pee-dia? See also Getting on the board thread.

* If anyone does get screwed on Ebay and need to start legal action ... and I suspect the same thing applies to Wikipedia ... the thing to do is demand the name and address of their legal counsel and write a letter requesting the person information of the offender for the reasons of starting legal action. They are bound to reply. Don' t be fobbed off.

So you hate Korea, Scouting and now eBay? And Romanians too? This is a pretty typical web 2.0 screed by someone with a grudge against some large institution . You are entitled to the identifying information under certain circumstances. EBay complies with subpoenas. You don't need to be "law enforcement." You don't need to be an attorney either. But you do need to have initiated a case in a court of competent jurisdiction. If you have an attorney and a case has been filed she can just issue the subpoena. If not, and you represent yourself, you can have the clerk of the court issue a subpoena. You can't expect eBay to hold your hand in this. If you are involved in a dispute justifying such a screed maybe you should have just got competent legal assistance in the first place.

I'm sure eBay's not perfect. I've had to use their "dispute resolution" a couple of times myself and was not completely satisfied. But they did seem to have a reasonably responsible attitude. Certainly better than the wholesale irresponsibility of Wikipedia. I still hold out Omidyar's influence as a net positive as some form of outside influence on WMF's board. Still it would be better if it where a more traditional foundation that was given a board seat and not one with such deep "web roots."

You the plot mate ... and are about to drown your credibility in a load more 'binary thought' style verbiage.

So what is this really all about Glassbead ... because it seems to have gotten awfully personal all of a sudden.

• Are you going to play the Jewish card and tell me that because I said something critical of Israel that I ... MUST be anti-semitic too?
• Or that if I say something bad about Advance Fee Fradusters ... I must hate ALL Nigerians.
• Or have I just dented your Yankee Pride?

Try by doing a Google for 'Romania Ebay Fraud' or Ebay Scam Western Union. I made links for you to make it easier.

It all made the international media. The USSS and Scotland Yard Computer Crime Unit were involved. The largest fraud is said to have been $300,000. Just two individuals, Nicolae Cretanu, 30, and his wife Adriana, 23, swindled eBay customers out of about £300,000 ... mostly little Joes and Joesses just like you and me.

I was involved giving legal advice at a consumer level and lobbying the companies to stop it. Ebay's clients got screwed not once but twice. Once by the Romanians and twice by Ebay who did nothing, gave false advice, and attempted to make it impossible for victims to find their abusers.[/b]

Most of the articles write about how terrible Romanian police services were ... local Police services in the UK and US etc were just about as hapless. Ebay claims to have "spent millions" on fighting Romanian fraud ... I'd love to know how. It used to be possible to go online and pick up dozens of false auctions at one sitting.

BTW, if you want to discuss 'the Jewish Question' or Nigerians, I am going to ask you something like ... "what do you mean, internecine relationships between Sephardic and Ashkenazi?" or "the difference between Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba?". The Yoruba tend to be the worst scammers.

There is a deeper issue here. Both Ebay and Wikipedia were naive, productive fun in the beginning. Then the idiots came on board, then the carrion followed them. In both cases, and in general, humanity is gradually being subjected, more and more, to these faceless, brainless, Byzantine, Kafka-esque, 1984 scenarios ... these 'call-center-archies'. I am sorry, I cannot think of a better word for it right now.

A large part of the "expertise" of the architects of these 'call-center-archies' is about screwing the little 'yous and mes' and protecting the profits and positions of the 'big thems'.

Its actually all about 'not giving services' at all ... eroding individuals and consumer rights ... and putting layers of protection in between the victims and the profiteers.

Social entropy tends toward declines. And that's a pretty hard science comment. I'll lay my bets things get worse and Jimbo gets offered and accepts more and more paid positions on other boards in the future. What the Pee-dia has is fame ... or at least notoriety ... and that is worth something.

That is exactly the kind of thing I don't want to talk to you about.