I saw something interesting over on AuctionBytes.com today regarding the changes made to the eBay Voices program earlier this week with the headline “Is eBay Phasing out ‘Voices’ Focus-Group Program?” to which my immediate, well thought out response was… “Huh?”

For those unaware, the Voices program was established in 1999 as a focus group designed to represent the many levels of community members active in the eBay marketplace. Over the years, members have both joined and left in order to keep the opinions and feedback of the group both timely and fresh. The group, targeted to sit at around 100 members to ensure eBay’s ability to effectively manage the input and discussion, had grown beyond that. As a result, and in an effort to maintain a fresh perspective from participants, some 30 longstanding members were notified earlier this week that although their dedication and tireless efforts to the program were invaluable to the eBay Marketplace over the past decade, it was time to allow new members the opportunity to provide input and counsel. It should be noted, all retiring members have been encouraged to continue providing unfiltered, constructive input to the team that manages Voices, albeit not as members of the formal Voices program.

To be honest, I hadn’t covered this news earlier in the week because I know this isn’t the first time we’ve revamped the group to keep it current. Not taking away anything from those members no longer participating in the program of course. Plus, Garnor Morantes and John Pluhowski did a great job of tracking down Ina Steiner to provide explanation and comment:

From AuctionBytes.com:

We spoke to eBay on Thursday about the Voices program news. Garnor Morantes, Senior Manager of Seller Development for eBay Marketplaces, who is responsible for Voices, said he is very happy and very proud of the program, and wanted to be clear that there are no plans to end Voices, and that eBay is continuing to recruit buyers and sellers into the program.

“This change is something we’ve been thinking about for a while and is meant to give others the chance to participate in the program. We’re looking to bring in some new perspectives, some new buyers and sellers – all levels of selling.” Mr. Morantes said that with the recent change, the Voices program now has about 100 participants, with about 10 who are exclusively buyers, and the remaining who are active sellers who may also do some buying as well. All levels of powersellers are represented.

The decision to continue to keep a group innovative and fresh with ideas seems pretty good to me to be honest and the AuctionBytes blog post seems to reflect that also. However, what I don’t understand, given the obvious attention to accurate reporting and due diligence made to obtain the background information, why is it even suggested that eBay maybe “phasing out its Voices Program” as the title asks in big, bold font?

I get that skepticism is necessary with every story and any reporter or blogger worth their salt has to ask all the necessary questions before drawing conclusions. However, to run a blog post with such an inflammatory headline, only to proceed it with comments and statements from eBay spokespeople ensuring the contrary, I don’t know what that accomplishes rather than create controversy where there really isn’t any.

On a related note, and I mean no disrespect to the Voices program at all – I know it serves a very viable and constructive purpose for the betterment of our Marketplace – but with the advent of so many social media outlets now – from blogs, to Twitter feeds, to Facebook, etc. – I would say that the entire Internet is now a “Voices” group and you don’t need to be told whether you’re a member or not to have an opinion and share that opinion wherever you see fit (like in the Comments section below for example).

Cheers,
RBH