Welcome and thanks for joining us today!

We love workshops to be interactive, so please feel free to ask your questions that directly relate to this topic.

Added note: If you click on the "Watch this discussion" link, you will receive an email each time someone posts to the workshop.

Stop Watching: If at any time you no longer want to receive updates on a thread you are watching, just click on the link titled "Stop Watching Thread" found in the specific thread being watched. Also you can remove any watched thread by clicking on the "Watched Discussions" link located in the log in bar and deleting the watched thread.

If you're new to the discussion boards, please be sure to check out the board tutorial:

Link


Cheers,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

Community Hub


This is the Community Hub - the page you get to after clicking on “Community” at the top of almost any page on the site (in the header at the top, near “My eBay” and “Buy” and “Sell”). All the various Community resources can be found on this page. We’ve highlighted certain sections of this page in the screenshots below.

Find Member Search Box


Use this when you’re trying to find eBay information about another member - just enter their User ID or email address into this box, and you’ll be able to access their public eBay information. One note: for privacy reasons, if you enter someone’s email address, you need to have been involved in a transaction with them (i.e. have bought from them or sold to them) to get their User ID.

Feedback Forum Link


This is where you can do anything related to Feedback – view another user’s feedback details, or leave feedback for one of your trading partners. Just click on the link to go the Feedback Forum.

News Section


This is the News section, where you can learn about eBay’s latest news by reading our Announcements, checking out the Community Calendar, and reading The Chatter newsletter. The Announcements section is highlighted in the graphic above. Here we show the headlines from our three most recent site announcements, as well as links to the General and Systems Announcements Boards. There you can learn about new eBay features, policies, and a range of other information.

Calendar Events


The Calendar section highlighted above gives you a quick snapshot of upcoming Community events.

The Chatter


Here you can find links to our official Community newsletter (published monthly), featuring stories by and about members and staff.

Education Section


In this section you’ll find links to more educational resources so you can learn about eBay.

Sample Discussion Board


Here’s what it looks like when you click into a particular discussion board. This example is from the About Me discussion board.

Board Description and Board Policies


Near the top of the page you’ll find a quick description of the board theme, and a link to our Board Policies. You can also find a link to policy explanations (so you can learn what each of these policies actually mean). These are very important, as they set out the rules and guidelines you should follow when posting.

Search Box


Use this box, located above the actual discussion threads, to Search for discussion topics by keyword (such as “bidding”). If you click on Advanced Search you can also search by posts from particular users, or those within a certain timeframe.

Information Central


This section on the right of each discussion board contains useful information about a variety of topics. Here you can also find the headlines of the three most recent eBay announcements.

Chat Room Main Page


Here is the main overview page for our Chat Rooms, another area where members can talk with one another. Unlike discussion boards, these don’t have threads. Each room has one running conversation that can be about just about any topic (as long as it falls within the board policies). Simply refresh the page to see the new posts.

Chat Description and Link to Board Policies


Like with discussion boards, you’ll see some information about the chat room, as well as another link to our board policies, at the top of the page.

Create Post Box and Button


When you are on a chat room page, just type your message into this box and hit “Save My Message” to post it.

Example posts


Here’s what a few actual chat posts looks like. As with discussion boards, you can see the ID, feedback level, and other information about each person who’s posted a comment.

Sample Group Page


Here is what the main page of a typical Group looks like, including the welcome message for the Group.

Join Group Button


Click this near the bottom of the page if you want to join the Group. Just make sure to read the Groups Usage Policy (outlining the rules for using Groups) and the Group Charter first to make sure this is the right group for you. Joining a public group is automatic after clicking the Join button. In private groups you will need to wait until the group leader responds to your request to join. If you are allowed to join the private group, the leader’s email will contain a link you need to click on to activate your membership.

Group Features and Options


This section on the left contains the different features available to a group (like the ability to post pictures or keep a calendar), as well as some of the controls that are available to both Group Leaders and members. A few notes: The Email Members link creates an email that will be distributed to the entire group. The group leader and moderators have to approve the message prior to sending it. If you don’t want your email to go to everyone, you can contact the group leader and moderators by clicking on the Email Moderators link. You can also use the report button to report problems that need to be brought to the group leader’s attention. Any time you decide that you no longer want to participate in a group, click on the “Remove Me” link. If you are a group leader the Remove feature will not work until you’ve appointed someone else as the new leader.

General Announcement Board


This is where you can keep up with all the important stuff going on around eBay. Just click on Announcements in the “News” section of the Community Hub to see all of our announcements. These cover almost all site news, from letting you know about new features and policies to announcing promotions. We recommend making this one of your most frequent stops on eBay.

Links to Each Post


Here you can see a few headlines from the announcement board. When you are on the board, simply click on any of them to read the full details of that particular announcement.

Older Announcements


If you want to see announcements from previous months, check the column to the left. Again, just click on the month to see those announcements, or on Archived to see everything older than 6 months

RSS Feed


If you use RSS, you’ll get updated whenever a new announcement is posted to the board. If you’re not sure what RSS is, or if you want to subscribe, click on the “Subscribe to all announcements using RSS” link to learn more.

Sample General Announcement


This is an example of an actual announcement. You can see the entire text of the announcement, as well as the timestamp which lets you know exactly when the announcement was made. If you want the URL to a particular announcement, click on this link, and then copy the URL from your browser.

We’ve also set up an eBay Group for Announcements. Once you join the group, you’ll receive a daily email with all of that day’s general announcements. When in the Groups area, click on “Announcements” under the “News and Events” section. Then click on “eBay Announcements” on the next page, and then just join the group!

Systems Announcements


Information is posted on the System Announcements board when eBay is experiencing technical issues with major parts of the site (for example, if search isn’t working), or when we’re planning to perform maintenance on part of the site.