Community Blowback

This is interesting, and highlights one of the critical risks of basing a business on user-generated content and contributions: sometimes the users don’t go along with you.

I’ve always been under the impression that eBay sets a high bar for best practices in engaging seller community influencers and “grass tops”. This guy is clearly a top eBay seller and appears to have been identified by eBay as a community leader (even if his merch is fringe). Now he’s unhappy with some of eBay’s business changes, so he’s auctioning - on eBay no less! - the chance to sponsor him as he goes public with his discontent. Topping that, he’s giving half the proceeds to charity. . . wait for it: the eBay Foundation.

So he’s clearly a true believer, not just a hater. He’s got comments of support from other eBay sellers who clearly agree with him, and has apparently even made the Pulse (eBays’s most-watched auctions) with his listing (which is going for over $1300 as of this writing). I love the image of him mourning over his broken eBay mug (more photos here).

Kudos to eBay for not cutting him off at the knees by taking this listing down, and for allowing this to highlight the fact that, in order to really empower users, you have to empower them to do things that sour your palate.

At the risk of stretching the comparison (because I don’t think community businesses are truly democratic), it’s a bit like a government that empowers a free press, in that you attract more involvement in your system when your system can take self-criticism - and similarly that you risk breaking it if you try to control it.  On that note, I look forward to seeing how the MySpace community reacts to recent changes that do exactly that.

posted on Saturday, August 5th, 2006 at 12:59 pm Category: social, business models. Comment or trackback.