Please enable html in Q&A

[bykimbo]

If it's possible, please enable html in the Q&A boxes. It's possible this has been disabled as some attempt to stop email and off-site links being passed, but since it also stops perfectly valid links to ebid pages it's doing more harm than good. When I'm asked a question about "do you do this" or "can I buy that", the answer is quite often "yes it's here: URL" pointing towards an ebid listing. It's annoying that this link is not clickable and the customer has to copy and paste what can be a very long URL to make it work. I suspect they might not always bother. If the link could be clickable it would be a nice improvement. Perhaps it could be checked for "ebid.net" being a part of it, if you want to be clever. Thanks.

[FBNeNotes]

[bykimbo]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/astral.project/ebid.net/hello.htm

er... well, naturally the greeting is very welcome, but I'm not sure what it proves about how eBid's Q&A system works or the amount of effort they're prepared to put into this particular request, but what the heck hello back atcha.

[astral276]

...but I'm not sure what it proves...

It was intended to demonstrate (rather than 'prove') that simply because a URL has ebid.net in it does not necessarily mean that URL targets eBid.


However, in the spirit of peace and goodwill I will not make further comment on your suggestion.

[iwiw60]

If it's possible, please enable html in the Q&A boxes.

Yes, that would be wonderful to have that capability...I'll vote for it!

[bykimbo]

It was intended to demonstrate (rather than 'prove') that simply because a URL has ebid.net in it does not necessarily mean that URL targets eBid.

.

Ah, right. Sorry, that was way too cryptic for my poor old brain this week. And I was rather imagining that they'd do checks involving domains rather than just a text check, but as I don't know how the system works down in its innards I've no idea if it's a reasonable thing to expect or not. I just threw it in as a vague idea. I'd like html, I don't know how they'd achieve it (or much care, if I'm honest!)

[cmjewels925]

If it's possible, please enable html in the Q&A boxes. It's possible this has been disabled as some attempt to stop email and off-site links being passed, but since it also stops perfectly valid links to ebid pages it's doing more harm than good. When I'm asked a question about "do you do this" or "can I buy that", the answer is quite often "yes it's here: URL" pointing towards an ebid listing. It's annoying that this link is not clickable and the customer has to copy and paste what can be a very long URL to make it work. I suspect they might not always bother. If the link could be clickable it would be a nice improvement. Perhaps it could be checked for "ebid.net" being a part of it, if you want to be clever. Thanks.

Agreed. Anything that makes it easier for the buyer has to be a good thing.

I give buyers the 8 figure item number rather than the url but a clickable link would be so much better.

[madelaine]

I don't ever remember needing this myself, but I can imagine situations where it would be very useful

[madelaine]

bump

[gazlannathai]

The primary problem I see with the suggestion in the OP is one of spammers abusing the system and sending you links to sex drugs and what have you. Remember the question (and it's link) would sit at the bottom of your auction giving a back link to the spammer's websites until such time as eBid removed it.
I know you're saying only the seller can answer with a link, but if it's enabled for the seller to do so, there'll be a discoverable hack for buyers to do it too, and you can be sure the spammers will be searching and testing for that hack - one problem there is that such brute-forcing to find the method, can symtomise as a DDOA attack on the site and lead to it being taken down for security reasons.

I know from running many sites, that even when you include a clear indication that all links in comments, questions, etc are "nofollow" and hyperlink disabled, you still get hordes of spammers trying to post their carp on your site hoping to squeeze some SEO juice from a completely pointless and irrelevant answer/question. I can see enabling such a feature as being a complete donkey to administer for the site, and for sellers.

What would be good however is a way to link to your auction pages directly and send that link as a reply - perhaps the facility for the seller to add the listing number with a prefix (e.g. ebid-item-xxxxx ) and that then inserts the appropriate hyperlink. In that way, control is maintained, and only on-eBid pages and items can be sent as links. Perhaps a checkbox with a drop down set of criteria that maps to the listing you want to send as an answer?

Just thinking aloud with my web-admin head on midway between my first and second coffee.