posted on July 13, 2004 03:17:32 PM new
On July 12, 11:00am, eBay announced the following Coming Soon change:
This week, we will be changing the way the item description area of the view item page displays. This change will improve the view item page performance for members. Because the item description content will be now be cached by browsers, buyers and sellers will see noticeable speed improvements when they view the same item more than once, or when they refresh a view item page. This is especially important during the last few minutes of a listing, or when members are on slow dialup connections.
Please note: As a result of this change, sellers who have used html tags to customize the item page outside the item description area (to change font color for links outside the item description, for instance) will now only be able to customize the area within the item description.
Unfortunately, eBay's implementation appears to have changed how your custom HTML behaves INSIDE the item description as well as attempts to customize areas outside the item description. This impact appears to affect all eBay listings and are not related directly to listings from Vendio or any other third parties.
Our testing indicates formatting using our custom templates is ok, however, using your own HTML may make listings default to eBay's chosen fonts. The most popular cases we've seen are uses of header tags (< H1 >, < H2 >, < H3 > ) and more commonly the paragraph tag < p >. We have provided this information to eBay along with a recommended change that preserves the intent of their announcement but returns your ability to use custom HTML in item descriptions. In the meantime, we suggest using < br >< br > instead of < p > for paragraph breaks and avoiding using header tags in your custom HTML.
We'll update you as we hear or see progress on eBay's implementation.
[ edited by ChristopherCS on Jul 13, 2004 03:18 PM ]
posted on July 14, 2004 01:27:36 PM new
Appreciate the advice, but when I look at my finished auctions I see more things happening than has been explained here, like three different font sizes in my descriptions. And that's being caused by a single header html?
Between this snafu and the recent eBay accounts debacle, I'm ending up unlaunching auctions constantly and waiting for someone to fix some silly problem. Taking up a lot of my time and energy.
How about a new button to unlaunch multiple auctions simultaneously? Instead of one at a time. That will save me a lot of time in the future.
posted on July 14, 2004 04:07:57 PM new
Hello riverfarm,
eBay has created style definitions for fonts following <h> and <p> tags. To get around this, you can redefine your font after your <p> tags, and/or use font sizes and weight instead of <h> tags (for example, use <font size="large"><b>Text here</font></b> in place of an <h3> tag.
FYI - you can unschedule in bulk by clicking the 'pending' link, selecting your scheduled items by clicking the check-box next to them, and then clicking the 'cancel' button.
posted on July 14, 2004 04:14:17 PM new
Auctions are still down (extra small fonts) now for about 36 hrs. Is there any ETA on a fix from eBay on this??
posted on July 14, 2004 04:19:25 PM new
Hello aaronandelise,
I have not heard anything further about whether or not eBay is going to roll back or update the changes they made. However, if your items have no bids, you should still be able to revise then and add the font definition after your <p> tags (or just switch from <p> tags to <br><br> which is probably easier. ) If your descriptions cannot be revised due to bids on the listing, please contact eBay directly as they may be able to help you with this.
posted on July 14, 2004 05:51:06 PM new
I have over 200 active listings, about 150 pending, 100 in closed, and have about 60 pseudo templates made for listings that I stick in pending. I have two paragraph breaks on each auction along with <h2> at the begining of each auction.
It would take a very long time to say the least to change them. Then I would have to refix the auctions currently listed, again once they ended on eBay.
eBay said their changes would not affect descriptions. They need to step up to the plate and fix it. They will not even say there is a problem on their status board.
posted on July 14, 2004 10:50:05 PM new
hi christopher, i am now ready to begin selling again and have some dreamweaver experience..
someone recently suggested i write my own auctions, using templates i create in dreamweaver...
are you saying this may be a problem with the newly ebay changes?
would it just be easier to use the vendio template?
i just asked this question in another question here..and then saw this... thanks very much...shanti
posted on July 15, 2004 09:34:20 AM new
Christopher - thanks for the heads up. I write ALL my copy in Microsoft FrontPage and paste the html translation that FrontPage provides into my Vendio item description. Therefore, I use EXTENSIVE html tagging including paragraphing, font changes, bolding, italicizing, bullet points, centering text, font colors and linking to my other auctions page. Can you give me an idea of what the repercussions of this might be on all this html? Yikes.
posted on July 15, 2004 10:56:35 AM new
Hi everybody,
If you use Vendio custom template system to create your ads and format your text, you should not have any problem with eBay's stylesheet changes. If you create your own listings and you use any of the tags that are included in the font style definitions imposed by eBay, you will need to take additional steps to avoid your text from being altered by eBay's stylesheet.
Here is an outline of the affected tags and some ideas on how to work around the eBay stylesheet definitions:
Generally, if you are defining fonts (like SMALL or specific 1-7 numeric value), you'll get what you ask for, IF you don't add an "offending" HTML tag after that. These "offending" tags will override your requested font. You can add <p>, provided you define the font again after that paragraph break (PITA, I know).
So I'd remove the <p> and replace with <br><br>, but you can leave the <small> tags, since they are not overwritten by the eBay style sheet.
FYI, here is the list of most commonly used "potentially offending" HTML tags that will be overridden by their style sheet and what their style makes it look like:
<h1> { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: bold; } => English translation, medium bold Arial (or similar sans-serif font)
<h2> { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: bold; } => English translation, small bold Arial (or similar sans-serif font)
Here are recommended ways to get around this:
a) Instead of <p>, use <br><br> OR make sure to set font style after each <p> (i.e. <font size = number from 1 to 7>
b) Remove h1, h2, h3 tags from item descriptions and use font styles instead.
c) Use our custom templates and define the font you want to use inside a custom template instead, rather than using HTML tags.
"If you use Vendio custom template system to create your ads and format your text, you should not have any problem with eBay's stylesheet changes."
I use Vendio's custom template system. I do have a font defined from within the template workshop.
No headers inside the description but I do use < p > for paragraph breaks.
No active auctions at the moment but I did check some of mine that closed a few weeks ago and they are showing a smaller font beginning right after the first paragraph break.
I have a lot of auctions pending in Vendio, waiting until mid-August to launch. Do I have to change < p > to < br > < br > in ALL of those?
Just posted this general update. eBay has acknowledged the HTML issues being seen on the View Item pages and is working feverishly to rectify them. We anticipate the corrective actions will remove any of the HTML issues you are experiencing, so we recommend NOT spending the time to edit all your items as we wait for eBay's resolution. We'll provide additional updates when we hear more.
You can now confirm the weekend plans you felt you might have to cancel so you could spend hours typing <br><br> . . .. Sorry. I couldn't resist commiserating with ya'll. I know this was a painful change at eBay.
posted on July 16, 2004 07:18:06 PM new
I'm so glad eBay decided to FIX whatever it is they did that screwed up all of our painstakingly learned & applied HTML!!
If it was an accident - fine. But if it was deliberate, with no consideration to its members' hard work & countless hours of learning HTML in order to produce a better product for THEIR auction site, then I say "Shame on eBay"!
Can you imagine the gall for one site to actually change/stop accepting universally accepted HTML code? I know they are becoming more & more power hungry & controlling, but isn't that ridiculous?
And for Vendio, to even SUGGEST all its members go in & change/edit ALL the thousands (tens of thousands?) of auction descriptions' HTML code without first championing our plight to the powers that be at eBay, is even more stupefyingly absurd!
posted on July 16, 2004 07:36:53 PM new
Sorry, got to speak up for Vendio on that one! Giving suggestions and work-arounds is what they should be doing. Turning their back on the Vendio customers would be wrong. And they have been in contact with eBay trying to convey the problems this is causing. Thanks, Vendio, for offering suggestions on how to fix our auctions. But, yes, I have around 600 auctions, and I'm just going to wait for the fix to come. If it doesn't in a couple of weeks, then I'll think about re-formatting.
posted on July 16, 2004 08:56:48 PM new
Biffette, I do see where you're coming from and I agree. It was pretty dumb on eBay's part to mess up our HTML.
But I don't think it's fair for you to be slamming Vendio. They've done everything they possibly can to give us a work-around.
I'm very grateful to Vendio for doing that for us.
My fall listings aren't going to go live for a week or so. Hopefully Vendio will be able by then to get a fix from eBay. If not, I guess I'll be spending a lot of time copying < br> < br > into my listings.
posted on July 17, 2004 09:03:59 AM new
ebay just modified something in their style sheet. WORSE THEN EVER! now the font style is completely messed up and the new vendio custom template text and links are horribly ugly and do not look right.
Please inform ebay to change font style to arial and fix link problem. The first change was way better than now!
posted on July 17, 2004 09:38:57 AM new
I feel like a dog chasing my tail!
Thank you Vendio for your workaround suggestions regarding the latest ebay changes. I have been revising all my listings and things did appear to look like normal (re: size and spacing), but today the font style has changed. In the Vendio preview it is arial and in ebay it looks like helvetica. Please let me know what I can do to get it back to arial.
Thanks.
posted on July 17, 2004 02:33:23 PM new
YIKES! Here's a new one. My auction body copy (the portion that I write in MS Frontpage html coding software and paste into my Vendio template) now looks normal and the way it should look.
WHAT DOES NOT LOOK NORMAL NOW IS VENDIO's TEMPLATE. It's not a serious problem but there are two things that have happened:
1)the auction title that appears in the top portion of the Vendio template is in a different typefont than it should be and it's carrying a shadow behind the font ... actually making it harder to read.
2) The type fonts on all my custom listing text that appears in every auction have had font changes made ... it's in a huge font and it's now in Times New Roman, not in Arial. Again, making it harder to read.
Yikes!
This is the single most valuable, most lucrative auction I've ever had up on eBay and this is all I need, huh??!!
What's up with this?? Anybody wanna jump on this one??
Our engineers are looking into which recent style sheet change is having this effect on your listings as well as hope eBay finally reverts this new code back to it's original layout. Once we know no further changes are going to be made, we will adjust anything needed on our end to comply.
We'll provide additional updates when we hear more.
posted on July 17, 2004 05:49:08 PM new
My auctions were created using Vendio's editor, now ALL the DESCRIPTION text in the BODY as well as the default text have changed fonts and cannot be read clearly. The first time eBay modified this at least all vedio text INCLUDING MY DESCRIPTION were in clear ARIAL format. Everything now looks very unprofessional and unclear as the font is very bunched up. This is truly AWFUL!
PLEASE try to get eBay to revert to the old system or have everything apear in an "ARIAL" text font INCLUDING the description which has been created using your editor. I just finished editing about 500 auctions which took a very LONG time and I am hoping that I do not have to redo everything.
Also when creating custom templates the top vendio links are coming up as a purple color even when selecting a different color link. This never happened before today!
posted on July 17, 2004 06:09:47 PM new
WHAT A MESS!!
I've been following this thread and i am glad i'm not selling yet.. i do have a lot invested in the HTML and my own templates..
Look.. what's interesting is that SA on ebay is a mess.. not for the same reasons or maybe for the same reasons..
i feel badly that you at vendio have to jump through hoops trying to work with ebay...i'm sure it isn't easy..
i'll keep getting the posts..you all hang in there and any ideas about helping to get this resolved.. (i almost heard the answer!!! to it immediately)..lol
