An Assortment of Topics

I have several topics about which I would like to write, but I do not have enough for a cohesive blog post. Instead, I am writing this blog post which covers several unconnected topics and is just a sampling of the thoughts I have had during the last few weeks.

My comments are inspired by various discussions I have read on different message boards.
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Sooners Are Evil

One bewildering comment was an incomprehensible rant about eBay and Sooners and whether they had ever been "prosecuted by the feds." The rant ended with an entreaty not to buy from Sooners. Most respondents did not get the point of the message, and someone asked the original poster to speak in English.

Since I live in Oklahoma, I was relatively certain that the rant was a reference to the Oklahoma land run Sooners, but I wasn't for certain about what this had to do with eBay. The original poster came back to explain about the Sooners in the land run and how they had already claimed their lands before the land was open for settlement. The explanation ended with "first gets all i guess. unfair. someone tell the buyers."

Apparently, this person feels that eBay did the same thing as the land run Sooners and unfairly claimed the auction market before anyone else could. eBay is the most successful auction site because eBay was first. Nothing was illegal about it. This person apparently thinks that eBay should be prosecuted for being first.
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Too Many Clicks

eBay has deliberately made it more difficult to navigate its site in order to increase the number of page views. No doubt you have noticed that whenever I link to a completed eBay auction, you can no longer view the auction page without clicking on another link. Very clever! Now it takes two clicks when it would have taken just one.

Now eBay has removed some of the information from the main page of My eBay so that sellers have to click additional times in order to obtain the same information. This means that eBay is making its page views appear not to be on the decline. Which part of the site will eBay tamper with next in order to keep the views from showing a decrease?
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Listing on Multiple Sites

Many sellers list the same books on multiple sites. This can cause problems if the book sells on one site, and the seller fails to remove the listing from other sites. Furthermore, listing on multiple sites can cause problems with Google's product search, since listings on different sites for the same item violates Google's policy.

I have another take on this situation and why it best for sellers to try to avoid listing the same books on multiple sites. I have heard too many stories about buyers purchasing a book on a lesser known site and finding that the book had already sold on eBay. For this reason, I am paranoid about any listing that I know is up for sale on multiple sites. I am less likely to purchase a book when I know that it is up for sale on eBay as well as on other sites. Sellers should consider that some buyers might be reluctant to make a purchase when the book is available on several different sites.