SUBAT

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  Anonymous started this discussion on Mar 21, 2008

  Hi everyone, just some general news. The people at Pheebay are very kind and have offered to make a dedicated forum for search portal work so anyone who can help on portal issues, please get in touch with me or Julia (or use the subat_forever yahoo e-mail), to get word when it’s ready. Also, the PSU administrator is on vacation until April so that previous portal thread will likely continue at Pheebay. And just today I learned of a better URL-shortener created by Pheebay. Unlike tinyURL, this one allows the new URL to be tagged or named (a big help when you have trouble keeping track, as I often do!), by using the “advanced” button.

  There is also a very good site which should be added to everyone’s list: http://www.accknowl.com/, if not on it already. They have archived news, a whole page of good resources, and a comprehensive list of the protest sites so far, including a couple of which I was unaware. (I believe we should make contact with a few newer ones, and soon.) Val, perhaps this list is the groundwork for the anti-Febay web ring idea?

  Also just recently Google has announced the creation of Google for Non-Profits, which may be relevant, especially the Adwords part of Google Grants if the plan to form a 501©(3) goes ahead. It could be a while before SUBAT is ready for that, but something to start thinking about now.

  Finally, I see someone didn’t like the Phase V final victory" wording, which was my idea and for which I take responsibility. (Those old enough to remember the usual English translation of hasta la victoria siempre will recognize the basic idea here.) What is at issue is an open auction marketplace seen as a utility, a service to which everyone is equally entitled, envisioned eventually as a new area of the Internet. I don’t believe companies should charge fees as auction venues, and certainly not as a percentage of items sold, as eBay does. (Contrast this with the fixed monthly rates charges by some current alternatives; it’s not the only method.) Imagine if MySpace or YouTube tried to charge fees for user-provided content the way eBay does. Being a neutral venue should consist in being a neutral venue, not in bleeding the users who supply all the content simply because one can. I think of it as similar to toll roads, where people pay by the mile, verses public highways maintained by a department of transportation. Travel used to be very unpleasant in the United States before the advent of highways, largely because toll roads predominated and most were not just costly but poorly maintained. It’s in everyone’s interest to have the ‘roads’ of commerce be well-kept, free, and not under the control of toll-masters. Phase V is not a slight against the alternative non-eBay sites of the present, but a vision for a better tomorrow we can make, starting today. And I certainly don’t believe that “revolution breeds tyranny,” unless we believe that George Washington was a dictator. I would be happy if the SUBAT campaign for a WeBay is revolutionary because nothing short of that will be enough to undo not just the economic damage but the conceptual damage eBay, Inc. has done. That "2008 eBay Boycott – Not Just Noise website mentions a quote from Pierre Omidyar, that the primary aspect of eBay is the human side. The current management has made a such mockery of that original eBay concept that nothing less than a revolution can set things right. As ebay.com was collectively made by people power, so it will be remade by people power. With or without the nay-sayers, eventually we’ll win because, as Malcolm X used to say, “power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression.”

  Best,

  Lily

  
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  Katrina Anderson replied on Mar 22, 2008

  I wasnt going to post on here any more but i felt it necessary to make one more reply.

  Lily, at least you are being more open although still very political in your answers.

  I cant help but read into your post as being what i said about the whole concept of this WeBay. Its revolutionary, very dangerous and nothing less than a few people using the masses for an outright power struggle. At least you have finally come out and said your aim is to destroy Ebay.

  How can you say that revolution does.nt breed tyrany. In modern times alone, Persia, now Iran, Iraq, Rhodesia, ???? And many others too. I’m sorry, but people power as you call is revolution and is the breeding ground for tyrany and its showing here in the replies to my posts.

  Quote Phase V is not a slight against the alternative non-eBay sites of the present, but a vision for a better tomorrow we can make, starting today. unquote

  Very similar to a Carl Marx speech in the context and meaning.

  Quote It’s in everyone’s interest to have the ‘roads’ of commerce be well-kept, free, and not under the control of toll-masters.Unquote

  Commerce is Money and Money is commerce, so how can you take the money out of providing a service and not charge. Or are your intentions to go one further and reinvent the medium of exchange which is money.

  Quote The current management has made a such mockery of that original eBay concept that nothing less than a revolution can set things right. As ebay.com was collectively made by people power, so it will be remade by people power. unquote. Was it really made by people power??? or was it founded on the basic human frayilty of greed, albeit from both sides. That greed very much exists today, from both sides.

  I notice you very cleverly side stepped a point i made about wanting the whole thing too. 100% of online auction traffic. Is that really your aim??? If it is, then i would suggest your whole concept is about to create the very oppression that many have fought long and hard to destroy. Destroy competition and you have tyrany.