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EBay members can sound off

Users of eBay are getting new ways to tout their wares and coach one another on how to use the auction Web site.
/ Source: The Associated Press

Users of eBay are getting new ways to tout their wares and coach one another on how to use the auction Web site.

EBay Inc. has created eBay Wiki, a collaboratively written repository on hundreds of topics relating to trading on the site. Unlike forums, in which members respond to previous posts with new messages, wikis let anyone add, delete or change any item, so that the end result appears as a collaborative narrative.

Rachel Makool, the company's senior director of community development, said eBay wanted to lend more structure to member communication and make it easier to search for particular topics.

The company also said it will host blogs for members, going beyond the "about me" pages that users can offer with links to outside blogs.

She said the blogs are meant to make members "more comfortable with each other." For example, she said, by putting their pictures on eBay blogs, sellers might make buyers more confident about potential transactions.

The wiki is being created for the site by JotSpot Inc., whose founder, Joe Kraus, said few other consumer sites have embraced wikis so aggressively.

"This is wiki's coming of age in a way, and the beginning of what will be a trend," he said.