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Comment by p09p09p09 | Hacker News Reader

The worst enemy an online community has are trolls. The worst enemy an online community like AirBnB has are psychos and serial killers.

I really don't get this startup. Might as well post "I need somewhere to crash" on Craigslist.

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Staying on Airbnb is really quite different than crashing somewhere on Craigslist.

Airbnb: - has a fair reputation system with real user reviews - handles all payments - withholds payment to the host until 24 hours after your stay begins - has 24 hour customer service line to help

With Craigslist: - there's no reputation system - you have to coordinate payments directly with an unknown 3rd party - there's no one you can call

I haven't even gone into the differences in how Airbnb facilitates your search for accommodations. Airbnb and Craigslist are fundamentally different services.

You can see reviews of the hosts, pictures of the rooms, and compare with other places. That certainly weeds out the psychos and serial killers way more than a random posting Craigslist.

How well have pictures and reviews worked for eBay? And how do the standards for eBay compare to those for AirBnB?

I don't know about the pictures thing, but the reputation system works pretty damn well. I buy stuff off of ebay regularly and find that especially high profile sellers do everything they can to keep their reputation up, because otherwise they lose potential clients.

You just really do need to ingrain into the community that a good reputation is essential, damnit, and don't buy from someone that doesn't have one. Then the sellers conform to that.

I was under the impression that reputation on eBay was gameable, so much so that I actively avoid eBay.

How so? I think you can trick people into reviewing before they get their item by prompting feedback with an email, but not everyone falls for that and also it's sort of hard to gather substantial reputation like that (100+)

EBay's reputation system is a joke People routinely create fake accounts, farm for reputation by making lots of low-value purchases, then wait a few weeks until you cannot browse the details of their purchase history.

Once that happens, they move from buying or selling recipes for $0.99 to trading laptops, scam a few people, then vanish.

The reputation system is probably (read likely) gameable, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have any value. Ebay has a very buyer friendly system system that the risk of getting scammed is pretty low if you follow the rules set for Paypal.

Actually eBay is quite safe to buy if you pay via Paypal. eBay has a policy of 45 day return period during which you can file a case in eBay resolution center under "item significantly not as described" and send the item back to the seller, eBay will then refund the full amount you paid to the seller (price + shipping). However, you have to pay for the return shipping. I believe payments via Paypal on a 3rd party website are also covered by the same policy. This makes it very safe to buy from eBay or through Paypal. I feel more secure buying from eBay then buying from a local retailer.

Of course. If I can see an online photo with good comments, it must be legit. My bad.

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