By default, the
Negative/Neutral Feedback
Tool limits the output to 1000 "items" - negative or neutral
feedback, with or without any attached replies or follow-up
messages. Why?
- To keep the output below a reasonable size
- A page with 1000 feedback on it (some with replies and
follow-ups) is approx. 1.5 Megabytes of output. That's not
only a lot of information for you to read, it's also a lot for your
browser to load, and to store in your cache (also known as
Temporary Internet Files). Most pages on the Web are much smaller,
usually under 300kb. Even eBay works to limit the size of their
pages, by limiting the number of feedback items per page, just as
they do when browsing eBay's item listings, or when listing a
seller's items for sale.
- A thousand items gives an accurate picture
- Once you've scanned the thousand most-recent Negative and
Neutral feedbacks that a user has received or left, you've probably
learned everything you need to know. Did the majority of the FB
come from a small number of users? Did the FB recipient respond? If
so, how? Think about what you've learned by reading these items,
and ask yourself - "Will seeing more than 1000 items change the
conclusion I've drawn?"
- "Popular" feedback listings draw a crowd
- It's fairly common to want to share a user's results, whether
via e-mail or on a chat board or
discussion
group, on eBay or elsewhere. "Wow, check out how many negs this
person has!" While we're thrilled that you're spreading the news
about our tool, that often results in dozens or hundreds of people
all trying to see that user's jumbo-size list of FB. Putting a
limit on the output means that everyone will get a chance to see
the results within a reasonable amount of time.
- To reduce the load on the server
- Those of you who remember a previous version of the
Negs/Neutrals Tool may recall that it was shut down when it
overloaded the Web server. We're trying to keep the load on the
server to a minimum, both by improved programming techniques and by
imposing a voluntary limit on the tool's output.
Fortunately, there's no need to make this a mandatory limit, which
is why the tool has a checkbox to allow over 1000 items in the
results. If you need the complete results for a user with over 1000
items, you should feel free to check that box and load the full
results. All we ask is that you put a little thought into your
actions!