orders ยท post 06 of 7 in this channel
Feedback on WeTheNorth market is short and it is public
It takes ten seconds and it is the only part of the transaction that other people will read.
the three wethenorth market addresses
hn2paw7zfvndw3dovycegeqmvvnf4pl67b3g2p7pohjlzavloosh73id.onionhn2paw7zrgujyhnt6mgxlt2q6uhgbke4itpqitxhyfbumq3wtnckbuyd.onionhn2paw7zadwkcra3qzv5e4q547i7e5lvxm62cfxqftuqdu7moiu2ceyd.onionprinted the way they were handed over. no labels, no numbering, nothing here says which one to try first. this feed never opens them, so it has no status light, no percentage and no date of checking to give you.
what it is for
It is the only reputation mechanism buyers have any part in. A market with no feedback is one where every vendor looks identical and the only way to learn is to lose money.
That makes it a small public good, and one that costs you almost nothing to contribute to.
what belongs in it
Whether it arrived. Whether it matched the description. Whether the packaging did its job. Whether communication was reasonable. Roughly how long it took, in relative terms.
Four or five clauses is plenty. The reader is scanning a list of these, not settling in to read one.
what must never be in it
Anything about you or about where you are. No city, no region, no details about the delivery, no times of day, no description of the outside of the parcel.
This is public and permanent. A detail that is harmless in a message becomes something else once it is written on a page anyone can read.
The habit from writing too much is at its most expensive here, because there is no undo and no private audience.
the mild ratings are the useful ones
Everyone gives top marks for anything that arrived. That inflation makes the whole system less informative, because a page of perfect scores tells you nothing.
An honest middling rating with one clear sentence about why is worth more to the next reader than fifty perfect ones. It is also the harder thing to do.
the pressure not to
Vendors care about ratings and some will ask you to change or remove one. Some will offer something for it.
That is a transaction converting the feedback system into a negotiation, and every time it works the ratings get slightly less useful for everyone.
You are allowed to leave it alone and stop replying. That is a complete response.
do it, and do it promptly
Feedback left later, if at all, is the normal pattern and it is why so many transactions leave no trace. The system only works if the ordinary uneventful orders get rated too.
Finalise, then rate, in the same sitting. It is the tidiest way to end an order and it takes less time than deciding whether to bother.
One more reason to be prompt: the details are accurate while they are fresh. A rating written from memory weeks later is vaguer, kinder and less useful than one written the same day.
Vague and kind is what most of the feedback on any market already is. Nobody needs another one.
And write it for a stranger, not for the vendor. The vendor already knows what happened. The person it is for is someone scrolling a list of ratings trying to decide, and one concrete clause is worth more to them than a whole line of thanks.
replies
a reader askedCan I edit feedback later?
the answerSometimes, depending on the market. Write it as though you cannot, because that is the safer assumption and it produces better feedback anyway.
a reader askedIs negative feedback risky?
the answerIt can attract a reply and some pressure. It is also the only thing that makes a rating system worth reading, and a market where nobody rates honestly is a market with no information in it.
a reader askedShould I mention how long delivery took?
the answerIn relative terms, yes, that is genuinely useful. Not in a way that pins down a date, because dates plus a region narrow things down more than people expect.
what this post is not Not a rating of any vendor. This feed has no vendor information, publishes no reviews and has never had a comment box.