Ode to eBay – Goodbye to the Best Minds at eBay

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When things go wrong, people naturally lament.  Sometimes they express themselves in prose...

 

Ode to eBay

 

Came to this land,

 

To survive another day..

 

Day after day, still too bland

 

Hung on by just a strand,

 

Until I landed at eBay.

 

It was a beacon of light

 

Its foes cowered in fright,

 

The strength of its community,

 

Granted it virtual immunity

 

Under custodians sight,

 

No one dared slight,

 

Unto this giant's might.

 

As with all blinding power

 

The custodians went slowly sour

 

Took the community for granted

 

Seeds of dissent met with dour

 

The ecosystem was finally salted.

 

Failed at my task I did

 

Couldn't raise enough to bid

 

Change for even an hour

 

To lighten up the day

 

Of even one user on eBay

 

Some will be sad, some happy

 

A few ambivalent,

 

Some downright ecstatic,

 

That I am leaving eBay

 

Losing all right to preach,

 

I urge one and every each

 

Heed the user, not the ladder

 

Now is the time, now the hour

 

Give more than is your due

 

To restore this mighty power

 

To what was known as eBay.

 

 

Monday, October the 13th will be my last day at eBay. And no, I was not laid off, rather my decision to exit into the current hellish market environment is entirely voluntary.

 

I express my sincere gratitude to all who keep the miracle of eBay alive.

 

-Raghav Gupta

 

For those who do not remember, or did not know... 

Raghav Gupta - Created the "BayEstimator", invented and built eBay's new relevance search algorithm (aka Best Match), contextual keyword extraction algorithm (for eBay AdContext), the Related Searches algorithm, real-time geographical distance computation algorithm for searching/sorting by distance, and many others.

See our previous posts about the eBay Estimator tool here:

The "Ode to eBay" by Raghav Gupta from Dr. Mark Boyd's Blog - Research Scientist at eBay

0 thoughts on “Ode to eBay – Goodbye to the Best Minds at eBay”

  1. The movie and computer game will be next.

    Bidding has opened for the titles – top runners are -

    For the movie
    1. One flew over the Consultant’s Nest
    2. A Fee too Far
    3. Desperately Seeking Something
    4. Bidtanic
    5. 5-Star Wars *

    * Needs cleared with George Lucas, and a now-defunct pop band, first.

    For the computer game
    1. Lemmings
    2. Star Star Black Sheep
    3. Dolphins & Donuts
    4. High Risk
    5. Bored of the Dings

    Gaz

  3. And the brain drain continues — another one hits the door and makes comments as they leave.

    When folks leave eBay voluntarily, it is clear their is no longer any hope in San Jose.

  4. Scott,

    Thanks for the update on Raghav. I don’t remember meeting him at the eBay Development Conferences, but I did not attend the technical sessions.

    Sadly, my favorite line is “Heed the user, not the [corporate] ladder.” It took incredible confidence and high standards to leave. Kudos to Raghav.

  5. It appears I may owe you an apology Scott, I took my definition from Dictionary.com, “prose,” in Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Source location: Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prose.
    “the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.”

    Maybe we are both right citing reputable sources as we have. I will annotate the original post to reflect this.

    Thank you for sharing that information.

  6. As a small seller who’s been driven into leaving Ebay after 10 years I am one of those that are happy to hear he’s leaving. Best Match has been the small seller’s downfall. His Best Match nonsense is probably responsible for thousands of us leaving the site. If you want to see the biggest smile from me – get rid of king JD!

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