From examiner.com, an article (and issue) which is already starting to show repercussions.
'Off with his/her/their/your head!'  the Red Queen said.

15,000 eBay sellers lost their listing privileges today when eBay instituted a new policy regarding minimum performance standards. According to an email sent from eBay Customer Help to sellers who were experiencing difficulty listing items, eBay has “applied more severe actions (selling blocks and limits) to more sellers than ever in the past. We have moved the worst 15,000 sellers to Seg D (selling block) Issue 181.”

This is the much skewed DSR rating system in action.

According to the principles of ebaY mathematics, this would be a great way to recruit 150 thousand new sellers, since for every seller who leaves, 10 more are ready to take their place.

Still, wouldn’t it have been better to bar entry for bad sellers? Or is that just in the real world? Don’t places put bouncers on the outside?

Does John Donahoe know about this?

No word yet as to whether any of the sellers with higher rank (ei: sweetheart Diamond level sellers with horrendous feedback) are or will be affected.

If one small seller with 200 transactions per year has 1 DSR ding and/or negative review in that time frame, (or even over the course of a decade+) while another big box seller with a bazillion transactions per year causes 1900+ bad buyer experiences, which one is causing the most bad buyer experiences? Which one should be blocked and/or limited, Vs which one will be?

Another thing to consider, with all the fake and stealth accounts for sale, the scammers and ID thieves will be licking their chops, along with various get rich quick on ebaY ebook authors who sell instructions/tutorials on how to get back on ebaY. Or blocked/limited sellers can just cultivate their own.

Those situations of course made possible by ebaY’s other insane rules where they allow members to sign up as many accounts as they want with no limits and no real verification at the gate. Affected sellers wanting to get back on may be slowed or delayed for as long as 5 minutes. Great way to increase membership numbers!?

This is too much to absorb so early in the morning, and with so little caffeine..

Let’s just cut straight to Phase IV:

Hear the tolling of the bells –
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people -ah, the people –
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone –
They are neither man nor woman –
They are neither brute nor human –
They are Ghouls:
And their king it is who tolls;
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells,
Of the bells –
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells –
To the sobbing of the bells;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells –
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells –
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells

But don’t forget, you’re still welcome to buy from ebaY!  ;p