Relevance Search

When I search grave digger the first relevant listing that comes up is someone selling a cracked account

Working as intended obviously.

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Right now it appears to be the most recent listing that matches? Which just kind of… sucks?

Actually no, it is recent listings first but not directly most recent. What else goes into this? It seems crappy random listings that are recent are being put first.

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I applaud this change in principle but it still has to be effective.

This is just one example where my items are now even more buried than they were before.

I carried out a search for the game “circuit breaker” and found that there were over a dozen items returned ahead of my listing that didn’t even feature the word circuit.

I checked my listing and discovered between the title and the information on the game the words circuit breaker were referenced 5 times. As I understood that seller’s were being punished for repeated reference to keywords I deleted, as a test, 4 of the references to the words “circuit breaker” and when I carried out another search I had to go 5 pages into the search results to find my listing with just “circuit breaker” in the title.

I have put up a few images of the original search and one of the listings that was displayed higher than me so that readers can see that the listing doesn’t have the word “circuit” in it.

At the minute the system is clearly not fit for purpose if a buyer searches for something and has to dig up to 5 pages into the returns to find what they’re looking for or gets returns that don’t even feature the keyword you’re searching for.

Just to test if the Anti-Spam was actually hurting the worst offenders I checked a couple of AAA games.

It would appear that the anti-spam/keyword stuffing seems to not be effecting them. In fact the little guy seems to be even worse off.

Here is an example of Rocket League and Metal Gear Rising: Vengeance. In the second one I checked the guy that was second last on the listing. He/She has no spamming or stuffing and is getting their reward: Buried at the bottom of the pile.

ROCKET LEAGUE

METAL GEAR RISING: VENGEANCE

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I believe that some bias in terms of listings should go towards the actual title.

For example if I type in Smash Bros that it should show bias towards the listings with Smash Bros in the title before then displaying items that have “Smash” and “Bros” in the body of the listing.

This is another example of how badly the current algorithm is working. I am selling an indie title called “Shotgun Legend”. Nothing special but it is the only copy listed on the platform. So, you would think that naturally my listing should be the first return that anyone would get when they search for “Shotgun Legend”. You would be very wrong. It is the 4th last out of around 60 titles (which for convenience sake I have filtered to Games as the current search platform has an outrageous liking for DOTA 2 In-Game Items :))

I have put up a picture of the first 24 listings. You’ll see that the JPEG is cut off but 19 of them are identical listings from the same seller. Thankfully this time his listing actually includes the words shotgun and legend but not in the title and not together.
Once again every time I carry out a search the same sellers who created this spam-fest are at the top of the returns.

Pedja-Games has already covered in great depths the many issues with the non-instant delivery sellers who list en-mass and buy and sell the cheapest key they can find from other platforms to supply their buyers:

PICTURE OF A SEARCH FOR SHOTGUN LEGEND

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Thanks for one more example why non-instant delivery sales kill this marketplace, at least for selling codes.

PLEASE GAMEFLIP, limit this somehow! Allow people to list max 10 non-instant digital items daily, not more. And limit expiration date for single non-instant delivery item to 7 days. Just imagine me posting hundreds of best selling titles whole day easily (copy of a copy of a copy…) with 1 year expiration. And now imagine if I add same description for all of those listings (for sake of this thread and with broken search algorithm) where I write “check my other listings - available Doom, Prey, Far Cry, Call of Duty, (and every game possible)…” Getting the picture?

I think the non-instant delivery code sellers just buy the code after its sold, which makes it very lucrative for them. Profit with no up-front. Add the search abuse with that and its just an easy service to exploit :confused:

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I have updated almost 40 pages of listings to ensure that all my listings are spam free.

I made a conscious decision when I started with Gameflip to do something different and provide Buyers with a good deal more information to inform their decision.

I largely sell games so I provide a Full Price on Steam, a Rating on Steam, a Full Description of the Game, a List of Key Features, a Link to the Game Listing on Steam, Installation/Activation Instructions on Steam and top and bottom of the listing I post my Shop Name. I also post an image with my shops banner and Instant Delivery displayed on it.

Most listings are about 4-5 lines but mine has about 20 - 25 Lines in it.

During this very arduous task (which isn’t finished :stuck_out_tongue: ) I have continuously reviewed where my listings have been placing when I carry out a search and have noticed that they almost invariably place in the last 5-10% of all listings. I have revisited them to see if this has changed and still see nothing of note in this department.

So, I am interested to know. Is the listing eternally ruined if it was flagged for stuffing/spamming, is a user punished for providing too much information in the listing (quite a lot of the listings around the bottom have more information and the ones at the top have 4-5 lines maximum) and/or what is the algorithm for listings? I have 800 + Positive Reviews but there are alot of Sellers displayed above me with less.

I disagree with biasing the listings displayed purely on Ratings, it is anti-competition, favours the Spam-Merchant 1-3 Day Sellers who have already been established on this and multiple other platforms.

At this rate If I keep being buried, in some cases several pages behind the top listing, I am going to have to consider abandoning Gameflip. I will give it a few weeks to see if I somehow climb the listings or my sales pick up but I would have sold a few items a day and averaged about 130 sales a month (which is nothing really but a place I was happy at) but in the last 3 days I have literally sold nothing.

I do not want to have to post only the name of the game in the listing information like many other sellers nor do I think that sellers should have to intentionally gimp their own listings to be displayed more favourably on a search return. I also don’t want to become a loss leader in the hope of stimulating sales when I am already listing my games below G2A prices as a rule of thumb.

Interested to see the view of others, your experiences so far and the thoughts of Gameflip.

New search is bad, possibly even worse than before. Wait until they fix it maybe.

I will give it time and hopefully Gameflip tweak the search recipe some. :yum:

I’ve invested alot of energy into building my shop and reputation up from nothing and am abundantly aware that alot of Gameflip’s energies are probably being directed towards the waves of rate first scams and account sales that seem to have arisen on the platform.

I am hopeful that it will get sorted but it is a frustrating affair as tweaking and / or relisting game postings to the scale I’ve done and may have to do further, if nothing changes, is very time consuming and frankly not worth it for me.

Hey guys, thanks for the opinions and feedback.

I’ll take them into consideration and talk to the team whenever possible.

If you have other suggestions, just continue the conversation here.

Thanks!

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Hi Dunn,

Good to hear. :+1:

All of my original suggestions would still appear to be relevant (pun intended :P) as the current search system appears to be incredibly broken still.

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One suggestion that I would make is that more weight be given to the title of a listing when it comes to keyword searches.

I am currently searching for a game called Forestation and I have gone 25 pages deep (this was enough for me to give up and I was trying to show where it ended up!) with DOTA 2, Rocket League and other in-game skins with Forest in the title or description looking for the only thing on Gameflip that actually has that entire word in its title or description.

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@DunnBiscuit
Is this kind of abuse and spam allowed?

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I have been selling 106 grave diggers and this has been incredibly frustrating.

These listings clogs 70% of the front page 100% of the time, and it clogs 50% of the subsequent pages as well.

Now, say if someone else start doing something on this scale as well… there won’t be any space for new listings…

Since i am also a big seller i don’t want to escalate this by doing the same which will spiral out of control. But please, i’d love for this type of carpet listing to be restricted.

  • The Golden Llama
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It’s the same spam with PUBG items in the “steam games” category. I dont know that they can do anything against it. It’s a well known issue by now

Ive had 15 identical listings for in-game items for two reasons .

Theres no way to make multiple sales in one listing .
and
If i get scammed in a big bundle the loss is way bigger .

( had 15 stacks of herbs, 15 listings , all got bought by the same guy in less then 20 seconds . )

Yeah it’s been super annoying to deal with as of late. That black mortimer guy has 10 pages+ of the same gun. It really isn’t necessary.

Hello, if you think any user is abusing of the marketplace, please PM me and report he/she to me.

Also please create a ticket about the issue and send it to me via PM.

Thank you.