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PaperclipPerfector  18hr ago (text post)   721 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 20, 2026

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I am genuinely oblivious as to how I could possibly more ethically attach any string of letters to anything I produce that wouldn't fit the definition of internet pollution then. I genuinely just make titles and descriptions as short as possible with as many high relevance keywords (which is often like 2 to 4 and no more!) to direct real human people to my listings. How can I do it more ethically than that? I say that only robots probably read this because it's true, everyone in ecommerce knows that customers mostly only look at the picture. If I upload just the picture of my item then no one will find what I'm selling and the robots won't know the product details.

maybe a little harsh for mere product descriptions (but even those get optimized to the point of absurdity). I've just seen too many "content farms" generating fake blog posts gushing about some crap or other

everyone in e-commerce knows that customers mostly only look at the picture

Do you have a source for this? I find it hard to believe.

In a different comment you mention that you go to the trouble of seeking out "good-quality" sources. It seems obvious to me that customers can discern the "quality" of an item only from reading the description.

Sure, this is why Etsy, eBay and depop all collapse the product descriptions when you shop with them. Aliexpress too. Amazon only shows you the first few lines a lot of the time and then you have to click expand. I imagine only a small fraction of buyers take the time to read every item description fully before they purchase. Haven’t you seen listings that say “read desc” or “read description” in the title heading? That’s because everyone who’s ever spent time selling online gets extraneous returns citing a problem that was clearly stated in the item description.

It seems obvious to me that customers can discern the "quality" of an item only from reading the description.

Uhhhh a picture is worth a thousand words, a customer can be deceived into discerning the quality or lack thereof from an accurate or inaccurate description. Have you ever sold something online before? Or bought something? I personally at least skim item descriptions whenever I’m buying something but it’s still a crapshoot much of the time whether their images and descriptions even match the item I receive in the end. I think I am better at this than the majority of people in e-commerce but there’s still room for error and miscommunication and misperception of what is being bought or sold as there is always some margin for misunderstanding as there will be as language and images are fundamentally imprecise and experiences and expectations vary between people.

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