A little while ago eBay announced that they were going to no longer allow external links anywhere on the site, particularly on the About Me page (which was the biggest change). Many sellers, like myself, having heard horror stories about eBay enforcing policies before they are actually implemented, went ahead and quickly removed all of our links.

Well, if you haven’t had a chance to edit your links yet, don’t bother as eBay issued the following “fooled you!” today:

***A Message from John McDonald – Links Policy News for Sellers***

July 31, 2008 | 01:21PM PST/PT

John McDonald

Hello everyone…Back in May, I announced a number of important policy changes for sellers. One of the policies I mentioned was an update to our Links Policy which governs the types of links that can be included in a listing. Our Links Policy is intended to increase safety and preserve the buying experience.

After my announcement, we received questions and concerns from sellers about this change. At eBay Live!, our staff made it clear we would be going back to reconsider some aspects of the policy around how third-party links would be treated.

As promised, we’ve been reviewing all the different types of situations that our sellers have brought to our attention, and we’ve been meeting with additional stakeholders to understand how our policy update would impact them. After this additional research and discussion, we’ve decided to leave our Links Policy as it was before my May announcement. There will be no Links Policy updates at this time. (Please read the Links Policy for more information.)

I want to thank our sellers for your support and patience around this matter.

Sincerely,

John McDonald

Senior Director, Trust & Safety

This message was updated to clarify that the existing Links Policy published in Help prior to May will remain unchanged.