In the new kind of auction, however, something is missing. This auction is the online auction, and instead of a single person orally controlling the auction, there is only a website. Instead of a bidder being able to observe competing bidders in the crowd, there are only usernames. And yet these online auctions, led by industry behemoth eBay, have thriven. Across cultures and times, auctions have taken place under the supervision of an auctioneer whose voice commands attention and maintains order.
Online auctions have to create hypertext messages that somehow compensate for the missing orality.
This paper argues that eBay, and other auction websites like it, is actually not that different from the auctions of livestock, antiques, fish, tobacco, broadcast licenses, household goods, or myriad other items that have taken place around the world for centuries. On the contrary, eBay has maintained order and interest by mimicking the auctioneer's oral style and the rules of in-person auctions, but in a virtual space. Although eBay has received much criticism for its position, the position is very consistent with eBay's position that it is an online community. As Kenneth Burke has written, congregation requires segregation. Resisting outside indexers maintains the community upon which eBay's trust and safety is based.