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ebay's star-crossed user

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You have to marvel at our readers' capacity to take offence.

Online auctioneers eBay use a multi-coloured star system to show people how many other customers think they are good to do business with. The colour of the star shows the level of positive feedback.

But one user was not so chuffed to receive her first star. "I am absolutely disgusted that you refer to it as 'giving me a yellow star'," she complained to the company - as someone "who lost many family members in the Holocaust".

So why not, she suggested, use "gold star" instead?

An eBay spokesman explained the star system has been in use for nearly 15 years, without objection.

"Like other organisations, eBay does not use a hexagram or Star of David, but a typographical 5- pointed star, in various rainbow colours," the spokesman said. "It has absolutely no connotation to antisemitism and eBay does not tolerate the promotion of any racial intolerance on its site."

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