I just noticed that YJA is now partially obscuring names of bidders... sigh...

Yep, noticed this too. eBay may have started a trend.

and sooooo crafty.

Blah. Noticed that earlier today.
Fucking sucks.
Gives way for more shill bidding.

It's disappointing. From reading the rxh thread some of those go for crazy prices and this might make it worse.

Call me daft, but I don't really see the point of scrambling the names? It's rather annoying. I like to guess or see the names of competitors

It's set up to protect winners or bidders from receiving spam and bogus fishing emails. Sometimes after I'd lose and auction I'd get a bogus email saying.."the first bidder lost because of blah blah and you've won please email me etc" ..You know trying to get info.

But what it does is in effect is hide..shill bidders. People now can 'fake' bid anonymously to raise to price.

Ahhh right right. OK always wondered that but couldn't quite understand it (I originally thought it was to protect bidders knowing other bidders identities) but that makes sense. I got those emails a few times and immediately trashed them figuring it was just that- a scam.