I'm not a power or high-volume seller, so I don't have as much experience as most of the sellers here. However, I also don't have the emotional attachment that most of the people upset by this policy have.
Having said that, I think the new FB policy is a good idea. The old policy protected ALL sellers. It protected good sellers from bad buyers, but it also protected bad sellers from good buyers. If a seller ripped off a buyer, all he had to do was retaliate with negative feedback and request a mutual withdraw. Bam, no more negative feedback. Sadly, many buyers probably never even left negative feedback in the first place, fearful that they would get one back.
The result? Horrible sellers with ridiculously high feedback ratings, and an entire generation of buyers that were "turned off" from ebay because of 1 bad transaction.
Ebay had a web seminar that I thought was very interesting. You can view it here: https://www110.livemeeting.com/cc/vcc-ic03/viewReg These are the slides I thought were most relevant to the FB changes:
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/9172/slide5zp3.png
"Bad buying experience" is the #1 reason buyers leave ebay, and the #3 reason they buy less. And people wonder why "Most buyers are also sellers." All the buyers left!
http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/8623/slide9kj5.png
Notice how inflated seller feedback ratings are compared to DSRs. Buyers are afraid to express their true feelings about the transaction.
http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4836/slide10kr8.png
This is the stat Jeff was referencing. Sellers retaliate with negative feedback 8 times more frequently than buyers.
I don't think the sellers on this forum have anything to worry about. The few bad apples that would abuse the system are vastly outnumbered by good, honest buyers. The people who should really be worried are the bad sellers: the scammers, the counterfeiters, and those who charge $20 shipping for $.99 items. They are the ones who will be affected, not you guys. In the long run, I think sellers will benefit greatly from the new policy. More buyers = more business = more money to ebay and sellers.
-Geoff