More admin factoids and opinions about the continuing Etsy circle experiment:"The number of circles someone is in some ways an indicator of their influence [sic]."
First of all, this sentence is missing a verb. Secondly, an indicator of their influence over whom or what, exactly? And again, how does one build the number of circles they are in? If this metric is going to serve as a yardstick against which Etsy measures a member's influence, how does a member improve this number, without resorting to spam? So far, the answer seems to be that you circle every single Etsy name you can find. Also, does "influence" equal "sales"? If not, who cares how influential you are?
"Many members are in hundreds of circles, and their favoriting and circling activity can end up having far-reaching impact."
Impact on whom or what, exactly? Honestly, who has time to look at all of this clutter in an activity feed, process the clutter, and then. . . shocker. . . buy something? I have never bought a listing I saw in my activity feed. Have you?
"It's a number that can be increased by sharing and be generous."
There's no doubt the number can be increased. Generosity has nothing to do with it. People are now madly circling anything in a blind act to be influential and impactful. It no longer has anything to do with personal taste, much less generosity. It's now become a desperate attempt to unlock the Etsy Success Code in the new social commerce experiment.
"Circles are about people, and people are behind shops."
I have to call bullshit here. Circles are about clicks, possibly about marketing the site and not the seller, maybe oh so slightly about actual sales. Circles are not at all about people, in this incarnation.
"Soon people will be able to have multiple shops on Etsy."
I'm sure that's news to many peoople who already have multiple shops on Etsy. If the intention here is to be able to run multiple shops without having to sign out and sign back in, that is one change that would be useful to many sellers.
"I've heard folks here [in the forums] refer to it as a popularity contest, but it's a much more democratic one than anything that has come before it here."
I want to diagram this sentence. People have refered to the Circlization as a popularity contest, yes. So, this sentence says it's a "more democratic" popularity contest? Like voting on Homecoming King and Queen? Also, this is the first time I've ever seen an admin admit that Etsy has not been democratic in the past.
sean11 is starting to crack.
I would like to summarize this from my point of view. I'm in a lot of circles. I'm signed in to Etsy for hours a day. I don't look at my Activity Feed, except to clear the number. I have never bought anything from my Activity Feed.
My perception is that it all comes down to clicks over commerce. The site looks more popular without actually selling more. It is a commerce site, after all.
Have we seen the February Weather Report yet?
That pretty well sums it up. I spent a couple of nights madly circling until I was maxed out just to see what would happen. I am now in 460 circles and after a huge spike of views and favorites things have gone back to where they were before....abysmal.
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