Etsy PipeGate

Rainbow disc glass art, courtesy of glasscoast on Etsy

Etsy is cracking down on creators of glass pipes that are being sold for medicinal and tobacco purposes, as discussed in this protest thread in Ideas. These pipes, or pieces of glass art for display, have been sold on Etsy since the site began. Sellers are being contacted via email by the content team about the listings that need to be removed. Etsy will refund their listing fees for the banned listings.

From prohibited items listed in the Etsy Dos and Don'ts: Drugs, drug-like substances and drug paraphernalia; items or listings that promote or support illegal activity or instruct others to engage in illegal activity.

Is the pipe drug paraphernalia? Is it handmade? Is it an artistic piece of work? Is it beautiful? Does it promote something illegal? Does it instruct you on how to use it to do something illegal? Can I use it to hold up a liquor store?

Here's the twist. If you click on Etsy help (Etsy likes it when you click stuff) and check out "What items can't I sell on Etsy?," the first thing mentioned is "All items in the handmade Categories must be made by the Etsy seller." No reselling. Also, vintage items must comply with the policies for Vintage. At least twenty years old.

As an Etsian, what do you find more distressing? Glass pipes? Resellers? Vintage that isn't vintage?

By the way, glasscoast, the artist who made the gorgeous piece above, is located in California, where it is indeed legal to smoke marijuana for medical reasons. I'm sure there are other listings on Etsy that are not legal in some corners of the globe. Do we need to remove listings for women's clothing that does not cover the entire body except for the eyes?

Or do glass pipes look worse than resold mass manufactured junk or 2001 vintage to potential investors?

Still more on Etsy circles

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?

Etsy Glamourgate

This lovely wedding dress was featured in a Glamour magazine spread about handmade wedding dresses you can buy on Etsy. Great news, right? Bring more traffic to Etsy! Support handmade!

Right. Except, you'll notice that the dress is no longer in the Glamour spread. Why? Because the dress is actually from Alibaba and is being resold on Etsy as handmade.

Threads about Glamourgate were closed here, here, and here.

I don't want to address resellers here, as a habit, but this is a big deal. Etsy lost credibility with a major publication that was providing free adverstising for the entire site. I doubt that Glamour will feature Etsy again.

Glamour magazine is published by Conde Nast Publications, a corporation that also publishes Vogue, GQ, House and Garden, Brides, Bon Appetit and Vanity Fair, in addition to many other popular magazines. Not a good corporation to lose credibility with.

Etsy's Rob Kalin speaks!

Rob Kalin, aka Rokali, spoke up in the Forums last week to address the Etsy community's concerns about recent changes.
Rob is the current CEO of Etsy.

He explained that the words in the header had been replaced with icons to facilitate a more international market, and to make the shopping cart more visible.

He said that the icons were handmade, "pixel by pixel."

He said that he appreciates all of the "negativity" and "criticism" in the forums, because they are more interesting and instructive than compliments.

He said that, "Over $1000.00 per minute is sold on Etsy," and they're monitoring how the changes affect sellers.

So far, so good.

On Etsy's new social networking focus:

"Shopping is itself a unique social experience. This is what we're designing for."

I would argue that online shopping is not a social experience. It's me being able to find what I want, at the price I want to pay, quickly and efficiently. A better search is more important than a social experience. If I want to browse, I will take the time to browse, and enjoy what I come across. I don't often involve anyone else in this process. Maybe I am abnormal.

On Etsy's new homepage:

"Etsy's curated spaces are going away. . . Instead of an admin deciding that every single visitor to Etsy should see a particular Treasury on the homepage, the homepage will be personalized."

I'm not sure how to translate this. On a positive note, we can hope that this will give a wider selection of Etsy sellers more exposure. On a negative note, I have to wonder how they will choose what will pop up on your homepage. Will these be treasuries curated from your teams, those in your circle, those with shops Etsy would suggest?

On finding friends on Etsy, or sending them to Etsy:

"For the 90% of people here on Etsy who don't have shops, we're seeing that finding people they know on Etsy has a huge impact on getting them to register, buy stuff, and stick around. . . we're building tools that ultimately help customers find you, which can be quite different than the tools that help you find customers."

I don't believe this theory, but then I don't buy into the entire "social commerce" vision. I'm not approaching this as a buyer only, though. I'm approaching it as a seller/buyer. Everyone I know also has heard about Etsy, through me. As a buyer, I shop a site and buy what I want to buy. If I enjoy a shopping experience, I will tell others about it. I would never use a "find your friends" function on a site as a buyer. Would you?

On improving sales numbers:

"The total $ value of sales on Etsy is up, so the changes we're making are improving the commerce side of this marketplace."

Actual January numbers showed that growth is slowing. Many of the changes Rob Kalin is discussing have been in place for less than a month. The figures for February have not been published yet.

On "Forum Migration":

"Our old forums ran on an outmoded infrastructure, one that we're not supporting anymore. The teams codebase was the future, and we migrated forums to teams."

I don't believe this one. The public forums that Etsy kept were converted to public teams. Others were killed off. Why? Teams (1) require more clicks to navigate, and (2) are not immediately visible to the ninety percent of Etsians who are buyers only. All forums could have been migrated to public teams, and the community would have been kept intact.

On continuity:

"If someone left Etsy in let's say 2006, and came back today in 2011, my hunch is that it'd still feel like the same place."

No. There are still people signing in, asking where the forums are. There are regulars who are confused about the new layout, and convinced that the changes in layout, forum structure, alchemy's "rest" and search have negatively impacted their businesses. If someone took a break around Thanksgiving last year and returned now, it would not feel like the same place.

In response to a seller saying they just want to sell their stuff, and have no interest in circles:

"What you're saying is you don't want to help yourself."

No, what the seller is saying is that they don't believe in your vision that circles will sell their stuff.

On how people buy online by searching, not by looking at favorites, either their own or others:

"That is how commerce currently works. . . we here at Etsy are not trying to uphold the status quo. . . I hope we discover much more, because that is the future I wish to invent."

Here we're getting down to the nitty gritty. Please, Etsy, uphold the status quo while it is still the status quo. I can appreciate wanting to predict the future and adapt to that, but I can also appreciate that people shop most of the time by searching for what they want to buy. Do you look at other people's favorite items in order to buy something 99% of the time?

Also, they're working on the search, tripling the content team which takes care of resellers et al, and working on a new listing process.

Sean11 goes on to explain how Circles and other networking are just extensions of the word of mouth advertising that has helped Etsy achieve the success it has seen thus far--word of mouth that was done by those of us who have been on Etsy for awhile. If you're favorited by someone with a "high circle count," this gets you seen by more potential buyers. Also, clicks on the Circle icon are growing by leaps and bounds.

Again, I can only speak for myself. I have quit using Circles pretty much completely. I'm just not interested in them. I don't spend nearly the time on Etsy that I used to a couple of months ago. I can't imagine most of the buyers I know personally using circles the way these guys think Circles will be used.

What do you think? This is a lot of information to process. What is it saying? And are you buying it?

Etsy shuts down new buyer's thread

A buyer who just joined the site started a thread in Site Help asking for help finding a seller to make a miniature for a 25th anniversary gift for his wife. Several Etsians provided information, noting that Alchemy and Promotions used to be ideal tools for finding sellers to create special orders.

Twenty minutes later, Admin Knickey slammed the thread shut with her canned response about finding the appropriate team. Nice. Way to welcome new users.

Saluting the Etsy muted, Issue 7

Fresh from being temporarily banished from the Etsy community!

kts815, one of the founders of the Unofficial Etsy Forums.
And archaicdesign, for calling out a reseller.

I wonder how many of those muted have been afraid to talk about it? Curiouser and curiouser.

We need an Etsy sympathy team

I posted awhile back about Etsy admin closing the forum threads for designedbylucinda. At least those threads were allowed to roll on for awhile before the door was slammed shut.

The other evening, a thread was started titled "Blessings to New Zealand," referring to the recent tragic earthquake in Christchurch. The original poster stated that they didn't know where else to post the thread; they just wanted to send blessings. Not asking for donations. Not asking for items for a New Zealand shop. Just sending prayers and sympathy to those effected.

Etsians offered news and support. This is one of the times I most love the Etsy community, when they offer both information and support for one another. That's what the forums once were, when they were at their best.

The thread was closed in about an hour, with lisajune referring people to the International Team.

There is no room for sympathy and information in the New World Etsy Forums. I guess it's just not constructive enough.

Etsy and the atmosphere of fear

When I joined Etsy awhile back, one of the things I appreciated most about the site was the ease of asking questions, getting and giving help, and striking up conversations and friendships. This happened mainly in the forums. At any time of the day or night, I could drop into the forums, ask a question, and get a quick answer. I might get several opposing quick answers, but at least there was valuable information to be had and exchanged.

Information is my drug of choice!

Since the forum changes, Etsians no longer know what they can and cannot post. Even admin doesn't seem to clear on the new rules. There have been any number of thinly veiled promotions all over Business and Site Help. Some people are working the system, but most seem to have no idea where to go, or what they can say, or how to behave in this New Etsy Order. New people have the door slammed on their questions and concerns, and are told to "go find a team. Any team. Start a team. There's a team." No real information or assistance.

It even reached a point where admin instructed people to email their forum posts to Etsy to see if it might be all right to post them. Because that is quick and efficient. . .

What I find most unsettling is the number of people who are talking about being afraid. "If I post this, will I be muted?" "I started a thread that was closed, and I don't know why. I'm afraid to ask." "I have been muted. If I tell people, will my shop be closed?"

There's a reason why I'm anonymous here, friends.

Etsy has turned from a small town of friendliness into a hostile environment of fear for a lot of people. Some of this fear is quite justified; many have been muted in the past few weeks, shops have been closed in the past after Etsians have spoken out, threads have been closed with disparate warnings. There's a heavy hand with no logic behind it.

And fear brings paranioa. Paranoia brings more fear. How can this be remedied?

Saluting the Etsy muted, fifth edition

It's Monday. Time to get out the gags.

cartoonmonster, for asking for clarification about how he was supposed to know not to post in threads that might be closed in the future.

JDWolfePottery, successful Etsy seller since the beginning, in 2007. Update: This was bad information, and JDWolfePottery was not muted.

And echoart, who never loses her temper or her cool.

Stop by and show their Etsy shops some love today.

Take the Etsy changes poll

Which of the Etsy changes do you dislike the most?
Take the poll over there in the sidebar.
Maybe you like them all!
Vote up! Cheers!

Saluting the Etsy muted, part four

This just in from the Mute Desk:

jenmaestre, amazing pencil genius artist, permamuted for calling out obvious resellers.

blackgermanshepard, whose Etsy shop has taken on an interesting look since the mute came down.

And eclipse, the opinionated and eloquent polar bear.

In other intriguing news, the muted are now being told who reported their posts. Nice of Etsy to further pit one seller against another.

Their definition of "community" is certainly different from mine.

I salute you, sisters!

Saluting the Etsy muted III

Just off the docket:

BeastieDesigns, forum rabble rouser.

ecovintagevegan, creator of lovely party boxes.

lastchantsstudio, who is moving to artfire.

Salute!

Addressing calling out and blog comments

When I started this blog, I thought about addressing both the "front page regulars" issue and the "forum cupcake/cheerleaders" issue. That would involve naming Etsy names. I'm not going to do that, and here are the reasons:
I don't want to personally attack anyone. We've had enough of that in the community, especially lately.
If there are front page regulars and cupcakecheerleaders, the fault of that lies squarely on Etsy as a corporation. They choose the front page listings, and they choose who to mute, close threads on, etc.
I'd rather spend my time here examining the larger issues than calling out individuals. If individual sellers are part of the larger issues, then Etsy is ultimately responsible for those issues.

Now, onto blog comments. It would be hypocritical of me to delete comments here that I don't agree with. If I'm going to give Etsy a hard time for closing threads and muting sellers, I can't exactly pick and choose who gets to comment here. I don't agree with the comments posted about the recently muted. Everybody has their views.
If comments get out of hand, I'll get rid of them.
Honestly, it's just nice to know that someone is reading this, because I think the topics I'm writing about are essential to those selling, and even buying, on Etsy.

Information is my only drug of choice.

Saluting the Etsy muted II

urbangipsy, who got an indefinite muting today. She opened shop in January of 2007.

Archivia, who received a one month muting for saying "Seriously gross" in an Etsy forum thread.

BlueKittyMinatures, another well-respected member of the Etsy community.

Christina Perdue, longtime Etsy seller and one of the organizers of the donations for designedbylucinda.

On a postive note, Admin signs your muting email "All the best." That has to count for something, doesn't it?

I'm sure there are more mute-ees who I haven't listed. I've seen the recent count at fifteen. My guess is that there will be a lot more before this is all over.

Saluting the recently Etsy muted

Recently muted under the new Etsy forum policies:

FancyPantsAndMore, who I cited in the post below for being part of the group organizing efforts to help designedbylucinda. One of Fancy's mute-able posts was, "Yippee Diane!" She got a thirty day mute from the forums.

ArtmakersWorlds, for posting "Bite me" to no one in particular.

KarmaRox, who has been an Etsy seller since 2007, and has offered help and warmth to many in the forums.

All three spoke up against the changes currently occurring on Etsy, and were chastised for being "too vocal" in the forums. Too vocal? Interesting turn of phrase there. There is at least one seller who can no longer post in the forums who hasn't received a muting notice from Etsy yet.

The results of these mutings are twofold: There are those who see this as a challenge and want to ramp up the fight, even if it results in their own muting. And there are those who see this as both frightening and intimidating, and are now wary of speaking in public. In the past, Etsy has found loopholes for closing down shops when sellers have spoken out. What a great way to build a more social shopping site that's all about community. Micro-economies indeed.

Imagine trying to sign in to Etsy, and finding your shop gone. Hours and hours of work, customers waiting on shipments. Gone.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.

And to the muted, this fight isn't over.

For more details, check out this thread over on the UEF.

Etsy closes threads for designedbylucinda

I posted about designedbylucinda and her tragedy a couple of days ago. The Etsy community came together, as it often does, to offer support, thanks to threads started by FancyPantsAndMore and kts815. Two other threads were started by rtisan and amystreasureattic. Thanks to all of you for alerting the community so we could all help out.

RobWhite closed the two faster moving threads:
FancyPantsAndMore's thread Sad News
kts815's thread Links for Lucinda

Yes, the threads linked to other sites, and there was mention of donating in the threads. However, with all of the fracturing of the community of late, seeing sellers band together to support one of our own reminded many Etsians, myself included, of one of the reasons why we are still a part of this site. Closing those two threads seemed harsh and unnecessary. Why they were closed was not explained.

On a positive note, you can shop at the Helping Hearts shop on bigcartel. All proceeds from this shop will go to designedbylucinda, and all items are donated by Etsy and other sellers. Beautiful stuff there.

Thanks to the following people for all of their work:
FancyPantsAndMore
kts815
Christina Perdue
AprilMarieMai
EarthgrrrlCrafts
Paperika

You can also check the Unofficial Etsy Forums for updates and ways to help and donate.

My thoughts are with Cindy and her family.

The anatomy of an Etsy thread closing

You can view the original thread here. Basically, everyone on Etsy is currently looking for clarification on what the New Improved Forums allow, and where. Apparently, Site Help is no longer the place to discuss specific issues. I'm going to take a look at the wording lisajune used to close the thread.

Quote: "I know we used to, very recently even, host space in these Forums for all kind of discussions."

Translation: "Last week, you could freely discuss your concerns and ideas here. Remember that? Well, it's over now."

Quote: "That said, the number of sections in our main Forums, and the kind of content appropriate for our main Forums has become more narrow."

Translation: "Doesn't anyone notice that half of the forums have vanished? Along with those forums, we have sacrificed your ability to discuss specific issues. By specific issues we mean anything you want to discuss. By narrow we mean nothing. Silence. See all those closed threads? Yours is next."

Quote: "These discussions we definitely still welcome on the site, but importantly within a team context."

Translation: "Get your unhappiness behind the closed doors of a team. No discord here. No promotions, either. No saying you're lost. No trying to help those who are lost. Start a team. Start a hundred teams. Those teams each generate countless clicks and are fairly invisible to the outside world. T-E-A-M. Got it?"

Quote: "If you have any other questions, you're welcome to being a new thread."

Translation: "Being is a typo. I've closed 300 threads today, and I'm weary. I'm lisajune, not Himmler. You can start a new thread with a new question, but I will most likely have to close that thread too. Why not just go to your team and throw your fit, like a good Etsian, huh? lisajune needs a break here."

Quote: "If you'd like to discuss topics from closed threads--in their appropriate context--you're more than welcome to begin the discussion anew."

Translation: I have no idea what that means. My babelfish is broken for that sentence.

lisajune loves adverbs.

Announcements: Welcome to the new Etsy Forums

Let's examine the most recent Admin post about the forums, from RobWhite on February 4, 2011.

Quote: "With fewer sections and a narrower focus, our hope is to encourage more participation in the great discussions that happen here from everyone"
Translation: "Etsy has ripped out most of what you use here, and will not tolerate you going off topic. By 'more participation' we actually mean shush."

Quote "That includes us; you'll be seeing more of the Forum Teams contributing to discussions as well."
Translation: "We will be monitoring and policing the remaining forums with iron fists. God forbid you discuss anything in a manner we do not consider 'constructive.' Also, do not discuss the site in the Site Help section."

Quote: "In an effort to keep a tight focus on the purpose of each section, you may see us closing more threads than you're accustomed to."
Translation: "You're going to hear doors slamming from one end of the internet to the other."

Quote: "Threads that don't fit in the existing sections of the new Etsy Forums are ultimately best placed in teams, so we'll need to close threads that don't fit."
Translation: "Shush. Find a team. Make a team. Whatever. Go look at your circle. Just get out of here. Also, dissenters will be silenced or heckled."

Quote: "Please keep in mind that we're happy to host your critical opinions in the Ideas space, but in order to be helpful and provide a good environment for community discussions it's a necessity that that criticism be constructive."
Translation: "Etsy is now defining the term 'constructive' with their new Etsy dictionary. Etsy-constructive does not include the following: honest criciticism of the site, questions about the underlying, overall plan behind the recent changes, requests for improvements that most users want, or calling anyone obscene names."

It seems that the RobWhite of the Care Bear days has been replaced by some double speaking automaton. Sadly, he forgot to end his post with "Cheers!"

Greetings and salutations

"The extreme always seems to make an impression." One of many great truths I learned from the movie "Heathers."

Why am I here? I've been buying and selling on Etsy for a couple of years. I have supported and promoted this company, recruiting other buyers and sellers along the way. I have put countless hours into this site, all the work of listing, customer service, selling and becoming part of a community that I have grown to cherish. And I kept my sense of humor and rarely bitched about the sporadic nature of sales, the invisibility of shops, even the unpredictablity of those running Etsy and their many ill-advised, badly timed and incoherently explained changes.

Then, they recently did three things that caused me to lose my sense of humor:
1. Mucking up the forums, obliterating certain sections, policing the remaining sections like Nazis, and creating the horrifying abyss of a mostly useless billion teams.
2. Giving Alchemy "a rest" while it is "tweaked," managing to wipe out some sellers' businesses with one flippant announcement and providing no date for its reopening.
3. Introducing the EtsyFacebook revolution, involving mining data from members' email address books, circles of senseless promotions, and a gift finder button that automagically links to your Facebook account without notification.

These three announcements and changes were made in about a week's time. Etsians are reeling with the implications of what has already been announced and what might be announced next. I want to use this blog to examine and analyze what's really going on. That can no longer be done on Etsy proper, because threads are being closed with lightning speed if they are not deemed "constructive." Your constructive post is my antiseptic party line.

As Christian Slater said in Heathers, "You say tomayto, I say tomahto."

Let's see where this goes. And please feel free to chime in and let me know what you've seen, how you feel, and what it means to you.

To use a popular thread closing word, "Cheers!"