Hiya! So many gates, so little time!

Hello, dear readers!
I took some time off, did rehab, spent a few months with a glue gun and miscellaneous trimmings, got psychotherapy, joined a commune, got in touch with my inner child, and. . .

Guess what?

Etsy still manages to piss me off.

Have you been keeping up with Baligate?  With Registrygate?

Are you muted?

Was your shop closed down with no warning?

Have your sales vanished like a fey fairy hipster?

My fox still will not ride a bicycle.

I still hate beige.

It's time for this blog to come out of hibernation.

What do you want to talk about?

So many gates, so little time.

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.

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.

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.