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There's been some kerfuffle lately among members who use IE6 to log into Etsy and Etsy's back end, namely, no matter where you are when you're directed to log in, even shopping in a particular shop, Etsy pops you back to the front page.
As said in another thread :
This also has to be playing hack with Etsy's website statistics. "hey, why are we suddenly getting a majillion extra hits on the front page? Is it out advertising? a link? that we forced everybody to go to the front page?"Forcing people to the front page just messes up the hit statistics something fierce. It just makes it harder to see where real traffic is coming from and real surfing patterns.
In yet another thread, admin HeyMichelle says they're working on it...with no other updates (which is the same thing she did in other threads on the topic).
And did Etsy feel the need to announce this to all members? aaahahahah as if they ever do! The unauthenticated message scares people from the site, and it also seems to be a bug with billing (yet another). These may be separate issues, but posters aren't seeing the difference, because it's on the heels of yet another change noone was informed about.
It's been a couple days now and there are no answers. No Dorque article, no member email about the changes to IE6 to accommodate users who have not yet switched to IE7, no forum responses (that we could find) beyond 'yep, something changed, all is well, we know about it - ignore your computer's warnings'
Yay, Etsy *clicks heels* you're always so predictable.
Admin McFunley gave this option:
If you bookmark your shop, then use the bookmark, you will be sent to your shop after logging in. If you have an existing bookmark, remove it and make a new one.
But members say it didn't work. There's also a point of forced redirect scripts, that the member quoted above pointed out reduces a page's rank in Google. I'm interested to hear more about this.
If you're an IE6 user you can upgrade to IE7, download another browser (like Firefox or Chrome), or just learn to love the front page. I don't think any of these are acceptable options for the top handmade venue to give their customers.
19 Comments:
It's not acceptable for a dozen reasons, the first being that this is a huge (and time-wasting) change for sellers and buyers using IE6 WITH NO explanation or forwarning from Etsy.
On top of all the other patterns in Bugs that have popped up for the last 3 weeks, it looks like Etsy Admins have flocked to D.C. to hear their figurehead CEO address a crowd of indie loving hair ornament wearers because they matter and HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Etsy sellers don't matter.
If buyers are getting pissed off when they get shoved to the front page whenever they log on and lose the page they are shopping on-----pissed enough to leave without spending money--------it will eventually filter down to Etsy's bottom line. Maybe THEN, they'll pay attention.
Etsy's announcement that their CEO is "open to comments from sellers" reeks of the same arrogant attitude of the entire Etsy staff. They are too busy to waste their precious (tweeting) time to treat sellers like they are the link to Etsy's ability to squeeze a lot of money out of millions of $15 items for sale that have little to do with quality handmade.
Their CEO is finally ready to talk to sellers? Sounds like someone granted an audience with the queen.
Etsy flat out ignore its sellers because they believe they have better things to do-------and get paid for it. Like pick their favorite ditties for all those cute little sarcastic and off the wall "guides" and "finds" emails.
Revolting.
Many months ago when I contacted Etsy about an issue I was told they were not trying to support IE users. They told me to use another browser.
About their CEO´s work:
One of my best friends went to one of those meetings they organized in Europe.
Her conclusions were:
1) BIG waste of time.
2) Stupid promises about currency/language options that they "maybe" consider to fulfill "one day" in a not too distant future... O_o
3) A lot of brainwashing about how wonderful Etsy is...
And that´s all! So I don´t really think their CEO wants to hear any seller...
And sorry for the off topic...
It pushed me to the front page on Foxfire too. I just redid my homepage link and fixed it.
I want to remind everyone that anonymous comments don't get posted. Please choose some sort of identifier (fake name, real name, number string, whatever).
We got this anonymous comment that has some new information so I wanted to pass it along before we delete it.....
"Etsy’s spokesman Brown says it will take a day fo... "Etsy’s spokesman Brown says it will take a day for the site to calculate the impact this has had on its traffic, but he’s certainly thankful for the attention. He says the interaction among the Etsy community is responsible for the site’s recent growth, with $32 million in sales this year through March. While e-commerce sites like eBay are finding ways to scale up with larger merchants, HE SAYS ETSY IS TRYING TO SCALE DOWN."http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/04/24/how-etsyday-grew-on-twitter/
Besides bugs and IE6, I truly believe that they are trying one more time that cheap, stupid and childish marketing strategist to scale down sellers from Etsy, people who doesn't full fill the hipster bill, naive sellers who think Etsy is the paradise of Handmade, just because they see a FP full of favorite Etsy people "who make the Etsy face" making them believe that their products will be featured for unreasonable minutes among the "hipstery stuff", come on Etsy don't wet it here cuz nobody can dry it!
My question is:
Why Etsy doesn't take the veil and say ok we went corporation (don't forget that they change banks and now they are with CHA$$E) we just want hip people that sell useless things under 15 box.
Come on Etsy say " We want to go "jury website" but our motto doesn't let us" but say something, don't treat your sellers like a piece of nothing we need some respect and honesty!
"While e-commerce sites like eBay are finding ways to scale up with larger merchants, HE SAYS ETSY IS TRYING TO SCALE DOWN."
WTF does that mean? Why does everything that comes from Etsy management so indecipherable doublespeak?
Etsy wants to make sure all site visitors see the front page as much as possible, even if they don't want to see it at all (I personally avoid it as much as technologically possible).
It's like making everybody enter a bricks-and-mortar shopping mall through a single shop that is orchestrated to distract them from their actual destination that lies elsewhere in the mall, and to which there are no signs directing them. If that other destination is your shop or mine, fellow laboring artisans, tough cookies.
"While e-commerce sites like eBay are finding ways to scale up with larger merchants, HE SAYS ETSY IS TRYING TO SCALE DOWN."
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I personally think it means, 'We have no interest in established artists or those who wish to establish a mature and thriving business. We are focused on acquiring as many new sellers as possible, particularly those seeking to make a quick buck by making what we like, and those who are making their first foray into selling of any kind.
Etsy wants new sellers who don't know what they are doing who are willing to throw money at their business and advertise etsy for free.
Some people post occasionally their etsy bill total and they are so getting ripped off.
The etsy infrastructure is kindergarten. Only new sellers with no other experience think etsy is great.
Etsy wants people who don't have a clue what they are doing so they can "sell them" on Etsy and keep them bamboozled so they keep spending money on etsy.
Etsy is a ponzi scheme, and like all such pyramid schemes, relies on attracting new and naive investors. The new and naive throw their time and money at it, and the only ones who reap rewards are those already at the top -- in this case, Etsy admin and their handpicked favorites. The vast majority of sellers will never be on the front page, never have a place in a gift guide they didn't pay for, never be a featured seller, and in all likelihood, never make a single sale that isn't to a friend or family member or a "trade" with another equally clueless new Etsy seller, since it is harder and harder for buyers to even find a shop that isn't promoted by Etsy admin.
Thanks RRobin because this IS the Etsy strategy in a nutshell, but it's also the lazy way out.
The rumors that Etsy "wants to scale back" is very revealing; instead of taking their huge size and figuring out its strengths, Etsy decided to fake it and just deal with the products their employees like AND that sell well. Easy pickings and less work. Branding is the next step, because Etsy can label their "accidental strategy" and give it legtimacy, despite the fact that it blows both their trademark and mission statement out of the water.
Ignoring the complaints from IE6 users, ignoring bug reports, ignoring most of their sellers, and refusing to finally fix the shopping cart to protect sellers reveals a consistent pattern of refusing to listen to their end users---------whether it be sellers, buyers, and even some of their biggest fans.
It's a popularity contest, and it's not a viable venue for quality handmade.
The biggest issue facing handmade sellers today (other than the fact that the bottom has fallen out of online retail) is that the new handmade sites have to make a conscious effort NOT to make the same mistakes that Etsy made.
It could have been a unique marketplace, but it's a short-lived experiment that turned into eBay2, no more, no less. The depressed retail economy will wipe out the weaker contenders and Etsy will eventually lose it's appeal. Branding will take them there sooner rather than later.
The Funny One says:
The biggest issue facing handmade sellers today (other than the fact that the bottom has fallen out of online retail) is that the new handmade sites have to make a conscious effort NOT to make the same mistakes that Etsy made.
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So true. But I'm getting concerned the alternative sites are using etsy as a model of success...
I've spent alot of time this week checking them out as a pretend buyer. At least one has copied etsy's categories exactly, including the 2nd level tags as "sub-categories" (which of course they're not).
Another mixes handmade and vintage together in search results. Sucks.
Just two of many examples.
The BEST thing about the alternatives is that most rotate front page items randomly. What a colorful change of pace!
Apologies for getting OT. The pyramid scheme analogy is right on.
Ugh, sorry. I have to follow up about my example that mixing vintage and handmade in search sucks. I just meant that it's a messy search, like etsy. I know etsy separates them.
Opps I didn't knew that my name didn't appear when I made the comment above, my apologizes to Etsy Bitch, well I found the information reading a topic in a group after the day that Etsy washed their hands like Pontius Pilate saying that they didn't have anything to do with the "guerrilla Marketing" the one, I believe was manipulated by them.
After reading forums about "the bug" and " FP"s" I feel surprise how people still in some sort of love and emotional attachment to Etsy, people worrying about: how come my google analytics don't show up???!!! They fix the bug but now my google analytics is in conflict??? I believe that never before we where worried about analytics like we do now, another "fantasy tool" that Etsy uses to hook their sellers, so they can have some entertainment while they do what??????
Absolutely nothing, Like the infamous trip to Europe, completely waist of time but hey I was in Paris and London !!!!
Promises and promises, they don't remember the time when a table, few chairs and furniture where in that room of a building in Brooklyn called Labs (now obsolete), with no prospects to be an Empire, just a site and place to share our handmade in the weekends.
to much to bitch about.....sorry for my English!
Maybe "scale it down" means they're going to trim some of the fat from the paid staffers. Usually, when a corporation "scales it down" that's what it means...that the employees are about to be downsized.
Waiting, we can only hope that's what it means.
This is looking like total business fail, and I'm not saying that because I'm not a huge seller. I believe in my work, and so do many other people.
I'm saying this, because it is run so MESSILY. The admins don't seem to know how to communicate coherently with their customers--us sellers.
For me, it's now nothing more than 2 URLs I can give folks to see my work. That, and a kick in the tush to get my own web site set up.
*hmph!*
IE6 is hell. Everyone using 6 SHOULD DEFINITELY upgrade to IE 8, Chrome of Firefox, actually. IE 6 is fricking ancient.
However, even more noteably, I've seen various reports that Etsy has rendering issues with IE 8.
Seriously, IE 8? The largest browser vendor comes up with a new version - no surprise, it's been in beta for like 2 years - and Etsy doesn't even bother testing their site with it?
i use firefox and i get taken back to the homepage when i log in via other pages on the site (i.e. when i tried to add something to favorites when i'm logged out).
I've also noticed that there are portions of the site that look a bit odd in IE6... such as, the menus on the right on every single listing page. The column is too wide, and it makes the gradient background look screwed up.
Please go back and read your CSS book, whichever incompetent ninny did this.
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