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If you live in San Francisco - then clear the evening of June 9
Etsy is doing a summer tour, visiting cities where they hope their cupcakes will grab a beer with them. They're posting the information in the Dorque, making it even more likely they're aiming for a particular audience. Well, on June 9 at 6pm, San Francisco sellers get a chance to meet admin. There's an RSVP form and all of the information in the Dorque article.
So get down there and give 'em what for! They can't pretend to respond in person (unless rokali's on air appearances are any indication, then they will likely pretend to be smart). And while you're there - can you tell them Righteous says "communicate you bastards", because this was yet another thing not sent to all members.
Oh, and if you live new San Mateo, CA, they're at Maker Faire this weekend so you get a chance to speak your mind, too.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
San Franciscans Listen Up!
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14 Comments:
Golly gee OMG! What luxury hotel will be "Etsy's home away from home" for the next 3 weeks!?! You know, the one where no (real)artisan could afford a reservation?
Heads up, Etsy (to coin a fave phrase)! This is what you do when you travel to a location and offer to meet with your sellers (in a bar, no less).
You take one of your fulltime, paid employees, and sit them down to do a complete search on your very own site for ALL the sellers who live in that location.
Then you PERSONALLY send each one an email invitation to your event.
That, dear Etsy, is PUBLIC RELATIONS. And while we know you aren't known for being up front and personal with your very own sellers, the LEAST YOU CAN DO IS SIT DOWN and have enough respect to INVITE YOUR SELLERS to meet you.
Buried in the Dorque just doesn't cut it anymore.
I am 60 years old. A native San Franciscan. Selling arts and crafts since 1967 (beginning with tie dye shirts)I was in every craft fair there ever was around here for years and years, until they became Disney-fied corporate.
Selling in boutiques and galleries all over the world for years, hand painted silk scarves. The dot com invasion and resultant landlord greed fest completely destroyed my art career.
I have lived in one tiny studio apt for the last ten years, trapped. I no longer have a studio to create art work. I once owned a non-profit theater before it was dot commed to oblivion. I made the sets, costumes and PR graphics etc.
I am not alone. Tens of thousands of artists were forced out in the last 15 years.
I have attended several of the Etsy Admin in SF meetings the last few years. Personally I am so upset with Etsy Admin right now (always have been) I would have to be feeling very composed on June 9th to attend.
The Etsy on GMA promotions in recent weeks trolling for new sellers is so appalling and such a slap in the face of current sellers in this economic downturn I am stunned.
But I cannot believe that my only venue for selling is reduced to on-line internet selling. Selling on-line is hugely default for me personally. I have so much reent ment about computer reality ruining San Francisco that it is like Sleeping with the Enemy for me. The kool aid for me is: I like to sell my art, even under duress, I need to sell my art, I always have. I can't quit just because there is such a huge amount of duress and ugly behavior to contend with on the internet. There are many days days when I just say Why Bother? Mostly because of how irresponsible Etsy Admin is. I feel trapped by the internet, not just Etsy Admin.
I starated a twitter account only for the purpost of being PR for a protest committee in San Francisco, Our Mayor is trying to sharge entry to the San Francisco Aroboretum in Golden Gate Park. Thousands of people have signed our petitions. It is a huge scandal how this is all going down. The Mayor of SF reminds me of the Etsy Admin gang. Spouting off how sustainable and green and gay friendly they are, hipster all, but really Gorden Geckos in green costumes, greedy, arrogant and entitled as all get out.
I am already in the cross hairs of least favorite etsy seller bulls eye, I am slightly anon here. I twitted this blog today for the first time because of the local SF slant. I have a lot of twitter followers in Sf. Including the Sf City District Attorney who followed me first, as I said the Golden Gate Park scandal is not yet exposed fully yet. I earned 5 points twitting this blog. What does that mean? I don't really care I loathe soundbites. And there I am twittering away like a lemming to the sea.
If I go to the June 9th meeting I will definitely report back.
It is time for another Etsy Bitch video ! I need a world class laugh, over and over again. Pretty Please !
Im going to be there.. i think it will be a great opportunity.
Please make peacekeeperredux a video! Wristeroni?
Yes! Go June 9th and be a bloody thorn for all of us. And be sure to ask them what hotel they're staying at.
A note to some recently rejected commenters:
No ANONYMOUS comments. Choose a name, any name. We're not perfect in catching these, but we WILL reject them if we catch them in moderation.
No personal attacks. If you want to give constructive criticism, do so without calling names or insulting other commenters and/or sellers. Even if you do this with your real name, we won't let it through.
I don't have a lot of faith in your call to action.
Has anyone else noticed that the posts in the forum are getting dumber and dumber?
It used to be real artists/artisans looking for info on marketing or technical info or which craft shows were productive. Now it's all brutally basic stuff like "I maked a sell what do i do now?" or "where do i find any supplies for the stuff they sell at Michael's crafts?"
The people who might show up in attempt to shake some sense into Etsy are like parents trying to shake teenagers. Any others who show up will be other youngsters who will whore their Etsy favor in hopes of getting a gg or fp or storque feature somewhere.
My main concern is that Etsy travels to select cities and puts out a lame article in the Dorque and expects that to be an apppriate invitation to sellers to come and meet the "real Etsy (overblown) personalities." When Etsy has done zip to reach out to sellers in any manner or form since day one.
It's like a passive-aggressive afterthought. If Etsy was REALLY interested in their sellers, they would have allowed sellers to take an active role in the growth of a site that makes money off their stores and gets tons of free marketing and advertising from all their free labor.
Etsy hasn't shown one iota of interest in sellers, and hasn't done a damn thing to build seller-loyalty other than to feed off of the enthusiam of mostly new and naive sellers who are willing to go the extra 200 miles for Etsy without much in return.
As "older" sellers get fed up with Etsy, there are too many new sellers to feed the machine.
Etsy gives off the attitude that they are the focus of the site, not handmade, and not the sellers. With Etsy as the brand, it's turned into a site of Etsy-approved-and-branded-products aimed at the very same audience that continues to gravitate to Etsy to set up tens of thousands of new stores every month.
Etsy has taken its popularity, ability to market products based on internal stats of what-sells-best, and churned out a series of site promotions that reinforce a very traditonal big-box approach to selling online-------far removed from the original mission------and decided that's all they ever need to do. Include sellers? Reach out to sellers? Pay sellers for marketing? Try to retain sellers and their stores? Offer seller incentives? Make concrete changes to the site to enhance the SELLER EXPERIENCE? No way.
Their haphazard approach to inviting sellers to a local event is---------YOU email US and tell US if you want to come and MAYBE you'll get an invite---------and we really don't give a shit if you show up or not.
That's what it reads like, that's what it looks like, and that's the impression that Etsy gives. It's sloppy, messy, unprofessional and doesn't even remotely smell like public relations.
Has anyone else noticed that the posts in the forum are getting dumber and dumber?
It used to be real artists/artisans looking for info on marketing or technical info or which craft shows were productive. Now it's all brutally basic stuff like "I maked a sell what do i do now?" or "where do i find any supplies for the stuff they sell at Michael's crafts?"
___________
Grates. On. Nerves. And these will be the people who will go. Cheerleading when they have no clue and you can't bet they won't be asking the right questions. I wish I wish I could be there!
I recently attended a conference in my industry and it was my first time going. I was so pleased with the professionalism of the vendors and how well they presented their product(s), which did not take place in a bar. It was so enjoyable because they understood a simple fact that Etsy does.
A company (or individual) should not be there for themselves. They should be there for their clients and customers. I learned this in a workshop on brand marketing. People don't want to know about you, they want to know what you can do for them.
I have the feeling that Etsy's roadshow is going to be some sort of painful lame. I can't get excited about it anyway!
Well, if the etsy teams meeting in the virtual lab is any indication of how this meeting will be run, it will be completely unprofessional and a huge waste of time. Seriously. I have never been so frustrated with a lack of actual information. And the amount of "tee heeing" and random crap that went on was pointless and nauseating.
The Funny One -
Just because one can afford to stay in a fancy hotel, doesn't mean one is by default, not a "real artisan". Some of us have other jobs and careers that allow us to live a non-starving-artist lifestyle, and I don't think that makes us any less of a "real" artist. Just FYI. KTHXBAI.
But yeah, I wouldn't go to one of these roadshows. I suspect it would be way too hipster-annoying.
Geek, the point is Etsy admin aren't artists.
I wouldn't cross the street to drink beer with the etsy elite.
I mean, how would that help my business? Watching a bunch of hipsters get drunk?
(It might make good blog material, though...)
Maybe I can ask them why me account was 'deactivated'.
I share a computer with a couple people who have Etsy accounts sometimes, and I mainly browse and I like the foroums.
I've caused no major trouble ... I speak my mind now and then (i.e., say 'this thread is completely stupid' or 'etsy doesn't promote its sellers very much' or 'the front page is always gray colored').
And then, my account was gone. What the hell? No normal forum would be run in such a crappy manner where some invisible person just deleted your account out of nowhere, with no explanation, no mail, no justification, for some minor, minor offense. I can only imagine they thought I was a 'sock puppet' to use their stupid term, but they never asked or anything.
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