The Caching "Roll-back"

Have you received the Etsy seller email with information about the "caching roll-back"?

Last week, Etsy's CTO, Chad Dickerson, posted an update about caching on Etsy.
Some sellers, when editing or uploading listings, suddenly faced delays — their updated listings would not immediately reflect those changes on the live site. Chad's post explains what was going on and what he and the Engineering Team have done about it.

We’ll overlook the reference to the yellow-smiley face posters in a well-known big-box store (Roll Back Prices!!!!!) because there’s a bigger issue to be discussed.

According to several forum threads that were duly locked and resurrected by sharp, vigilant sellers who voiced alarm about the fact that ETSY CHANGED A MAJOR FEATURE (all shop edits were delayed by caching) WITHOUT TELLING SELLERS THEY WERE CHANGING IT.

Not only did this cause an uproar about the legal issues surrounding online pricing, sellers were justly outraged that they were suddenly presented with a whole set of NEW PROBLEMS when editing their listings concerning PRICE CHANGES, and other vital information.

Oh yes, Etsy has decided to "roll-back" this secret caching change, and Chad wrote an interesting and very long explanation--but it reveals the thinking behind the scenes when Etsy deals with the myriad issues of scalability on a site that continues to grow without a plan or structure to handle its anyone-can-open-a-store policy. Etsy makes decisions based on Etsy’s priorities, not seller priorities.


Etsy is making major changes all the time, and may or may not be "rolling-back" those secret changes (including the SEO debacle, which continues to be a messy mystery to this day) hidden in the deep recesses of Etsy’s habit of implementing drastic changes THAT DRAMATICALLY AFFECT ETSY SELLERS’ ABILITY TO SELL ON ETSY.


Sharp sellers picked up on the caching problem and let Etsy know — but they had to launch a protest AFTER THE CHANGES WERE ALREADY MADE WITHOUT NOTICE!

While the SEO issues remain, and the "roll-back" of caching needs to be seen to be believed, we have to wonder what else Etsy has in store for sellers in the next few months when the once a year vital holiday shopping season begins.


It’s a sad fact that Etsy often makes major changes for the benefit of Etsy. How these changes affect sellers isn’t part of their plan. Launch it overnight, leave sellers in the dark, and then spend 5 weeks correcting a problem that Etsy created (and sellers never wanted!)!