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This is a bit of news, just fyi. I know not everyone reads the Etsy blog or tolerates the forums so...
Etsy has announced that they are accepting applications for the second Etsy community council.
See this Storque article for information, and the application is here (also linked in the article).
The Etsy Seller Community Council is a group of members who volunteer to meet with Etsy Admin at least once a month for a period of six months to discuss marketplace enhancements and community offerings. The meetings are held in the Virtual Lab and ongoing communications are facilitated through Google Groups
12 Comments:
WTF did the first Community Council do? Did they represent sellers in any way? What did they do for sellers? Anything on the list of the top ten seller-requests? for
1) stop resellers
2) secure the shopping cart to stop NPB's
3) add coupon codes
4) improve the listing template, add universal editing
5) open promotions for direct seller access
6) stop the blatant favoritism all over the site
Since nothing's changed and rumors are now flying about bribery, what's the point of a CC?
LIP SERVICE?
If you really want to spend your valuable time as a member of a second (doing what?) CC, demand a stipend. I think $2,500 per member is a fair price. It would be nice to get paid to do nothing, just like being an Etsy Admin!
I just wonder how they pick 25 out of how many thousands of sellers? - and if you weren't picked round 1, you're still in for round 2.
If you give a gift to Danielle do you have a better chance?
You stole all my comments, so I will just say DITTO
I am not a Yes Man, so it would be bad for my health and a waste of my precious time, particularly when I doubt any Etsy Admins would listen to anyone but themselves.
The whole concept is BS.
Why bother. Some things sellers have been asking for for years are still MIA.
Very little news about what the first group did and what I heard is that they "tested" things...that were then rolled out with massive bugs and problems despite the "testing."
Who do we have to bribe to get on this council? I think DXO is out because she's "outed" herself as accepting bribes.
I suspect this community council thingy is all about showing how etsy is "listening" to its sellers without them actually having to pay attention to what the sellers are saying. In other words, it's a way to get the majority of us to shut up and stop bugging them with our reasonable, ongoing complaints.
Would they listen to us more if they had to pay us, as The Funny One suggested (and that I agree with)? I dunno. They're pretty lazy and cheap, and I suspect they wouldn't want any kind of paper trail like pay stubs showing how people were involved. A paper trail would mean they'd have to be accountable... something Maria doesn't seem to be keen on doing.
Instead, we as sellers are accountable for much of what etsy's employees do wrong because they rely on us to check their work (think GG's and the front page). Etsy employees are too lazy/"busy"/incompetent to get their work right the first time.
If the cupcake council was working with Chad, I'd have fewer questions about it. He does seem to hold himself and his group accountable when something goes wrong. True, they haven't got the beta testing quite right but they do seem to be trying to do better with each new release.
I signed up for this one. Doubt I'll be the the acceptable list. This may be the only way to find out what, if anything, they do.
Etsy's overall attitude towards sellers (99% of non-faves) can be gleaned from reading 1 month's worth of Announcements (aka edicts from the throne) and Bug reports. They either lay down the law according to Etsy, or ignore you completely.
The recent ethnocentric NYT article is the real story of Etsy in '08+'09. Etsy is a New-York centric company that embodies all that's bad about New York; the world ends at the East River. They found that promoting the top 25 sellers made their entire myth, lie and fantasy a big selling point that falsely claims that anyone can make hundreds of thousands of dollars by opening a store on Etsy.
The backstory is that, if you want to make ANY money on Etsy (the brand) you have to:
- make what Etsy tells you to make in their Marketing Plan
- take ALL the financial risk up front since Etsy ain't gonna pay for your Etsy-branded product while they slap their brand name on your item titles
- market and promote Etsy for free while you wait to them to pick you as a favorite
- send free products to Admins to get their attention seems to be effective!
- kiss ass with tons of forum and Storque comments about how wonderful Etsy is, even if you're out a lot of money waiting to be annointed by Etsy as their new pet project.
It isn't even about forgetting about the whole handmade thing. It's about pushing the myth that keeps the ka-ching machine churning at Etsy Corp. They sell a myth, sellers fork over the dough, and 99% don't make it to the Etsy Best Seller Poster of the Year. (All while making the equivalent of $7 an hour, if that much.)
Etsy is merely an online NYC-trend magazine that carefully picks best sellers from insider stats on what sells. They know it, they pick it, and then gush about it 24/7. It's a small minded small world that took a big concept (handmade) and turned it into another boring big box chain of below cost products that MIGHT be handmade, but really, who cares? Not Etsy.
Wait. We're getting $7 an hour? I missed that part. Of course they'll take their 3.5% off the top...
Really, what did the last CC do? Anybody actually know?
The people on the first council seem kind of disillusioned, they were barely listened to, they were never consulted about that big orange GG button for example. They went into it all bright and eager to make a difference, and came out of it thinking "what was the point"?
Exactly what I envisioned. You cannot confront Etsy Staff with anything: they are the ones who are paid, they are the ones who 'know what they are doing', and they comprise the in-crowd.
If you aren't why should they listen to you? And if you are older or know anything that they don't, even worse.
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