Friday, January 8, 2010

Still Not Paying Attention

Today's Etsy Finds email has three items from the same seller (with an item in the Etsymini at the end of the article, so they actually appear 4 times in the same Etsy Finds article/email). And they live in NYC. hmm

TeenAngster is just getting lazy. She's not even trying anymore. What the hell are the Storque writers getting paid for? Shopping from their favorites?

And again, not all of the featured items are appropriately tagged. Imagine that.

Edit: They've changed the items in the blog post.

34 Comments:

helllooo!!!! said...

wait, is this the new era of Rob? Actually, I'm surprised Teen Angster actually stopped tweeting her favs long enough to write an article.

Unknown said...

My solution is not to subscribe to any emails...I can find my own items. I started a blog that features only Etsy sellers that I like and found on my own. Its in response to all the resellers that persist in clogging up etsy. I think the best way to show where you stand on recurring issues is to support like minded people and 'boycott' the rest.
http://violetsnewvintage.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Yeah, I don't get any emails anymore either. Such a waste of time. I haven't looked at the front page,gift guides, or showcases for close to a year now. I am so tired of being disappointed in all of it. Of course we all need an apple cozy to match our cowl neck sweaters! What planet did they arrive from anyway?

BEENTHERE said...

What do you expect from this person? Her professional M.O. is not "with it" at all. The stuff she chooses is very cool, but the Angster hasn't made it to the next level yet.

It is possible to be professional, conscientious, and hip~~ maybe she will grow into it. I just don't like having to wait for that to happen when it's business.

The Funny One said...

I also stopped my subscrip to Finds after the first month! Yuk, they drove me nuts. The weirdest assortment of $8 trinkets I've ever seen.

The tone of forum posts also seems to be getting pretty frantic and the Bugs Reports are hanging around without attention for days on end.

After the flurry of announcements from Rokali and a mysterious end to the GG's (meaning, no announcement went out to seller) leaving GG Showcase spots paid for and disappeared too, what's the deal with Etsy? Total bedlam?

In the meantime, 2 of my other store sites have sent out short, clear announcements (with implementation dates) about new features and improvements being added in the next 6 weeks.

THOSE I understand. Etsy makes no sense whatsoever. And while they dither around, who pays the price? The sellers do.

Once you lose your sellers and then your shoppers, what do you have left?

Etsy Finds.

just bitchy said...

Rob has already lost interest. SSDD.

I see pandemonium in the future.

reading said...

I don't see 4 items by the same seller.... ??

foxaz said...

Maybe they're rebuilding the half-pipe?

The Righteous One said...

reading, they've changed the items in the Storque post, but we can still see what they did in the Etsy Finds email that went out

They can try to erase their mistakes without admitting them, but it doesn't work that easily.

reading said...

ohhhhh... I see now..checked the Finds mail lol..thanks!

lessa said...

I hadn't looked at the email yet. Good Lord, you put in four pairs of shoes and three of them are by the same seller. I know there are more then two people who sell vintage shoes on Etsy.

sark said...

This isn't the least bit surprising: it's redundant! I'm sure redundant and self aggrandizing is the new owl wearing a cowl beige gray taupe...

I could read the etsy finds email, but I don't need to spend any more moments of my life seeing the same crap over and over and over again.

What's more titillating to me is that the $80.00 cat perch woman is the featured seller... as if they really needed to make that official, what with the fact that she makes FP, or a storque article, or a gift guide every week.

My favorite part of the interview was this:
"How do you promote your work?

Ugh. I hate that part. I have an imaginary press kit. Word-of-mouth has been good to me, so I try to foster that goodwill by using creative recycled packaging for kitty bed shipments, check-and-double-check communication, and oversize biz cards."

Uhmn, no silly, it's not word of mouth. It's that you have benefited from the fact that someone on the etsy staff spends their time specifically promoting your crap at the expense of THOUSANDS of other sellers.

What I'd really like to see the result of is an internal audit of etsy features and a subsequent internal ban on the use of frequently featured shops. Stop promoting the same 30 people for a month, and then two months, and then permanently... and then 6 months of no etsy staff promotion later — let's see how they're doing.

You know, like the rest of us who occasionally get "lucky".

chroo said...

seeing as we are paying for these employees' time and energy with our fees, i'd like redirected efforts at more parity in advertising the community at large (FP,storque, ET AL)and less time spent on your girl crushes. some of the screenshots i've seen of tweets,articles and blogs look more like FP frottage with their faves than an exploration of what is new and different out there in the crafty cyberworld.sorry, the same sellers over and over are getting rather boring and you are insuring these sellers will be has beens within a year and their business fraught with copycats and antidepressants once you move on to another obsessive fixation on another seller,leaving them in the dust and unable to cope with the REAL business world after all the free advertising you've been doling out. after 4 years many of us have seen this over and over. do us a favor- make some of your resolutions to be a more balanced approach to how and who you feature as sellers.

monkeybuttpowder said...

la lame.
too bad you need a professional photographer on staff to take your catalog worthy images to get into the finds.

actually love it when they feature the home of someone who doesn't even have an etsy shop, to use as a decor finds inspiration home.

that r.k. interview is when?

Social Asshattery said...

Yeah, 1 seller in 4 times, another in twice, and there's also a "vintage" sneaker from china that you can buy wholesale on Tradekey - all that shop's shoes are mass market non-vintage. Good work TeenAsshat.

And what's with just deleting all links to the Gift Guides while paid GG Showcases are still outstanding and no new replacement has been figured out? At least let them expire as if you planned it.

Gift Guides had multiple links on the front page and were promoted to help buyers find products. Why suddenly disappear without creating any alternative? Way to leave the buyers completely hanging.

They could at least have converted the little scrolling links in the upper left to be links to the Paid Showcases, instead of just removing it. To ditch the GG and not move the Showcases into their place is just plain dumb from both the buyer and seller standpoint.

No sense of cause & effect on that team.

tiredofstupidity said...

to SocialA....No sense, period.

A collective of sailboat brains. Don't think you need a translation for that one, do you?

The Funny One said...

I like the idea of displaying links to the Showcases as a substitute for the yanked GG's, but this is a company with a long history of shooting itself in the foot. Bringing the "old" CEO back just means that Etsy will continue to refuse to move ahead with the scalability of the site and make changes sellers need. They're incapable of making smart biz decisions.

"Social commerce" is just a fantasy from someone who feels left out because he wasn't the one who came up with Facebook.

You think the Dorque is just a big bag of wind now? Wait until Etsy starts telling everyone it's "cool" to hang out in censored chat rooms aimed at wasting more time NOT selling.

Etsy is a NYC style magazine, no more, and a lot less. It will burn out eventually, but why sellers continue to have hope that Etsy will suddenly turn into something it isn't is beyond me.

Is there some reason why so many sellers think it's "normal" to chase down shoppers who never pay for the stuff in the Etsy shopping cart?

reabledb said...

if you arent old enough to be vintage,or believe studying it via your "interwebs" is good enough, then you shouldnt be in charge of reporting it in print

etsy vintage finds have become pretty laughable in the community at large-you may be given some askance attention so you will feature a seller but in reality there's a bit of snickering about you all vintage poseurs.

please do us a favor and hire a real, live educated and experienced someone for this position and leave this kiddo to doing what she does best- reporting on the blogosphere. its a good series and where you shine. do what you do best and hire someone else who does vintage best to be in charge of that...

Jamy said...

Violets, I unsubscribed my Etsy Finds just yesterday; I'm not even sure why I subscribed to it in the first place. You totally have the right idea about supporting the unsung artists at Etsy. I wrote a blog about buying handmade and included a list of my favorite sellers, except instead of just listing their Etsy shops, I listed their own personal websites or other venue shops whenever I could.

rrobin said...

I am not enough of a masochist to subscribe to any Etsy-generated e-mail messages or official whatnot, including the Storque and Fora. The front page provides me with all the pain I will ever need.

Unknown said...

Jamy Hillis Said:

Violets, I unsubscribed my Etsy Finds just yesterday; I'm not even sure why I subscribed to it in the first place. You totally have the right idea about supporting the unsung artists at Etsy. I wrote a blog about buying handmade and included a list of my favorite sellers, except instead of just listing their Etsy shops, I listed their own personal websites or other venue shops whenever I could.

Yes, we have to accent the positive and support each other. There are so many great artists and crafts people being ignore because they don't 'fit' the Etsy brand or should I say bland? Jamy tell us the name of your blog.

forum rubbernecker said...

And today's Finds (1-11-10) features a shop that rips off pictures from top wedding gown designers. The pic in Etsy Finds today belongs to someone else!

I'm sorry, but TeenAngster is fucking lazy. Every Etsy Finds she makes has a problem.

Every. Single. One.

sillygirl said...

The less I pay attention to etsy and their bullshit, the better I feel. I unsubscribed to their e-mails about a month ago. I don't know why I waited so long!

Anonymous said...

I subscribed to all Etsy email a long time ago, I just looked at the link, noticed the COUTURE POMPOM HAT was also featured on Regretsy on the 8th http://www.regretsy.com/2010/01/08/star-drek/

Unknown said...

a shoe reseller from China featured on the Storque today...lovely

etsypimp said...

Ok, so much for Rob taking the new job seriously. Anyone catch the fake interview
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6401253

We're not looking for humor and empty promises. We're looking for a functioning venue.

Saying everything is going to completely change and everyone is going to get everything they want reminds me of when Jim Carey just hits "Yes to All" for the prayers in Bruce Almighty.

The Funny One said...

The fake interview makes me think the bad attitude towards sellers starts with Rob, which also explains why DXO still works there, and why "new" Admins keep posting complete and total bullshit in the Forums. No one is supervising the playground - again.

If I were an investor, and my CEO was posting that kind of crap in a public section of the site, I'd fire him.

Jamy said...

Violet, here's the blog about buying handmade that I posted on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/Jamy.Gearhart.Hillis?v=app_2347471856&ref=profile#/note.php?note_id=148261194088

I have reposted it on Xanga and in a forum and a condensed version of it (with a link to the full version) in an interview.

RocksInMySocks said...

Check out the latest:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-garnet-depths-6713/

These idiots are so single-minded. There are 4 practically identical little garnet rings in this feature. WTH is going through their minds? Is that the only style of garnet jewelry listed on the whole site? Branch out and use a little imagination instead of picking the same damn sellers making the same damn things over and over again. Etsy employees have shitforbrains!

blurgh said...

Made a mistake and wandered into the blog.

Etsy taking credit yet again for someone else's talent and hard work.

Blah.

Lindsay said...

Rocksinmysocks... There were 4 rings of that style and two variations of the same style, plus a pair of earrings to match.

I don't "get" the Etsy Finds email. "We don't spend money on advertising so we can focus on the shops." And yet, we have Etsy Finds emails and Spotlights on Etsians that have been featured on the front page over and over again. By the time I see them in the artist spotlight, I'm already tired of them. I've lost interest in that site [though I have no problem reading gripes and adding to them ;)]. Now, if only Artfire would declutter, we'd really have something to work with.

Alphabettispaghetti said...

And they STILL don't feature me, even though I've got a couple of garnet pieces in my shop. Admittedly they're not ground-breaking designs because I took those out of the shop because they didn't sell... Effers, the lot of 'em :(

BSMETER said...

"RobWhite
Etsy Admin
RobWhite says:
I'm sorry to keep you waiting, friends.

Let me start off by pointing you to a relevant and current post by stellaloella on this topic from about a week ago: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6397638&page=6&post_id=46275999

I want to stress that marketplace integrity is very important to everyone at Etsy. We want to improve our efforts, just as you want to see them improved. In order to do so, we need more people, better tools and improved processes. In addition to the customer service positions stellaloella referenced, allow me to point you to this open tech position, which is very much intended to serve marketplace integrity: http://etsy.jobscore.com/job_seeker/jobs/job_posting?job_id=bYPegKatur34bNeJe4aGWH

As far as flagging goes, the process laid out in this blog post from April 2008 is still accurate: http://www.etsy.com/storque/article/1632/

Our Merchandising Team examines all of the items they consider featuring, typically rejecting ones that violate our policies, asking Content about some items as appropriate and featuring ones that follow our rules. It is their goal and ours to feature no items that violate our rules, but every so often one of those items slips under our radar. When this happens and we are notified, we will and do remove it.

I know that many of you would like to see some a timeline offered for expected improvements. I completely understand this desire. While we want to employ change as quickly as possible, what's most important to us is that these new people and processes are effective and best serve the community and marketplace. We intend to do this right. "

I CALL BULLSHIT. Diplomatic, sugary-sweet, lies through the teeth BULLSHIT.

another boo boo said...

They did it again today...in the Etsy finds naughty and nice ... an item in the email is absolutely not hand-made... the listing even states what website it is from. But it made it into the storque article. Somebody must have brought it to their attention because it has since been removed from the article... but anybody who got the email today can see it. Way to go Emily Bidwell! could we ask that you actually do more than a quick glance when you choose to feature items on Etsy?