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It looks like sometime yesterday that the gift guides button has disappeared from the Buy page. (after the Valentine's Day GG was "updated", and they added a GG for Febriary birthstone when Rokali said they were coming down and would not be used)
I'm sure they are still active... somewhere, can you find them?
Friday, February 5, 2010
Gift Guides down?
Posted by The Cranky One at 10:39 AM
Tagged: actual progress?, gift guides
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They may not be linked in, but they're still on the web. Google's top search find...
http://www.etsy.com/gift-guides/
It's one of those things that Etsy misunderstood. The reason people were pissed off about the GGs wasn't because of the GGs themselves, but because of the button we had up in our shops, the same people being featured over and over again, the resellers that were being featured, the same type of items and the fact that they were never refreshed.
Instead of addressing these issues and making the GGs work, Etsy has now decided to just delete them altogether. *sigh*
they're still linked into the bottom of the Etsy Finds/Storque posts
http://www.etsy.com/storque/spotlight/etsy-finds-february-shopping-guide-6944/
http://www.etsy.com/gift-guides/
they exist somewhere, you can find the link to them on an error page if you attempt to type the wrong thing at the end of the url instead of "buy.php"
They appear to still exist, if you manually type in the gift guides query after etsy.com :
http://www.etsy.com/gift-guides/
For starters it's F-e-b-r-u-a-r-y. And that was quick.
You're not the only ones who test the waters first.
Well once again my mind is boggled. Everyone actually LIKED the gift guides and are all annoyed that they're gone, and they just didn't want anything linking to them...?
I thought they were as dumb as the front page. No matter what they could do there would always be an element of favoritism and just plain stupid choices. A really good advanced search tailored to work as a literal guide to buying a gift for someone would be a lot more fair and make a lot more sense.
I don't get what there was to like. Maybe someone can explain it to me?
But boy, lately Etsians sure seem to be wanting the opposite of what I'd expect.
Oooh, I love looking for Waldo! But really, they ought to make it more challenging than this. Still in all, if it isn't right in front of their noses they probably won't know they exist. 'They' being average joe buyer. Hell, according to the forums the average buyer isn't smart enough to use a search drop down menu so how would they know enough to search for something they didn't know even existed?
Eveline, you're right. The gift guides were fraught with all the problems you mentioned. They were a tiny infinitesimal part of a huge site and they couldn't even get that right. How in the hell can we expect them to address the myriad problems site-wide if they can't manage a tiny selection of hand picked items?
Honestly people, stop looking for them. This is likely the data they are using to say people are still using the gift guides and why they justify continuing to update them.
I understand the urge to throw this up in Rob's face as an example of a broken promise, but urging people to find it and then publishing links to it is rather self-defeating. Probably the only people looking at them are the ones hunting it down and the ones clicking on the links provided by the hunters. I'm guessing any new traffic is minimal, with the exception of those finding the links you're providing.
Let it go. There are bigger fish to fry
Yep, just found them through Google. Can't find a link on Etsy though.
Well I am totally boggled now.
I was annoyed as anyone that the same sellers were featured over and over (and over and over) in the gift guides and on the blog.
But with the gift-guides gone, what is the incentive to promote yourself in the Voter? That seemed to be the only path to being noticed by the Etsy admins and getting in the gift guide.
And what on earth has happened to Etsy Search? My tags don't seem to be relevant at all anymore and my items have disappeared from search results. The only thing that seems to work is searching for words in the title.
:-)
Bits
I say, good riddance, it's about time, and so on.
I have no desire to look for the things.
I hope they stay late and unlamented and don't come back to haunt us.
I would rather bury than praise them.
In Your Etsy, clicking on Seller Deals goes to http://community.etsy.com/resources/seller-deals , and down on the right there's "Members' Choice Gift Guide."
Dang! Now it's going to be just that much harder to find "vintage" staplers and fake facial hair! :o( Boo hoo.
After all the things I have read here about how much people hate the Gift Guides and their repetitious favoritism, I am shocked at how much effort people here are putting into looking for them.
I say, rejoice in the fact that they are not right in the face of the casual buyer anymore, and that must buyers won't go looking for them the way people here seem to be doing.
I agree with Windy: "Honestly people, stop looking for them. This is likely the data they are using to say people are still using the gift guides and why they justify continuing to update them. ... Probably the only people looking at them are the ones hunting it down and the ones clicking on the links provided by the hunters. ... Let it go."
you have to check out what's going on in the forum...I logged in my etsy and almost had an heart attack
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6429929
GG's have great value when they're done right, but when you get up to 73 of them, with many titles/themes that make no sense to most shoppers who had the patience to look through them, faves weren't the only issue. There were too many of them, they were set up and rarely maintained or updated.
They looked abandoned.
Which is what the whole site looks like these days, old, tired and stale.
When every other ecommerce site is trying to attract buyers, what's new on Etsy?
Nothing, big boring nada.
I do my shopping elsewhere, including all my V-Day gifts.
The Funny One said...
GG's have great value when they're done right...............
__________________________
Exactly. If you can't do it right and maintain it, then just don't bother doing it at all.
This is why I was glad when it was announced that they were doing away with them. Not because I don't think that gift guides can be useful, in the right hands they can be a great tool, not just another place to put the same sellers or items that are already plastered all over the site.
But, of course, that assumes that Etsy really didn't really just intend them to be another spot to feature their favorites.
Having the guides gone is a good thing because they caused hard feelings for many reasons and were repetitive in the items choices. I felt the gift guides kept people from really searching out the variety on Etsy. I'm glad they are gone, hopefully forever.
Worth repeating from Funny:
"GG's have great value when they're done right, but when you get up to 73 of them, with many titles/themes that make no sense to most shoppers who had the patience to look through them, faves weren't the only issue. There were too many of them, they were set up and rarely maintained or updated."
They looked like busywork for employees. Like picking up a broom when the boss comes in the room once a week.
It's strange that they're still there.
They just need to replace it with a page that says "Etsy Gift Guides are now closed, shop like this or this instead". Duh.
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