Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Rokali speaks out


Oh, don't sell it short, we learned tons. Like that you're a psycho knife weidling narcissist megalomaniac braggart idiot who rides on the abilities of truly talented people to carry you through life with no regard for anyone but yourself.

Oh wait, I think we already knew that. Never mind. You are right. Point to you sir!

26 Comments:

robismyman said...

When he says "no wisdom" was he talking about he article or the subject of the article?

AbsintheDragonfly said...

And Mediocre intelligence makes for...(you fill in the punch line)

Choices, choices, choices.

HA! said...

Amusing summary of the article here: http://www.businessinsider.com/etsy-rob-kalin-2011-4

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha!

Anne Onymous said...

Zappos??? Here's what recently happened to me on Zappos:

I picked out a pair of inexpensive shoes. When I got to checkout, I realized that I could actually pay via PayPal. After a couple of tries, it became obvious that the Zappos to PayPal connection wasn't working. I picked up the phone and got hold of a nice person who walked me through the process a time or two. He couldn't get it to work either, so I paid for the purchase with a credit card. He apologized for the mix-up and added free overnight shipping and a membership to their priority club so that I get free overnight shipping whenever I buy anything there--from now on. I had my shoes by lunchtime the next day. The interaction was pleasant from beginning to end. I suspect I'll be using Zappos for shoes for the foreseeable.

And that, folks, is how customer service is done. If they want to implement a Zappos-quality customer service program at Etsy, they're going to have to start by getting rid of half their admins at least. I don't see it happening any time soon.

Blahtoday said...

There are related Etsy articles on the bottom of the article pages and I found this extra amusing. HELLO! She works for Etsy and how are these people "Etsy Masters"?

http://www.inc.com/ss/meet-the-masters-of-etsy?nav=related#3



FAIL!

The Cranky One said...

Of course he didn't like it, the reporter did not buy his line.

He's just upset that not everything can be laced with obscure and effete greek literature quotes to make him seem like some brainiac.

Seinfeld said...

I'm sure he was proud of the article before he saw the backlash from the community.

divapixie said...

Wish I could see it... is there a direct link for those of use not able to view it?

Eveline said...

Oh yes, blame it all on the journalist. Wasn't he supposed to have a 'relationship' with everyone he talks to in the press? Guess this relationship turned sour quite quickly.

Blue Kitty Miniatures said...

The good lesson to learn is to be more intelligent about who you give an interview to. What a shocking, but not surprising, lack of judgement. Not that I am blaming the author or the magazine myself, my bet is they wrote it exactly as they heard it.

Discord Threads said...

Wow, that's graceful...NOT. Instead of taking the criticism as areas to improve, he has a little public tantrum. Sounds like the Etsy forums if you say something they don't like... If INC. is so mediocre, then why did you do the interview in the first place?

Cat Power said...

He really is a sad, sad little man. And I doubt even his money can help him find 'real' friends. The arrogance is just off the charts and with so little to back it up....it's just sad.

BitterPill said...

Did you notice that etsy just this afternoon posted a group of quit your day job profiles??? Can we say DAMAGE CONTROL?????

Do they NOT realize how transparent they are?? Lame......

That Business Insider article was great! Thanks, Ha!

Chantelle said...

Anne Onymous, I giggled at the Zappos customer service goal for etsy as well. Zappos' customer service is legendary because it is just so good - they do the right thing for the customer, always.

Etsy doesn't know what a customer really is.

I don't know how good or bad the journalist was (although I did think the tone of the article was fairly neutral - even with the "flea market" comment). He had a ton of crazy, fucked-up Kalin stories from the swimmy's mouth itself and from swimmy's former friends that it would have been a disservice to ignore the obvious: Kalin is an arrogant, annoying fuck-up.

for the hell of it said...

The punk's public tantrum was a good thing. look at the credibility that WE all just gained. THANKS KALIN!

I guess the Inc. person was a "disgruntled reporter"?

Now, if he holds business people in contempt, what are his feelings for the VC's who fronted out the money? What are his feelings about himself, if he respects the makers of the world?

He needs to be put in a soft room.

TeawithFrodo said...

It looks like he's deleted the tweet after plenty of backlash.

The Funny One said...

The interview could have gone another way, yeah & Etsy could have gone another way too. If Etsy had bonded with the goals of its sellers/handmade artisans, the whole attitude would be different. Sellers would have championed the company and stood behind it rather than speared it as the interviewer did.

Inc. and the rest of the press has shown little interest in Etsy because they get the same bad vibes and smell that sellers do. Disingenuous to the 10th degree.

It is sad, but what's sadder is that sellers keep listing, paying and not selling.

Etsy is invested in their $$$$ success, not the success of any seller on the site. Etsy creates approx. 1 QYDJ seller per year, and then make it so unpleasant, they leave.

If that isn't anti-small-business, I don't know what is. Etsy is bad for business inside out.

RokalisVictim said...

What's amazing is that Kalin is more of a figure head at Etsy than anything else. He espouses how he "runs" Etsy, but the reality is that Etsy is being run by the will of the board and the investors and being executed by a slew of autonomous units responsible to nobody. In fact, their CTO, Chad Dickerson, is nothing more than a glorified "go to guy" that wouldn't know what technology is if it hit him in the face. Pity the poor souls that rely on these clowns to provide them with a venue to sell their wares in.

for the hell of it said...

Auction Bytes has picked it up, and Ina has graciously done this article in her Blog formatting, yet again, providing room for reader comments.

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2011/4/1302127685.html

Eveline said...

A certain ginger fella deleted a certain Tweet from his timeline. As if that will make it go away.

trinlayk said...

Y'know how we've been begging for a serious response to privacy issues for WEEKS now?

Here's the response TODAY to our concerns:

"Rokali says Highlighted Post

Happy to answer this. First, can you define what you mean by "all privacy related information and features"? "

REally what part of "ALL" is incomprehensible?

http://www.etsy.com/teams/7714/ideas/discuss/6847452/page/6

felicia said...

I've been on the Etsy forum that trinlayk refers to above. It is amazing how opaque Rokali and Lisajune's answers are.

They figure that sellers will put up with a million bad changes, no sales and renew ad infintum, gambling away their money on a view or 2. Are they right?

It's hard to know how much sellers will put up with until they leave. They complain and if Etsy answers, they just seems to say, "Ha! Ha! We gotcha! And you're not walking away! We love how you cry in the forums instead of walking out the door! You need us! Cry some more, please!! We love how you need us, how you beg us! Because we know and you know we're the only game in town, suckers!"

Jewelry on the Rocks said...

Someone else mentioned Ina Steiner and the AuctionBytes blog so I took a peek at it again and stumbled across yesterday's post:

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2011/4/1302663948.html

My capcha tonight is headmd. I think Kalin needs a head doctor.

Mikel said...

The article was heading in the right direction, but gave him too much credit. It seemed to imply he is really interested in making sellers successful. Also, the reporter seemed to think he had charm. Con men usually do, but what looks like charm to the new turns to repulsive slime once you have been conned.

Anonymous said...

Well Said!Bravo