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Consider this an open post to talk about recent new mutings or anything else Etsy related. I've approved all the comments that were waiting for approval, please accept my apologies for the backlog.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
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15 Comments:
I don't know about any new mutings, but I do know that people are leaving in droves! I have emptied my shop and I know many others who have also. They all say they are frustrated, angry, and just pissed off with the whole venue. I've heard similiar comments about ArtFire as well. Neither is staying true to their original roots and screwing everyone for the almighty dollar. I have all my stuff on the Handmade Artists' Shop, becuase it is handmade only and will remian that way. Reasonable terms. If you are looking for a real alternative, check it out.
It always ticks me off when I see a thread closed by an admin because the thread is "off topic" or is a "private matter". I wish they would just scan for trolls and profanity, rather than try to shut down legitimate conversation. It makes me feel hesitant to post anything on there for fear of being censored!!
I was muted on Etsy almost one year ago. I had made a comment on the forums towards a member who was turning a viable post into a bitch fest. The truth is one thing, but stirring the pot is another. The admin closed the post and told me I was a bad person for telling the woman to grow up this wasn't high school.
Then from the there admin saw that I had a good friend of mine logging into my shop from another state.(she also had a shop on etsy it was selling custom envelope seals for weddings) She would log in and tweak some of my listing descriptions if I was too busy to get to a few errors in grammar or to answer a question a buyer had if I was out. Etsy used that and claimed that I had to state I owned both shops. I didn't?!! I fought them providing any proof they wanted...then poof SHUT DOWN. oh and completely IP banned from the site. It broke my heart. All my hard work over 150 listings..all the friends and customers made..gone. Etsy has no phone number nor do they have a conscience. I have my own website now, but it still sad that I can't have an opinion on Etsy unless they give it to me.
I'm over ETSY - they kept closing my shop and not giving me a reason. They made so much money from me it isn't funny! I moved to Storenvy. I LOVE it!!
i got muted and just out of all heck breaking loose on the first account and fearing suspension so I just shelled out more cash sadly I dont have it but cant focus on learning a website and re-doing my artfire seo at same time - but what you read is real - and lame - you know i admit i had no idea what the tape over the mouth really meant til last night. i read links here and everywhere and am discusted with etsy but what can you do. they are leaving in droves not out of choice. it seems the power sellers and the ones that ask questions like "my bill" are just silenced - me just from the forums but its pathethic. now i see the bigger picture as a whole and am focusing all effort on my artfire shop and new website that I maintain. thank you for your killer website. you allowed me to pull my etsy umbilical cord. and i dont have kids so please dont make me spellcheck that word:)
hugs to all. i am silenced. (on all four accounts indefinitely 'got the "it was a tough decision best regards" ha what a joke. from the forums . they keep my account apparently my name is a popular search term for them. (not the one here though) my real name. odd. !
It appears Artfire is considering adding a dollar for some kind of buyer assurance. As far as I can tell, no one likes this latest bit of blackmail.
They are starting to make Etsy look good.
So so so happy with Zibbet. I'm laughing all the way to the bank.
Well it's nice to see you guys are back. I hope you have happy holiday.
People may be leaving Etsy in droves but there is unrest on AF too right now.
Guess nobody's happy this year
Some poor soul just got shut down:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/9527738/page/2/
Lady Jane
Hi first of all...really like your design of the blog and secondly just quickly looking and I wondered who is DanielleXO?
Looks like Artfire is trying to make Etsy look good.
I just stumbled across this:
ArtfireMarketing
Posted On: Jan 2, 2012 at 8:46am MST
Tomorrow, we will begin discussing more details on the Art Fire Assurance Program. The focus of that discussion will be to hammer out details addressing concerns on returns, vs confirmed undamaged receipt, shopper satisfaction, etc.
In an effort to ensure that this forum moves to a more constructive organelle for this community, it will be expected that users interact constructively in this discussion. In an effort to ensure this, users who do not do so will no longer be given access to this forum. If their posts are not constructive throughout all forums, users will no longer be allowed access to the remaining forums.
There will not be formal protocols in place. If a user is doing more harm than good to the community. They will no longer be allowed to participate in any forum in the community.
It is unfortunate that our efforts to allow artisans to have free discussion have been derailed by a very small percentage of users who cannot interact with the community in a constructive manner. The vast majority of users have done so, even in very energetic and passionate discussion. Thank you for that."
This post was edited by ArtfireMarketing On: Jan 2, 2012 at 9:01am MST
Tony, COO and Executive Vice President of Marketing
Can another infamous Tony meltdown be far behind?
I was muted eons ago by Etsy, but at least was told by EMPLOYEES what exactly got me silenced. To me that's much better than GlitterCritter, CanadianRockies and a few other suck ups doing it on the sneak. Ladies, and trust me I utilise that term VERY LOOSELY, your b*tchy sychophantic rep has begun to proceed you, across a plethora of forums. :)
Getting back to Etsy. They NEVER purge sold items. Depending upon what types of things you stock, this nasty habit, could be a major contributing factor, towards tanking sales.
I don't miss the Etsy forums. I have so much less stress without them.
I've had some problems with CS on both Etsy and Artfire, and I wonder if anyone else has had this issue? I have been looking at both to try to see if I can resume selling my work online. I'm an old eBay artist vendor from the pre-2005 era, as I'm sure many here are.
I sent an email to both Etsy and Artfire asking for help with their Search function, because it seemed that neither one was able to do more than one search on a data set. In other words, I could only search "new items" OR "most viewed", and could not search for one WITHIN the other, particularly on Artfire. I let the CS team know I was trying to look at past sales as well, to determine if my work would do well on the site, or to determine what audience I should target, i.e. what type of buyers were using and what they were looking for, to try to use the onsite search engine the way one would on eBay for market research. I thought these were basic online marketing questions. They ARE basic online marketing questions.
Etsy NEVER responded. I emailed them 3 times. I also posted in the forums on both sites.
Artfire responded enough to tell me that they "protected all the work their sellers did", and that they had no intention of helping me "take advantage" of their sellers. Huh? WTF? Upon further inquiry, the COO said that all artfire sellers needed to pay their dues, seeing what sold by selling and failing or succeeding. (I guess a Fine Arts degree, and 30 years slogging away in front of a canvas, not to mention the hours and hours at fairs, and the years on other auction sites, doesn't count as actual dues in Artfire currency). I mentioned that I thought I was asking basic general site use questions, and got a final 'screw you' email, and that was it. No mention of increasing the useability of the search engine at all, except to say that they had no intention of making the search engine more sophisticated, or more useable for the type of market research I was interested in. That was actually said.
Well, I just visited there to check it out, now a few months later, and the search still is pretty useless as a tool for vendors.
I'm posting this here because y'all seem to be versed in other auction and sales venues, as well as pretty bright. Has anyone else been able to find a work-around for this type of screw-the-vendors thinking, or are there other sites that are more marketing savvy?
It seems a bit to me that Etsy and Artfire are both trying to market to artists who they assume are business novices, and trying to make lots of money from that, getting them to list indiscriminately, and often. After all, if you don't know your market you can spend lots of time and money posting sales of items the may be wonderful but in the wrong venue. Or described in the wrong way, etc. etc. etc.
I tend to think that art vendors in general may be a bit smarter that they are giving credit for...
I'd appreciate any and all answers. And if this is the wrong place to ask, I'd appreciate any redirection. Thanks!
Ravenalia
I am excited about Goodsmiths.com which is launching soon. Unlike Etsy, they have NO Listing fees. Right now you can go to their website www.Goodsmiths.com and reserve your shop name. For a limited time, they are offering new shops a reduced transaction fee of only 2% on all completed sales for 2012!! I'm in!
Oh, I so fell out of love with etsy.
Can't stand the attitude of their staff. The site's popularity has gone to their heads.
I tried artfire time and time again and frankly can't get any traffic there and the sales are pathetic.
I was muted by etsy several times each time for a more ridiculous problem than before. To make the story short, I realized that depending on a site that can shut your entire operation down depending on their mood is not something I want to build my future on. I didn't realize before how dependent on etsy I am for my income. It is insane to put oneself in this kind of situation. It is my business, I am an independent seller and yet completely dependent.
I found two alternatives. I love big cartel. You pay for your store and it is your business what you do with it. Finally some independence.
You'll have to make a transition and let your customers know with every shipment that you are moving. I give them incentives to buy from big cartel instead of etsy. This will take time, but I think will be worth it.
The other is brand new and free. It is a similar platform to etsy. You will still be dependent if anything goes wrong, but I like it so far so check out http://artfulexplorer.com/
I find that fellow etsians flagging other shops gives etsy to much power over everyone. We are doing the dirty work for them since etsy can't watch everyone.
I am not saying there are not shops that need to be shut down...but flagging is not always pure in motive. It seems to me that once a shop has been flagged (right or wrong) etsy admin. uses flagging against people, even if the violation was long past, when they want to control people/shops and then shut them up.
I am so tired of the etsy freaks who always trust the admin. to guide their shops and everyone elses. I am further tired of etsians lack of understanding that this is a business and etsy looks out for themselves as we should ALL be doing for our own businesses.
We are the true etsy customers and etsy admin. should work harder to make us happy and loyal to their brand. They should use some of their staff to help shops stay open and grow. They should work for us on all levels and give us support as customers....not the other way around.
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