Search Improvements and Feedback Wanted

As Maria mentioned in her second talking shop article, Etsy was going to make only slight tweeks to search. There are now two Dorque articles of interest on the changes made yesterday - why they always spread this information out we still don't know, but at least this time it's more for redundancy than confusion.

Engineer Sean who appears to be the one attempting to integrate new ranking and search term weighting criteria wrote an article on the dropdown menu, price filter changes, and where they plan on going from here. Meanwhile, Chad wrote a general tech update, his first since September when he joined Etsy and introduced us to his plans (Has it really been that long?!)

Chad's narrative points out just how poorly Etsy's infrastructure was initially developed:

After a lot of hard work and planning, we rolled out a sophisticated monitoring system in November that today enables us to keep an eye on 700 services running on over 170 pieces of hardware, including servers, network gear and storage systems.

This is a system that wasn't in place until November though Etsy had been attempting to be an ecommerce site for more than 3 years. And it is likely the reason it took users screaming about issues for someone to look at it, and then why they couldn't find the problems to fix them.

He also elaborated on one of the priorities Maria mentioned - site performance. By using a network distribution system the following was achieved:

Our home page now loads 2-3 times faster in most locations around the world compared to October and as much as nine times faster in some places. Our average home page load time over a 24-hour period as measured by Gomez in the US in October was 4.6 seconds and today it is 1.5 seconds. Singapore? From 18.6 seconds in October to 2.2 seconds today.

As a whole, Chad's article is pretty optimistic and encouraging. It's unfortunate that Revolving Dick screwed it up so badly and that we had to wait this long for improvements!

With all of these acknowledgements of problems and explanations of what they're attempting, I think they're trying to give us Bitches a stroke. We, we...might actually smile a little. It's yet to be seen what effect on tagging the new weighted search will have, which then would affect current shop listings and the listing process, but the engineers want feedback as they move forward (See, I told you they're trying to give us a stroke!)

We’ve been busy testing search adjustments with users here in Brooklyn at the Etsy Usability Lab as well as remotely, and we’re about to begin a series of Virtual Labs where we’ll give anyone interested access to a test area to try out different searches and discuss the future of Etsy search with us. The first of these sessions will take place this Friday, March 13 at 1:00 pm EDT (check when this is in your time zone).

Make sure you stop by on Friday and let them know your thoughts - then let us know if they listened!

There's also this forum discussion thread that was still open at the time of this entry.

State of the Etsy

Maria has been in charge of Etsy now for 7 months. It's been that long since she replaced dear Rokali as the CEO (because of course she wears coral nail polish). But what has really been changing?

Rob left to pursue Etsy.org, a site he said was to help artisans sell or something. We're not really sure. It's just a Pink parachute on a page and has been since he announced it almost a year ago. (hrmm "Has-been" is a good word isn't it?) Etsy.org I think was just a card trick.

But so is Rob's OTHER venture - Parachute.org, a site to ... well we're not entirely sure about it either but it's something to do with internet learning and classrooms. We've read how much he despises traditional educational standards like classrooms and paying for college, what makes this all the more confusing is that it shares the same logo and font as Parachute HiFi - Rob's high-end audio equipment dealership. (Creative ain't he? Etsy's logo is the same font as well. He's nothing if not predictable) To me those parachutes aren't hot pink – they're golden.

We did get Chad, and that seems to be the best move of all in bringing Etsy into the land of technical responsibility and internet goodneighborship with the API that is being developed. But when Etsy starts officially welcoming developers to make tools, how many of them will Etsy itself utilize? Will we do what we are forced to now, using a series of other sites and third party scripts to give us the mere shadows of the features we want and need? Will Etsy ever integrate the tools to provide them to everyone, not the ones brave enough.

Maria, our once great white hope, hasn't made any difference at all as Etsy's CEO of seven months. She still lives in DC!

She might poke her head into Brooklyn occasionally, but don't let them fool you she's working from home. It's hard to keep an eye on the kid's running the shop when you are hours away. You can't even really monitor hiring incoming employees since you are out of the loop. She doesn't have a grasp on what's going on since she's not in the stinking diesel scented air of Brooklyn - so how effective can she be? Maria came on board with a lofty and voluminous "mission statement" that has been all but forgotten. Not much has changed, and when sellers ask about those old promises, Etsy just cuts and pastes little tidbits from the original bloated treatise.

Matt has been demoted to revamping Teams, with a new incoming marketing person (who granted, might actually have experience). But we pity him that he's he latest to have DanielleXO foisted on thier department.

So many changes in seven months, but in all, not much has really different. And that's the saddest part of all this.

Maintenance complete

According to the Etsy maintenance blog and a thread started, and then closed, by RobWhite, this weekend's scheduled maintenance is complete, and went off without a hitch.

Oh, except all those threads in the bugs forum from people who didn't know there was going to be maintenance and had issues with pictures, listing, showcase, etc.

So far no fall out from the actual work, which was completed about 4 minutes shy of their 6am 'deadline'. Chad is proving himself to be less inept than the previous engineers in charge of this stuff (but then who isn't less inept than Revolving Dick).

May I take this opportunity to point out how important communication is? Etsy, just a suggestion (AGAIN). Email all your members for something like this. It'll help make RW's job in the Bugs forum that much easier. Oh, and remember, when scheduling maintenance, maybe take a look at the retail calendar. kthxbye

Hell Froze errr, ummm... Etsy Site Maintenance went As Scheduled.

That's right folks, the scheduled maintenance at Etsy to migrate just about everything from the old servers to the new and improved servers went off essentially without a hitch. So far there are no reports of Etsy sellers going into shock from the efficiency and smoothness of the process.

Way to go Chad! What a difference between this and the V.2 rollout.

From Righteous: On another note, the Etsy site went down for about 20 minutes on Oct 26, prior to the upgrade, and they actually were on top of it enough to note it at fix.etsy.com within minutes. This is definitely a change! Be sure to check that blog out when Etsy just doesn't seem right...from a technical standpoint, that is.

On a Roll

Well, it seems Etsy is on a roll with implementing some positive changes.

Though some may see a few things to still argue about, such as the fact that the news alert wasn't emailed to every member, Chad, the new CTO (Chief Technology Officer) wrote a Storque article that has had us oohing and ahhing at his professionalism. After all, he has actually come out and said what we've all been thinking:

"search on Etsy is not working well in overall performance and speed."
"The existing search has been built and hacked on since the beginning of Etsy's existence, so it is an ingrained system that can't be ripped out and replaced overnight without potentially significant disruption. To mitigate the current performance issues, I pushed through an order for a batch of new hardware that we will be putting in place that should increase performance soon."

And was that a hint of how they plan on fixing it?

"To me, intellectual honesty is about admitting when something is not working so you can work together to figure out how to fix it."
"it is impossible to know everything, so when you need to learn about something, learn from the best"

Etsy is trying to be a real boy! And it doesn't stop there...I was expecting to come on here and rant how, once again, an important notice about site maintenance only went out to the opt-in crowd...but wait, what is this when I log in to Etsy...a notice! Though something like this should be emailed to every member, especially since someone has reported not seeing it when they log in via 'Your Etsy', this is definitely a forward movement.

Could it really be that Etsy has put on their professional, big-boy pants and is learning about communication and admitting that they have to actually provide something?

We hope... Etsy, you're on a roll. One step at a time. We know Rome wasn't built in a day, and the mess that Etsy is won't be fixed in a day. But boy are we glad you're trying! Keep us posted will ya!

Hellooooo Chad!

We here at Etsy Bitch would like to welcome you with a large cup of coffee and two painkillers of your choice (aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, Vicodin...).

Hopefully, you've had an opportunity to check out the site before today and realized what a disorganized, poorly programmed nightmare you have on your hands. If the code hasn't given you a migraine yet, we'd like to note here what features Etsy customers have been asking for and practically begging (in some cases) for years:

1. FIrst you need a notification system for site announcement that lets users know what (if any) current bugs, what's in development, etc. If Etsy is going to be making changes and improvements to the site Etsy should put the plan in print and send it to all sellers. In fact, all plans and updates should be announced and their progress tracked with a MONTHLY REPORT to all sellers.
   
   
2. And if that system can deliver emails in a timely manner (hours instead of weeks, if ever) that would make us drop dead of shock. Auto notices sent when there are changes to site policies that delivers and functions in a speedy manner, not the "maybe in 5 days I'll get it" way we have now. Many people never get the emails they do send out. This is just disgusting for an e-commerce site.
   
   
3. Convos and notices need to be toggled to OPT-OUT not opt-in. Most buyers are first timers who don't know what the fuck a convo is or how it works. We shouldn't have to suffer a sale gone bad simply because our buyer doesn't know to read the forums, or an online manual on how to use Etsy to know that they aren't getting convos regarding their order. And the sellers don't deserve bad feedback because of it.
   
   
4. A central account activity page when you log in that has the latest tecnical news for Etsy, Dorque articles headlines (and only the headlines please, don't make us gag too much), a space for your current etsy bill total and date due, how many new feedbacks, convos and sales since you last logged in.
   
   
5. If you haven't seen what Verybigjen worked up back in January, go look and do it. It went over well in the forums. It's simply wonderous; notes spaces for your outgoing orders (sigh), buyers emails to be linked on sold pages (gasp!), convos with buyers shortcutted so they can be brought up without two tabs in the browser and five minutes work. It's so brilliantly simple we want to have sex with it and have it's babies. This one is incredibly awesome too.
   
   
6. Let us pay our bills with Paypal. And for god's sake, can you please fix the buying process so it will work seamlessly with Paypal and not the half-assed system we have now that confuses and looses new buyers. We're tired of apologizing for Etsy being a clusterfuck of dumbasses for not being able to nail being a decent commerce site.
   
   
7. More ability to rearrange and control our shops other than by renewing and relisting, a practice Etsy loves as it pads it's pockets.
   
   
8. Half the forums are bullshit and need removed. The social aspect of Etsy has taken over over the site. We should have expected it out of the facebook crowd, but it's just gotten out of hand.
   
   
9. A search that works. A search that works. A search that works!!! Light it up in the sky in letters 50 foot high and set it on fire, A SEARCH THAT WORKS! Don't make us sacrifice a Cupcake to make it happen.
   
   
10. Stats, dammit. (The dammit is not directed at you Chad, we like you so far). Stats! Sure some of it will likely unveil shit that Etsy doesn't want known, like perhaps that most buyers link in from other searches or blogs not from within Etsy-itself, but damn it we need to know what works, and what doesn't.
    
    
11. The ability to organize convos, and favorites. And a way to delete expired items or copy listings would be nice too.
    
    
12. Fix the half assed batch shipping page. It was great we finally got it, but why won't it tell us what everything is set to? How are we to know what "no change" means? Could be something, could be nothing, Who the hell let that one slip by? Oh right, they fired him. Anyway, now that he's gone can you finish what he didn't?
    
    
13. Buying features, er... Flash toys. 75% of them are frivolous and do nothing and need to be deleted. If search worked from the get go there would have been no urge to make them anyway.
    
    
14. Most importantly a technical and customer support issues big-boy ticketing system. If sellers have issues they don't want to be shrugged off or told to clear their cache for every problem or that they just suck. Or be ignored. Or mocked. Or... well anything else Etsy has done to us.

Thanks for taking a moment to read this Chad. Please keep in mind that this list is not the list of eleven anonymous Etsy customers. Rather it is the tip of an iceberg of countless Etsy customers who have posted in the Ideas section of the Etsy forums and been ignored. Over and over again.

I'm sure our readers will have other ideas, we encourage them to post them in comments, and for you to read those as well.

Sincerely,

The Etsy Bitches

We welcome our new Handmade Overlords

Today MaryMary posted an announcement in the Etsy forums, with an accompanying Storque article, describing some new staff and new roles at Etsy Inc. Along with it came a personal message from Rob Kalin.

I am grumpy to announce that, against my will, Maria has replaced me as Etsy’s CEO. She is now my boss. My new title at Etsy is Chief Cupcake Officer (CCO), a nice meaningless moniker that will allow me to focus on what I'm best at: lying about my experience, stalking private blogs, and reading children's books.

I will also be spending time developing Etsy.org, a money-losing organization that will focus on failed hammock videos, dressing up in silly costumes, eating cupcakes, and giving jobs to my unemployable friends. (More vague details about this are coming soon. Right now, I'm still licking my wounds from getting canned.)

I’ve been filling many roles since Etsy began, all of them new to me. That's because I have no actual experience in anything useful. It’s been an embarassing and exhausting education, much of it public. Watching Maria, with her experience and expertise and sanity, has made me realize what a failure I really am. I’m excited to get back to what I enjoy most, (living in my fantasy world) and maybe even check Etsybitch less than fifteen times a day for the first time in a long time.

Ok, he didn't really write that - thanks Bitches Auxiliary! By the way, it's amazing how many people saw "CCO" and thought "Chief Cupcake Officer". Grumpy minds think alike.

To be serious for a moment, we here at Etsy Bitch are hopeful that Maria's leadership and Chad's technical expertise will usher in a new era of professionalism and progress for Etsy. Hopeful that amateurish tutorials for shoddy workmanship will be banished to the Rainbow Land of Etsy.org. Hopeful that practical, useful tools that will help members market and move their wares will finally take priority. Hopeful that obnoxious, discourteous staff members will be duct-taped and locked in the janitor's closet in favour of pleasant, knowledgeable communicators. Hopeful that resellers and mass-producers will receive the swift kick to the ass they deserve, and that Etsy returns its mission statement and original principles that have been so subverted and abused of late.

Good-bye Rob. Hello Maria and Chad.