So, how do you like being treated like a lab rat?

We here at Etsy Bitch recieved multiple tip-offs to this little gem of a locked thread. I'll simply let the opening post speak for itself:

This is a blog post from Caterpillar Cowboy.
http://www.socialstartups.com/2008/05/28/how-much-listening-is-too-much/

He started this thread some time ago asking if we would prefer improved search or improved view counters.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5635290&page=1

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How much listening is too much?May 28, 2008 at 8:31 pm · Filed under business, etsy

Customer forums are always interesting, particularly for e-commerce sites. There is something about staying at home and being bored that ultimately leads people to “window shop” online, which leads them to socializing with other people who are doing the exact same thing. The range of personalities is wild and wildly interesting.

Four hundred and twenty eight posts ago, I started a thread on the Etsy forums. The thread was intended to have two purposes. One was to simply get a sense of the community and introduce myself to them. Second, I wanted to get some better intuition as to how sophisticated Etsy sellers (the majority of forum posters) are about running their business and the e-commerce business generally. So I asked a basic prioritization question - would you rather us make search better or fix a bug that would occasionally reset the page views counter on your item listing pages? (For those curious, the views system is stored entirely in a cache, and when the cache gets full and a record gets evicted, the page view number resets to 0. Clearly, the system was not engineered to be used in this manner.) My follow up was, if fixing the view system is not a priority, would you rather we get rid of it entirely or keep it broken.

The danger is to get lulled into an urgency to please. When hundreds of users are demanding a feature, you may feel compelled to acquiesce and build the requested feature. Before you do that, stop and consider Henry Ford: “If I did what people said they wanted, I would have built a faster horse.” (or something like that.) Customers are excellent gauges as when something is wrong, but can be extremely misleading about both what exactly is wrong and how it should be fixed. Furthermore, customers do not (or should not) have better visibility than you do into strategic goals, key business metrics, engineering resources, etc. They don’t have your long-term vision nor your understanding of complex dependencies. So don’t jump the gun. Listen, follow the comments to the source, and solve the root of the problem.

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I don't take issue with the third paragraph. However, if the purpose of his thread was some sort of social experiment, I rather resent it. That thread strongly implied that Etsy would be doing something about either views or search. But apparently it was nothing of the sort. People are running businesses here, for some of them it is their livelihood. They participate in threads like that in the hopes that their feedback will help Etsy to improve the site and therefore help them sell. It's not cool to jerk people around like that, IMO.

Lab rat vs Guinea Pig

Discuss.....

Quotable Quotes: Forgetful

Whoopsie:

"Consistency cannot be stressed enough. I can't imagine how an admin could ever possibly 'forget' to put on an avatar - or an admin badge. It shouldn't even be possible to post without it."

From the Bitches Auxiliary: Doozy

This one was sent in to the bitches to post on a reader's behalf: enjoy!

Yo etsy biatches! My rant's all about this thread:

First of all, poor Caterpillar Cowboy. You know the rest of the etsy staff struggled to maintain straight faces when they told one of their newest employees to go ask sellers a question in the forums. "Ah, don't worry about the forums -- you'll be fine."

And what a doozy of a question it is. To quote:

Question for Etsy sellers - how do you use view numbers to better run your business? We think we can help you more by focusing on fixing search and better international support (among other things), so we are not treating the view number system as a high priority ... unless you can convince us otherwise.

So, let's say we have a working view number system. How would that make you more successful? Would it benefit you more than, say, giving buyers more ways to search and discover your items?

OK, WTF?!

Let's say McDonald's tried this approach. "Hey, McCustomer, would you like us to make sure you're always be given the right items at the drive through window? We think it'd be better to make sure all our foodstuffs are listed on the menu...unless, that is, you can convince us otherwise."

You: "Can't I get my fries AND read an accurate menu?"

McDonald's: "Wow. Why is it important to get the fries?"

You: "Because I paid for them?"

Of course, etsy is not McDonald's. I shouldn't compare lovely handmade and vintage items with McFood. Nor should I expect to always get my fries, or for etsy to understand how accurate statistics might help my business.

Pages 32, 42 and 52 of the thread have some great posts (by Green Mamba, emcisaac and Hanabi, respectively) about what a ridiculous question this was. And check out page 43, where our intrepid Caterpillar Cowboy returns to reassure us that etsy loves us all, even though we need a scolding: "I also see that some people are impatient and want a number of different features done right away and at the same time." Guilty as charged!

Want to write up your own bitch? Send it to Etsybiatch@gmail.com and we'll be happy to post it for you!