A Refresher Course

We’ve noticed that people, specifically other Etsians, are blogging about us. Not everything they say is nice (thank goodness, we’d be doing something wrong if it was!)…they don’t get certain things about why we’re here or why we have certain feelings towards certain admin. So, here’s a little history lesson, stretching back to before we were here, to refresh or enlighten your perspective.

1. What is it you think you’ll accomplish by complaining?

A lot, actually. The real Etsy community, by acting together even before EtsyBitch, has already gotten things to happen by bringing it to the attention of the sensible admin – like getting a repeat offending reseller booted, the page numbers brought back to search, and USD added to listings as is required by law. We act as encouragement for forum surliness to get admin to acknowledge problems. What else do we want to see done? Read our manifesto – it’s all laid out there in plain English.

But we don’t just bitch about Etsy, though that’s the fun part - we also try to help our fellow artisans and crafters , we discuss business, we review alternative venues, and we’re here to listen. We’re a shoulder and a voice for frustrated Etsians, whatever their sales volume or product. How will Etsy ever improve for their customers with the cupcake yes-men running untethered?

2. Why do you tell DanielleXO to go to hell? That’s, like, so mean!

She was once given the privilege of head forum moderator. She ran amuck, muting people for no reason other than she didn’t like them, closed threads she didn’t like, and harassed members via convos. This is reason enough to fire a person, but they simply moved her to another department, and then another one after that – still causing trouble months later. Then, ahile a member of the EtsyLabs, she ran a metalsmithing workshop in which she couldn’t answer someone’s question about gauge – something elementary to working with metal. Can you say i-n-c-o-m-p-e-t-e-n-c-e?

3. Why are you anonymous?

Well, most of us are anonymous – if you haven’t read the recent issue of Fortune Small Business, you should. As for the rest of us - I have two words for you. Etsy Five: Five Etsians were muted indefinitely way back when for criticizing Etsy on a blog that wasn’t Etsy. And muting or banishment for criticism is still happening and happening. Off-Etsy behavior has gotten many a member in trouble, even resulting in shop closures. The President of Etsy (former, rokali) once said that they take off site behavior into account when doling out punishment. We are anonymous in order to not be harrassed by Etsy. How sad is that?

Also, we bitch because any of us or you could be next - they’re not even straight about their own rules for buyer complaints let alone using their discretion when emotions are involved, and there is talk of a blacklist of sellers you will never see on the FP, in the gift guides, or featured by Etsy admin in any way because of their criticism of Etsy, even valid criticism based on their own customer service experience. Etsy’s admins are unprofessional twits who blow off professional business people simply because they’re the customer. The power they hold over others’ incomes is frightening.

4. Why not just leave Etsy?

Some of us have – if you notice, there aren’t 10 people posting all the time anymore. Most of us have moved on to other venues or jobs. So why do we still blog about Etsy? Yeah, I knew you’re thinking it – we’re still their customers, and we made great friends there, still buy there, or have so much invested in Etsy we can’t leave. It’s like your phone company, if it’s the only company your phone will work with and the phone cost you $500, are you going to switch companies and buy a new phone or try to work with what you already paid for?

5. Why are you so hateful and angry?

We’re not hateful, we’re frustrated. There’s no customer service department to complain to or work with, there is no way to sign our name to our complaints without fear of reprisal, and people like you question our right to throw out a curse word every now and then in regards to a company we paid to deliver a service that we feel is subpar. Fuck you for not respecting the rights of others to be frustrated even when you haven't had to deal with it...yet.

6. But….why???

We appreciate handmade and love (some of) the sellers we’ve interacted with in the online art community. Etsy had great potential when it started, and it is still the big name out there. We think there will be others who give them a run for their money, but there shouldn’t be a monopoly on selling handmade. Certain venues will work for certain people. We really do want to see Etsy do better by their customers, even if we’ve moved on to greener pastures. It’s not about revenge or seeing Etsy fail…it’s about making them accountable to the people that matter, their sellers – their customers. Being a half-assed start-up was an excuse 4 years ago, not now.

International....not

There is a new Etsy admin - Muka (real name Liz). She works on International development.

Etsy shows us again why they desperately need someone to concentrate on this area for the site that has almost half of its customers outside its country of origin (ie. the United States).

Look at the "Related items" at the bottom of the article linked above:

All of them are U.S. sellers

Three of them don't ship the particular item international.

Nice! Way to go international, Etsy!

Buh-bye, Twit

From Bre Pettis's Twitter:

Today was my last day at Etsy. I have so many good things coming soon to be
excited about, but I'm going to miss that magical place!
6:28 PM Oct 21st from web

What? That's it? No grand exit speech? No tearful parting Storque article? No goodbye hammock party with cupcakes and kool-aid to drink? Surely you contributed in some sort of meaningful way that should be recogn Never mind.

Alas, your greatest Etsy legacy will be falling on your ass. The good news is, for you there's nowhere to go but up.

Buh-bye!

On Etsy, technical glitch = permanent problem

As implied by Chad in his Storque article, Etsy's infrastructure is a hot mess of patches and hacks, fundamentally flawed and being crushed under an ever-increasing mass of sellers. Think of Bre's hammock, duct-taped and full of sumo wrestlers.

Although admin grudgingly admitted the issues in this forum thread and Storque article nearly a week ago, there are still sellers posting in Bugs and Business wondering WTF is going on with listings and categories. For those still confused, here's the straight shit.


The batch upload lags are permanent.


The problem will not be fixed before the holidays.


Now, dear EB readers, stop your wailing and rending of garments. After all, haven't you seen that little notice during the listing process stating that listings may take as long as 24 hours to appear? Etsy already covered their ass on that one, and, as Stella says, it's not that the system is broken, "it's just not meeting your expectations".

Your silly, foolish expectations. Your ridiculous expectation that when you list something at 9am it might show up in the system before noon. Your utterly stupid expectation that when buyers browse a category page they might see more than just the same 21 items sitting there for an hour. Your outrageous expectation that listing and browsing should be a swift, intuitive and simple process for a site with over 60 employees and millions of dollars in investor backing.

Expectations that have been encouraged and promoted by admin themselves, not only recommending renewing as a promotional method in the forums, but renaming "Expiry Dates" to "Renew Items" so that method of spending our 20 cents is just a little bit easier to find.

But hey, chin up! Etsy feels your pain. They're just asking for your patience and understanding... for the past three years. Oh, and they know it's "little consolation" to sellers who've seen their own sales drop - but Etsy's overall sales are doing great! Sales are up! Listings are up even more than sales! Never mind that when the rise in listings is greater than the rise in sales it means sales-to-listing ratios are actually dropping! Just chug that kool-aid and think of how much money Etsy is making and everything will be fine.

In the words of one sharp seller on that thread, Etsy, don't try to placate or distract us. You created this clusterfuck by exploiting a piece of bad site design that turned out to be profitable. Now your sellers are paying for it, literally.