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.

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.

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

------------------------------------------------

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.

---------------------------------------------

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.....

Gather round, kiddies

It's time for a friendly chat with Rob and Maria!

We've transcribed the ever-so-informative Lab chat with Rob and Maria that took place this week, and added some helpful interpretations for anyone who has trouble deciphering Fluffinese.

Rokali: ok so I am going to close general chat
Rokali: hi everyone
Rokali: this is Maria
Rokali: to my left
pesmou: yes, Maria is Pesmou, hello!
Rokali: okee, first up, a couple basic items
Rokali: we're not going to use video because with this many people in the room
Rokali: it crashes people's computers
[JUST DO A REACH-AROUND IF IT DOES]
Rokali: next up, there's a question que
Rokali: if you have a question you'd like to ask
Rokali: please do it thusly:
Rokali: type /ask Your Question Here
Rokali: this will add your question to the queue
Rokali: and we'll pick from this list
[PICK THE ONES WE CAN ANSWER AS VAGUELY AS POSSIBLE, THAT IS]
pesmou: hi everyone
pesmou: tonight we're holding office hours
pesmou: at 7 pm ET
pesmou: we realize this may not be a convenient time
pesmou: for all Etsians worldwide
[NO, REALLY]
pesmou: in the future, we'll try to vary times so
pesmou: more people can participate
[WE MIGHT MAKE IT DURING OUR MORNING LATTE INSTEAD OF THE AFTERNOON ESPRESSO]
pesmou: so, that's it for housekeeping
pesmou: i wanted to kick off by saying thanks to all of you
pesmou: for such a warm welcome
[THANKS, WE GOT YOUR PIES AND DRY ICE]
pesmou: many of you have seen the articles that
pesmou: Rob and I wrote for the Storque last week
pesmou: if you have not, they are here: http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/the-long-view-rob-maria/2150/
pesmou: i wanted to reiterate some key thoughts
pesmou: from my article
pesmou: first, i am listening. that's what we want to do tonight
pesmou: we're here to listen
[AS MUCH AS WE CAN HEAR OVER CHRIS’S GUITAR HERO, ANYWAY]
pesmou: we're not going to have all the answers that you may be looking for
[OR ANY ANSWER, FOR THAT MATTER]
pesmou: for example, i know that some of you have been asking about
pesmou: a timeline to for what's coming up on Etsy.com or
pesmou: what's in our pipeline so to speak
pesmou: that's not something we can offer tonight
[THE PIPELINE HAS A MAJOR CLOG AND DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO GET A PLUMBER IN NEW YORK?]
pesmou: however, you should know that I consider one of my
pesmou: primary responsibilites at Etsy the development
pesmou: of a more formalized process for establishing
pesmou: priorities based on many inputs, including listening to all of you
[EVEN YOU BASHERS – OOPS, I MEANT “CRITICS’]
pesmou: i think it's important to develop within Etsy
pesmou: a process by which we identify, scope and prioritize
pesmou: projects and develop more formalized "released cycles
pesmou: oops, release cycles
[GIVE ME A MINUTE HERE, I’VE MISPLACED MY LIST OF RANDOM BUSINESS JARGON]
pesmou: so, i have started this process within Etsy. as i mentioned in
Rokali: (she's really cracking the whip, I assue you)
[WHICH IS WHY I’M STANDING UP TODAY]
pesmou: you may have noticed that in the
pesmou: last few weeks we've released a number of smaller (and some larger)
pesmou: projects that were in the queu. for example, fulfilling our
pesmou: 4 month process to Vintage and Supplies sellers, fixing views, and
[I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE WE SUCKERED THOSE V&S SELLERS INTO THAT DEAL]
pesmou: several other things that i think many of you have been asking for
pesmou: i'm not syaing we've got it all right. we don't.
[NO, REALLY]
pesmou: so, i want you to know that i am listening not only to what's
pesmou: going on in the Forums (the Forum moderators update
pesmou: me every day,; thank you Forum moderators!)
pesmou: and i am talking regularly with our customer support staff
[WHEN MR. BONZO ISN’T BUSY EATING HIS BANANAS OR FLINGING POOP, THAT IS]
pesmou: i am reading lots of customer emails and understand that some of
pesmou: you are not fully satisfied with Etsy's customer support
[MR. BONZO HASN’T FULLY MASTERED THE KEYBOARD YET, BUT HE’S TRYING]
pesmou: i cannot say that i fully understand yet what all the issues may be but I do know
pesmou: that there is a hard working group of folks here at Etsy who are
pesmou: committed to customer support.
[MR. BONZO RIDES HIS TRICYCLE REALLY FAST TO WORK EVERY DAY]
pesmou: one last point from me before Rokali jumps back in
pesmou: i mentione dthis in my Storque article and I want to say it again here
pesmou: Etsy has grown fairly quickly and part of my role at the company is to help
pesmou: it grown, mature an thrive for the long-term.
pesmou: for that, i am going to need help. we're going to be looking for a few folks to help
pesmou: ..a few folks with deep experience across disciplines
[FOLKS WHO CAN MAKE CUPCAKES WHILE LYING IN A HAMMOCK]
pesmou: t...a few folks who have helped compnaies move through growth phases and have helped
pesmou: "scale" businesses
[REALLY BIG CUPCAKES]
pesmou: to help share their experiences with the amazingly creative
pesmou: staff at Etsy.
pesmou: so, from me: get the people and the process in step and the product will follow.
[LIKE A MASS-PRODUCED CUPCAKE ASSEMBLY LINE]
Rokali: OK, let's head on over to the question queue
Rokali: first, a preface
Rokali: There are a number of questions in the queue that warrant a yes or no answer, and for many of these, we do not have a yes or no answer right now.
[WE WERE TOO BUSY EATING CUPCAKES TO FIGURE IT OUT]
Rokali: If you feel that this means this whole meeting is fluff, we're sorry. What we're doing here is important, in the bigger picture. We're listening to what you want, and we want to create the best marketplace we can.
[AND IF THAT MEANS WE HAVE TO CHARGE YOU MONEY FOR THINGS LIKE STATISTICS WHEN YOU CAN GET THEM FOR FREE VIRTUALLY EVERYWHERE ELSE, THEN BY GOD THAT’S WHAT WE’LL DO]
Rokali: Does this mean a marketplace with a dolls & miniatures top-level category? Our answer is this: we *do* want a section of the site for these items, but we are not sure if the right answer is a top-level category.
[WE’LL SEE IF WE CAN FIT YOU IN UNDER “PLANTS AND EDIBLES”]
Rokali: We're re-examining the entire category structure, and as part of this project we're taking all the suggestions. We see the enormous support for dolls & miniatures, so that's certainly in our minds as we plan.
[PLANTS AND EDIBLES IT IS]
Rokali: We hear you loud & clear
Rokali: we know you've even been in this room for a while
Rokali: before we arrived
Rokali: we really respect that
Rokali: this approach to categories applies to the other requests for new top-level categories (fine art, mosaics, there are many).
Rokali: we're approaching this as the major proejct it is
Rokali: we're doing our homework
Rokali: and your voices are being heard
[PLANTS AND EDIBLES IT IS]
Rokali: so, we're going to move onto other q's in the queue
thecraftykitten asks, Is it possible to receive a transcript of this meeting?
pesmou: we're recording minutes of these office hours and
pesmou: we'll publish them in the Storque
[WHERE YOU WILL NEVER EVER FIND THEM AND YOU’LL END UP READING ABOUT TRADITIONAL MID-WEST GRANDMA CRAFTS INSTEAD]
CombustionGlassworks asks, "Why no Vacation Mode? We Need it."
pesmou: i am aware of this and know that it is something that's been asked for
pesmou: it is on our current project list
pesmou: i cannot give you a completion date but it is there and work is starting
[THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WORKING ON IT ARE ON VACATION]
cms36451 asks, how many people are staffed within Etsy?
Rokali: we keep our About page up to date, so you can always go and see who works here there
Rokali: right now it's just over 60 employees
Rokali: though it still feels like a small family
[BECAUSE WE ONLY HIRE FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF EMPLOYEES, THAT’S WHY]
dancingcircle asks, How "large" does Etsy plan to become?
pesmou: hi dancingcircle
pesmou: first, i think you asked earlier about Etsy hiring folks over thirty
pesmou: well, i;m in the over 40 crowd
[THEY GAVE ME AN OXYGEN TANK AS A WELCOMING GIFT]
pesmou: it's a little hard to breath up here but we're doing ok!
pesmou: seriously,
pesmou: i think it's less about age and more about experience and attitude
pesmou: so, as I already mentioned, Etsy will be looking for a few folks
pesmou: with deep experience is functional areas to help us do things we
[REMEMBER: CUPCAKES + HAMMOCK = FUNCTION]
pesmou: haven't done before
pesmou: how large will we grow?
pesmou: we don't have a specific goal for a number of staff
pesmou: i think the more important issue is:
pesmou: what are we ttrying to build and how many people does it take to do that well
[WE DON’T KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE IT TAKES TO PISS YOU ALL OFF BUT I THINK WE’RE GETTING CLOSE]
pesmou: so, without going on too impolitiely long, i will say simply that
pesmou: i think Etsy, with you help, has a huge opportunity in front of it to create
pesmou: an amazing and fun global marketplace where people
[GLOBAL BUT WITHOUT PAYING ATTENTION TO THOSE ANNOYING INTERNATIONAL SELLERS AND THEIR STUPID CURRENCY LAWS]
juliebcreative asks, other than coop advertising, does etsy plan to do its own advertising or techniques to get new buyers onto the site?
Rokali: (sorry 'bout that, Maria can finish her sentence)
pesmou: can experience the stories behind interetsing, high quality items
Rokali: Yes, we do plan on advertising
Rokali: especially to demographics that don't know much about Etsy yet
Rokali: most of the world doesn't know what Etsy is it
Rokali: which is a big opportunity
Rokali: we just want to make sure we spend our resources wisely
Rokali: because a lot of advertising is extremely expensive
[BRE SPENT ALL OF THE $27 MILLION ON HAMMOCK THREAD]
dancingcircle asks, does Etsy plan to directly "compete" with Ebay/Amazon, etc. for the handmade market?
Rokali: the web is an open platform, for the most part
Rokali: so just by having an ecommerce site, we're cometing with them
Rokali: competing
Rokali: there are more handmade items on Etsy than eBay or Amazon, from my research
Rokali: so we're already larger than them in this respect
[WE’RE WORKING ON CATCHING UP TO THEM IN THE MASS-PRODUCED CRAP RESPECT]
sherrytruitt asks, thanks. I'm most interested to know your plan to protect the integrity of the site from the daily influx of resellers.
pesmou: this reminds me that some of you have been asking about Etsy's
pesmou: flagging system
pesmou: i m aware of the issues and we do have a project in the pipeline
pesmou: that will, when completed, make the flagging process more
pesmou: seamless for both those reporting flags and
pesmou: staff receiving them.
pesmou: that should help us at least scope the problem and begin to
pesmou: more systematically identify solutions
[OUR PLAN IS TO HAVE STAFF MEMBERS ACTUALLY LOOK FOR RESELLERS]
juliebcreative asks, Do you find it diffucult to balance what the users want and the direction in which you want etsy to go in, or are they usually parallel desires?
Rokali: this is a great question
Rokali: what you all say has a big impact on what we do
Rokali: and what we want to do
Rokali: the difficult part is launching everything quickly
Rokali: the first step is our own internal prioritized list
Rokali: and we have that
Rokali: the next steps are sharing what we can with everyone
Rokali: about what's coming
[HA HA HA LET THEM TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THAT MEANS]
Art2ArtColorado asks, Do you have any specific marketing or ad campaign plans for the holiday season?
pesmou: we're working on our holiday planning now
pesmou: we don't yet have plans for an ad campign per se but
pesmou: we are organizing our messaging, press kits and trying
pesmou: prioritize site features that we think are particularly important around
pesmou: holidays.
[WE’RE GOING TO ASK ALL ETSY MEMBERS TO WRITE TO SANTA CLAUS AND GET HIM TO GIVE US A NEW HALF-PIPE]
Rokali: one more point on the previous question: we understand that Etsy members gauge our work by new features. We don't have anyone requesting a better internal process for getting work done here. But that's certainly a prerequisite for the new features you want.
[YOU ALL PROBABLY ASSUMED OUR INTERNAL PROCESS WAS SUFFICIENT TO MAKE PROGRESS, HA HA HA THE JOKE’S ON YOU!]
CatherineMarissa asks, What is the plan for marketing to new buyers (maybe in a variety of demographics)?
Rokali: we're identifying the best way to reach people
Rokali: there's a basic formular which runs like this:
Rokali: Acquisition > Conversion > Retention
Rokali: acquisition is getting people here
Rokali: conversion is getting them to buy something
Rokali: retention is keeping them as a customer
[OH LOOK, I FOUND THE RANDOM BUSINESS JARGON LIST]
Rokali: a lot of you see these challenges with your own shops
Rokali: we arei ndeed focusing on getting more and more buyers here
Rokali: in a sense, lots of buyers is the best feature Etsy can offer
Rokali: but of course we know you need a lot more than that
Rokali: so right now we're doing our research
Rokali: target demographics
[MOSTLY GIRLS WITH REALLY BIG HEADS WHO LIKE TO PLAY SCRABBLE]
GreenMamba asks, When will Etsy eliminate the need to re-list for exposure - the site is too big and membership too large to rely on such a limited and unfairly-weighted system.
pesmou: this is a very good question
pesmou: i don't think it's about the size of the site as much as it is about the
[IT’S NOT THE SIZE, IT’S HOW YOU USE IT]
pesmou: user experince. my goal is to create a search function that
Rokali: (related question:)
TasGems asks, what changes are going to be made to search?
pesmou: serves the users...allows for various forms of fiiltering and
pesmou: narrowing search so that users can more easily and quickly
pesmou: find their way to great stuff on Etsy.
[GREAT MASS-PRODUCED RESOLD STUFF]
Rokali: the personalized search would work so well on Etsy, and it's a big technical challenge we're gearing up for
pesmou: so, i think we have to think of search as a function for users (as Google did)
pesmou: later on, we may find that there is a way to simultaneously
pesmou: serve sellers withthe same function
pesmou: so that's definitely on my mind
Rokali: I'm going to do a quick poll on this topic, because there are a couple different ways to look at search: form the buyer's perspective and the seller's
[AND MY OWN BIZARRE PERSPECTIVE WHICH I AM ABOUT TO REVEAL]
Rokali: from the buyer's perspective
Rokali: I just want to see what I want
Rokali: from the seller's perspective, I am going to be a bit territorial
Rokali: so imagine if we had a relevancy engine
Rokali: that knew "If I buy items A and B, I will probably want to buy item C"
Rokali: so, if I'm a buyer
Rokali: and I'm looking at Item A
Rokali: it's helpful to me if I can see Item C
Rokali: on the same page
Rokali: but that might mean, putting another seller's items on your item view page
Rokali: let's do a quick yay or nay on this
[AM I ABSOLUTELY BAT-SHIT CRAZY OR WHAT?]
Please vote: Would you approve of related items on an item view page, if it meant items form other sellers?
Rokali: ok, interesting, I'm just putting this out there, this isn't something we're about to launch
Rokali: ok, oll overVote results: 43 yay, 68 nay, 39 abstain
[OH GOOD, 43 OF YOU ARE AS BAT-SHIT CRAZY AS I AM]
Rokali: thanks for that
TasGems asks, are there plans in the short term to help international sellers eg ability to pay etsy fees by paypal?
pesmou: we are looking at enabling all sellers (not just int'l sellers) to pay
pesmou: their Etsy fees via PayPal. We don't have a full
pesmou: solution yet, but we're working on it
[TOO BUSY WITH CUPCAKES, YOU KNOW]
sarahleeab asks, Rob, in the storque article you said that your role with Etsy will be changing. How so?
Rokali: it's been a great learning experience for me, watching Maria work here
Rokali: it's one of those things, where you start a company, and it grows so quickly
Rokali: and with a Web company, we can't ever close shop at 5pm to clean up
Rokali: watching her work has shown me two things
Rokali: 1) what I'm personally best at
[STOCK BOY AT A CAMERA SHOP]
Rokali: 2) what she's better than I am at doing
[RUNNING A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS]
Rokali: I love Etsy and I'll keep giving it my all
Rokali: but I want to do it in a way that's best for me & for Etsy
[I’LL BE STOCKING THE LABS WITH CUPCAKE INGREDIENTS]
Rokali: this will certainly mean more product work, and I'd like to get bakc in the forums more
[I MISS PARTICIPATING IN THREADS ABOUT VAGINAL YEAST]
Rokali: Maria's strengths are with the running the organization, finances, planning
Rokali: so we'll play to her strengths, and play to
minemiriam asks, don't you need staff located in portugal?
pesmou: we have two Portugese speakers on staff!
[SEE, LOOK, WE ANSWERED A QUESTION]
dancingcircle asks, Will The Storque be revamped?
pesmou: we're looking at content and commerce and how they can best work together
pesmou: we understand that Storque is currently fuflilling at least two roles: Etsy News &
[PRETEND IT’S NOT A POOR SUBSTITUTE FOR UEN]
pesmou: more of a lifestyle blog featuring content that refelcts Etsy's
pesmou: values. so, we're looking at how to best present both types of content.
[WE’RE THINKING OF PACKING IT IN DRY ICE AND MAILING IT TO EVERYONE]
stonesoupjewelry asks, How would you describe your vision for what Etsy will become? Does the scope of the future as you see it continue to include supplies/vintage as part of the main site?
Rokali: yes, we think Supplies & Vintage can fit in, and that they're also useful to crafters
[PLUS THEY MAKE US A SHITLOAD OF MONEY AND MR. BONZO NEEDS A NEW TRICYCLE]
Rokali: we udnerstand there's some work to do on HOW they fit in
Rokali: and we'll hold more focused discussions on this issue
cms36451 asks, could you all give us some pointers as to how to better promote out shops and generate more sales?
pesmou: there are regular shop critiques offers via the virtual labs
pesmou: just check the schedule. in addiiton, there is an
pesmou: entire series in the Storque geared towards marketing
pesmou: tips for your shop. Lastly the Forums are a great place to get
pesmou: marketing tips for your shop from other Etsy sellers.
[JUST PRETEND THAT THE CRITIQUES FORUM ISN’T JUST A PLATFORM FOR THINLY-VEILED PROMOS]
BoutiqueCandle asks, I find that my demographic - mid 40s - would be prime candidates as Etsy shoppers and yet none seem to know of it until I educate them.
Rokali: it'd help us if you could tell us where you look, where you'd see an Etsy ad
Rokali: that you'd follow up on
Rokali: so please email press@etsy.com with any ideas
Rokali: and we'll gladly follow up with you
[UNLESS YOUR IDEA OF ADVERTISING INVOLVES US SPENDING ANY MONEY, IN THAT CASE DON’T BOTHER]
TasGems asks, how are communications going to be improved?
Rokali: we've taken a step back and looked at all the ways we communicate
Rokali: and where people look
Rokali: and we're revamping how that works
Rokali: we know Etsy News stuff gets a bit buried in the Storque
[PRETEND IT’S NOT A POOR SUBSTITUTE FOR UEN]
Rokali: and we simply want to put info where as many people will see it
[EVEN THOUGH WE REFUSE TO MAKE STICKIES OR AN ANNOUNCEMENT BOARD IN THE FORUMS]
Rokali: so that's our goal as we revamp mostlyart asks, do you want to keep etsy more a "crafter" site than finer arts? In your heart, is that what you want? crafts/crafters?
Rokali: I don't think there needs to be such a divide
Rokali: there can be room for both
[PLUS ROOM FOR THE MASS-PRODUCED RESOLD CRAP]
Rokali: as long as the website is nimble enough
Rokali: it's like this "alt craft" thing
Please vote: Have you heard the term Alt Craft before?
Rokali: "Alt Craft" is this term invented by some folks to refer to Etsy
Rokali: they see us as some new wave
Rokali: which just seems silly to me
[IT SECRETLY PLEASES ME TO NO END]
Vote results: 25 yay, 85 nay, 30 abstain
Rokali: anyhow, there are many different items, people, and tastes here
Rokali: and the beauty of a website is we have unlimited shelf space, so to speak
[YES, WE HAVE SPACE FOR OVER 100,000 EMPTY SHOPS AND MORE TO COME]
FlowerBedHead asks, Rob do you feel like ESTY is growing in the same direction you had originally envisioned?
Rokali: yes and no
Rokali: I envisioned it'd all be much more straightforward
[I THOUGHT I WOULD BE WELCOMED AS YOUR KING]
Rokali: at one time, I thought we'd never need more that 10 employees to run the whol company
[I KEPT ALL THE RECEIPTS IN A SHOEBOX TOO]
Rokali: on the other hand, the spirit of connection people is here in abundance
Rokali: sometimes my desk job duties pull me away a bit too much
Rokali: and I don't see the sunshine much
[THE VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY IS MAKING ME CRABBY]
Rokali: but we're working it out
Rokali: it'll keep changing
Rokali: I want Etsy to exist for 100 years
[AND THEN YOU CAN UNFREEZE MY HEAD AND TRANSPLANT IT TO A NEW BODY SO I CAN REIGN OVER YOU FOR ANOTHER CENTURY]
pesmou: I i can confirm that he doesn't see much sun)
[AND I THINK HE HAS SCURVY TOO]
Rokali: more
Rokali: we'll take a couple more questions form the queue
Rokali: there are still a bunch in there we didn't get to, and for those
Rokali: you can convo me directly to discuss them, or we can talk about them next time
[OR I’LL COMPLETELY IGNORE YOU, AFTER ALL, I HAVE CUPCAKES TO EAT]
Rokali: so, last couple
BululuStudio asks, what's the next great (short term) change for Etsy?
Rokali: we've said this before and I'll say it again here because I really believe it
Rokali: there are wonderful changes going on inside Etsy, insofaras how we get work done
Rokali: this will become visible to everyone here once these new processes gain hold
Rokali: that's what I'm most excited about
Rokali: other than that, there's bigger picture stuff like seller
Rokali: stats
[CAN’T WAIT TO CHARGE MONEY FOR IT!]
Rokali: currency conversion
[CAN’T WAIT TO CHARGE MONEY FOR IT!]
Rokali: things like that
Rokali: ok, last question, and Maria is going to take it
WindysDesigns asks, Maria what brought you to Etsy?
pesmou: for starters, the ide athat a company would actually do something like this
pesmou: build an amazing interface and *talk* to its customers and suers
pesmou: oops, users
[OUR LAWYERS HAVE ADVISED US TO NOT DISCUSS THE LAWSUITS
pesmou: and, authenticity, opportunity and the challenge of building a lasting business
pesmou: i talked about some of these things and my background in
pesmou: my introdcutory video which you can see on the Storque: http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/introducing-maria-thomas/1660
pesmou: thank you all for participating and for asking great questions
Rokali: we're going to try out video now
Rokali: this might make your computer explode
[JUST DO A REACH-AROUND]
Rokali: 1 min
Rokali: and thanks to everyone for coming
[HOPEFULLY THAT SHUTS THEM UP FOR A WHILE]

Quotable Quotes: Rob & Maria, sitting in a tree(house)

Best summary of a colossal waste of time:

Insert important question here"__________________________"

Answer: We think this is important too, and we are working on it, we can't say exactly when we will DO it though...

Important question here"__________________________"

Answer: We think this is important too, all we can say at this point is we are starting something (can't tell you exactly WHAT) and it is coming soon. (although we can't tell you how soon).

Important Question here"__________________________"

Answer: Oh yes, we agree this is something that needs work. And we are working on it...night and day, in fact we never sleep or eat...really. We love etsy as much as you do and we want this site to survive and thrive but we really can't tell you how or when we will make any changes or anything. Just keep the FAITH and KEEP ON LISTING, we promise you we will do something at some point in time but we can't tell you anything right now because it's top secret.

Thank you all for coming...

If you were quoted, congratulations and thanks! You can find your
celebratory "I've been Quoted" (and other EB avatars) by clicking here.

From the Bitches Auxiliary

Did someone loose their customer service department?

It will take a few days to digest the novellas published today, but, there is one huge hole in the presentation.

"Maria: My current goals at Etsy are:

"* People: seek deeper experience to lead Etsy through things we’ve never done before.
"* Process: create a disciplined approach to planning and execution.
"* Product: build the best marketplace for connecting makers and buyers."

Nothing at all about seller-support. Nothing at all about the sellers being at the core of the whole concept. Etsy would not have turned into what it is without the sellers. And it won't survive too much longer without making them the prime beneficiaries of each and every change at Etsy.

Quotable Quotes: What Kind of Site is Etsy?

Food for thought:

""I think people are despairing a bit because you get a very distinct feeling that Etsy doesn't need any of us, and it shows, and as the big sellers migrate elsewhere, Etsy might find itself with a lot of sellers but very little buyers, and there goes the revenue from sales."

This bears repeating. I hope the Etsy admins - and the new COO in particular - is paying attention to comments such as these.

And it wouldn't hurt for them to note why you, and others, are looking to go solo. You just listed some of the most fundamental selling tools that Etsy, after three years as a 'selling venue' still. does. not. provide.

If Etsy truly wants to be competitive, as well as live up to their mission mantra, they need to start listening to, and acting on, the feedback from their clients."

What the Fuck Is Going On Here?

We’ve seen not one, not two, but THREE different forum threads within the space of 24 hours asking what the hell Etsy thinks it is. Sellers are fed up and feeling screwed.

It’s getting pretty old hearing admins say, “Thanks so much for your input and terrific suggestions. We’ll make note of your ideas and will continue to discuss (read: laugh at, then ignore) them and we’ll get to work on making the site a great place to sell your handmade goodness.” Look at DanielleXO’s adorable comments in one thread – she’ll pass our comments along and will get to work on scheduling a whole bunch of things we’ve been asking for for the past three years. Thanks for your feedback, Danielle!

All this makes me think that pretty much everything Rokali says is bullshit. His forum thread and Storque article on “Focusing Our Priorities” says “we’ll use your input to prioritize development.” Clearly I missed all the input asking Etsy to prioritize fluff and to give us more “sharing and caring,” more play time for EtsyLabs staff, and more tutorials on how to half-learn a craft and make crap you can then list and relist for months on Etsy.

In January, Rob read us a nice bedtime story and then proceeded to give us his grand vision for spending the $27 million that Etsy sucked up. Let’s see – what did he promise? Improvements to checkout, a better search function, an effort to “grow and improve” Etsy service “from customer support to shopping tools.” And then he capped it off by saying, “As Etsy grows, the responsibilities to our sellers grow.”

Did I miss something? Was there a flood of requests for more fun in the Labs from Etsy users? Doesn’t it sound like Rob keeps promising BUSINESS-BASED improvements? WTF is going on in Brooklyn?

To the cheerleaders who think the tutorials sound fun, and who don’t understand why people are worried the classes will detract from their business – you’ve missed the fucking point. And apparently, so has Etsy. We want SALES tools before fluff. The cute stuff won’t placate us while we wait for something we can actually use. If Etsy wants to be Craftster.org, or wants to teach users how to make a Swimmy from pipe cleaners and toilet paper rolls, that’s great. But don’t claim to be a place to “help people make a living making things” if that’s not what you are. I don’t pay fees so I can spend an hour watching Anda fuse plastic bags.

It appears that we need tutorials on how to choose an ecommerce platform for your independent website, how to market your own shop, and how to write a business plan that doesn’t include an Etsy shop. Perhaps the Bitches and friends will get to work on those, so we can give you something useful. In the mean time, don’t bother saving me a seat for Cupcake Night.

Quotable Quotes: Communication Breakdown

Below is a brilliant representation of the "joys" of communication with Etsy Admin.

"Members: We non-US sellers would really appreciated it being noted that the site is in USD. Thank you.

Etsy: Sure, we'll get right onto that.

Members: Umm, it's been a few months now, still no USD. Any update?

Etsy: Sure, we'll get right onto that.

Members: It's like a year now and still no USD. Do you realise that quite a few countries deal in Dollars, so it is confusing for our buyers and some sellers are losing money as a result. There are also legal implications.

Etsy: Sure, we'll get right onto that.

Members: WHY ARE WE WAITING?

Etsy: It's actually really really tricky and our engineers already have awesome projects in the works, so we can't help at this time.

Members: Are you for real? You string us along for like 18 months, tell us it's important to you and that it will be done. Now it's too hard??? WTF?

Etsy: *quickly slaps together a tiny USD that appears in only one place*
Well looky what you peeps got! USD before your money! Please, praise us. Send dried ice, now!


Is it any wonder people are tearing their hair out?"

Quotable Quotes: C.o.m.m.u.n.i.c.a.t.i.o.n.

Are you ashamed yet Etsy?

"Imagine if my customers (or potential customers) contacted me asking me a question and I didn't respond to them. What kind of an impression would they have of me?

1. They're not important to me
2. I have no intentions of doing/making what they want
3. They're annoying me
4. I don't want their business
5. I don't care about my own business

Now imagine if a customer bought from me and contacted me upon receipt of their package and wrote "The listing said this soap was blue but the soap I got is pink" and I convo'd them back and said "The soap is blue" and linked them to the listing in my shop showing a blue soap. And they wrote back and said, "yeah, i see that the soap in the listing is blue. What I'm telling you is MY SOAP IS PINK." To which I responded with another link to the blue soap listed in the shop.

What does THIS say about me?

1. I'm not listening to you
2. You're stupid, stupid--look at the picture, the soap is BLUE!
3. I don't really care about you now that you've paid me
4. It's not me, it's you. Really, it's YOU. Now stop pestering me
5. I don't have the time to actually ADDRESS your issue, so I'll just keep linking you back to the pretty little picture of the blue soap. See? It's blue. Got it?

What if a seller bought from me and contacted me a week later and said "Where's my order?" And I replied "I'm working on it". A few days later--"where's my order?" "I'm
working on it." And so on and so on.

Once again, I'm showing my customers that they're not important to me, I don't value them, and that maybe I'm not even WORKING on their order. "Oh yeah, I'll get to your order right after I finish this article on "Cool Stuff for Curly Haired People" for my blog and then make a video of myself showing my fly dance moves."

You can't provide good customer service to your customers if THEY ARE NOT YOUR PRIORITY.

I bend over backwards for my customers. I don't think it's inappropriate for me to expect the same from the venue on which I sell (and pay money to)."

Quotable Quotes: Fraud

This thread is worth reading, post and be heard before Admin wakes up and shuts it down.

"The fraud is pervasive in all media here on Etsy.

Criminals have discovered that they can come to Etsy and steal photos and copy and tags from a seller, and open their own shop. Criminals have discovered that they can buy mass-produced items and sell them as artist/shop owner handmade.

Criminals have discovered that Etsy will NOT enforce policy."

Quotable Quotes: Squeaky Wheels

"The driver on the bus says 'we're almost there'
almost there
almost there
The driver on the bus says 'we're almost there'
All through the town

The people on the bus ask 'when, when, when,
when, when, when
when, when when
The people on the bus ask 'when when when,
All through the town

The driver on the bus says 'pretty soon'
pretty soon
pretty soon
The driver on the bus says 'pretty soon'
All through the town

The dispatcher says 'the bus is broke'
the bus is broke
the bus is broke
the dispatcher says 'the bus is broke'
All through the town.

The little bus aide says 'thanks for your concern'
thanks for your concern
thanks for your concern
The little bus aide says 'thanks for your concern'
All through the town.

The people on the bus beat the driver up
beat the driver up
beat the driver up
The people on the bus beat the driver up
All though the town.

Start here to fully understand the bus analogy. The whole thread is worth a read and add your post to it before it gets locked.

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."

Let's take a trip back into the time machine!! Etsy and the Consumerist.

I hate to scare everyone with the remembrance of DanielleXO and her romp of destruction through the forums.. but I just have to bring this up as a monumental failure on Etsy's part. Thank goodness Matt was there to pick up the pieces. The Consumerist article here.

The article brought up some very valid points, and so did the comments thereafter. There's the lack of experienced customer service (which is still an issue), the wildly running narcissism and nepotism that comes straight from the top, and the "shoot first and ask questions later" mentality of most of the staff. Oh, and let's not forget the lone appearance from brepettis calling anyone who spoke out about the problems "grumpy haters." Well, we may be grumpy, and I'd rather be called bitchy, but we're anything but haters.

Let's face it, if it weren't for Matt working to repair the damage done by these petulant brats, the site would be hopeless.

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