From the Auxilary: Nudity on the front page

I think with the hullabaloo surrounding the Treasury East and its lack of control over the mature listings, this needs to be reported on.

Its not that we're a bunch of prudes, in fact several of us love some of the gorgeous mature pieces of art. Its that Etsy fails to enforce its own TOU. That's it, plain and simple. These sellers who fail to comply with the TOU are only hurting the mature sellers that actually comply with the rules.

We have a screen shot, thanks to an Aux reader, that shows that Etsy has allowed nudity to hit the front page. Again, let's reiterate for those slow on the uptake. We're not against the mature listings. We're against Etsy not enforcing its own rules.

As an aside...

Because I think it's bitchable on it's own and because I just noticed it: the featured seller in the clip in the last post has a statement in their Etsy intro to their OWN off-Etsy site, with url, offering a $4 discount if you buy their underwear there INSTEAD of Etsy.

Hey Etsy, isn't that against the TOS??? (FYI - yeah it is.)

Wow, nice way to prove that the rules for ordinary Etsy sellers are NOT the same rules their favorites get. Real Nice.



EDIT: Thanks to a commenter we learned that within a few hours of this and the below post the offending foul language and violations were removed from the shops' intro. Who says we never help anything? :D

More from the Muted

We got this today from Quirke and since we were given permission and the story is so fucking insane, we present it in its entirety.

If you ever doubted the running theory you can say anything on the Etsy Forums as long as you don't question admin's intelligence, motivations or "ah-thoritay"... this letter is for you. You have to supply your own cupcakes to maintain your sugar induced blissfull ignorance. We'd ask Etsy to respond but fuck them. We're not that kind of blog and their actions speak louder than words so who gives a crap what they say anyway.

Hello Bitches

I am writing to you to let you and your readers know what can happen to them if they openly criticize the failures of Etsy admin.

I have been muted for 7 days for this thread.

Three different admins – Rob W, Lauren, and Mary – weighed in on that thread but did not close it. In the end it was closed due to an argument between two people that had nothing to do with either myself or the issue at hand.

While that thread was still open, I received a convo from Stellaloella/Lauren. She told me she participated in the review process for featured items and had let the Content Team know about the item I saw that prompted me to start the thread. She also asked for other examples of rule-breaking that had been promoted. I sent her five examples.

On Friday I became aware that admin had featured both treasuries of a double-dipping curator on the very same day. I started a thread about it here, which was swiftly locked.

The next day I received the notification that I was muted for 7 days. They felt the need to hammer this home so much that they sent it to five different email addresses of mine, including one that is not attached to any Etsy account.

The given reason was "calling out". If it was calling out, why did that thread stay open, with three different admin posting in response, and only closed when two people became disrespectful to each other?

I was calling out admin. Sellers and buyers call each other out every day on the forums without being muted in response. People are abusive to each other every day without being punished. Apparently you can even get away with calling Matt a c*nt without repercussion. But point out admin is either willfully ignoring their own rules or too blind to notice when they're being broken, and you will get a week's detention. Reply to an admin who disingenuously asks for "examples", and get gagged.

Rule-breakers don't get punished, but people who point out rule-breakers do.

Incidentally, the item which prompted me to start that thread is still there, still breaking the rules.

You have my permission to publish this in its entirety.

God knows Quirke is no virgin to mystery Etsy mutings, but regardless - this is a completely insane banning.

For shame Esty, you should be embracing those who point out your mistakes, not punish them like petulant children when it's your site they are trying to improve. Maybe if you did your jobs you'd have less to panic about covering them up.

Quotable Quotes: Irony

Sweet Irony:

"Our process is democratic, and we're going to revise our rules based on everyone's feedback. Indeed the seed for the Constitution itself was planted by people's requests here in the forums."

From the Bitches Auxiliary: Etsy Finds

I am so sick of Etsy Finds being a mish mash of mass produced & mis-tagged items.

Todays vintage finds are ALL mistagged except for 1!!

Per Etsy, anything vintage must have first tag VINTAGE, second tag COMMERCIAL ........ and only 1 of the featured items has COMMERCIAL as the second tag.

If you're going to make arbitrary rules, at least enforce them, so those of us who do follow them don't feel like such saps. And if you're not going to enforce them, then at least don't FEATURE them.

Perhaps doing a post on this every day hypocrisy, might open their eyes, that admin should read the D&D's too.

Quotable Quotes: Suggestion Box

Just a recommendation:

"E says: If the Dos and Donts are only suggestions, does that mean I can start reselling some pretty scarves I bought in Morocco last year, and also start listing my shoes from last season that I don't wear anymore?


M says: If you did start selling those, you'd probably end up in a front page treasury....."

From the Bitches Auxiliary: Graphic Designers

I used to sell etsy-related graphic design on etsy, and had to pull everything from my shop and open my own site because I was told I could only sell avatar, banners, and business cards. Many other designers were flagged as well. YET etsy continued to allow others to sell the things we were told were not allowed. So we designers fought to get all graphic design services related to selling on etsy allowed, and with the last rule change, that was implemented.


Today, if she could sell photo manipulation of people's products to get "knock-out" pictures. Which is allowed. And they told her no. Now, we have people who've read the thread and are going to go flagging and getting listings pulled because etsy can't keep their shit together. I'm so sick and tired of this, I'm about ready to give up on etsy com-fucking-pletely. We fought, and lost money on listings, and had our businesses suffer to get things changed for the better, and for what? For etsy to forget its own damn rules? Unbelievable (well, actually, I guess can believe this, seeing how etsy's been going lately).

Edit by Righteous: To answer comment questions - This is a rant based on this thread