May 8, 2008 at 3:00 pm · Filed under Site Terms, policy change · By quirke
In this Storque article, admin gives a preview of upcoming changes to site policies and rules.
Dear Etsians,
One of the things I love most about working at Etsy is that, as a company, we strive to work with our members. We actively engage in discussions with our community, listen to your concerns and use that insight to help us shape the site.
The DOs & DON’Ts of Etsy have been in place for about a year now, and during that time, we’ve gotten a lot of feedback from our community on these site policies, through the Forums, Virtual Labs and emails. Internally, we’ve spent several months gathering that info, discussing and reworking our policies to make them clearer and more balanced — and we’re now ready to share that work with you in a sneak preview.
Why a preview? As I mentioned, it’s important for us to get feedback from the community, to build the site together with you. We’ll be taking a few days to get your reactions and make any necessary final tweaks before we go live with the new DOs & DON’Ts.
For the most part, the policies remain the same, though we’ve reorganized things a bit. There are a handful of substantial changes, which I will highlight below. We’ve also published a special page where you can preview the updated DOs & DON’Ts in their entirety.
Reformatted: The most notable difference in this version is the format, and this is one of the key things we’d like your feedback on. The DOs & DON’Ts are no longer literally “Do/Don’t” statements. It became clear to us that this rigid format was not as helpful as we had originally anticipated. We’ve also added direct links to Help resources for each section. (Although the document isn’t literally “dos” and “don’ts” anymore, we’re keeping the name “DOs & DON’Ts” because our members already know this as the name for our site rules.)
Collective shops: The definition and requirements for collective shops have been clarified. (These are the rules for shops with multiple people involved.)
Conversations: Sending a Convo to notify a seller that they are featured in a Treasury list will no longer explicitly considered “spam.” Instead, common sense prevails — do not use Convos for advertising or promotional purposes.
Shop Policies: With the updated D&D, we’ll be launching a new feature; each seller will have a dedicated page in their shop to outline personal policies on payment, shipping, returns/exchanges and more. Please note that your shop policies may not contradict any of Etsy’s site-wide policies. (More info on this to come soon!)
Non-payment time frame: We’ve removed the site-wide “three days to pay” policy. We trust our sellers to use good judgement in developing their policies and provide excellent customer service.
Feedback: We’ve outlined the specific situations and time frame in which Etsy will consider removing feedback. We will also be tweaking the feedback system’s functionality: Kiss and Make Up will be available for neutral feedback and the ability to leave feedback will now expire 90 days after the transaction date.
Rules for listings: We’ve clarified a few of the long-standing gray areas, such as: defining vintage and supplies, conditional listings/upgrades, graphic design services and explicitly prohibited items.
Community: We’ve added an official anti-spam rule for the Forums and a policy prohibiting solicitation for donations in community spaces.
Teams and Storque: Making a first time appearance in the DOs & DON’Ts are specific sections for participation in Teams and The Storque. Nothing here is really new; these polices just have a new home alongside all the others now.
The Terms of Use, Help Guides and FAQs for the site will also be updated to reflect the changes in the DOs & DON’Ts. Those pieces will launch along with the final version of the DOs & DON’Ts. Once we gather your feedback and make changes (if needed), we will launch everything together. At that time, we will send an email notice to all members. We will also allow a grace period for all members to comply with the any changed policies.
You can see a preview of the revised D&D on their own special page here.
The accompanying forum thread is here.
May 7, 2008 at 4:57 pm · Filed under Forums · By quirke
Starting today, forum-goers will no longer be able to use obscene words in forum post titles. The same filters used in the chat rooms and Virtual Labs will now replace such words with alternates. The filters do not extend to the body of the post - they apply only to titles.
Stellaloella explains why in this thread post:
stellaloella says:
While registered members of Etsy have to be over the age of 18, the site is viewable by the general public. We strive to keep the “first impression” public areas of the site friendly for all audiences.
We have certain rules for the marketplace side of Etsy regarding the use of language and imagery in listings. We’ve had this filter in the chat rooms and Virtual Labs for a long time already. We recently decided to carry this over in to the forums by adding a simple filter to thread titles. This doesn’t prohibit the use of those words in the body of forum threads — much like sellers can show all in the second-fifth photos of a mature content listing.
May 6, 2008 at 5:15 pm · Filed under Forums · By quirke
In this Storque article, Marymary explains the new flagging system for forum posts.
Today, we launched a report this post feature to Etsy’s forums. The Community Team at Etsy always appreciates your help in keeping a lively and fun community atmosphere when participating in the forums and we hope this new feature will help make your posting experience run much smoother! The report this post feature should be used when you see a post that doesn’t fit within Etsy’s forum guidelines and you want to alert the Community Team.
At the bottom of every post, after the timestamp, is a blue link reading “Report this post”. Clicking on the link will bring you to a new screen where you are presented with the following options to select as a reason for reporting the post.
-Thread is in the wrong section of the forums.
-Post discusses private matters (transaction detail, feedback, copying, etc)
-Post is abusive or insulting to another member
-Post negatively “calls out” a specific user by name or identifiable hints
-Post is from an alternate or “sock puppet” account
There is also a box for additional comments.
Once you have filled out the necessary information in the submission form, just click submit report and your report will be sent directly to the community inbox completely anonymously! This should make the forums run a lot smoother and help the Community Team stay on top of concerns amidst the community in a timely fashion.
There is an accompanying forum thread here.
UPDATE:
There has been some confusion as to who exactly the report is anonymous to, so Matt has clarified in the thread:
matt says:
Hi,
I was wrong.
The reportee does not know they have been reported, but we are able to see the username of the reporter. in short, only you and Etsy will know you reported a post. Sorry, I was confused and spoke too soon.
Thanks, Matt
May 5, 2008 at 6:13 pm · Filed under Down Time, Etsy Communications, Site Maintenance · By JB
As reported in this Storque article, Etsy will now be using their old blog for emergency updates, if the main Etsy site goes down. The Storque is hosted on the same servers at the ETsy site so when the site is down, so is the Storque. The old Etsy blog is hosted on a different server, so it will still be up and can be used for emergency updates.
Etsy says:
Since we’ll only use this blog in the event that Etsy itself is totally unreachable for a significant amount of time (which means, I hope we never use it), you might want to make a note of the url now and bookmark the link. Typing the address in directly will be the only way to get there.
We have decided to use the off-site blog in lieu of emailing everyone for several reasons: it takes over 24 hours to send all Etsians an email; when our servers are down or unreachable we most likely can’t send any emails; and we’d be emailing thousands of people who don’t want to get an email.
May 5, 2008 at 6:03 pm · Filed under Chat, Etsy Communications, Events, The Future · By JB
As reported in this Storque article, Etsy is holding a chat to gather community input on the issue of Etsy sellers having employees. This issue has come up a few times recently in the Etsy forums.
The meeting is Friday May 9
6 pm Central European time zone
5 pm UK time time zone
12 noon eastern USA time zone
11 am central USA time zone
10 am mountain USA time zone
9 am pacific USA time zone
Join us for a discussion and feedback session about employees and your Etsy shop. Rob, aka Rokali, co-founder and CEO of Etsy, will be leading the workshop.
When: Friday, May 9, 12 noon (Eastern US time) times on the Virtual Labs schedule are displayed in your local time
Where: Treehouse Room, Virtual Labs
…
Agenda:
For those selling handmade goods: Are employees necessary for a seller to “make a living making things”? Are the items still “handmade”?
What sort of hired help is needed for handmade sellers? Is *what* potential employees do for the shop relevant?
Does the number of employees that a business has impact whether the shop belongs on Etsy? If so, how many is too many?
Are different rules necessary for sellers of commercial supplies and vintage goods? Are employees acceptable for these types of shops?
What sort of information do you need (for example, links to information about employment law) to grow a business that includes employees?
Should sellers who are outsourcing, involved in collectives, and employing people be approved by Etsy? What sort of approval process would you be interested in?
May 5, 2008 at 4:43 pm · Filed under Categories, Features, Search · By GreenMamba
This Storque article briefly outlines the changes.
Today, we launched some exciting changes to Etsy’s search engine. These changes were requested by the community and we think they help improve the shopping experience on Etsy.
We’ve separated item search into three new searches: Handmade, Vintage, and Supplies. The default is Handmade, with Vintage and Supplies available in the drop-down. You can also select “All items” to search Handmade, Supplies, and Vintage all at once.
Consequently, it is critical that sellers categorize and tag their items correctly in order to place them within the proper search. Last week, we posted some information that will help you with that process. You can read the initial heads up here — Tech Updates: Upcoming Changes to Search and Categories — and its companion, follow-up article here — Upcoming Changes to Search: Your Questions Answered.
Just to clarify, category bleed is addressed when searching via specific top-level categories, rather than via the search bar at the top of each page. The drop-down menu does default to handmade, and includes the other search options, both new and old, but searches the entire database, not within specific categories.
HeyMichelle says here:
I mean- the “no bleed” is for categories. By categories, I mean the category browser. Search does not search just within that category…
If you would like to search *just* the art category, type in your additional search terms from the Art category, a subcategory, or subsubcategory from the Categories pages.
There are numerous threads following this change, in several forum sections. There is also some speculation that the change has affected the ability to list new items in at least some categories. See this thread in Bugs.
update by JB:
The bug linked above appears to be resolved and was not a true bug, but a problem on one user’s computer.
May 5, 2008 at 2:37 pm · Filed under Views / Counters · By quirke
In this thread, Marymary asks sellers to vote on whether they would prefer view counts to remain public, or to become private.
marymary says:
Hey guys!
We have seen several community requests for view counts to be made private for shop owner’s eyes only and would like to research this request a little further.
In the thread below, please state YES or NO, followed by your reason (if you have one) for making views private to shop owner’s eyes only!
Something to think about (but you don’t need to post about):
* How do you use your own views?
* Have you ever looked at the views of other’s shops and for what reasons?
Thanks so much for all of your feedback,
Mary
April 29, 2008 at 9:50 pm · Filed under Marketing, Street Teams · By JB
Etsy is starting a “Team Grants” program where they will subsidize Team projects such as advertising and special events.
This new program is called Etsy Team Grants and will assist creative, dedicated and energetic Teams with Etsy promos and financial resources. This monthly granted funding will help Teams represent themselves at craft fairs, art shows or other local events, help subsidize team advertising (see the Co-Op Advertising Program for a good model of this) or take part in other opportunities. We also want to give Etsy Teams promos (stickers, postcards, etc) to help spread the Etsy message to their communities. The applications are reviewed monthly and we have a set budget for the hundreds of Etsy Teams, so make your application shine! Here are some tips:
1. Elect one person from your team to be the leader of this project, communicate well with your Team, and have them apply on the Team’s behalf.
2. Make sure to include detailed descriptions of Team promotions and events your Team has successfully completed.
3. Tell us why and how your grant would help spread the Etsy message in the most effective way.
4. Be creative! Let us know how your Team will be creatively using the Grant, or contributing more to it.
5. Make a promise to us that you will document the promotion with photos, blog entries or even video!
Funds are allocated on a case-by-case basis, and the article doesn’t specify which Etsy admin(s) make the choices.
q: How do you decide who gets a grant?
a: We can only give so much each month. We will make decisions based on the activity level of your team, the location and focus of your team (i.e. if we haven’t already subsidized an event or Team close to you geographically, or a Team with a similar reach and market, your chances are better), the number of Team members that the grant will assist, and the overall benefits to Etsy.com.
In the Storque article comments, sarawearsskirts says:
we’ll be publishing the grant winners and a follow up on the previous months’ allocations here in the Storque (and likely, also on the Team pages).
For more information, see this Storque article.
Fill out a Grant application here.
April 29, 2008 at 8:39 pm · Filed under Categories, Search · By quirke
This Storque article answers some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the upcoming changes to search and categories.
The discussion is still continuing in the related forum thread here.
April 28, 2008 at 12:09 pm · Filed under Categories, Search · By quirke
In this Storque article, Marymary describes the long-anticipated separation of vintage and supplies from handmade items in the Etsy search function, as well as other important changes to categories and search. An excerpt from the article:
Hello Etsians!
On Monday, May 5, 2008, some important and exciting changes are happening with searching and categories. These changes are in response to feedback from all around the Etsy community, and were first introduced back in February with Rob’s Focus on Handmade Storque article. Here’s a rundown of what is to come:
We’ll be separating item search into three new searches: Handmade, Vintage, and Supplies.
Handmade Items – This is the default search. This searches all items on Etsy that are not tagged with “commercial” and do not have “vintage” as the first tag. Handmade supplies will still appear in this search. You can search tags and titles or tags, titles, and descriptions.
Supplies – This will search all of the supplies on Etsy, both handmade and commercial. Any item tagged “supplies” will show up in the results.
Vintage – This special vintage search returns only items within the Vintage category. This means items with vintage as their first tag (selected from the dropdown menu in the listing process).
The existing search will also remain available. Just select “All items” from the search bar to search handmade, supplies, and vintage all at once.
We’ll also be making changes to the category browser. Currently a top-level category such as Jewelry shows only items within the Jewelry category. The subcategories and sub-subcategories contain any items that have the tag “jewelry,” but are not necessarily in the Jewelry category. We call this “category bleed.”
The changes on May 5 will eliminate category bleed. All subcategories will only show items from within that category. Meaning the subcategories of “jewelry” will no longer pull up jewelry supplies.
The Patterns category is also gearing up for change, although this will not be part of the May 5 update. In order to help keep things organized, Patterns will be moving into the supplies category. A new drop-down will appear in the listing process for Patterns, prompting you to select handmade (if it’s your own pattern) or commercial (if it’s someone else’s pattern)
There is an accompanying forum thread here.
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