If you flag an item, will now receive an auto-response to your email:
Hi There!
Thank you for reporting your concern to Etsy.
We will look into your concern, and do our best to solve any problems on the site. This investigation will be a private matter between Etsy and the person you are reporting, but we really appreciate your help.
If you are reporting Copyright Infringement, or require a reply, please email abuse@etsy.com.
You will only receive one auto-response per day when you flag stuff! :)
Thanks,
Etsy
November 29th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
I do usually get an Auto response when I flag, the first flag of that day. But the stores are never removed and the items never properly retagged. It does seem pretty futile. Usually the items I flagged are sold when I recheck them a week or two later to see if they have been pulled. I haven’t heard this 6 weeks of investigation before- where did you hear or read that? Was it a public admin post you can link to?
November 29th, 2007 at 7:05 am
Auto responses are NOT being sent out when we flag items and/or stores.
Flagging has been a fruitless exercise.
Flagging has no direct effect on the removal of stores that are clearly in violation of Etsy rules.
I have been reading that it takes Etsy about 6 weeks to remove violating stores, but I have never ever seen a store removed. Not ony are they still selling, they list new items daily, appear in TM2 daily, have hundreds of sales weekly, and often say in their descrips “direct from our factory.”
So, why is flagging an option when it is a non-working tool?
How does that affect the rest of the selling community when we are constantly competing against rock bottom prices for imported, sweatshop-produced goods, factory-made items on Etsy?
We ALL know how price sensitive buyers are, and the continued operation of these violating stores steal sales away from legitimate store on Etsy.
We flag (get no auto-response) and the store stays up.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I am sure I could find 20 violations a day if I looked for them, but I just don’t have the time or energy to seek out things that will depress me. I don’t look at the front page or time machine very often. I flag things when I happen to stumble on them, if they piss me off to a sufficient degree. It takes a lot to piss me off, hence only 20 flags. (estimated, i haven’t actually counted them)
After this most recent bout of flagging and the lack of results, I don’t expect I will flag anything again even if I stumble on it and it’s blatant. There’s really no point, it’s wasting my time and Etsy’s, and their actions (or lack of) speak louder than their words. (Do’s and Dont’s)
They are making the choice what they want the site to be like- making their bed, so to speak. And they will have to lie in it.
*shrug*
November 1st, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Retroattic, I know you weren’t being specific to anyone here. All I was saying is that even people who DON’T flag tons and tons of items get ignored.
And I can’t even IMAGINE sending so many flags as that! People really do that?!? I wouldn’t have time! I do a bit of investigation with each flag, and include outside links when possible. All totalled, I think I’ve sent in maybe 35 - 40 (at most) flagging emails in 18 months. But I have been very vocal about the fact that flagging seems to make no difference, so I worry that people perceive me as a rampant flagger when I am actually very prudent about it.
JB, that was my belief also, that by ensuring that my reasons for flagging were solid, provable and involved what I see as major violations, perhaps my flags might get taken seriously. But it doesn’t seem to matter. Maybe if I were “golden” it would be different.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:14 am
My comments were not directed specifically at anyone here. I don’t consider 20 in a year tons of flags. I would bet there are people who flag well over 20 items a day. And, I would bet that number is probably closer to 100.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:14 am
My comments were not directed specifically at anyone here. I don’t consider 20 in a year tons of flags. I would bet there are people who flag well over 20 items a day. And, I would bet that number is probably closer to 100.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I’ve sent probably less than 20 flags in the 13 months I have been on the site. A few months ago that number was less than 10, but I did stumble across a lot of blatant violations while curating a treasury recently, so I had a small flurry of flags.
I am a “choose your battles” type of person. I don’t like to flood them with minor violations, this is the same philosophy I have about reporting abuse. I just report the MOST blatant and I let the little stuff slide. I had always hoped that by not being a daily tattletale or constant crybaby, they might take me more seriously when I do choose to report something. I don’t “cry wolf”. But I don’t think it matters really, in regards to flags. I think they are all ignored equally, and since they are still using email to manage flags, they probably don’t even keep good stats on who reports the most flags, or who reports the most false flags, etc. They do say that repeated erroneous flagging is against their rules, but that is unenforceable when they never reply to people telling them why a flag was erroneous. How would someone learn they were flagging in error?
October 31st, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Retroattic, it may sound like I am one of those who flag a lot, but I do not. I have sent only 9 emails in the past 6 weeks, and one of those was a follow-up one with additional links to wholesaler sites which prove the items are not handmade as was stated in the description. These were all items I ran across while browsing to buy, I did not search them out.
Most of the ones I sent in were for stores with commercially produced books or patterns that were not in the Supplies category but were in Patterns or Books & Zines. These are, out-and-out, non-defensible and easily corrected by Admin themselves.
I don’t think that constitutes “tons”, especially since I had pretty much given up on flagging for many months previously.
But, even so, my flags do seem to get ignored. I’m not sure what to think about that. Except that it seems fairly obvious that the current flagging system isn’t working.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Ericka, once you click ’send’, it’s out of their mind, too.
Retroattic, I agree that probably there is a lot of misflagging, possibly because the rules are a but confusing. What I have mainly flagged for is mistagging, for the same reason - so many new sellers come and put their vintage-whatevers under what they think is the proper category, because Etsy doesn’t make the made by you/not made by you category distinctions clear. One way Etsy could reduce mis-flagging would be to actually respond to incorrect flags, so the users get some feedback o what is right or wrong. I don’t see why they can’t do that.
As far as stuff that doesn’t belong on the site, my favorite is the seller that has had Rolex watches (no, not vintage ones) up for sale for a few weeks.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I have always believed form what I read in the forums that
A. a large number of flagged items really fit into Etsy’s rules of what belongs on the site. It is so easy to embellish a commercial item and it clearly fits into Etsy’s guidelines. The perfect example is the make up thread that discussed embellishing a make up brush with a bead so it could be sold on the site. That can be done with almost ANYTHING! I wonder if the same applies to many of the electronics type items on Etsy. There is a geek section and I remembering reading something when I signed up about computers but I don’t remember the details because it didn’t apply to me. But, I think many people tend to view other areas that they are not as familiar with such as electronics as not handmade.
B. there is are a large number of Etsy members who make it a daily ritual to search out many, many items to flag. I believe they see it as their duty whereas I always thought the flagging tool was for items you stumble across not actively search out. I’m sure these items overwhelm Etsy and I would bet that sellers who flag tons and tons and tons of items get ignored but maybe I’m completely wrong!