Etsy seller MagicJelly asked for clarification on Etsy’s policy against “calling out” other sellers in the forums in this thread. Etsy admin Rob White elaborated on the policy here:
I know it might sound like a tired old saw, but what I’m perennially most concerned about is that the passion that comes out here not be directed against other members of the Etsy community. I’ve seen many of you say a paraphrased version of this, and you’re absolutely right. As we work behind the scenes to improve the site and to make the Etsy experience better for both buyers and sellers, we have this space for the community to speak its mind. We accept and welcome your criticism. We know that what we’ll see are opinions that will support and oppose the things we have and have not done.
That’s okay. Criticism is okay.
The Forums are here for a whole gaggle of reasons, I know you know that. We do listen, we try to read pretty much everything and when we don’t respond directly, we still make note of the ideas and opinions that come out. We make it a point not to treat any members of the community differently as a result of their suggestions, ideas or criticisms. If you feel that that’s not the case in some particular situation, please send us an email to community (!at) etsy dot com and we’ll look into it.
(on the original topic of this thread, a positive comment about a shop is not, repeat, not calling out. Quote me on this as you need to!)
The action that we take on a thread is based upon our judgment of the situation in said thread as it pertains to our rules in the Terms of Use and the Dos and Don’ts. Reporting a thread (send -those- emails to community (!at) etsy dot com for fastest response, not to abuse or support) assures our attention on that thread, but we base our actions specifically on our judgment, not on the recommendations by those who report the thread, nor on how many people report it.
We don’t discuss private disciplinary matter with other community members, as has been said before. But if you have a “whaaaaaaat?” reaction to the way a thread was handled, send an email to community (!at) etsy dot com ad we’ll try to help you as far as we can without jeopardizing the privacy of any people who may be eligible for further action.
…that was predictably long. I’m sure I missed some concern(s), though - let me know what I missed, so I can go back and address them! And my apologies to GreenMamba for making her stay up for naught. YarnGirlStuff, too, if she went to bed. I hope this reply finds them well in the morning. =\
January 11th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I do sometimes wonder if Etsy doesn’t send that gang into threads, with orders to hijack it and give admin some excuse to lock it. This is just something I wonder and I have no proof, but they seem to be so organized and they invariably do get the thread locked after driving it far enough off-topic. (although sometimes after dozens of pages of painfully obtuse bickering)
The unwitting accomplices are the ones who keep responding to their bait and won’t drop it. It would be great if everyone had enough willpower to just ignore the hijackers.
January 11th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Etsy also needs to address another problem, along with this ridiculous “calling out” waste of time issue. There is a small group of regular forum posters who regularly gang up on posts they do not like, and they move en masse to silence threads on a daily basis.
OK, call this “calling out” within the Forums, but Etsy needs to put a stop to this abuse of the Forums and start limiting this small group’s access to the Forums. If you have ever been a target of this group, you know what I am talking about and who.
Oooops, did I just call out??????
January 8th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
very true….productivity would be a good reason :)
January 8th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Well, one possible reason is they might not want the staff reading certain UEN articles like the wikipedia vandalism articles. Because some Etsy staff can look up IP numbers in their user database, and could easily determine if any user or staff member’s IP matched the wikipedia edits. The rest of us can only speculate by the location of the IPs, but Etsy staff could find the culprit easily (if they are registered with Etsy). Perhaps the person who gave the order not to read UEN might be afraid of their own IP being the match?
Or another possibility is too many of them cry when they read UEN and a boss was trying to dry the tears. Maybe they just want the staff doing their own jobs ON Etsy and not spending too much unproductive time on sites like UEN and FLickr. There are lots of possibilities.
*shrug*
January 8th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
“I know some staff members have been ordered not to read UEN. ”
that would make me quit a job…especially if I took it thinking it was something great. Noone is going to tell me what I can and can’t read or make my own mind up about!
I have a little less respect for them as people, let alone business professionals, each week