In this Storque article, Matt provides a summary of Monday’s discussion on Etsy’s policies and practices.
There is a direct link to the meeting minutes here.
edit by JB:
The posted minutes only contains the written portion of the chat and not Matt’s voice comments.
This past Monday I invited members of the Etsy community to join me in the Virtual Labs to share their comments and concerns. My intention was to give the community an opportunity to speak directly and candidly to us here at Etsy.
We were there to listen, and listen we did.
Over the past couple of weeks, we clearly made some missteps in the forums and customer support. We are sorry for anyone who was affected by our mistakes, and we’ve been reaching out directly to the people involved.
Our aim now is to take action by formulating clear and consistent policies and practices to make sure our community, and our company, will continue to be healthy, helpful, and supportive as we grow.
Here are the key issues raised during Monday’s meetings:
Issue 1: Buyer /Seller Disputes- What Role should Etsy play? What is a venue?
Issue 2: Shop Closures:- What are Etsy’s policies? What due diligence measures are being taken to make sure that mistakes are not made?
Issue 3: Relationship between Etsy’s Policies and a seller’s.
Issue 4: Feedback System - improvements and limitations.
Issue 5: Improving policy documentation: TOU, Dos and Don’ts.
Issue 6: Forum: Policies and environment. Muted sellers.
Issue 7: Admin tone, behavior, and accountability.
The entire Community & Support team is in NYC this week and we’re discussing the these issues. I invite you to email me directly at matt@etsy.com if there are other issues regarding customer support and forum policies that are important to you that weren’t discussed.One quick note:
Monday’s discussion was rather spur of the moment. I realize how important it is to make sure everyone’s voice is heard, and I apologize to all who did not learn of Monday’s talk in time. I do assure you, however, that they were just the start of what will be regularly occurring conversations.
FYI: The comments as currently posted accidentally repeat the minutes from the morning meeting twice. The minutes for the second session start approximately three-quarters of the way down the page.
March 8th, 2008 at 5:44 am
“We are sorry for anyone who was affected by our mistakes, and we’ve been reaching out directly to the people involved.”
————–
This just raised my opinion of Etsy and admin up a few notches.
I’m just sayin….
March 7th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
*claps* i like the way you think lowwattage :)
March 6th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I was at the 2nd session, and then read through some of the first that lasted much longer. Despite all the cross-talking and over-talking, I did think that Matt summed up the most vital points, based on thousands of complaints over the last 12-18 months.
What will help now is to take this list, set it in order of priority, and establish a written ACTION PLAN. To let all the hoopla, and desperate need for information, negative publicity, and continued strains and bad attitude and deeply negative comments running in the Forums - go by without taking action is such a complete waste, and even more painful because so many sellers have put their heart and souls into this.
The list of major problems could have been put together at least 10-12 months ago, if someone had bothered to sit quietly for 8 employed, paid hours and read (only read, no comments) all the Forum Threads, all of these issues would have been so clear, a 4 year old could have figured it out.
Now that there seems to be a great deal of agreement on what the major issues are, let’s see some action and NOW. Not 12 months from now. If the negative publicity continues, or grows, then the damage will be just too great and too deep to recover. Make up an action plan, print it for all to see, put definite completion dates on it and just do it.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
He was in the morning meeting on Monday, but I guess he could have been logged in from a hotel somewhere, not necessarily in the Etsy offices.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
“I have to wonder though, with two fulltime filmmakers on staff now, why couldn’t someone have video’d Matt’s chat!”
According the today’s Etsy News brepettis (or whatever Bre’s name is - they called him Bre in the blurb) is not in NY right now.
March 6th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
At first I felt the same way, that they were using the audio to make “off the record” statements we wouldn’t be able to document. I want everything in black and white! But I do think enough people were there who heard the voice statements that they can’t really deny or wiggle out of them. I just wish for the ones who weren’t there, that you could hear what I heard and then you might be a little more optimistic than you are based on the transcript or on secondhand reports. It was the best part of the meeting. If anything, it would really improve Etsy’s image to make that video and audio available to everyone, so I don’t think they are avoiding publishing it to avoid embarrassment or to renege on the promises made.
I have to wonder though, with two fulltime filmmakers on staff now, why couldn’t someone have video’d Matt’s chat!
March 6th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
It’s pretty difficult to read this, but I like a lot of the points made. Clearly the ‘Virtual Labs’ as a meeting room has pretty severe limitations, but I wouldn’t know what would serve better.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to go and ask the important questions!!
“Over the past couple of weeks, we clearly made some missteps in the forums and customer support.”
Perhaps he meant to say past couple of years?
It’s not very reasonable to conduct part of the conversation in a way that does not become part of the official record - that merely muddles things. Convenient, in a way, for them I suppose as anything said that way is now unknown and nobody need answer for any of it.
March 6th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Awwwwww shoot!
Matt said in the Storque article comments that he doesn’t think they recorded the audio portion. I’m very disappointed.
They did attempt to paraphrase his voice answers into text during the chat, but the summaries were very truncated and watered down compared to his spoken words. I mean no one can type as fast as he talked so they might type a few words to paraphrase a 3 sentence reply. When you leave out all the adjectives and stuff, the comment loses much of it’s power.
for example there’s a big difference between “We made some sloppy mistakes which are totally unacceptable” and “mistakes were made”. The voice comment refreshed me with it’s candor but the shorter written paraphrase just looks like typical legalese politician talk.