Here’s the official Storque announcement:
Dear Etsians,
Etsy will be conducting site maintenance at 2am EDT (e.g. early Friday morning eastern time U.S.), July 25, 2008.
We are not anticipating any issues — in fact, we hope you will not notice the change at all — but we want to give members a heads up. Should you experience issues and are unable to post in the forums, please email support [!at] etsy.com.
Thank you for your patience while we continue to improve the site!
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Thank you for letting us know beforehand, Etsy!
This is much better because if all goes without a hiccup you will be praised and if there is a hiccup you won’t be bashed as hard, because at least you gave a warning.
When you keep the maintenance or upgrades a secret, you get no praise when it goes well and a serious thrashing if it doesn’t go well.
July 24th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I am consistently frustrated that Etsy thinks that posting news items in the Storque is a sufficient means of notifying users of site updates or any other important news. I am signed up for their News emails, and wish this had been one of them.
I don’t have time to dig through the Storque during the day to find out what’s going on with the site. I’m busy working…and selling. Furthermore, many users do not even know that the blog exists, never mind use it (I have that conversation frequently, with fellow sellers “what, there’s a blog?”).
Paypal sends me updates on site maintenance that I can choose to read or not read, but at least I receive them. I’d like to see Etsy
July 24th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Errr…I’d like to see Etsy be equally attentive to their users needs for information.
July 24th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
I got an email, but I may be signed up for site news. It’s discouraging that someone would have to opt-in for something like this, especially when it’s *hard* to find the area to make your choice.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I also got an email about the maintenance yesterday.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:33 am
lamuchachaK is so right and so right on.
Etsy promised just a few months ago that they would improve communications and they have not only failed, they forgot their own promise! That just shows how little they think of sellers, and how long that attitude has pervaded everything Etsy does on the site. Sellers are the last on their list.
I am another seller who refuses to read the Storque, because I refuse to spend 20 minutes looking for the article that has a heading that makes no sense. Is in the wrong section, and then I read the first paragraph, and I have no idea what they are talking about.
90% of Storque articles start with something and end up telling you nothing!
Etsy is plugging the Storque and making sellers go there in constant posts that have Storque links (and sometimes 3 to 10 links, for heaven’s sake) because THEY HAVE TO FIND SOME WAY TO JUSTIFY THE VERY EXISTENCE OF THIS NEWSLETTER THAT THEY SPEND A HUGE AMOUNT OF EMPLOYEE EFFORT ON.
Please someone take a quick survey of 200 sellers and I bet 195 of them are going to tell you that they think the Storque is a waste of their time. It really shows there is no respect for sellers, their time, and their level of intelligence.
If Etsy spent the same number of hours on a real Customer Service Department and a real Advertising Campaign they might actually make a difference and sellers might actually sell. Etsy is a self-perpetuating machine that is mainly interested in promoting the personalities and personal preferences of its employees. The fact that they don’t mesh with sellers needs has no meaning to Etsy since they forget about sellers the minute they walk in the office door.