We are thrilled to announce a new addition to the UEN editorial staff - Dangerousmezzo.
DM hails from Canada and has been an Etsy member for over year, selling beautiful collages, art and jewellery. We couldn’t be more pleased to have such a smart, savvy, and well-balanced voice on our team, and we’re grateful for her willingness to contribute her time and energy.
Help us welcome her to UEN!
Dear readers of UEN, I unfortunately must step down from my role as administrator of this site. I’m soon to get married and begin my post-college career, and it’s imperative that I focus my time and energy on these new efforts. I’d like to take a moment to share how far we’ve come, thank you all, and commend UEN’s editors. But first of all, don’t worry! UEN is continuing on unchanged and will only get better!
When I started up this website and emailed a few of my Etsy friends to ask their help, I had no idea how big the project would grow. Since March 2007, just a year now, we’ve had half a million page views and over seventy thousand returning visitors. We have many hundreds of users who have taken the time to register, and over ten thousand comments have been posted to the blog. It’s been very exciting to watch this site grow along with Etsy.
You may remember the reader survey we took back in November and December 2007. Here are a few results (click the charts to view large versions):
Reading habits: Comparing news sources available to Etsy buyers/sellers
Q: Please describe how frequently you read the following news sources?
UEN’s helpfulness now that Etsy has an official news outlet
Q: How helpful do you find the following news sources?
Are we doing our job?
Q: Should UEN continue to exist?
Thus, beyond simple popularity, it has been a pleasure to provide a timely and reliable news venue for Etsy’s buyers and sellers. As time has progressed, we have also found ourselves deemed an appropriate place for frank discussion and debate of the issues that surround the Etsy community. I believe that is a reflection of our constant efforts to create a space where people of all viewpoints can feel comfortable sharing their opinions.
The credit for this success belongs far more to the dedicated members of the UEN editorial team than it does to me. I’d like to give my endless thanks to everyone who’s served as an editor at UEN. You might be surprised how hard they have worked behind the scenes to make sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible on the site. As tough situations have arisen, it has always been our goal to do what is best for the Etsy community as a whole. Thanks team!
Now that I am stepping down, my former role will be shared among other editors. I do not anticipate any special changes in how you use the site, so please continue to enjoy reading, commenting, and sending in tips. UEN is only going to get bigger and better. If you’d like to stay in touch with me, I’m available through my Etsy store, serena.etsy.com and my direct email here.
Thanks and best wishes!
Sara (serena)
So sorry for the downtime, but I think we’re back up and running on our new server. Maybe my brain is just tired from working on this all day, and it’s giving me a sweet sweet mirage? Let me know what you see.
Update: If you were having trouble logging in, please try again. Thanks to Dangerousmezzo for helping me troubleshoot this!
More updatey goodness: Did you notice more weirdness? That was our upgrade to WordPress version 2.5, which puts us on the cutting edge. I really think I’m done messing things up now. :)
Hi readers,
We’re moving UEN to a new server. Hopefully your use of the site will not be disturbed, but in case you notice anything off, that’s what we’re up to.
You can still use the site as normal: Your updates and comments will be moved over just fine.
Check and see whether we’re at the new or old server by looking at the bright orange text in our sidebar.
Thanks!
Dear readers, we are beginning some site maintenance at Unofficial Etsy News. Should you be unable to reach UEN for a short bit of time, that’s why!
We hope to avoid downtime, but apologize in advance should any occur.
Dear faithful readers, thank you for being patient with our registration system. So far, based on your feedback and our experience as editors, the decision to require commenters to register has worked very well.
Long Have the Spammers Caused Us Suffering
However, one thing you might not have thought about is registration spam. I know, they think of everything! Since we use up-to-date blogging software and have security controls in place, the hundreds of spammers that have been registering at UEN have been unable to make use of their registrations. They haven’t commented, posted, or hacked our site. But from the site admin perspective, these fake users are terribly annoying and obsure who our real readers are and who they aren’t.
What’s Changing
Thus we are putting into place a few measures to combat registration spam. Only new users will deal with these; existing users can continue as per normal. We have added a captcha image and a “math test” to our registration form. One or the other of the tests will appear when a new user attempts to register. You will also have three days to confirm your true intent to register, which can be done by clicking a link in the registration email. If you don’t decide to confirm, your account will disappear after three days.
You can admire this elegant new system here. For our already-registered readers, you hopefully will not notice any changes, except maybe happier editors.
Mopping Up the Mess
Now that we’ve hopefully reduced spam registrations greatly, we will begin the tedious process of weeding out spam users and deleting them. Usually they are apparent, such as gamblingisfun12461@ourwebsite.com. We will pour all of our combined powers into making darn sure no real users have their accounts deleted. However, if you did somehow decide to register with the email checkoutourextrabeautifulwebcams35426@ourwebite.com, never left a comment or edited your profile, and if we somehow delete you, please let us know! We really, obviously, really, truly do not want to inconvenience anyone and will take all possible measures to make sure all real user accounts are totally protected. So don’t worry. I’m just putting this out there in case.
What if You Now Experience Unfortunate Problems?
I’ve tested the system and it appears to work very well. However, if a problem does come up, please let us know so we can help you. Since anyone who has problems with registering will not be able to leave us a comment about it in a post, we would ask you instead to send us a “tip” about your problem. The link is on the sidebar, or you can click here. We will work with you to make it right.
Thanks a million for your patience and continued reading.
Please welcome MagicJelly, the latest addition to our editorial team. She hails from the Land Down Under but is known worldwide for wonderful prints, coasters, paper goods, pocket mirrors, and more. She is coming up on her two year “Etsyversary” in March.
We’re very grateful for MagicJelly’s willingness to volunteer her time to UEN. Thank you and welcome!
I’m so pleased to introduce a new member of the Unofficial Etsy News team: DejaVu. DejaVu hails from the Great White North and has been an Etsy member since January 2006. She is known for lovely whimsical purses, totes, and wristlets. She has been a long-term reader of UEN and we’re grateful for her willingness to volunteer here.
Please join me in welcoming DejaVu!
There’s been some questions and concerns raised both here in the UEN comments and on the Etsy forums recently, about some of UEN’s policies and practices. We’d like to take a minute here to address them.
Top-Level Articles:
A “top-level article” refers to the articles written under the main headlines that appear chronologically in the sidebar. The comments on a top-level article are not part of the article, but a separate entity. In all but the rarest of cases, a top-level article is comprised of a short introduction or explanation, a link to a primary source, and a cut-and-paste quote from the primary source. The information in top-level articles regarding Etsy is factual and opinon-free. We link to sources on Etsy and quote from Etsy. As described in our policies page, we cannot vouch for the integrity of the information linked to; we are only reporting its existence. The information linked to may change, or be retracted, or may be incorrect.
We encourage all UEN readers to investigate the primary sources linked to in the articles and form their own independent opinion on the issue.
Comments:
As expressed on our policies page, UEN is not responsible for the comments made on any article. Comments are the sole responsibility of the commenter, and we do not vouch for the integrity of the information and personal opinions therein, just as Etsy does not vouch for the integrity of the information and personal opinions posted on its forums. You may find bias in the comments, opinions you disagree with, information you think may be untrue, or statements you find offensive. These do not reflect the opinions of UEN, nor does their existence imply endorsement.
We kindly ask that our readers be careful to distinguish between the top-level articles and the comments.
Comments by UEN Editors:
As described in our policies page, we feel it would be a disservice to strip the editorial team of the opportunity to express their individual, personal opinions within the pages of UEN. Consequently, the editors are as equally responsible for their own comments and the information therein as much as any other UEN user. We do not value our opinions any more or any less than others’, and no user should ever feel disinclined to respond to a comment because it came from an editor. At the same time, we are obliged to uphold our no-abuse policies. That means from time to time, you may see an editor speaking separately in a personal manner or in an editorial capacity. It works the same way on Etsy: admins post on the fora in both an official capacity (admin hat on) and using their own personal Etsy accounts (admin hat off). On UEN, we do not have separate accounts for editors, but we feel that there are few enough of us that most readers will be able to identify who is an editor. Our list of editors is viewable on the sidebar if there is any confusion.
Moderating Comments:
A “moderated” comment is a comment that has been held back from publication, but which still exists in our system. We do not delete comments. We may choose to permanently moderate a comment, but it is always still accessible to us, and moderation is reversible.
Every UEN user should be aware that we have automatic spam filters in place. The spam filters are aggressive, and from time to time, real comments may be held up in moderation. Comments most likely to be automatically moderated are those containing links, and those from new users. These comments will be held in moderation until a UEN editor finds and releases them. If you think your comment may have been caught in the spam filter, please contact one of the editors so that they can release it.
Comments that may be manually moderated by an editor include those that are abusive, defamatory, safety concerns, advertisments, or accidental duplicates. Examples of “abuse” including name-calling, deliberate insults and derogatory remarks towards other users, and telling other users to shut up. We may also moderate comments that drag down a discussion and aren’t relevant to the topic at hand, or disputes that escalate into personal attacks between two or more users. If we see conversations heading this way, we will warn the parties involved. Abusive comments will be moderated without warning. We may invite a person to re-post part of a moderated comment if they are willing to subtract the part that violates our posting policies.
Moderation is always a last choice for us. Our intent is to provide a platform for a wide variety of opinions and perspectives. We have had to manually moderate very few comments during UEN’s existence, and we’d like to keep it that way as much as possible. If you see a comment you feel should be examined for moderation, please contact an editor.
Overall, we feel the discussions here on UEN have been thoughtful and civil, even during disagreements, and we thank our users for that.
Anonymity, Impersonation and Usernames:
We are cognizant that some people who wish to discuss negative aspects of Etsy are fearful of reprisal, and for that and other privacy concerns we allow anonymous accounts (called “sockpuppet” accounts on Etsy where they are prohibited). The same rules of conduct apply whether you are using your Etsy name or an anonymous name. Anonymity is not a free pass to abuse anyone, it is simply to protect your business account.
UEN does not tolerate impersonation of another person under any circumstances. Because we allow anonymous accounts, the only possible reason for impersonating someone else is for malicious intent. Comments from impersonators will be moderated and the IP address banned.
For the reasons described above, we also do not permit usernames that contain the names of other individuals within them, with the exception of common-usage words. UEN retains the right to remove inappropriate usernames at its discretion.
We hope that clears up some of the questions we’ve seen floating about. If you have any questions or need further clarification, ask away.
The UEN Editorial Team
Dear fellow Etsyians and Readers of UEN,
I regret to inform you that today is the last day of my service to the UEN. It has been a great journey and I have enjoyed writing for and interacting with you. I am sad to leave, but it is a step I must take because of time constraints.
Thank you, Sara, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this great site and to help out the Etsy community. Thank you, UEN editors, for this great journey and friendship. Thank you, readers of the UEN, for your kind support all these months.
All the best to everyone and do give continued support to the UEN as the current editors strive to be of service to you.
Tata for now.
Warmest Love,
Cindy
