Archive for January, 2009
January 28, 2009 at 2:05 am · Filed under Listings · By JB
source: this forum thread
matt says:
Hello friends,
We have been following the various threads outlining some community members’ concern about items not appearing in the Recently Listed Items ticker on the homepage or Time Machine 2.
I would like to offer a bit of clarification here.
…
Etsy does not guarantee that your listing will include exposure in other places on the site, like the Recently Listed Items on the homepage or the additional shopping features. As Etsy has grown, an increased number of listings compete for time in these areas of the site. For the most time-sensitive of features, it may not be possible to show all items immediately as they are listed.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6017266&page=10
matt says:
Hi Batiz,
No, it does not guarantee it. All of these features and search , default to the most recently listed item. Renewing may or may not get your item at the very top, but it will certainly put it before those who did notrecently list, renew or relist.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6006289
HeyMichelle says:
Hi there,
Because of the volume of new listings, we are uploading new listings in “batches”. This means that there will be a delay for appearing on the Front Page and Time Machine 2. Additionally, items *may* not appear on the Front Page “Fresh Items” section.
Update Jan 29
Matt has posted this Storque article describing the issue.
One lever that we recently adjusted was the way that listings, new or renewed, are delivered to the site (see this post). This adjustment involved delivering items in very frequent batches rather than continuously in real time. As an outcomes of this change, there is less of chance that an individual item will appear in certain ways of discovering items on Etsy, including the Recently Listed Items section of the Homepage, the Fresh Items list on the Buy Page, as part of Pounce, or in Time Machine 1 or Time Machine 2. Each of these product discovery functions works differently and the chances of sellers actually seeing their items appear in all of these places depend on many variables including listing volumes at specific times, site speed, and each user’s speed of navigation.
He also has apologized for the lack of communication in getting this information to sellers (who may be still renewing frequently on the assumption it will buy front page exposure, as it used to).
1. Etsy needs to communicate site changes more effectively.
Correct, and I take full responsibility here. I would like to apologize to the community at large. We did a poor job of addressing this issue in a timely or effective way. Several lengthy forum posts, a few days after the issue first arose is not acceptable. I didn’t fully appreciate the need to communicate more comprehensively about this issue.
Many of you made suggestions about how Etsy can better communicate with sellers. One of the first steps we are exploring includes an “admin” (e.g. Etsy staff) announcement section of the Forums. Though the Forums get millions of unique page views per month, I realize that they are not read by all in the Etsy community. Nevertheless a dedicated Etsy admin forum might be helpful in making it easier to find our announcements about important changes. I will keep you posted on this.
In the mean time, I’ve learned a valuable lesson here, and will be working much more closely with engineering to make sure that important site changes and updates are communicated more effectively and in a timely manner.
Update Jan 30
Today Etsy sent a Tech Updates email (to those users who are opted in) which explains the renewing issue and links to the Storque article.
Also, apparently some older Storque articles and the Etsywiki have been edited to remove all the places where they said renewing was a good promotional tool or would give you any Front Page, Pounce or Time Machine exposure.
January 21, 2009 at 7:40 pm · Filed under Down Time, Site Maintenance · By GreenMamba
In this Storque article, Etsy admins chaddickerson and Vanessa announce not only upcoming site maintenance slated for January 26, but for all of 2009:
On Monday, January 26th from 2am EST until 6am EST*, we will be doing scheduled maintenance on Etsy’s systems. During this time period, all functions on the site will be unavailable and all Etsy users will be directed to a page that notes that the site is undergoing scheduled maintenance. For updates during the maintenance window, please see http://fix.etsy.com. (Note: Any sellers who have purchased a Showcase that would run during this maintenance window will receive a pro-rated credit for the 4-hour maintenance period.)
We have planned a number of behind-the-scenes changes and improvements for 2009 that will enhance the stability and scalability of the site but will require site downtime. To minimize the disruption to the community and allow all of you to plan as far in advance as possible, we have set maintenance window dates for the rest of 2009. Below are the planned dates (all times are 2-6am EST*):
- Monday, February 23
- Monday, March 30
- Monday, April 27
- Monday, May 25
- Monday, June 29
- Monday, July 27
- Monday, August 31
- Monday, September 28
- Monday, October 26
- Monday, November 23
- Monday, December 28
We will communicate these dates in advance each month as a reminder. While there may still be occasional emergency maintenance windows, our goal is to use these regular planned maintenance windows to proactively make changes that will minimize emergencies.
Please add your comments or concerns in this forum thread.
Thanks in advance for your patience during our site maintenance periods, and thanks for using Etsy!
*To translate 2am EST into your local time zone, please click here. For 6am EST, click here.
January 16, 2009 at 1:38 am · Filed under Bugs, Site Maintenance · By JB
Source- this Etsy forum thread
matt says:
Hi,
THis is not a browser issue.
We have identified the issue that is causing the intermittent site issues in which users get a page that says “Etsy just experienced a brief hiccup.” We have a plan in place to address this issue.
We have decided to make the needed changes between 4am-8am EST when site load is typically the lowest. If we tried to correct this intermittent issue today during our high-traffic period, we could make what is an intermittent problem more severe, so we made the decision that would have the least impact on our users. The plan we have in place will NOT take the site down during this period, assuming normal traffic levels. So, for the time being, some of you will continue to have these hiccups occur. Tonight’s fix should alleviate the problem.
Please watch http://fix.etsy.com/ for updates tomorrow morning. Thanks again for your patience. We apologize for the issue and look forward to correcting it.
I think this means it’s happening tomorrow morning (Friday morning)
Update 1/16/09
Matt says
This morning around 4:00am, the changes to address the hiccup issue were completed successfully. We are monitoring them closely now.
AOL users may still be seeing the Etsy “hiccup” page because it is cached in AOL’s servers, not in your browser, so clearing your cache may not help. Others using services that use similar proxy servers may also experience the same problem. We made a change to our server configuration that will make this much less likely in the future.
We will keep you posted should anything change.
January 15, 2009 at 8:49 pm · Filed under Bugs, Shop Statistsics, Views / Counters · By JB
Source: this forum thread
Etsy released their stats (google analytics) 1 week ago, and there have been several bug reports and issues concerning the stats since then. These same issues surfaced during the beta testing, before last Thursday.
Today Etsy announced the issues formally, apologized for the problems and asked members for patience while they try to fix the problems.
Summary of the first issue: (for complete quote you can view the forum thread)
stellaloella says:
Dear Etsy sellers,
Last week, Etsy launched Google Analytics for sellers’ shops. Here is the original announcement from the Storque: http://www.etsy.com/storque/article/3141/
…
We apologize for releasing Web Analytics before fully resolving this Traffic Sources issue.
…
The Traffic Sources issue is the result of a tactical mistake in our integration. We share individual visitor tracking cookies between Etsy and Etsy sellers using Google Analytics. This results in Etsy sellers seeing Traffic Sources that relate to how their visitors originally entered Etsy in general, rather than Traffic Sources specific to their shop pages only.
…
We are still reviewing what options are best for our seller community, and we are testing possible solutions. Since Google Analytics reports update once a day, we have to wait 24-36 hours between running these tests to verify the results. We ask for your patience while we work through a few ideas and consult with Google and others to understand what’s possible.
What this means for sellers:
Your current Google Analytics stats are including some erroneous data, both referers and keywords. This bug only affects Traffic Sources. Your pageviews and other visitor data (location, etc) in Google Analytics are not affected and should be reliable.
What you can do about this problem:
Basically nothing- it has to be resolved on Etsy’s end, and changing your GA settings will not solve it.
There is a also second issue which is unrelated to the first.
Sellers have pointed out that links within the Google Analytics Content reports redirect to their shop homepage instead of the proper listing page. This is caused by Etsy giving us incorrect set-up directions about what domain to list in our Google Analytics account settings. They said to use shopname.etsy.com, and actually we should have used www.etsy.com. Etsy will be updating their set-up instructions and FAQ to reflect this as well.
What you can do about this problem:
This is one we can fix ourselves.
If you already have your Analytics set up, here is how to fix this:
– Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
– In the upper right is a menu for “My Analytics Accounts” Select your Etsy shop account. This will take you to the Overview page for that profile.
– Click “Edit” under “Actions for your Etsy shop profile.
– On the Profile setting page, click “Edit” in the grey bar that says “Main Website Profile Information”
– Change the Website URL to http://www.etsy.com (instead of username.etsy.com)
– Click “Save Changes”
– When you view your Content reports in Google Analytics, the external links to specific shop pages should direct to the correct page.
Note that editing this setting will ONLY solve the problem of clickable links in your Content report, it will not correct the first issue of incorrect referers and keywords.
UPDATE Feb 1, 2009
http://etsynews.com/868/etsy-adds-search-terms-to-referals-improves-google-analytics-stats/
January 15, 2009 at 4:34 am · Filed under Forums, Laws & Regs · By JB
Today Etsy opened a new forum to corral all the topics relating to the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) which is scheduled to take effect February 10.
There are many links to blogs, petitions, letters to government representatives, and other forms of activism you can get involved in to make your voice heard about this new law.
Etsy also added a badge to the homepage (left sidebar, near the bottom) for the “Save Handmade” campaign going on at BuyHandmade.org.
See also: previous UEN coverage of the CPSIA
January 10, 2009 at 2:00 am · Filed under Copyright / Branding, Laws & Regs, Miscellaneous · By quirke
Almost a year ago UEN reported on a site called Polyvore, which allows users to upload, alter, clip and assemble images from the internet into collages or “sets”. This site was brought to our attention when Etsy users noticed that their images were being taken and used without their permission. After much pressure, Polyvore agreed to block imports from Etsy.com.
At some point during the past year, Polyvore surreptitiously lifted the block. Etsy user Artandghosts, noticing dozens of her images had been taken and manipulated by Polyvore users, started a thread in the fora about the issue. Since then many other Etsy users have since chimed in to say that their photos and artwork have been used without their knowledge or permission. Although Polyvore claims that all of the uploaded images on its site are linked back to the original source, artists have found that many are not. Furthermore, some people have discovered personal photos of themselves and even the interior of their homes have been taken from their blogs and Flickr accounts. Others have discovered that their watermarked images have had the watermarks removed using Polyvore’s alteration tools, an illegal act punishable by fines between $2,500 and $25,000. Many have found their images used in multiple collages, bastardized, distorted, and otherwise altered by the user.
We at UEN respect the rights of artists to control how and where their images are used, and support any efforts to prevent intellectual property theft. Some individuals may be content to let Polyvore users manipulate their work, and we encourage all readers to investigate Polyvore’s use of images for themselves. This article serves as a notice to our readers so that they may take appropriate action whichever their perspective.
For more information and to view some of the altered works, you can visit this article at ArtandGhost’s blog.
Etsy artist SagittariusGallery has also started this petition against unauthorized use of copyrighted material on Polyvore.
Should you find your works being used on Polyvore and wish to have them removed, you can contact Polyvore here.
January 9, 2009 at 12:20 pm · Filed under Shop Statistsics, Site Use · By GreenMamba
After the successful completetion of beta testing, Etsy has released their new Web Analytics to the general membership. From the announcement thread:
| |
stellaloella says: |
| From the Storque announcement …”Sellers, Etsy has completed beta testing of Etsy Web Analytics (provided through Google Analytics), and you can now enable this feature by going to Your Etsy > Shop Setup > Web Analytics.
“This release of Etsy Web Analytics allows Etsy sellers to track metrics such as pageviews, site visits, popular content and page referrals. For more information, you can also read the Web Analytics FAQ.
“This feature is free to use for all Etsy sellers.
“Web Analytics is a powerful tool, but it can be complex to understand. We urge sellers to share information through the forums, and we are evaluating ways to share information with sellers on how to get the most out of this new feature.”
- - - - - - -
RELEVANT LINKS:
Your Etsy > Shop Setup > Web Analytics : http://www.etsy.com/shop_analytics.php
Etsy Web Analytics FAQ : http://www.etsy.com/faq_selling.php#ga
Google Analytics Help Center : http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/
Read the article here : http://www.etsy.com/storque/article/3141/
- - - - - - -
A big THANK YOU to the sellers who participated in the beta test group for Etsy Web Analytics! The testing process proved to be a valuable step, and we are grateful for the help and feedback provided by the testers.
We know many sellers will be excited about this new feature. We are too! There are a few things we want to make clear for the sake of discussion:
Etsy Web Analytics is …
… a tool for tracking and analyzing web traffic for your Etsy shop. You can see reports such as: pageviews, visitors data (like location), popular content (which pages in your shop are viewed most) and page referrals (where visitors came from). The Google Analytics platform provides various ways to view, sort and compare this data. There is a LOT of info available, so be sure to review the Google Analytics Help Center docs.
Etsy Web Analytics is NOT …
… the final answer to the “we want stats” requests made by Etsy sellers. There remains some Etsy-centric info that Web Analytics does not include, for example: comparative item Hearts data. Etsy Web Analytics is a solid step in the right direction, and we are continuing to work on new features that will help enable sellers to make the most of their Etsy experience.
So, with that said, please discuss and let us know what you think of Etsy Web Analytics. |
| Posted at 10:25 am, January 9 2009 EST |
Join the discussion on Etsy.
Read the Storque article.
January 5, 2009 at 3:08 pm · Filed under Search, Site Use, Tags · By quirke
In this Storque article, Etsy announces a significant change to its search function.
This week we are replacing Etsy’s existing search technology with Solr, an industry-leading, open-source search system. Solr is currently in use by major consumer sites like NetFlix as well as important e-commerce sites like Zappos. We believe it will provide Etsy the foundation to scale in terms of both speed and functionality.
You may recall that Maria Thomas, Etsy’s CEO, recently mentioned that we are going to be focusing on search in 2009 and that we intend to orient Etsy’s search function more to buyers’ needs. This first phase launch of Search is the first in what we expect to be a series of improvements to Etsy’s search function throughout the year.
For this initial launch we primarily focused on improving the speed with which search results are returned on Etsy. We believe you’ll notice immediate and significantly faster results though specific return times will vary based on your location and type of connection.
In addition to speed improvements, the Solr technology is smarter than our old search technology in how it handles certain queries. A specific improvement worth mentioning is the way in which the new system handles searches containing compound words. In our old system, a search for “notecards” would bring up items containing “notecards” in the tag, title or description field, but items containing only “note cards” (two separate words) would not show up in results. With our new search system, searches containing compound words like “notecards” or “hairbows” return all associated items.
There’s no need to make any updates to your item descriptions and tags to accommodate these improvements but this launch is a great time to remind sellers about the importance of accurate tags, titles and descriptions. You can find more info on how to best tag items in these tagging how-tos.
Future phases of Search will include upgrades to the relevancy and ranking of the results. The way current search results are displayed (ranking) is based on chronology (most recently listed items first). We believe that Etsy buyers will be better served by a system that takes into account both ranking and relevance in a way that helps them find items they’re looking for according to various criteria by category. And, for those buyers who may not know what they’re looking for, we also hope to introduce later in 2009 tools to foster discovery based on all the hearting and curating that takes place across the Etsy community every day..
While our main goal with search is to help buyers find what they’re looking for, we are mindful that sellers want various options to promote their items on Etsy. Redesigning the search function and creating new ways for sellers to advertise on Etsy are two important initiatives that are in the works for the first half of 2009.
Our new search system will be launching later this week; we will update this note when it’s actually live. We look forward to your feedback.
You can comment in the accompanying thread.
Information on Solr is available here.
Update by JB, January 8, 2009: The changes to search are now live in production.
January 4, 2009 at 12:46 am · Filed under Bugs, Down Time, Site Maintenance · By JB
Source: http://fix.etsy.com/
Intermittent errors
10:30am EST: As noted in this forum thread, we are done with the server reboots.
9:30am EST: By “intermittent,” we meant problems for a few seconds, if you experienced an issue at all. We just wanted to let you know just in case!
9:01am EST: You may be experiencing intermittent errors on the site right now. We are working on it.
We are also posting updates in this forum thread: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5939800
This was posted on the morning of Jan 4th.
However just now, at approximately 11:39 PM EST, Etsy had a brief “hiccup” or downtime.
The page said to go to the fix.etsy.com site for more information, but that was down as well.
When Etsy came back up, so did fix.etsy.com.
update:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5980673&page=2
chaddickerson says:
We did have a network issue that affected access to the site for less than a minute. We are investigating.
Posted at 11:58 pm, January 3 2009 EST - Report this post
