Editorial Notice:

After a long and unplanned hiatus during which UEN experienced a serious loss of data going back about 7 months, I am attempting an update with a fresh article (and hoping it stays put).

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On October 20, 2009, Etsy announced a change to its DOs & DON’Ts (D&Ds), which are an extension of the Etsy TOU. In addition to a Storque article (authored by Etsy CustomerCare, stellaloella, and TechUpdates) highlighting major changes or clarifications, it also opened a dedicated forum thread in which community members were given a sneak peek at the new version, and invited to discuss and/or make suggestions, in advance of it going into effect.

Excerpted from the Storque:

As you will see, most policies remain the same. In many areas, we’ve just clarified existing information or elaborated upon current practices to include these items formally in the DOs & DON’Ts document. Below I’ll highlight the changes, but be sure you preview the updated DOs & DON’Ts in their entirety.

Membership: A few notable policies that apply to all members have been moved up to the Membership section, like our policy for linking from a shop or profile to another selling venue. Collectives (seller accounts involving multiple people) have been further defined with the categories of Collaboration, Sharing a Shop and Shop Management Help. We clarified our rules for younger Etsians; collectives that include minors under the age of 18 may not utilize community features unless otherwise stated.

Conversations: You may not use Conversations to interfere with a transaction (with details on this in the Transactions section, too). We’ve also elaborated on the definition of “spam” as it relates to Etsy Convos.

Transactions: We’ve added information to the Transactions section, describing the roles of the seller, the buyer and Etsy in a transaction. Additionally, we’ve detailed various concerns or scenarios in which a transaction may be disputed, including: non-payment, non-delivery, refusal of service, dissatisfaction and interference. We’ve also clarified the circumstances in which a transaction may be canceled. In general, the additions to this section outline in greater detail the processes and policies already in place for transactions.

Feedback: To better accommodate custom orders and international transactions, we will be increasing the timeframe for submitting feedback from 90 days to 120 days. (This will go into effect when the policies are “live.”) Additionally, we’ve clarified the circumstances in which Etsy will review feedback for removal, and we’ve lifted the 30-day limitation to requesting a feedback review for policy violation.

Shops and Listings: Formerly called “Selling,” this section has been expanded to include detailed policies about shop set-up, listing items, tagging and specific rules for handmade items, vintage goods and supplies. The section on Tagging is entirely new to the DOs & DON’Ts, but most of this information was available in Etsy’s Help section or through guides posted on Etsy’s blog, The Storque. Expanded sections on rules for handmade, vintage and supplies items should help sellers understand what can be sold on Etsy and how to list items for sale.

Charitable Shops and Listings: Etsy appreciates the spirit of giving back. Due to some laws and the existence of unsavory individuals who may try to take advantage of this spirit, we have added a section for charitable shops and listings.

Prohibited Items: In response to a variety of community concerns, we have clarified our prohibited items list. These items — though they may be handmade, vintage or a crafting supply — are not allowed to be listed for sale on Etsy.

Showcase and Treasury: Making a first time appearance in the DOs & DON’Ts are specific sections for participation in the Showcase and the Treasury. We have gathered information from other areas of the site about these interactive features to formalize as policies in the DOs & DON’Ts.

The DOs & DON’Ts of Etsy, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy and the Help site all will be updated for consistency. Once we gather your feedback and make any changes, we will launch the final versions of everything together. At that time, we will send an email notice to all members. As stated above, we will also allow a grace period for all members to edit their existing content to comply with any changed policies.

One week later, on October 27, 2009, Etsy announced its fully revised and final version of the D&Ds, and started a fresh discussion thread:

stellaloella says:

Today Etsy has put into effect updated policies for the site in the DOs & DON’Ts of Etsy, the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy. You can read more about this annual policy update - including an overview of the changes - on Etsy’s blog, The Storque: http://www.etsy.com/storque/article/4974/ These are important changes that every Etsy member should review, so we’re sending out an email notification to all members (with millions of members in our community, it may take a few weeks for the emails to reach everyone). You can view Etsy’s policies in their entirety at these locations: * DOs & DON’Ts of Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/dosdonts.php * Terms of Use: http://www.etsy.com/terms_of_use.php * Privacy Policy: http://www.etsy.com/privacy_policy.php * Copyright & IP Policy: http://www.etsy.com/copyright_policy.php The policies are live and in effect as of today, October 27, 2009; therefore, all your activities or content on Etsy from today forward must be in line with these new policies. We are allowing all members a grace period to bring their existing content (for example: account information, shops, listings) up to speed with any changes in the policies. We also wanted to take into account the timing with the busy holiday season. All members have until the end of the day on December 31, 2009 to edit their content created prior to today’s date (October 27, 2009). Some of you may recall last week that we provided a preview of the proposed changes to the DOs & DON’Ts of Etsy, one of the main policy documents containing rules for using the site. A big sincere THANK YOU goes out to everyone who read the preview and participated in the resulting discussions in the Forums, email and Conversations. Your feedback was very helpful, and we even made a few tweaks based on your insights. If you have questions or comments, please join us in the related discussion thread or send email to support [!at] etsy.com. Discussion thread: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6330324

Posted at 6:51 pm, October 27 2009 EST

Since that time, a number of questions have been raised and some answers given, though several material changes to the policies have continued to generate a great deal of concern. In addition to the official discussion threads linked above, a sampling of threads by community members seeking clarification on two key issues – no more sale cancellations when there has been a return and refund; finished commercial chains being disallowed as a supply – can be found here:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6338766

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6339177

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6340010

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6330730

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6331770

The confusion led to a series of forum threads asking for clarification, eventual corrections by several admin, an amending of the Storque article that announced these changes, and, ultimately, an official apology from Etsy CEO, Maria Thomas.

Excerpt:

Dear Etsy Sellers,

This is the kind of note CEOs generally don’t enjoy writing. Because, this is the kind of note that says, “We messed up, and we’re sorry.”

Over the weekend, Etsy messed up. We prematurely sent out notices to sellers whose bills we had identified as “overdue.” This overdue notification was a change in our billing process. We did a poor job of fully explaining this change and consistently messaging it across the site and in other communications with our seller community. In addition, the change was poorly timed relative to the March billing cycle and poorly coordinated with our recent introduction of enabling sellers to pay their Etsy fees via PayPal. Introducing PayPal as a payment option for seller fees also allowed us to accept payments of any size, so we simultaneously eliminated the $1.00 minimum payment threshold. We now ask those owing less than $1.00 USD to pay their balances in a timely manner, just like other Etsy sellers.

Regrettably, we did not lay all these messages out in an easily digestible form, and we didn’t deliver them to you in a timely and clear way.

I am ultimately responsible for this poor execution, and I apologize. I know that Etsy sellers need clear, consistent, timely communication from Etsy in order to plan your businesses. That’s our goal, and we will all work harder to be more diligent and timely with future announcements affecting all sellers.

I asked Etsy staff to roll back the changes (that is, to go back to the billing policies and process in effect prior to March 14, 2009) until such time as we are able to more thoroughly and consistently email all of you about what we’re doing and why. Let me repeat, we have moved back to the policies and process that were in effect prior to this weekend’s communications about overdue bills. Please note that sellers will still be able to pay your Etsy bills via PayPal, and you will be able to pay your bill even if the balance is below $1.00 USD.

Read Maria’s full article here.

Editorial comment:

Kudos, Etsy and Maria, for handling this so quickly and professionally, and for owning and correcting the mistakes made during the initial rollout. This is a huge step forward in Communications, and is much appreciated.

Key points in their plans for the coming months include:

1. “Search is our top priority for 2009. We anticipate numerous updates to Search throughout 2009.” (more details are available in Product Manager Sean Flanagan’s Storque article here.)
2. Payments: There is currently a seller survey about payments, which Sara did not mention but that will possibly result in some new payment options being incorporated into Etsy, such as google or RME. Sara only mentioned changes which have already occurred such as sellers being able to pay their bills with paypal, and the fact that Etsy now employs a collection agency.
3. Checkout: In the coming months we will be working to better clarify the functional elements of the overall (checkout) process, including introducing inline registration (i.e. letting first-time buyers checkout on Etsy without forcing them to confirm their registration first).
4. Safety, Security, and Trust: No specific details are given here, but Sara says “While it may not always be possible for Etsy to disclose its fraud deterrence practices…Etsy takes these issues very seriously and thus we continue to update our infrastructure to keep fraudulent behavior off of our site.
5. Showcase: In March you will see improvements to the design of Etsy’s Category pages and, more specifically, the design of the Category Showcase promotional modules at the top of those pages. …
   In the coming months, we are looking to expand Showcase placements to other relevant areas of our site to provide more opportunities for sellers to gain additional exposure. (ed:this is possibly related to Sean’s mention of possibly selling paid ads on the search results pages.)
6. Seller Tools: In the next month, Etsy plans to release tools to allow sellers to rearrange the items in your shop.
7. Site Performance: Sara does not mention any details, but refers readers to Chad’s recent article here which goes into detail about site performance.

Sara closes with the promise of more regular updates:

I’ll be back with regular updates on what we’ve accomplished from this list and what else we have lined up for the remainder of the year.

For the full text of Sara’s article please see The Storque.
Commenting is closed for this article, but there is a forum thread open to comments.

After a short period of beta testing, all sellers now have the option to pay their Etsy bill with paypal. You can pay the full bill or make partial payments by filling in any amount, just as you did with credit card payments.

You will now see an option for PayPal under “Method of payment” when you go to Your Etsy > Your Etsy Bill > Make a payment.
When you select PayPal as your method of payment on this screen and click “Submit Payment,” you will be taken to PayPal. Log into PayPal to complete the payment. You will be directed back to Etsy upon completion of the transaction.

Paying your Etsy bill with PayPal is optional. You can still pay your Etsy bill via the credit card you have on file with Etsy. Regardless of whether you pay your Etsy bill with PayPal or credit card, Etsy sellers need to keep a valid credit card on file with Etsy because we require a valid credit card to become an Etsy seller at this time.

Etsy has also removed the one dollar minimum payment.

With this release we are also removing the minimum payment amount for seller fee payments, whether paid by credit card or PayPal. Previously, Etsy only accepted payments of $1 or more from sellers. This is no longer the case—Etsy sellers will be expected to pay their bills in full regardless of the amount. So, if you are billed $0.60, you can now pay $0.60, and you have the option to pay via PayPal

Please see the full Storque article for more information and for some Frequently asked questions and answers.

The Storque article is closed to comments but this forum thread is currently open.

1. Search dropdown menu choice has been made persistent. Previously, when performing a search under Vintage for example, the search dropdown menu would switch back to Handmade after clicking to view an item in the search results. Your dropdown menu choice is now persistent when searching under Handmade, Vintage, Supplies or All Items—until you change it. We’ve also made it easier to return to your search results from an item listing page—just look for the “Search Results” link in the breadcrumb navigation below the Etsy logo.
2. Search result sort order has been made persistent. Similarly, if you like to sort search results by price for example, Etsy will remember your preference and allow you to keep sorting search results the way you want to for the length of your session on Etsy.com, until you decide to change it (or open a new browser window and start a new session). This is another small way to help make Etsy more searcher friendly.
3. A price filter has been added to search results for Materials. You can now set a price range for search results under Materials—look for the price filter under Search Tools on the right.

Search issues Etsy is working on now include:

• Simplifying the Search Dropdown Menu
  we will be including an option to search descriptions for Handmade, Vintage, Supplies and All Items on search results pages, and making the search dropdown menu exactly that: Handmade, Vintage, Supplies, All Items. The other existing search dropdown options such as “Materials” and “Sellers: usernames” will still exist, as will the search dropdown options available from other areas of the site.
  (ed: since May 2008, Vintage and Supplies have been unsearchable by description, this change will restore that function.)
• Improving Accuracy
  Our goal is to give browsers and buyers an option to sort search results by relevancy, in addition to recency, to help them find items of interest.
  …
  Our current work on relevancy involves weighting some item fields more than others. What do we mean by weighting? We mean the importance attributed by the search engine to the types of fields being searched. For example, to return quality search results by relevancy, we may find we need to give item tags slightly more precedence than titles and significantly more precedence than descriptions.

• Redesigning the Listing Process
  we’re focused on redesigning the item listing process, which is really where it all begins when it comes to search on Etsy.
  …
  We’re taking a thorough look at Etsy’s category structure and our current use of tags. Incorporating more structure here will ultimately enable category-specific filters on search results pages, allowing users to narrow down their search intuitively. It will enable multiple ways to shop: for example by category, by recipient, by material or by technique.
  …
  Expect improvements throughout 2009. Details will be announced on the Etsy Blog, in the Etsy Forums and to the Etsy News email list.

Other areas Etsy is exploring include:

things like links to related searches on search result pages, spell-checking functionality to suggest searches for misspelled words, advertising options for search result pages and many more features we’ll discuss as they near completion

Other useful Information:
Etsy is beginning a series of Virtual Labs where they will give anyone interested access to a test area to try out different searches and discuss the future of Etsy search. The first of these sessions will take place this Friday, March 13 at 1:00 pm EDT in the Virtual Labs.

Source: this Storque article
Coommenting on that article is closed but you can discuss it or ask questions in this Etsy forum thread.

Key points included:

• Monitoring and Communication

we rolled out a sophisticated monitoring system in November that today enables us to keep an eye on 700 services running on over 170 pieces of hardware, including servers, network gear and storage systems. When there is an issue with one of our systems, our engineers are proactively alerted. The monitoring system performs over one million automated checks every day — about 12 checks per second — and notifies us of any problems 24×7.
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We also use a third-party service from Gomez to proactively measure page load times for Etsy at various points around the world. Gomez (which is used by 14 of the top 15 most visited sites on the Web) is an incredibly rich information source and tells us how fast Etsy’s home page is loading right now in Los Angeles, or last week in Madrid or the average for the world last Tuesday.

• Performance and Scalability

our performance as measured by our own systems and Gomez has vastly improved in the past six months even as site usage has grown considerably. In other words, the changes we have made to our systems and approach are demonstrating scalability. The numbers from Gomez, our third-party measurement service, tell the story in clear measurable terms. Our home page now loads 2-3 times faster in most locations around the world compared to October and as much as nine times faster in some places
…
We achieved some of these improvements by using the services of Akamai, a web infrastructure company. Akamai directs 25% of the world’s Web traffic using 40,000 servers in 70 locations around the world.

• Search and Developer API

When I arrived in September, Etsy’s search function was unacceptably slow, plain and simple. As I wrote in that update: “Some searches are taking as long as 60 seconds to return results and others are timing out altogether.” We began work on Search immediately. You should have noticed speed improvements in search and across the whole site beginning in November as we improved existing search and eventually migrated the backend entirely to a widely used open source platform (Solr) in January.
…
In February, the Etsy API has also been released to a small group of developers and a public beta launch will follow soon.

• Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, our goals in the Engineering Team are very simple: to continue to refine Etsy’s technology architecture towards a high-performance and scalable model, and to deliver the new features to buyers and sellers in the areas described in Maria’s update on Etsy’s priorities for 2009.

Source: this Storque article

The site is brand new and there have been some bugs reported, most notably when they had used up their allowed 5000 hits to the Etsy database and users got the error message that the name they typed in was not a registered user. Craftopolis has requested an increase in their daily hit limit from Etsy to alleviate the problem.

I have also added the link to our sidebar with all the other great third-party sites.