August 10, 2008 at 5:07 pm · Filed under Events, Street Teams · By GreenMamba
Hurray! for happy endings!* And many thanks to Heather, of palleikodesigns, for sharing this wonderful and inspiring success story with us!
(First published here: http://www.socalbenchproject.com )
The SoCal Bench Project Nails It!
The SoCal Bench Project Artisan Fair is met with outstanding support from it’s local community.
August 10, 2008
On Saturday, August 9th, 2008 the small grassroots organization The SoCal Bench Project held it’s first annual SoCal Bench Project Artisan Fair in Culver City, CA, west of Los Angeles. Over 25 artists from across California gathered together selling their artwork to help raise awareness and funds for New Directions Inc., a local non-profit organization that provides a variety of services for our homeless military veterans community.
Supporters from the Los Angeles community shopped for fine art, photography, lithographs, clothing, contemporary craft, jewelry and a variety of other gift items from candles and soap products, to stuffed animals with crazy personalities and beautiful art dolls.
Incredible items from local businesses and artists were raffled off to an excited crowd. ABC, Benefit Cosmetics, Kreation Cafe, The Factory and Color Me Mine were among local businesses that supported this years raffle held to benefit New Directions. Participating vendors as well as numerous members of the group California Crafters Club of Etsy (CCCOE) also provided artwork as well as monetary donations.
Sandy Collins, Amanda Lockrow and Heather Palleiko, (founders of The SoCal Bench Project), met through the website Etsy.com in early 2008 where the three are members of CCCOE, the largest street team on the indie craft site Etsy.com with over two hundred - fifty members. What originally started as an idea to have a small home show quickly grew into an annual event of California artisans coming together to create positive change in our local community.
This year The SoCal Bench Project and it’s supporters raised close to $2,000 for New Directions Inc.
If you are interested in more information about The SoCal Bench Project and it’s founders or vendors please email info [!at] socalbenchproject.com. For information on New Directions Inc. and it’s programs please go to www.ndvets.org.
http://www.socalbenchproject.com
http://sandysimone.etsy.com
http://www.aklockrow.com
http://www.palleikodesigns.com
*See this related UEN thread: http://etsynews.com/724/etsy-withdraws-team-grant/
August 8, 2008 at 4:43 pm · Filed under Events, Street Teams · By JB
On July 18, 2008, Etsy announced the Etsy Team Grant winners for July in this Storque article.
The original article contained this paragraph:
The So-Cal Bench Project Team will receive a grant to organize their artisan fair to benefit New Direction, Inc, a local non-profit in the Southern California community. The event takes place on August 9, 2008, from 9:30am-3pm in Culver City, California. For more information, visit the SoCal Bench Project website.
The Socal Bench Project team leader was notified by Etsy they would not be receiving their promised grant on August 6, only three days before the event.
The article has now been edited and this is the current version:
UPDATE 8/8/08: Unfortunately, we are no longer able to offer a grant to the So-Cal Bench Project Team at this time. The reality is that there are protocols we must follow. In this case, deadlines for submitting required materials were not met by the applying party and we were not able to process the payment. We wish all involved the very best of luck with this event , and encourage any and all to reapply next month.
Please go support this worthy cause on August 9, 2008, from 9:30am-3pm in Culver City, California. For more information, visit the SoCal Bench Project website.
The Etsy Team Coordinator has also commented in the Storque article comments:
sarawearsskirts says:
We love the opportunity to support Etsy Teams through the Team Grants program. Since we award several Grants each month, it is very important that Teams submit all the necessary information by the deadlines given when receiving a grant.
Unfortunately, we did not receive the information we needed in time to fulfill this grant. This change has been reflected in the article above.
If you have questions about this process or a grant, please contact me at teams@etsy.com.
Etsy claims the team did not send in their documents by the due dates, and that is why the grant was withdrawn. The leader of the Socal Bench Project team says in her blog that they did meet every deadline, and the documents were sent on time.
We know for sure that we emailed a copy of the proofs to you by the due date of July 24th; and subsequently the receipts by July 31st (though that may have been received on Aug 1st by you as we are on the west coast and it was sent after your office hours.). In addition to that, we never received any further communication from Etsy after we sent our information to you. We also did not receive any email last week regarding the status of the grant. Perhaps there was a problem with email?
This appears to be an issue of time zones and of unclear due dates. Etsy only said the documents had to be sent “by July 24th”. The Socal Bench Project team interpreted that to mean by midnight (local time, which is Pacific time in this case), while Etsy now says the deadline is the end of the business day, in the Eastern U.S. time zone. Those specifics were apparently not stated to the Team until after the deadline was allegedly “missed”.
This communication problem has resulted in the team losing it’s grant which was going to benefit New Directions, a non-profit organization that provides services for homeless veterans.
The Socal Bench Project is also part of the biggest street team on Etsy (CCCOE), and has done much work to promote Etsy and the handmade pledge.
After some public outcry on the Etsy Storque article and the team leader’s blog, Etsy admin Matt has announced that Etsy will donate $250 directly to New Directions.
matt says:
In recognition of a worthy cause, Etsy today donated $250 directly to the New Directions charity
(http://www.ndvets.com/ ). The SoCal Bench Project Etsy Team is holding an event this weekend to
support veterans through this organization.
Etsy previously announced that the SoCal Bench Project Etsy team would receive a $200 grant to help offset the printing costs associated with this event. The Grant was not ultimately funded because deadlines were missed. We apologize for the poor timing of these announcements.
Etsy Grants is a new program designed to help Etsy Teams hold events and promote their shops
and Etsy. It’s important that Etsy diligently adhere to the rules and deadlines associated with the Grants Program so that we can be responsible stewards of our funds and so that we can offer monies in a timely way.
We understand that our communication around this specific Grant could have been better. And, while we remain committed to enforcing the rules and deadlines associated with the Grants Program, we don’t want the New Directions charity to miss out on this opportunity to positively interact with Etsy sellers and Etsy.
To avoid this type of confusion in the future, Team Grant winners will now be announced
after the Grant funds have been submitted to the Team.
Thank you.
August 6, 2008 at 6:03 pm · Filed under Events, Gift Guide, Marketing, Showcase · By JB
Back to School Fashion Showcase: On Sale Thursday, August 7, 2008
Etsy are looking to feature back to school fashion items in their newest showcase, such as dresses, shirts, skirts, pants — or that special first day of school outfit. Think clothing staples for all ages.
In order to keep the Showcase on point thematically, the tool will only pull in items placed in the Clothing Category (i.e. top-level tag being “clothing”).
* The Back to School Fashion Front Page Showcase goes on sale Thursday, August 7th at 3:00 pm EDT.
* Go to the Showcase Gateway to purchase a spot.
* Said showcase goes live on Tuesday, August 12 at 12 am (midnight) EDT and will run until 11:59 PM EDT on August 25.
* For $15 USD, Etsy sellers can purchase a 24 hour spot in the The Back to School Fashion Showcase, which will be linked from a prominent banner on Etsy’s homepage.
* Sellers determine which item will be featured in your Showcase slot. Sellers must use the tool in Your Shop. Read more about this process here.
source: this Storque article
Also, Etsy has unveiled their Back To School gift guide today, which features a wider variety of items including dorm room decor, books & paper goods, book bags and pencil cases, etc.
August 3, 2008 at 12:10 pm · Filed under Bills, Bugs · By GreenMamba
Some Etsy sellers are reporting a processing error when trying to pay their Etsy bills.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5742842
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5742843
Credit cards are being declined, or said to be expired, on Etsy’s end when they should not be. Several users reported being charged more than once after making multiple attempts to submit payments (verified through their CC companies). In some cases, Etsy does not record or credit the payment, even after payment has been completed and independently verified.
CAUTION:
Be sure to submit your payment only once. If the payment does not register on Etsy, then verify the payment with your CC company before making any further attempts.
If paying via debit card, submitting a payment more than once could result in overdrafts and accompanying fees.
update by JB, Aug 4
Stellaloella has posted this update
Yesterday (Sunday, August 3) from approximately 4:00 AM to 11:30 AM EDT a small percentage of our sellers experienced a problem paying their Etsy bills. This was due to a malfunction at one of our third-party credit card processor’s gateways. As a result, these sellers were informed that their cards were not charged, when in fact they had been. Some sellers attempted to pay their bills more than once and subsequently were charged more than once.
The malfunction was resolved by 11:30 AM EDT Sunday and all subsequent Etsy bill payments have been recorded and processed correctly. At no time were any credit card numbers or sellers’ personal data exposed.
In order to clear up this problem, our credit card processing company is crediting back all impacted bill payments that occurred during this time period. We are contacting the sellers that were affected to let them know what happened.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Since this is a billing matter, we will work privately with the sellers who were affected. Please contact billing [!at] etsy.com if you have a concern or question regarding this matter or your Etsy bill. Thank you.
Posted at 7:09 pm, August 4 2008 EST
See also: This storque article
August 2, 2008 at 11:38 pm · Filed under Chat, Down Time, Features, Miscellaneous, Treasury · By GreenMamba
In this Storque article, jared announces another Etsy server upgrade, this time for the Treasury, Chat and Virtual Labs.
Good news! The Treasury, Chat Rooms, and Virtual Labs are getting a significant server upgrade. The change is being made to address a number of key performance issues caused by record high usage. If the old server was a Honda Insight, the new server is a Tesla Roadster. Yes, it’s quite fast.
In order to make the change, we are temporarily suspending the creation of new Treasury lists. This will allow all the current lists to naturally expire in about three days. After all lists have expired, the server change will take place. The change itself will only take a few moments. If all is successful, the creation of new Treasury lists will once again be enabled, and we can all enjoy the performance boost.
With the current expiration schedule, the server change is looking like it will take place early Sunday morning, August 3rd. The exact time may change.
The Chat Rooms and Virtual Labs will also be moved to the new server at the same time as the Treasury. Both applications will experience about 60 seconds of downtime. All user created Chat Rooms will need to be recreated.
Thank you for your patience and understanding!
Find the official Etsy companion thread here.
July 28, 2008 at 3:25 pm · Filed under Feedback · By GreenMamba
From this Storque article:
Dear Etsians,
We are happy to announce that you can now leave feedback for multiple items at once. In order to use the new Batch Feedback tool, you will need to log into your account, then go to Your Etsy > Feedback > Items Awaiting Feedback. Click the text link that says try our batch feedback tool. You may rate and add comments for multiple items, then submit them all at once by clicking the submit batch feedback button at the bottom of the page.
Please see the Storque article for full details and helpful screenshots.
To join the Etsy forum discussion of this new feature, click here.
July 23, 2008 at 5:17 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous, Site Maintenance · By GreenMamba
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 22, 2008 at 4:30 pm · Filed under Etsy Communications, Etsy Staff, The Storque · By dangerousmezzo
marymary has started a Forum thread to discuss the Storque article on Rob Kalin’s changing role at the company, changing titles, and the hiring of a new Chief Technology Officer.
Dear Etsians,
Here are a couple important news items, one from Rob and one from Maria.
From Rob:
I am happy to announce that, with high hopes and expectations, Maria is now Etsy’s CEO. My new title at Etsy is Chief Creative Officer (CCO), a nice loose moniker that will allow me to focus on what I’m best at: product work and long-term, big-picture thinking.
I will also be spending time developing Etsy.org, a non-profit organization that will focus on the educational side of how to make a living making things. (Lots more details about this are coming soon. Right now, it’s in the planning stages.)
I’ve been filling many roles since Etsy began, all of them new to me in some way. It’s been an incredible and exhausting education, much of it public. Watching Maria, with her experience and expertise, has enabled me to make this decision. I’m excited to get back to what I enjoy most, and maybe even work less than seven days a week for the first time in a long time.
From Maria:
I am thrilled to announce that Chad Dickerson will join Etsy in Brooklyn as Chief Technology Officer on September 1, 2008. As Etsy’s CTO, Chad will be the company’s top technology executive and will join Rob, me and the Etsy team in helping to shape Etsy’s strategic direction, development, and future growth. Chad will manage our entire technical organization, including application development, network infrastructure and quality assurance. He will report to me.
In my recent “Long View” article, I spoke about seeking “a few talented, experienced people to join Etsy and help us more quickly and successfully do things we’ve never done before, while continuing to celebrate Etsy’s creative, quirky and independent culture.” Chad is the first of these few folks. He’s an experienced leader of technical teams and a home brewer!
Chad joins us from Yahoo! where he has spent the last three years leading technical teams in innovative product development. He is currently Senior Director for Yahoo!’s Brickhouse & Advanced Products team, a group outside of Yahoo’s! corporate structure designed to be more nimble and customer-focused. In this role Chad heads up a cross-functional team of over 30 engineers, designers, and product managers who incubate and launch Web-based, high availability, consumer-facing products.
Before Yahoo!, Chad was CTO at InfoWorld/Media Group IDG for five years and before that, CTO at Salon.com for three years. In both CTO roles, Chad was the senior executive responsible for technology strategy and execution.
Chad started his Web career as an Internet Developer and Gopher Administrator at “The News & Observer” ( http://www.newsobserver.com/ ) in Raleigh, NC. He is a Tar Heel native, and his parents will be very pleased to have him back on the east Coast.
Read more about Chad at his blog: http://www.chaddickerson.com/
Please join us in welcoming Chad to Etsy.
July 18, 2008 at 12:44 pm · Filed under Bugs, Convos, Miscellaneous · By GreenMamba
Although there’s no official announcement in either the Etsy fora or the Storque, members have verified that the e-mail auto-reply system is finally up and running. Now, when members attempt to reply to a convo through the duplicate e-mail, they will get a warning message via immediate auto-reply.
Thanks go out to dottyral for the heads-up and for providing the content of the auto-reply message:
dottyral says:
This is fabulous! Thank you admin!
I like that it explains just how to reply. This is the auto reply I received right away…
__________________________
Oops! You tried to reply to an Etsy conversation via email.
To reply you’ll need to go to Etsy, login and click Conversations (in the upper right).
The message you sent was *not received* by the person you tried to send it to.
Thanks!
Etsy
Quoted from this thread.
July 16, 2008 at 3:44 pm · Filed under Featured Listings, Features, Listings · By GreenMamba
Admin marymary announces, in this thread, a terrific new addition to all Etsy ‘Sold Item’ pages.
marymary says:
Dear Sellers,
We’re happy to announce a new feature on Etsy: your sold listing pages will now show available related items from your shop. This means whenever shoppers come across one of your sold items, they’ll see up to three items currently for sale from your shop. So if a shop is featured on a blog or website and your items sells out, the buyer is immediately shown other items from that seller still available for purchase. And if there’s an item that has the exact same title, that one will be shown first to make it easy for buyers to find.
FAQ’s
Q. Where will I see related items?
A. Related items will appear on the listing and transaction pages of sold items. So any way a buyer gets to a sold item’s page, they’ll see related items from that shop. The only place you won’t see related items is if you are a seller looking at your own sold listing, or if there are no other items in a shop.
Q. How many items will show in the related items?
A. Up to three related items will show on your sold listings pages at one time. If there are less than three items to show, we’ll show as many as are available. If there are no items to show, then the page will appear in the same way sold listings originally appeared — without this new feature.
Q. How does Etsy choose which items to show for each sold item?
A. First off, we search the shop for an item with the exact same title as the sold item. If there is an exact title match, we’ll show that first. If there’s more than one match, we’ll just show the first one. After that, we pull from the seller’s featured items; this will help give the seller a little control over what may appear on their sold listings pages. Finally, if there are no featured listings in the shop, we show the seller’s most recently listed items.
Q. What if there are no active listings in a shop?
A. No related items will appear on the sold items page if there are no active listings in the shop at that time.
To see a screen shot of what it might look like, please see the official Storque announcement for this feature:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/tech-update-related-items-on-sold-listings/2233/
Hope you enjoy and thank you for your feedback,
Mary
Posted at 3:13 pm, July 16 2008 EST
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