Friday, January 29, 2010

Waah Waah Waah

The whining and crying and moaning and groaning has once again started over on the Etsy forums. Etsy is trying a new approach to the search system, a system that as it is now has totally frustrated me every time I've done a specific search for anything because so much junk that has nothing to do with what I'm searching for comes up every. single. time. The new search will be on relevancy rather than just recency, and the search will only go into effect when you type something into the search bar. Browsing through categories will still bring up the most recently listed. They are trying the relevancy search out on three consecutive Thursdays, yesterday being the second time, and then will go over sales figures to see if relevancy brings in more sales than recency. And then go from there.

It's not set in stone yet folks, and remember, the whole rest of the internet works on relevancy.

But, according to some of the sellers on Etsy, the relevancy search will mean the deaths of their businesses because nobody will ever be able to find them ever again and items listed a few months ago may show up before theirs! Oh, the horror! Hey, why don't you try making your titles and tags more relevant for starters? And, remember, if someone is browsing a category, YOUR NEWLY LISTED ITEM WILL STILL SHOW UP IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER!

Yesterday one of the most successful sellers on Etsy was complaining that since her items are artsy and aren't something people generally use a search bar to find, they just happen to stumble across them, that this relevancy search will completely shut down her business. And Etsy is her job. And she can't pay her bills if buyers can't find her. Waah waah waah. You've had over 11000-yes ELEVEN THOUSAND-sales on Etsy and since you've had so many sales I guess you think you are the only seller that Etsy caters to? How about the seller who's only had 100 sales and the relevancy search will help buyers find her wares more easily because unrelated crap won't bog down their search, or better yet, totally frustrate them so that they shop somewhere else that has a better, MORE RELEVANT search? But, no, it's all about you, isn't it?

She was whining that she refused to list or renew anything yesterday because nobody would find her anyway and she hadn't had a sale all day. Poor thing! MAYBE YOU DIDN'T HAVE A SALE ALL DAY BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T LIST ANYTHING! I'm sorry, but I just don't feel any sympathy when top sellers come into the forums and whine about not having a sale all day. No sympathy at all.

Last week another of the more successful type sellers was also crying about how the relevancy search had made her sales just stop overnight. I had to laugh because another person in the thread responded to her by pointing out that she had 4 sales that day, 4 the day before, 5 the day before that, and so on. Stopped overnight my ass!

Anyway, just felt like ranting today, I'm not about to go into the forums and rant, that just causes trouble!

Oh, and the seller who didn't have a sale all day yesterday? She has 13 sales so far for today, so maybe whining in the forums works for sales after all?

2 comments:

Campbell Jane said...

heehee *snickering* The Etsy forums are quite amusing sometimes aren't they. I hope Etsy doesn't start messing up a good thing, like Ebay did.

Anonymous said...

I stay away from the forums anymore, which basically means I didn't know a darned thing about this Thursday stuff until now, and well, it's probably about over. Oh well.

I haven't noticed any differences in my sales lately. Some days are better than others, it just is what it is...