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Its interesting to see the path Etsy has taken. IIRC, around 2007 or so they closed all of the 'vintage' shops because they weren't handmade. They quickly went

Its interesting to see the path Etsy has taken. IIRC, around 2007 or so they closed all of the 'vintage' shops because they weren't handmade. They quickly went back on that and restored those accounts. (In 2014 they also tried removing 'vintage' from 'browse', which resulted in a lot of backlash.) Its a shame to see them relaxing the standards over the years. In 2007 their blog even acknowledged the mass-produced items and the lack of support for these products [1] [1] https://blog.etsy.com/news/2007/cultivating-a-strong-community/ https://blog.etsy.com/news/2007/cultivating-a-strong-communi...

wilgertvelinga 9y ago
Maybe the future of Etsy is with Vintage instead of handmade? I think it is easier to distinguish between vintage and factory made then handcrafted and factory made. For example: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BonjourBizarre https://www.etsy.com/shop/BonjourBizarre . I'm pretty sure you could not find any of those items on AliExpress.
- stevewillows 9y ago
  Definitely. I think a combination of handmade and 'curated' is fantastic --- just not 'curated items from AliExpress.' The overarching issue is that Etsy doesn't appear to recognize their users and what they're actually looking for. They've allowed for too much noise over the years.
  - TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
    The overarching issue is that profit trumps everything else. I don't think Etsy "allowed noise". It's more that becoming a stick-on-folksy tat [1] bazaar was infinitely more profitable than trying to be a genuine source of lovingly crafted artisanal hand-mades. Etsy seems to have enough users who are just fine with this. I wonder if the real story is that other sources of tat have become more competitive and more widely known. Maybe there is no mass exodus of outraged craft buyers - Etsy's customers are simply shopping for the same things elsewhere, and paying less for them by cutting out the middlesite. Etsy's profits didn't seem unduly harmed when they opened up their market, so the exodus theory seems unlikely. [1] In case "tat" isn't a thing in USian English: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tat http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tat

wilgertvelinga 9y ago

Maybe the future of Etsy is with Vintage instead of handmade? I think it is easier to distinguish between vintage and factory made then handcrafted and factory made. For example: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BonjourBizarre https://www.etsy.com/shop/BonjourBizarre . I'm pretty sure you could not find any of those items on AliExpress.

stevewillows 9y ago
Definitely. I think a combination of handmade and 'curated' is fantastic --- just not 'curated items from AliExpress.' The overarching issue is that Etsy doesn't appear to recognize their users and what they're actually looking for. They've allowed for too much noise over the years.
- TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
  The overarching issue is that profit trumps everything else. I don't think Etsy "allowed noise". It's more that becoming a stick-on-folksy tat [1] bazaar was infinitely more profitable than trying to be a genuine source of lovingly crafted artisanal hand-mades. Etsy seems to have enough users who are just fine with this. I wonder if the real story is that other sources of tat have become more competitive and more widely known. Maybe there is no mass exodus of outraged craft buyers - Etsy's customers are simply shopping for the same things elsewhere, and paying less for them by cutting out the middlesite. Etsy's profits didn't seem unduly harmed when they opened up their market, so the exodus theory seems unlikely. [1] In case "tat" isn't a thing in USian English: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tat http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tat