August 28, 2008 at 6:01 pm · Filed under Contests, Events · By JB
Source:http://www.etsy.com/contest/kids2.php
Vote for your favorite items from the Handmade Kids Challenge and win one of fourteen $350 Etsy Shopping Sprees!
From August 25 through September 8, 2008, your vote is your chance to win! Check out the Challenge finalists and choose your top pick in each category.
There are two separate contests;
One is for the crafts themselves:
Rules for the craft entries
Only US residents were eligible to enter the craft contest
There are 7 categories.
Furniture
Toys
Home Decor
Eco-Friendly
Clothing
Accessories
Art
The Prizes are:
Seven Best in category winners (one in each category) will receive a $200.00 Etsy shopping spree- this is judged by The Expert Panel Judges
The other prizes are judged by user votes:
Seven first place winners (one in each category) will receive a $150.00 Etsy shopping spree
Seven second place winners (one in each category) will receive a $100.00 Etsy shopping spree
Seven third place winners (one in each category) will receive a $50.00 Etsy shopping spree
One artist may win more than one prize, if they have entered multiple categories.
_____________________________________________
The second contest is the sweepstakes.
The sweepstakes winners are chosen at random from the users who vote. There will be 14 winners of $350 shopping sprees.
The Etsy Handmade Kids Sweepstakes is open to US residents only.
Official rules here
Limit one entry per category per username. There are seven categories so each username has seven chances to win. Limit one Prize per person. (for the sweepstakes)
A list of the winners will be posted on or around September 25, 2008 on the Storque and the Handmade Kids Challenge page.
August 28, 2008 at 2:10 pm · Filed under Etsy Staff · By quirke
Today this Storque article announced the departure of original Etsy founders Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire (RevolvingDork).
Last week Chris and Haim announced to us that they’re moving on from Etsy. They’ll be at Etsy through the end of this month, sharing their knowledge of Etsy’s systems, network architecture, and all things technical.
We owe so much to these two guys. They have given their lives to Etsy, all the way down to their sleep cycles. It’s been an amazing three years: the team led by Chris, Haim, Jared and Rob built Etsy from an idea in Brooklyn to a global handmade marketplace.
We were immensely fortunate to have had Chris and Haim present at the creation, leading the company’s technical efforts through Etsy’s first three years. Please join us here at Etsy in wishing them many more successes.
Chris and Haim have also written a personal good-bye to the Etsy community which is included in the article:
Friends,
The last three years have undoubtedly been the longest and most eventful of our lives. We’d like to thank each and every one of you for enabling us to build Etsy into what it is today. Through many sleepless nights your kind words and commitment to the marketplace kept us going gladly forward. The cookies didn’t hurt, either.
With a heavy heart now we move onto other ventures. We hope to stay in touch with many of you, and we wish the best of luck to our fellow Etsy employees.
– Chris and Haim
August 25, 2008 at 2:59 am · Filed under Marketing, Showcase · By JB
Source: This Storque article
The Back to School Decorating Front Page Showcase went on sale Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 12 pm EDT.
Go to the Showcase Gateway to purchase a spot.
This showcase goes live on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 12 am (midnight) EDT and will run until 11:59 PM EDT on September 7, 2008.
The showcase costs $15 for 1 day.
In order to keep the Showcase on point thematically, the tool will only pull in items placed in the following categories: Art (e.g., top-level tag being “art”), Books and Zines, Candles, Ceramics and Pottery, Furniture, Geekery, Housewares, Plants and Edibles and Quilts.
note: Sorry I did not post this before the showcase went on sale, but the Storque article only came out one day before the showcase went on sale. There are still plenty of spots left though.
August 19, 2008 at 4:13 pm · Filed under Etsy Communications, Miscellaneous · By JB
In this forum thread stellaloella says:
Hi there–
Some of our sellers will be receiving letters like this from a third-party firm that is helping Etsy. We are performing a standard internal audit to be sure our records are accurate. Nothing to worry about and definitely legit!
If you have concerns or questions, please email support [!at] etsy.com.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Posted at 3:44 pm, August 19 2008 EST
The thread was started by a seller who received an email claiming to be from Etsy’s law firm, but not sent from an Etsy address, and the email contained an attachment. Etsy had not announced anything about the audit before it started. The recipient, and most users who replied, thought this sounded like a phishing attempt. (we are always told never to open attachments from people we don’t know)
But Etsy now says the emails are legitimate and safe.
Stella explains further here
stellaloella says:
The information requested is very basic. The letter just asks for a seller to confirm their balance was a certain amount (contained in the letter) on a certain date, to verify that it matches our internal records.
I will check with the rest of the team to see if there is a way we can get more info out about this to those who will receive letters.
Posted at 3:54 pm, August 19 2008 EST
and here:
stellaloella says:
I don’t know all the details of this process. Our in-house business team is coordinating with a third-party accounting firm. The outside accounting firm is sending the letters.
As I said, we will try to get more information to those who need it. In the meantime, if you receive a letter and have questions, please contact Etsy Support. Thank you.
Posted at 3:59 pm, August 19 2008 EST
and here
stellaloella says:
Yes, Dingo is exactly right (on page 10).
And our hope was to provide a way for members to verify this was a legitimate inquiry and understand that this is about helping Etsy *before* the letters went out, so members could verify.
We are communicating with the third-party firm to get a clearer picture of the current situation regarding when and how the letters were sent.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Posted at 4:08 pm, August 19 2008 EST
Marymary adds this
marymary says:
Hey guys,
Just to help clarify a couple questions, you are not obligated in any way to open or answer the email if you received one. While we encourage you to do so, there is no obligation.
Additionally, if you did not receive this email already, you most likely will not be receiving one. As Lauren said, we are in contact with the third party firm to confirm that the sampling of emails have all been sent.
We’d like to apologize if this has caused any of you any inconvenience or confusion and will continue to keep you updated.
Posted at 4:15 pm, August 19 2008 ES
Matt has added this comment:
matt says:
Dear Friends,
We are indeed in the process of undergoing our first independent audit. We are contractually obligated by our financiers to have independent audits performed each year. We do these to prove that our accounting practices are accurate and valid. Just to clarify, this is in no way to related to any acquisition of or by Etsy.
The facts: Less than 50 randomly-selected members of our selling community were contacted by Etsy’s independent auditing firm via email and, though they might not yet have received the letter, via USPS. The email and address information of these sellers was used only in connection with our obligatory financial audit, the auditors will not store or retain any personally identifying information. They were only seeking independent verification of the fees the sellers owed Etsy as of December 2007. This is a standard and common feature of the audit process.
Everyone selected has already been contacted, and no additional members will be contacted.
Furthermore, we have now reached out to these sellers to confirm the validity of the emails they received from the auditing firm.
If you received an email from an auditing firm, but not a secondary email from us, please email me directly at matt [!at] etsy.com.
Just to clarify, those who receive the email/letter are under no obligation to respond. At no point will you be asked for credit card, password, or other sensitive personal information. If you receive something that seems suspicious, please contact abuse [!at] etsy.com.
I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
Thanks, Matt
Posted at 7:10 pm, August 19 2008 EST
August 18, 2008 at 6:49 pm · Filed under Site Maintenance · By JB
source: This forum thread
and this Storque article
Etsy will be conducting site maintenance at 1pm EDT (e.g. Wednesday afternoon eastern time U.S.), August 20, 2008.
We are not anticipating any issues or downtime — in fact, we hope you will not notice the change at all — but we want to give members a heads up. We are doing this maintenance at “prime time” so that the admin can be all hands on deck. That way, in the event of any issues we can switch changes back. Should you experience problems and are unable to post in the forums, please email support [!at] etsy.com
August 14, 2008 at 10:44 am · Filed under Listings, Miscellaneous · By GreenMamba
In this Storque article, and this companion forum thread, Etsy announces a tiny change to the left sidebar menu in Your Etsy > > Items:
Dear Sellers,
We wanted to inform you of a text change you will find in Your Etsy. The text link, Expiration Dates, has been changed to Renew Items. The line of text highlighted below now reads Renew Items:
“Renewing” has become the common parlance among sellers. It became clear to us that “Expiration dates” line of text was not catching the seller’s eye. The text change should make the feature more user-friendly for sellers and more obvious to new sellers.
No other changes in functionality, pages, or text have taken place and you will still find all of the same information on the newly named Renew Items page. Looking for your upcoming expiration dates for your listed items? They will still be right there where they have always been, just with a new name.
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
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