One of the most amazing things about Etsy is that it enables us to buy an item directly from the person that created it. There's a strong human, relational element to buying handmade. It helps remind us there are other people in the world that have an impact on our daily lives, if even in a small way. Humans are social creatures; we all genuinely need other people at some point.

Good relationships are hard to maintain. They're messy sometimes, because people are imperfect. A community is essentially a large network of relationships. If individual relationships are hard, then maintaining a strong, healthy community is exponentially more difficult.

Every community has values-based boundaries of some kind. Without them, there is no unity and no true sense of community. Without boundaries, it's just a bunch of people who happen to be in close proximity.

What are our community values on Etsy; what brings us together? The main unifier is undeniably a love for handmade goods. There are those with a passion to create, and those who have an appreciation of the special qualities inherent to handmade works. Our guidelines, aka the Dos and Don'ts, were constructed to foster an atmosphere of mutual respect for one another, where all members are inherently equal. Each is free to express their opinion so long as it does no harm to another member of the community. Beyond that, we could get into the minutia of the cultural etiquette that's evolved, but I think it's safe to assert the two core values of the Etsy community are the handmade lifestyle and respect for others.

So what happens when someone steps outside the boundaries of the community?

Looking at the first of our values, the handmade lifestyle, it's reasonable to assume that not many of us on Etsy lead a totally handmade existence. There is a threshold of non-handmadeness that is understood to be acceptable. Even our own marketplace speaks to this, as we allow non-handmade items in the vintage and commercial supplies categories. However, if "The 100% Mass-Produced Sweat Shop Company" tried to join Etsy to sell clothing and toys, they would probably not receive a warm welcome. That would simply not jive with one of our core community values. They would be beyond the boundary of what unites us here and asked to leave.

But what of our second core value? When the line is crossed and a member openly disrespects another, what happens? As Admin, we do our best to resolve conflict peacefully. We lock threads in the Forums to give people a chance to cool off. We work with people privately to discuss the rules and the lines that were crossed. If needed, we ask people to avoid situations where conflict with another user may arise. In most cases, this is all that is necessary to reset the balance. Overwhelmingly, people on Etsy are positive and productive members of our community, and we love you for that.

But as Etsy's community grows, we too must continually grow and adapt how we handle situations within the community. We've taken a long, hard look at the overall atmosphere of the Forums and recently had to make some very difficult decisions. The primary purpose of the Forums is to provide help and support to one another. Over the recent months, we observed repeated conflict and negativity, resulting in a general feeling of brokeness in some segments of the community. Some conflicts were held in full view of the public, while others ran deeper and carried more subtle negativity. Earlier this summer, we developed a tool to provide a time out period for individuals who repeatedly broke rules on the Forums. But we've discovered that temporary solutions only solve problems temporarily. This is not a conclusion we drew lightly, nor one we feel very good about.

No one who walks within the boundaries of our community should fear that they will sign-on to Etsy one day to find they are arbitrarily removed. Moving forward, we're working to improve the tools available to the community, so that the content of the Forums is more self-regulated. We are hopeful that this will provide a more natural process for encouraging positive and productive community interaction. These features are still in development with no concrete release date, though rest assured we're probably looking forward to them even more than the community at large. We love our community and strive to create a friendly and helpful environment for our members.


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