Storque articles by RobWhite

The Second Etsy Community Council

2009-12-14T16:00:00-05:00

UPDATE: The application process for our second Etsy Seller Community Council is now closed; we'll announce the new members in about two weeks. Thank you to everyone who applied for the first Community Council and for this one!

The Etsy Seller Community Council is a group of members who volunteer to meet with Etsy Admin at least once a month for a period of six months to discuss marketplace enhancements and community offerings. The meetings are held in the Virtual Lab and ongoing communications are facilitated through Google Groups.

We want you to get involved! We are opening up the applications for our Second Community Council today. If you applied for the first round but weren't picked, not to worry. We'll be including those applicants in addition to new ones in the selection process.

Thanks to everyone who applied!

As we did with the first round, we will be selecting the next set of 25 artists by choosing a diverse group of sellers who cover a wide range of success, history, and geography. We will not have access to usernames when going through the selection process. Once selected, we contact each member to confirm that they are still interested.

A huge thank you goes out to the members of our First Community Council, whose tenure just ended! We learned so much from these members and are grateful for the insightful and honest feedback they provided. They're a talented group too! See the items below for some of their work.

Seller Handbook | Handmade Video Portraits

Etsy Finds: Map It Out

2008-06-22T09:20:00-05:00

Nothing says "I'm going there" or "I've been there" like a map, and not much else inspires all the good memories of trips gone by like vintage maps. Thanks to AnneHolman, you can wear some of those fond memories with today's Etsy Find!

These pendants encase little pieces of vintage maps to put your location of choice on display. Not content with merely showing off her favorite cities, AnneHolman puts her collection of atlases at your disposal to find that perfect destination! (No word on if she's got Istanbul, but not Constantinople.) If you're looking for a gift for someone who likes to travel. but want to be able to retain a personal touch, give these Custom Antique Map Pendants a look!

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Gotta Travel On | Travel Showcase | Etsy World Tour

Vintage and Supplies, deux: Community Chatt, May 23, 2008

2008-05-27T17:57:00-05:00

Hi there Sellers!

Last Friday's Virtual Labs' Community Chatt with Matt was about Vintage and Supplies. The first half was answering questions left over from last week's Chatt, and the second half was getting your suggestions about the future direction for these marketplaces.

Please see the minutes of the Vintage and Supplies Chatt to see what we talked about!

This Week's Chatt with Matt & Michelle

Time and Place: 12 noon, Eastern US in the Treehouse Room of the Virtual Labs. Times on the Virtual Labs Lobby are displayed in your local time.

Topic:
Reaching The Press

Join Matt for a discussion about getting media coverage for your small business. Let's learn from each other. What has worked, what has not?

Agenda:

- Tips for creating a press kit

- Press Release, friend or foe?

- Pitching to the media: getting attention without being annoying

- Telling the bigger story

- What can be done online?

About Community Chatt With Matt:
Each week Etsy admin Matt invites you to join us for a live, online discussion of topics of interest to the Etsy community. Our intention is to give buyers and sellers alike the opportunity to speak directly and candidly to Etsy Admin. We listen, take notes, and make sure that everybody who wants to gets a chance to speak. We can always be reached at community@etsy.com with more ideas and suggestions.

You can view minutes from past meetings HERE.

Etsy Finds: Stickin' It

2008-05-21T11:07:00-05:00

If you're like me, the first time it happened was awash in hopelessness. You're in your new apartment, dressed up to go out in your nice, light-colored shirt and having grape juice as part of breakfast. You're telling a story much like this, your arm goes up to emphasize a point, and whammo! Part of your shirt sports the Concord grape polka-dot style that everyone is sure to be laughing at talking about this season. The usual script for this is that your parents have you change clohes, while they handle all your newfound stains. But here you are, alone or with an amused/asleep/cackling significant other, and goodness knows you don't want these stains to set.

GrowingSeasonSoaps wants to make sure you're never without a plan. Not only that, but she wants to make sure that you can pronounce all the ingredients that are a part of that plan, in today's Etsy Find: the natural stain stick. Chock full of goodies like rosemary, lemon eucalyptus and orange oils, it'll wreak Mother Nature-endorsed havoc on the sorts of stains your parents used to mutter over.

I might have to grab one of these so I can avoid a repeat of my own Burgundy Catastrophe of '06. Think about picking one up yourself if you're moving into your first apartment, or if you know someone who is just grown up enough to do his or her own laundry.

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About Us: Rob aka RobWhite

2008-05-20T16:50:00-05:00

Etsy has had quite a growth spurt in the past year, and we have the awkward pictures to prove it. We are posting a series of About Us pieces to help you get to know the Etsy admin (and since many of us work remotely, for the admin to get to know each other!). You've seen the admin badge, and maybe you're a bit curious about the person behind it! For more on Etsy's mission and about the company, please see our About page (the link is in the little blue footer of every Etsy page).

MP4 | Youtube | Blip.tv | Subscribe in iTunes

Rob numero dos aka RobWhite (not to be confused with Etsy's founder Rob Kalin aka Rokali) works on the Community Team spreading peace and goodwill amongst forum goers, "like some kind of forums whisperer" as Tara put it. Once, late at night, Rob asked for my advice over IM about a particularly painful dispute on a forum thread he was about to lock. As I read the draft of his response, it brought me to tears. It dawned on me then that he's like an angel sent from above. He is one of the most genuine, old souls I've ever met. We recently started getting worried that he would quit Etsy for a better offer to end the crisis in the Middle East through level-headed, sensitive peace talks.

Rob also has a wicked sense of humor and can bake the most delicious cookies. He works remotely so we don't get to see him very often at the Etsy Labs, and as Bre mused, "Don't you want to just shrink him down and carry him around in your pocket?" I like to think of Rob as a good angel sitting on my shoulder, except he's not at all goody-goody...He's just right.

I'm fearing that this About Us piece is becoming too adoring, but who can not love this guy? He's the salt of the earth.

Here are some fun facts about RobWhite:

He is really good at cooking and baking.
He loves tea. Loves it.
He and his wife Xiane are nocturnal, so it seems.
He is a Dance Dance Revolution ninja.
He loves Lost.
He and StellaLoella bicker like siblings.
He plays role playing games, like Kingdom of Loathing.
He likes kitties, and has some!
He has a large traveling hat that gives him the air of Indiana Jones.
He's great with puns.
He studied computer science for a bit, but it wasn't his style.
He wants to study Psychology or Philosophy.
He's good at chess.
He's a very courteous house guest.

Check out this little dude: he was grounded and mature, even when posed in front of creepy fake wheat.

Wee angel...

Read more About Us. Here are some of Rob White's favorites below in the related items...

Vintage and Supplies: Community Chatt, May 16, 2008

2008-05-19T10:26:00-05:00

Hi there Sellers!

Last Friday's Virtual Labs' Community Chatt with Matt was about the new default search and its effect on Vintage and Supplies.

Please see the minutes of the Vintage and Supplies Chatt to see what we talked about!

This Week's Chatt with Matt

Time and Place: 12 noon, Eastern US in the Treehouse Room of the Virtual Labs. Times on the Virtual Labs Lobby are displayed in your local time.

Topic:
Commercial Supplies and Vintage: Your Ideas about These Marketplaces

We would like to get input from the community on how the Supplies and Vintage marketplaces should be organized. In this workshop, we will be brainstorming with you on your ideas for these marketplaces. We will also be taking subcategory and sub-subcategory suggestions that we may be able to implement immediately!

Agenda:
We'll ask questions about how to organize the Vintage marketplace.

We'll ask questions about how to organize the Supplies marketplace.

For both of these, we are looking for info on who you think your customers are and your opinions on the most important ways to break your category down into "sections."

Vintage Supplies: do you think they belong in Supplies or Vintage?

We will take suggestions for subcategories and sub-subcategories that can be added under Supplies or Vintage immediately.

You can view minutes from past meetings HERE.

Etsy Sellers & Employees: Community Chatt, May 9, 2008

2008-05-12T15:04:00-05:00

Hi there Sellers!

Last Friday's Virtual Labs' Community Chatt with Rob aka Rokali (Etsy's founder) was about employees for your Etsy businesses.

Please see the minutes of the Employees Chatt to see what we talked about!

This Week's Chatt with Matt
Topic:
Commercial Supplies and Vintage after the Search changes.

After the separation of handmade items, supplies and vintage in the search bar, commercial supply and vintage sellers are worried about exposure for their items. We'll share stats on the effects of the separation, as well as brainstorm ideas for promoting commercial supplies and vintage on Etsy.

Agenda:
Matt shares some Statts (er, stats, sorry) on commercial supplies and vintage pre- and post-separation.

Polls about your sales, views, and hearts. Up, down, or about the same?

Share your ideas about the supplies marketplace on Etsy.

Share your ideas about the vintage marketplace on Etsy.

Do you have any ideas about how Etsy could promote commercial supplies and vintage?

You can view minutes from past meetings HERE.

Tech Updates: Report this Post

2008-05-06T16:45:00-05:00

Today, we launched a report this post feature to Etsy's forums. The Community Team at Etsy always appreciates your help in keeping a lively and fun community atmosphere when participating in the forums and we hope this new feature will help make your posting experience run much smoother! The report this post feature should be used when you see a post that doesn't fit within Etsy's forum guidelines and you want to alert the Community Team.

Here's what you'll see on each forum post:

When you click the "report this post" text, it will take you to a screen that looks like this:

Once you have filled out the necessary information in the submission form, just click submit report and your report will be sent directly to the community inbox completely anonymously! This should make the forums run a lot smoother and help the Community Team stay on top of concerns amidst the community in a timely fashion.

Thanks again for all your help and hope you enjoy,

Etsy

Summary of April 25, 2008 Community Chatt: IHPS, part deux

2008-04-28T15:21:00-05:00

Hi there Sellers!

Last Friday's Virtual Labs' Community Chatt (this time with Bethela, marymary, and HeyMichelle) was about gathering specific feedback from sellers for Etsy's research into an in-house payment system (IHPS). This is a project that we have recently started to look in to, and we want to get feedback from the Community (aka sellers and buyers) as we begin our research.

Please see last week's Community Chatt summary for a bit more info on this project.

Thanks again to everyone who participated! The info that we have gathered in these chats, and in forum threads started by our Community have been integral to the research of this project.

This was the agenda:

1. International Sellers: please let us know what issues surrounding an in-house payment system would affect you. For example, credit cards are uncommon in many countries, so discussing other payment options that would make sense for you would be pertinent.

2. Features that you would like to see in an in-house payment system. Think about other sites that you visit or sell on: what checkout options do they offer that you would like to see?

3. Etsy Policies: what policies for an IHPS do you think are fair and helpful for buyers and sellers on Etsy?

4. Discuss alternatives to an Etsy in-house payment system.

5. Discuss PayPal's services and Amazon's in-house payment system. What do you like and dislike about these services? What could Etsy incorporate and learn from?

Here is what we discussed:

Please read the minutes of this week's Community Chatt to see what was discussed. This meeting was very productive, with lots of great info from sellers in attendance. If you have other thoughts on these topics regarding an in-house payment system, or on any Etsy community issue for that matter, we can always be reached at community@etsy.com.

This Week's Chatt with Matt:

Topic: Notification from Etsy — Ideas For Better Communication

We will be talking about the kind of information you as a seller need from Etsy, and brainstorming ideas about how you'd like to receive it.

Agenda:

- The Forums: Admin announcements.

- Etsy Opt-in Emails (Etsy News, Etsy Success, EtsyTeams), how to get the word out. What constitutes news?

- The Storque: How can we improve news delivery?

- The Virtual Labs: What sessions you would like to see? Ways to improve flow of meetings. What features are needed?

- Sitewide Emails: Spam or not? Alternatives, like in-shop announcements or news tickers.

Where: Treehouse Room in the Virtual Labs

When: Friday, May 2 at 12pm Eastern US (NYC time). Through the magic of the internet, the workshop times on the Virtual Labs Lobby are displayed in your local time. Here's a world time clock just in case.

About Community Chatt With Matt:
Each week Etsy admin Matt invites you to join us for a live, online discussion of the "hot" issues in the Etsy community. Our intention is to give buyers and sellers alike the opportunity to speak directly and candidly to Etsy Admin. We listen, take notes, and make sure that everybody who wants to gets a chance to speak.

You can view minutes from past meetings HERE.

Summary of Community Chatt with Matt from April 18, 2008

2008-04-23T14:20:00-05:00

Hi there Sellers!

Last Friday's Community Chatt was about the idea of Etsy developing an in-house payment system (IHPS). This is a project that we have recently started to research, and we want to get feedback from the Community (aka sellers and buyers) early on in these preliminary phases.

Here is a rough sketch of the benefits that an in-house payment system would offer:

1. The ability to accept credit cards on site, which is especially important as Etsy expands its reach to buyers who are not particularly internet savvy and don't use PayPal.

2. Reduce non-paying and slow-paying buyers.

3. The ability to offer site-wide gift certificates.

4. Unified cart/single check out for multiple items

Sellers had a lot of questions and concerns about the in-house payment system, which we are taking into consideration as we research this idea. These were the top things that we heard from sellers during the Chatt:

1. Sellers would like participation in IHPS to be optional, and they would like to have the option to accept all forms of payment that are currently available.

2. Etsy must provide excellent customer service and have sound policies regarding the payment system.

3. Lots of issues regarding international sellers.

4. Sellers would like many of the same services as PayPal offers, such as the option to print a shipping label.

The above are a quick summary. For the full discussion, please read the minutes. There is also a forum thread discussing this, which we have read. Major shout-out to Etsy user abitabite, who emailed us a summary of the questions, concerns, and ideas reported in the thread. Thank you, dahling!

Thanks again to everyone who participated! This info is very helpful for our research, and we look forward to seeing you on Friday!

This Week's Chat:

Topic: In-house payment system, part deux

Where: Treehouse Room in the Virtual Labs

When: Friday, April 25 at 12pm Eastern US (NYC time). Through the magic of the internet, the workshop times on the Virtual Labs Lobby are displayed in your local time. Here's a world time clock just in case.

Since this is such a big topic, and we have some specific questions for you, we decided to discuss an in-house payment system again at next week's Chatt.

Here's the agenda:

2. Features that you would like to see in an in-house payment system. Think about other sites that you visit or sell on: what checkout options do they offer that you would like to see?

3. Etsy Policies: what policies do you think are fair and helpful for buyers and sellers on Etsy?

4. Discuss alternatives to an Etsy in-house payment system.

5. Discuss PayPal's services and Amazon's in-house payment system. What do you like and dislike about these services? What could Etsy incorporate and learn from?

If you have other thoughts about an in-house payment system, or on any Etsy community issue for that matter, we can always be reached at community@etsy.com.

You can view minutes from past meetings HERE.