Welp, looks like the fuckers at Etsy are onto me…
Did I actually violate Etsy’s off-platform transactions policy?
No, in fact, I did not.
The listing in question, like every listing in my shop prior to today, had an image that let customers know that additional items that are not on Etsy are available on my website. Do you like this hat? I offer a custom-made gown that matches it at auralynne.com. Do you like this skirt, but need a different size or color? Get it made-to-order at auralynne.com.
Did I violate the spirit of Etsy’s off-site transactions policy, that is, their desire to transform me (and all artists trapped on their site) into serfs who can only create at Etsy’s behest, and never in an independent fashion?
Certainly.
But you see, I refuse to live in a world where Etsy fees can be 10% or 22% of each sale (I never know which it will be until after a customer pays) and then force me to offer bulk or wholesale discounts via their site.
So when one of my lovely hat-base customers (who are often costumers for local theater productions) wants to order in bulk, they need to know:
I refuse to live in a world where Etsy can penalize me for agreeing to delay creating a purchased item (when a customer’s special event is delayed, or they’re on a diet and want to hold off taking their measurements) then force me to offer made-to-order items on their site.
Therefore, customers browsing ready-to-ship items in my Etsy shop (I can only stock small through large in my home studio) appreciate knowing:
I absolutely refuse to live in a world where Etsy can offer AI-managed, return-not-required refunds to buyers who submit a claim (and take the money straight from my checking account for any amount over $250) and then force me to sell my exquisitely elaborate custom-made corset costumes and wedding dresses on their site.
So when a customer sees one of the samples I make for photoshoots and is interested in commissioning a similar look in their size, they need to know that:
Mentioning my website in Etsy messages has always been against their terms. If you’ve noticed the “please don’t ask about custom orders, I’ll have to turn you down!” wording on Etsy images and listing descriptions, that’s because the afore-mentioned off-platform transactions policy explicitly prohibits:
Making offers to buy or sell outside Etsy
That wording is vague enough that I’m nervous even acknowledging that I HAVE a store on my website in Etsy messages. I know for a fact that there are bots that comb Etsy messages for seller-sent independent website links – the seller will receive a polite notification from an AI support agent that their shop will be banned if they continue to do so.
Their terms on listing descriptions and images are much more specific:
Encouraging buyers to purchase an item in your Etsy shop through another venue
So until recently, I felt safe putting my auralynne.com address on images, so long as I did so just to share additional options for customers that are available on my website.
Now images are no longer safe. Based on some quick research, it appears that Etsy is scraping all the images on their site with an OCR (Original Character Recognition) program, and taking down listings that the AI finds violate their policies.
Unsurprisingly, there is no appeal if the AI makes a mistake:
And multiple infractions will result in a shop closure – which for me, would mean losing about half of my income…
I spent a significant amount of this past holiday weekend deleting hundreds of images in my Etsy shop, instead of taking a break to spend time with my family. It wasn’t just the image types mentioned above. Every. Single. One of my size charts used to be something like:
A few months back my computer died and there was no way to salvage anything from the hard drive (as that was the part that failed!) Thanks to cloud storage, I lost very little. Only one folder of items was saved to the computer without a backup – but it included my templates for making size charts. So this latest round of Etsy shenanigans means I have to re-create all of my size charts from scratch! I still have all my hand-drawn instructional sketches, thankfully. But if you’ve been browsing my Etsy shop and wondered what the heck happened to all the size charts, that’s why! The info is still in the listing descriptions. x.x
Now the next step is to hope, like hell, that I have successfully located every image that contained “auralynne.com” and successfully deleted them. I did check everything over very carefully… twice.
If not, and they shut down my shop, I suppose you’ll see me on the news!
Historically, I’m not very good at suffering in silence when Etsy screws me over…