i'm starting to get a little scared to post in the forums. People are so quick to jump down someone's throat. They must all have lots of time on their hands! I get enough negativity in my day job, I don't need to participate in it online, you know?

I saw a bunch of this going on in the CPSIA forums.  OMG!!  People are jumping down EVERYONE'S throats.  It's ridiculous.  One lady was totally assaulted for using swarovski crystals in her children's items, not knowing they were prohibited by the CPSIA laws.  Instead of politely telling her that she can't use them, people tore her a new one and kept attacking her over and over, even after she said she didn't know and that she was taking those items down.  So sad!  People should really just worry about themselves and spend all that time and energy on something productive.  That's why I've been staying away from the forums there too.  I'm worried I might inadvertently say something wrong and have the etsy police up my butt.

Ok so i'm not the only one that has issues with the etsy forums. I do have to go there to participate in my creativecrochet team thread...but those ladies are super nice. I actually like chatting with them I really like you guys too, I haven't had any negative interaction with anyone here It's really a nice breath of fresh air. Mostly when I go to forums I just browse around for helpful information now. I'm not into the mama drama that alot of people are starting lately. it's reeeeeeeeeeeeediculous lol

There was a woman the other day complaining about how she had paid 2.99 in shipping for an item and when she'd gotten it the postage amount was much less...I think it was like a 1.22 or something like that. She was ranting about how she felt it unfair that the person charged her 3 times the actual shipping. Now...i'm sure i'm not the only one that tacks on a bit extra to cover the cost of packing and shipping material. I think I add like an extra 70 cents to pay for the envelope and other things I use to package my items. I feel that's fair, when you buy from places like amazon, target, or any other online merchant they charge a handling fee in addition to the shipping costs. Not to mention the fact that shipping materials aren't free, and in reality it might cost me more than 70 cents to package something. Ok...now the next half of this womans rant was in regards to how the seller packaged the item. The item in question happened to be a baby onesie, she said that it was just put in the envelope without tissue paper or even a thank you note for the purchase. That I can see her complaining about, if it were me I would have complained too.  Now all of the people that responded to her post totally bitched her out which I think is ridiculous. I can see what some were saying about how she agreed to the shipping cost when she purchased but when she actually got the package and saw how much it cost that's when she flipped a lid, that I don't agree with. If you agree to pay something in the first place then don't bitch later. Seeing the condition of the package when it got to me and knowing they just didn't put much thought into packaging it I would think to myself that the person charged me almost 2 dollars more for virtually nothing. I package all of my items in a giftwrap and tie it up with curling ribbon and I then attach my card thanking them for the purchase and giving my contact info. I feel that if a person takes their shop seriously that they would at least wrap something in some tissue paper and at least hand write a little note thanking the person. Everyone does it a little different, but just putting something in an envelope is highly unprofessional by my standards. Not to mention the fact that you should take the little extra step to make the person excited about receiving their item, they did choose to buy handmade rather than mass produced cookie cutter items. I feel as shop owners we really need to differentiate ourselves from mass produced products by putting that personal touch on things. I know that when I get stuff from amazon or whatever they don't put in thank you notes lol. and they charge extra if you want something gift wrapped, I do that because it makes me feel better about sending out my stuff. And I hope that once my customer recieves their package that they feel special because their items come wrapped with care Ok i'm done with that now LOL let me know how you guys feel about the same subject.

LOL. I'm a moderator on a forum and in charge of the Politics threads. Those can get pretty crazy so I'm probably immune to a lot of the nastiness! That said, it takes a while to figure out who the big posters are in a forum and what their game is. Unfortunately, as with any forum, some old timers tend to get very tired of the newbies questions because they're jaded and have seen it all. But by that point, they're addicted to posting in the forums and have forgot the Thumper Law, 'if you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all.'

It would be nice if Etsy would get some proper moderators on the forums though. And for the love of Mike, I wish they'd switch to some proper forum software!

lol

i'm a mod at a political forum too...and been called many things and accused of being unfair and being bias etc etc....like water off a ducks back now..

i just go intot he forums to promote or if theres a topic which soudns itneresting i read through it or aprticipate quickly.  some topics i dont even read, i jsut respond and leave!

the forum mvoes way too fast anyway all topics get lost!

It seems that only about half the people who said they wanted to join,  have. This is my only team so I'm not sure how big they get.  It would be a shame not to include someone because other people who are not participating.  Is there any way to send out a reminder?  I would be glad to help.

The 'new post' link is in the upper right of the screen... took me a bit to find it! 

Agreed.  As small businesses we have to be careful what we say.

I say if you have the creativity in you and you do something about it by making things no matter what it is, you're an artist. People like my mother in law that don't have creative talent look to folks like us to bring things to them that they themselves can't do (she'll be the first to admit it) I don't care what it is, how handmade it is, or how much store bought items you put into it...everyone is an artist or creator. There's nothing wrong with using pre-made things like beads and such. Heck I guess i'd be a black sheep for not crocheting the whole damn towel LOL But see there aren't alot of people out there doing the things we do, and I hate that people bash every chance they get on the first thing they "feel" is wrong with someone elses items. Sorry you have to bash on other peoples stuff because of your self-issues and possible insecurities with your own work. That's how I feel LOL

As someone who does not enjoy putting beads together, I don't mind at all if the artist did not make the bead.  I look more to the finished product than the assembly process behind it.

lol I guess we're all "semi-homemade" artisans then (anyone that watches food network will get that)