Customizing the new Etsy forums and teams

Etsy community spaces have issues

Okay, you have found your team or forum. What else do you need to know?

I wish the answer was simple but it is not. Let us start with some basics.

You must log into teams and forums more often than in the past. If things stop working, look at the top right corner and make sure you are logged in.

Bear in mind that many features are not working as intended. Things have been really buggy.

Some things have been working.

Play around with your personal settings

Changing your settings

"To update your notification settings, click your avatar in the top right corner of the Etsy community and select My settings from the dropdown menu. From there, you can go into the Personal and Preferences tabs..."

Look at all of the settings

There are lots of things to adjust. Even if you have no idea what you want, look the choices over. Really, there is a lot of customization available.

Nested comments are not working

Adjust your linear layout to "threaded"

Ah, but they probably could. Nesting comments default to appear in date order, oldest first, whether they nest or not. Newest posts are at the bottom.

If you want your responses to nest properly, it is a matter of changing a personal setting. See the screen shot for resetting your linear layout. Mine was set at "oldest." It works better set for "threaded."

Push the tiny double arrow to get to the latest page in a thread.

Change a team setting for a better experience

The first thing I suggest for most team users is under "options" (just above the team announcement box). Select "mark all as read." That will make all of the bold titles go back to regular type. Thread titles will then become bold when someone comments on them.

It is all about the bell

How do I view "my threads"?

In the old days, we had "my threads." Sometimes there would be a little number there.

Well, "notifications" is that and more. First, click the bell and you will see all of the action on threads you are interested in.

Additionally, we can tag people so they get a notification.

Tagging? Yes, in order to get someone's attention when referring to their post (either on teams or in the forums) you must @[screen name] them. They get a notification (if they are signed up for notifications of course).

It is a bit exhausting to learn about all at once, but the feature is nice.

How do I unsubscribe from notifications?

Update notification settings

Although notifications are cool, sometimes they can be too much of a good thing.

"To update your notification settings, click your avatar in the top right corner of the Etsy community and select My settings from the dropdown menu. From there, you can go into the [Subscriptions and Notifications area] to subscribe or unsubscribe to emails and notifications for a variety of topics."

Thanks for coming along and checking out some of the new features. 

Etsy forums and teams will be temporarily read-only

Etsy newsbreak:

Teams and forums will be essentially offline for nearly 2 weeks... Starting in one week, Etsy will begin their "improvements ... to Etsy's community spaces."

“...we’ll be entering a brief read-only period in Teams and Forums spaces from January 10-22. During that time you’ll be able to view community content, but unable to post comments or start new discussion threads.“

“Starting January 22, members will have access to improved tools and features in the Teams and Forums spaces... We appreciate your patience while we finalize these improvements."

Admin officially announced the team migration here. 

Since making it official, they have amended the above announcement twice. The first adjustment was to state the "The only exception [to the full shutdown of the forums and teams] will be the Bugs forum, which will remain open for both reading and posting new threads and comments.

A day later, they added:

**More about the read-only period: In addition to putting the finishing touches on new tools and features, the January 10-22 read-only period allows for the extensive migration of existing Teams and Forums content—including over 10,000 Etsy Teams and millions of discussion posts—into our updated community spaces. Our aim during this period is to ensure a seamless transition that will make it easier for you to connect with other sellers, grow your creative business, and keep up with the latest Etsy news.**

Information for team captains and leaders here.

Etsy has provided some clues about how the new team spaces will be

1. They will run on Lithium. Lithium is the operating system used by PayPal's forums. So take a peek at how it may work. It seems like a less pictorial, less warm and fuzzy place for sure.

2. Previously deleted threads will no longer be accessible, and any deleted threads in the future will not be saved.

3. Forums threads without a comment in the past three years will not be available in the refreshed community space. If you have older Forums threads saved, you’ll want to jot down any pertinent tips or resources prior to the read-only period.

4. Improved tools for Team Captains and Leaders make it simple to quickly communicate with all members, including a streamlined group messaging feature and a customizable announcements section on each team's home page.

5. If you have set up a question for new members to answer, their answers will not be saved and teh question will not appear to future people trying to join.

6. There will still be the option to make your group open (anyone can join) or closed (members must request and be approved to join), but there will no longer be an option to hide your team completely and make it invite-only.

7. There will no longer be an option to download a CSV file of your team's members.

What about promotion? Etsy has said nothing. The indications I am receiving are that the new spaces are not designed for it.

What is is store for forums?

1. "We’re increasing the overall number of sections available in the Forums, and adding intuitive labels to surface the answers you need quickly." Included is a "new shop critique section provides an easy way to share and request feedback."

2. "... enhanced comment functionality lets you @mention and “like” other members’ posts. After posting a new thread, you’ll be able to select an accepted solution that indicates when another member’s reply addresses your question effectively." You will have "the ability to like and tag other members within threads..."

3. "...search simultaneously across existing Forums and Teams threads to see what questions have already been answered by the community. You can even follow threads or saved searches that you want to pay close attention to."

4. There will be "an increased character limit and text formatting tools including bullets, numbers, and emphasis options like bold and italics."


Will it be better? I have not seen it so I cannot say.

We will find out soon!

July 2017 Admin Update for Sellers

On July 20 an update was held for a few Etsy sellers in positions of team leadership. Admin answered some questions. This is a condensed version.
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Etsy remains committed to Etsy teams. More team captains and leaders will be invited to join the Fellowship program [which is located on Facebook] this year.

Q. What effect do hearting games have on Etsy's search algorithms?
A. (The information provided by admin duplicates what was said during the public Q&A post on Etsy.) If a buyer clicks, favorites, or purchases an item found in search results, that has a positive effect on that items search ranking.

• If a product is clicked on or favorited outside of search results (for example, from social media), that has no impact on search ranking - neither a negative or positive effect.
• If an item receives a favorite, regardless of there it came from, that product will show up in the Recommended Items area on the front page - so there is a benefit there. But no benefit on the search algorithm.
• Better tags and titles can improve search ranking.
• Driving traffic to your shop via social media is still the best way to get exposure.

Q. Do conversion rates affect search ranking?

Lower conversion rates are better

A. Yes, conversion rates do affect search ranking.

Q. Is a fee increase in the works for sellers?
A. No.

Q. Regarding the 10 photos per listing, if not all 10 photos are used, will this reduce search ranking?
A. No. The number of photos used has no impact on search placement.

Q. Why have sales have plummeted for sellers this year?
A. Etsy admin understand that fluctuations in sales are scary. Unfortunately, there are many causes. There is no general trend; it is SHOP specific.

Concerned shops that have decreasing sales may contact Etsy. A team of Etsy admin can do a 15 minute shop critique to increase sales. The link is in the Help pages. Shop owners should click on the contact button in that Help section to request a critique.

Q: (Re-questioned): you are saying that there is no Etsy trend that is affecting sales… It goes back to the individual shops? That the experimenting that seems to be affecting sales, is not having an effect on sales?
A: As part of the recent realignment, Etsy now has a dedicated group of admin (called Voice of the Consumer) who are listening to all channels to hear from sellers…

Q: Some feel that morale among sellers on Etsy is at an all-time low. Shop owners could use more timely information from Etsy.

A: We are currently working on better communication plans. We will communicate better with our sellers. This week there are lots of meetings going on at Etsy about being more transparent to sellers. We are working to be better at letting sellers know testing and experiments, ones that are working and not working.

😎 Thanks to long-time Etsy vintage sellers Gail and JD for the above information!

Etsy Quick Trick: Forums & Team Search

Regularly seen in Etsy's forums is this query:

"Whenever I have a question, I like to search to see whether it has been asked before. But all I find are irrelevant threads. What am I doing wrong?"

Searching the forums can be a challenge!

There are two tricks to finding the information you need from the forums, or even team threads:

1. First, go to the forum most likely to answer your query, like Questions, Discussions, or your team. 
2. Next, go to the topmost search field on the page. Begin to type your query.
3. As you type your query, some choices will pop up.



Select your choice, titles or inside posts

4. Select one and voila! your answers.

Use a Google Search

Another method is to make a search from Google. Something like "Etsy xxxx."

Be aware that in a Google search, the results need to be indexed first. So your results may be older than the first method described.

If you use the Google search method for a teams search, the thread must be public.

I hope that this journey into searching Etsy's communities has been helpful!