I don't know if you've seen Etsy's blog that has Etsians and the like in such an uproar...here's the link
http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/declaring-coral-too-precious-to-wear-10844/
Upon reading the blog I was first struck by the fact the Temple St. Clair was allowed to link to her off-site selling venue...which by the way is against Etsy Terms of Use (TOU). The subject was even covered in this post "Clarification on off-site linking policy"... you can find the post here... http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6547379 I guess the next item that caught my eye (after I had to slap them back in my head) was I thought that "calling out" was also against Etsy TOU...see the following Etsy article... http://www.etsy.com/storque/etsy-news/forum-decorum-im-calling-you-out-530/ An excerpt from that states... "Everyone wants to maintain a good rep to show they are trustworthy in the marketplace. (Feedback is a more appropriate space to comment on another member's transaction rep than the Forums.) Another reason calling out is not-so-hot is that it can quickly escalate into fighting. We want to keep the Forums a positive and helpful place." Now I know it wasn't posted in the forums but calling out is calling out. The amount of threads that where closed down over this issue was mind boggling...I really do love Etsy, but at this point I am just a bit confused on why they allowed a non Etsy seller (but member...she has a sellers account) to violate their own terms of use. Not to mention the Etsy sellers that are reporting that they are getting nasty convos (messages) if they sell coral. One store that I know of pulled her items until she could decide what to do...as coral and shell are the majority of her business. To add insult to injury see the "apology" that Etsy put out... http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6658218 in part it stated..... "It was absolutely not our intention to call out or cast a negative light on any Etsy seller. We come to work every day trying to build a better business for you, truly! So to anyone who felt unwelcome, my apologies. Our policies about what can be sold on Etsy are unchanged" I guess I would feel unwelcome (as many sellers pointed out in the forums) when a non Etsy seller (she has an account but has not one item up for sell) who sells mass produced items (also against Etsy TOU) was allowed to sell her items on a non Etsy site and then go on to tell everyone that they should go sign a petition to not buy "any coral"... no matter if it's legal or not....I guess I would feel a lot more than unwelcome....Just my opinion. I do not propose that I speak for anyone else other than myself. So after all of this I really wanted to find out more on the whole issue so I was up pretty late seeing just what the issue with coral in jewelry manufacturing was all about and then I came across this Newsweek article http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/27/coral-ban-hurts-italian-craftsmen.html An excerpt from the article states..... "According to the U.S. proposal, the greatest risk to coral populations is fishing to supply international trade, with landings that have declined by 60 to 80 percent since the 1980s, and reductions in the size structure of populations in fished areas equivalent to a loss of 80 to 90 percent of the corals' reproductive modules. And went on to say.... "But in December 2009, an expert panel of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization concluded that the available evidence did not support the proposal to include the entire family Corallidae in Appendix II. The panel said seven of the species in this family of corals did not meet the biological criteria for an Appendix II listing." Well I guess I am just not sure why Etsy chose to go the way they did...we can all speculate, but until they tell us what their master-plan is we won't know...until then I will do more research on the topic to make my own informed decision. I hope everyone else does to:) |
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