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Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

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Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#181

Post by ponyfleisch »

vostrocity wrote: post #175
duskwuff wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That "other direction" is much more significant, at this point. For every Kickstarter/Indiegogo project that's cloned by a Chinese manufacturer (e.g, Fidget Cube), there's probably at least 10 or 20 "projects" created to resell something that's already available. It's a huge issue for the credibility of both sites.

What's truly fascinating is all of these innovative products made in Asia which aren't officially marketed in the West (thus allowing people to market it in smalltime ways, like Kickstarter). If you go to the right parts of Asia now you will see a wild array of amazing, futuristic products that you can't find anywhere in the US.

like what? selfie sticks?

(i live in asia)

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#182

Post by StreamBright »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #2

The conversion problem on mobile does seem like an issue, but speaking as a former customer of Etsy what drove me away was the selection. Not that it's too small - rather, Etsy is now flooded with thousands of storefronts selling "artisan" pieces that are actually bought on AliExpress or similar and marked up. If they're trying to apply ML to managing customer recommendations, they should figure out how to identify w…

Less is more. I think this case is a prime example of how chasing higher revenue gets you in trouble in the long run. Amazon also suffers from this, just look at the recent cases of fake products.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#183

Post by nevertoolate »

Arnt wrote: post #143
Opalhart wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe if there was a system where consumers could identify the wares as manufactured themselves. Like a "legitimacy" rating system

Likely easy to game. And hard. I wear cufflinks. Half the good ones you can buy are artisan stuff built on aliexpress basics, and very difficult to distinguish from boring artless stuff build on the same basics. You can tell by looking, but difficult for software or for a bureaucracy. I imagine there are many categories like that.

I think parent commenter talks about crowdsourcing labeling, not software.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#184

Post by nommm-nommm »

asafira wrote: post #124
mustacheemperor wrote: post #2

The conversion problem on mobile does seem like an issue, but speaking as a former customer of Etsy what drove me away was the selection. Not that it's too small - rather, Etsy is now flooded with thousands of storefronts selling "artisan" pieces that are actually bought on AliExpress or similar and marked up. If they're trying to apply ML to managing customer recommendations, they should figure out how to identify w…

Why are poor reviews not enough to combat this? (in the long term)

Because reviews are extremely easy to game.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#185

Post by Arnt »

nevertoolate wrote: post #183
Arnt wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely easy to game. And hard. I wear cufflinks. Half the good ones you can buy are artisan stuff built on aliexpress basics, and very difficult to distinguish from boring artless stuff build on the same basics. You can tell by looking, but difficult for software or for a bureaucracy. I imagine there are many categories like that.

I think parent commenter talks about crowdsourcing labeling, not software.

Yes, and when the median number of labelings for a given article is near zero (as it will be for handmade artisanal articles), it's very easy to spam in a few five-stars. The crowd you want isn't the crowd you get.

So you have to filter or supplement the user ratings/labelings/reviews using either software or inhouse people, which runs into the second problem I mentioned.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#186

Post by roel_v »

verinus wrote: post #177
roel_v wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is 'native'? All apple trees are Persian, in the end. Just because there are a few species that outcompete others, doesn't mean that we need to freeze whatever is the current state of geographic dispersion of species to the 'gold standard', that we will defend and maintain at all cost. I explicitly seek out exotic seeds to see how they will behave in my climate. Diversity is good. This whole 'native first' (or r…

this change should occur naturally and not be man made- we don't understand complex eco-systems enough to make such servere changes. there is a reason why certain things are native- I would suggest a more humble approach!

Right, because apple trees took a stroll across the Mediterranean to settle in Europe?

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#187

Post by roel_v »

sbov wrote: post #152
roel_v wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is 'native'? All apple trees are Persian, in the end. Just because there are a few species that outcompete others, doesn't mean that we need to freeze whatever is the current state of geographic dispersion of species to the 'gold standard', that we will defend and maintain at all cost. I explicitly seek out exotic seeds to see how they will behave in my climate. Diversity is good. This whole 'native first' (or r…

Invasive species tend to be a term used for things that thrive and choke out all competition and ultimately come to dominate and severely alter the landscape. Ultimately they tend to be bad for diversity. Sorta like humans, except in plant/other animal form.

Strawman. GP was saying 'don't buy overseas seeds because they are species that are not native to wherever you are importing them to'. Which doesn't make sense - whether a species out competes another doesn't depend on where it's from. Sure, when you introduce some species into certain ecosystems, those ecosystems will change. Nobody's saying you shouldn't think and/or manage. What I'm saying is that the whole 'exotic is bad' line of thinking ultimately boils down to the naturalistic fallacy.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#188

Post by roel_v »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #145
roel_v wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is 'native'? All apple trees are Persian, in the end. Just because there are a few species that outcompete others, doesn't mean that we need to freeze whatever is the current state of geographic dispersion of species to the 'gold standard', that we will defend and maintain at all cost. I explicitly seek out exotic seeds to see how they will behave in my climate. Diversity is good. This whole 'native first' (or r…

Well, there's quite a few examples of invasive species that have constituted significant threats to human, animal or plant health, for instance. Like malaria, the bubonic plague, minor nuisances like that. For some examples from more recent times, the US timber industry has spent tens of millions of dollars fighting the Asian long-horned beetle, the citrus industry has an extensive quarantine program in place fightin…

Diseases are just that, diseases, not invasive or not. 'Invasive' is about competition, not direct attack. Goes for all your examples. So if you're saying 'don't import diseases' - well yeah. But that's not the point here.

Please tell which fungi, bacteria and insects spread through the vector you propose. Where do you think the seed you buy in your local garden center comes from?

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#189

Post by pbhjpbhj »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #171
leadingthenet wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that most products only pretend not be mass-produced, when in reality, they are.

Perhaps the pretending is what people are paying/looking for. I certainly see a lot of that kind of thing when surveying supermarket shelves.

Do you really think so, that people don't want, say, a unique piece of jewellery but just to pretend - through what appears to be a fraud on behalf of the seller - that some over-priced mass-produced jewellery is unique.

I couldn't disagree more.

In part if I buy something on Etsy I'm considering that most of the money I spend will get re-spent in that person's local community. In part I'm trying to encourage them in their craftmanship/art.

Re: Etsy has ousted its CEO and is laying off 8 percent of its staff

#190

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Meai wrote: post #148
Opalhart wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe if there was a system where consumers could identify the wares as manufactured themselves. Like a "legitimacy" rating system

They should really just add a rating system, I dont know anything about etsy but if customers say that they found it on alibaba with a given link then the seller would probably lose all future sales. Sounds like a very easy problem to solve...

But then Etsy lose all those sales, which presumably is why they don't do that.

Are they more committed to their morals or their profit?

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