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Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

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Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#181

Post by cowpewter »

mncharity wrote: post #180
cowpewter wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "internet circles I run in" I'm talking about the ball-jointed doll hobby, so probably 90% of the products we're talking about are handmade doll clothes and wigs. The dolls themselves are usually made of polyurethane resin, which I don't think could be considered harmful once it's cured. Most of the other hand-crafted things I would consider checking Etsy for first are things like jewelry and pottery. Unless you'r…

>> any product whose use is regulated by any law in any jurisdiction > handmade doll clothes and wigs Toy safety? For example, all the "toy" sections of 16 CFR Part 1500?[1] [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/part-1500 Found via a link on my (shameless plug) "A feel for: torque"[2], under 10^-1 Newton-meters. [2] http://www.clarifyscience.info/part/ZoomB?v=A&p=CK6Ji&m=torq...

Not toys, think more along the lines of art dolls. They aren't for kids, they cost anywhere from $$$ to $$$$ a piece.

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#182

Post by zaptheimpaler »

Fascinating - why does a strongly worded letter from a 2% shareholder prompt layoffs and major changes within hours? Like if the board believes they are doing OK, or that perhaps it will take a longer time for their current plan to payoff and reflect in revenues, can they not communicate that and continue? 2% isn't enough to force any decision.

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#183

Post by LeifCarrotson »

nasalgoat wrote: post #156
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, a reserved m4.Large instance is $45/month. After a year of that, you're just $550 into hosting, barely enough to select and order the case and power supply for your server. It would be 30 years before you paid the cost of that Dell, so unless you actually need that power and your time is free, it's easier to let this be a tiny fraction of Amazon's expenses and workload than a big part of yours.

Not all instances are the same. You can't run a database on an m4.large, not any database you plan on running queries on. So you need that m4.16xlarge to handle the load, and honestly, there's no single instance available on Amazon that I've found that can come anywhere near the performance of physical hardware when it comes to handling database loads. Right now I am running ten r4.16xlarge instances to do the job of…

I guess our use cases are just different. Mind sharing some examples of your use case that demands that much compute power?

I do run a database on my server (which isn't even a Large) for an e-commerce site. It fits handily in half a gig of ram. The hundreds of products we offer have associated images, but we just store the filenames in the database and they load from disk (or, more likely, Cloudflare cache). Honestly, it could be a static site but the database is a convenient way to edit the content and control the presentation.

You have 640 CPUs running at multiple gigahertz and trillions of bytes of RAM. What kind of workload requires that insane amount of compute power?

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#184

Post by mullen »

MichaelGG wrote: post #27

Bizarre. I've only tried to use Etsy once, figuring it'd be a great place to get some sort of unique jewellery as a gift. It's filled with junk, both of the super-manufactured kind and of the "modern art" kind (someone glues 2 pieces of crap together and wants $500.) I haven't gone back, though I did enjoy the Regretsy blog while it was up. >Etsy’s insistence on running its own servers rather than using cloud-based s…

> "if you are a real you must setup your own servers"

Someone forgot to remind this guy that Developers suck at running servers. Been a heavy line Unix admin for 16 years now and never have run across a server(s) built/operated/maintained by a developer that was not a steaming pile of garbage.

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#185

Post by dublinben »

valuearb wrote: post #177
ryanbrunner wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Etsy is currently a B corporation. They're likely to not remain one. The article clearly points this out, but it's easily verifiable as well: - https://www.bcorporation.net/community/etsy - https://blog.etsy.com/news/2012/etsy-joins-the-b-corporation... - https://www.etsy.com/ca/mission

It's a process the CEO tried to start, never became binding because they are incorporated in Delaware which doesn't recognize B corps, and can't finish because he doesn't have buy-in from the owners of the company. So it's temporary status doesn't belie the fact it's not going to be one and shouldn't be treated as one.

Delaware absolutely does incorporate Public Benefit Corporations. Kickstarter is one example.

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#186

Post by mullen »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #105
dboreham wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has to be something very wrong when an article about the problems with a company that facilities an online marketplace is talking about the details of how their servers are run and paid for.. By this I mean that in such a business the issues surrounding servers and even software should be very minor compared to the bread and butter of helping people sell stuff so money is made. The costs of said servers and sof…

Except traditional "cloud" hosting is wicked expensive in comparison. Ideally you should shoot for a hybrid model where excess capacity spills into AWS/GCE/Azure. For example: A dedicated m4.16xLarge EC2 instance in AWS is $3987/month. You could build that same server for $15,000 through Dell, lease it at $400/month (OpEx), and colo it with a 1GB/s connection for $150/month.

> For example: A dedicated m4.16xLarge EC2 instance in AWS is $3987/month. You could build that same server for $15,000 through Dell, lease it at $400/month (OpEx), and colo it with a 1GB/s connection for $150/month.

If this is all you see when it comes getting servers or working with Cloud servers/services, then you don't know what you are talking about.

You don't build for one massive single server, you build for a bunch of small ones that spin up and down as needed. It's micro services or you are wasting your time and money.

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#187

Post by GCA10 »

macNchz wrote: post #151
sciurus wrote: post #85

Black-and-white Capital's press releasing calling for changes at Etsy is at http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170502005999/en/blac... To me it's fascinating how deep in the technical weeds it is. For example, suggesting changes to their search ranking algorithms. Some of it strikes me as likely inaccurate. E.G. "It is black-and-white’s understanding that more than 50% of the approximately 450 people on the R&D…

This is kind of interesting: >It is black-and-white’s understanding that Etsy’s current search algorithm is scored to favor new sellers and other factors instead of trying to deliver the listings that are most likely to convert, leaving its marketplace drastically under-monetized. This is in stark contrast to other comparable online marketplace practices. There's a delicate balance to be struck on a platform like Ets…

Excellent point. In fact, that's the sort of short-term thinking that would elicit a scolding from Milton Friedman's ghost.

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#188

Post by sbov »

skizm wrote: post #63

Opportunities created by Etsy's shortcomings: 1) Create an Etsy review site/blog/mailing list that points to the "good" merchants. 2) IndieHackers for Etsy. Do some interviews with legit Etsy owners who sell quality stuff and make a living on Etsy. 3) Independent review company that rates etsy sellers. 4) Hard mode: compete directly with Etsy and have some sort of verification process that you're not drop-shipping cr…

All but number 4 is completely reliant upon Etsy not getting their act together.

I would say the safest is actually #4 without taking VC or going public. Etsy already validated the hand crafted market, but imho it isn't a devour the world market. The desire for ever expanding growth has increasingly forced Etsy to effectively abandon this market, leaving a hole for you to step into.

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#189

Post by harlanlewis »

dublinben wrote: post #185
valuearb wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a process the CEO tried to start, never became binding because they are incorporated in Delaware which doesn't recognize B corps, and can't finish because he doesn't have buy-in from the owners of the company. So it's temporary status doesn't belie the fact it's not going to be one and shouldn't be treated as one.

Delaware absolutely does incorporate Public Benefit Corporations. Kickstarter is one example.

This is way outside of my expertise or experience, but this thread got me curious.

Here's what 3 minutes of googling indicates:

* most states have b corps * most states that have b corps based them on the Model Benefit Act, drafted by B-Lab * Delaware has b corps, but they are not based on the Model Benefit Act * whether the Model Benefit Act was used affects all sorts of things (requirements, reporting, standards, decision makers, enforcement…)

So it seems fair to say that delaware has b corps, but they are not like the others.

Re: Etsy is under pressure to start acting more like a conventional company

#190

Post by pkamb »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #175
pkamb wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With all the AI being thrown around, can't someone build a "tastefulness" filter I've long wanted an extension for Google Image Search, eBay, Etsy, etc. that simply filtered out all listings with images of items with pure white backgrounds. That would go a long ways toward a "tastefulness filter". Huge indicator of handmade / vintage / used items sold by an individual seller vs. a new item being dropshipped from Am…

Sadly, they sort of figured that out already: http://www.storenvy.com/shop/category/home-furniture/ . (Yes, that's their furniture category. Who knew ugly, amateurishly made dolls were considered furniture?)

Are the hands fake too?!
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