VINTAGE - Tagging Workshop May 20th

[Gabreial]

Hey everyone, I contacted Etsy Admin about hosting a tagging workshop for VINTAGE.

Mark your calender for Tuesday May 20th at 5:30pm EST for this workshop. It will be held in the Shop Room (virtual lab) http://www.etsy.com/virtual_labs.php

Tagging is more important than ever and we want you to be seen!

Come to the workshop, and have your tagging questions answered.

Hope to see you there!
Gabreial

[BlackStar- Katie]

Are there any notes for this meeting?

I have a question. Did they mention anything about tagging vintage supplies? I convo'd HeyMichelle and asked her, but thought I'd come here and ask too.

I've tagged some of my vintage beads with vintage as the main category in the past and this has always been OK. Now with the change, I wonder if those rules have changed. (this is why I'm asking this)

I just looked at the vintage category to see if I could get an answer to my question. I shouldn't have looked. So much mistagging!

[Cal and Lori Schutte]

The mistagging is an education thing. I think Esty is very confusing with the communication. I keep finding newer sellers selling vintage and not using the vinatge tag as the first tag.

Lori

[High Desert Rose]

So then, would some great swami of Vintage Pulse be willing to have a chat or reserve a room and share what knowledge they do have with those of us who have been muddling along? It would be sooooooo much appreciated!
~Rose

[High Desert Rose]

I think I saw where ArtsFarm said no minutes were taken. I will ask her, right now.

[Gabreial]

Hi there,

I've contacted them several times about this issue. I agree, it's confusing and no one is coming forward to correct it. I guess the workshop wasn't very clear. I'm sorry I missed it.

[artsfarm]

Hi!
Yeah, no minutes were taken and since it was a video feed and I have no sound, I was kind of lost. A lot of people were losing the audio throughout the thing, so we just kind of winged it. (is 'winged' a word? LOL)

I did find a Storque article from 4/28 that gives some details on tagging which might help a bit:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/article/tech-updates-u...

This is the vintage/supply-specific info from it:
____________________________________________________
Supplies – This will search all of the supplies on Etsy, both handmade and commercial. Any item tagged “supplies” will show up in the results. Only crafting supplies should be tagged supplies.


Vintage – This special vintage search returns only items within the Vintage category. This means items with vintage as their first tag (selected from the dropdown menu in the listing process). Only items 20 years or older can go in Vintage.
_____________________________________________________
And this:

What about vintage supplies?
Vintage supplies are art/craft supplies that are 20 years or older. They may be listed in either Vintage or Supplies, at the discretion of the seller. As with all unaltered vintage items, they must have the tag commercial. Non-vintage supplies listed in the Vintage category will be removed.
Tag patterns with handmade/commercial. This category will be moved into Supplies very soon, and your items will be moved for you. Handmade/original patterns: please add the tag handmade so your items will appear in the handmade subcategory. Commercial patterns: you must add the tag commercial, and may not use the tag handmade.
_____________________________________________________

A few of us were involved in a very frustrating forum thread the other night. It was frustrating because while some people simply make innocent mistakes given that selling help on Etsy seems to be 'hidden' for the most part, others have the attitude of "So what if someone tags wrong, it has nothing to do with you".
Wrong, and what a crappy attitude. It affects everyone, especially buyers. There were a few sellers who were actually making (lame) excuses and justifications for their "innocent" mistakes, and insisting they should be able to tag however they want. even though they knew better.

So like I say constantly, they can have all the rules they want but if they don't enforce them, they mean nothing. Bah.

Sorry I don't have notes from the workshop; I couldn't hear it :-P
What I gather is that they basically rehashed the info already out there, which is in the article linked above.

[artsfarm]

BTW, right after the workshop, I sent Michelle a list of book/ephemera categories for when they either upgrade our categories or separate us. It seems no one in Admin. has any idea about collectibles or vintage and all we have to work with (besides the new decade subs) are recycled art/craft related tag choices, which desperately needs an overhaul.

I've got a humongous list in the works of vintage categories/sub-categories that I told her I'm going to send in as soon as it's finished. I'm trying to make it specific enough to be useful, but not so specific that we'd have only a few items in each. She was very happy about that, I guess it's a big load off their collective backs.

I suggested she post the list on the forum so that other vintage sellers can add to/subtract from it so that by the time we do separate, our tagging and category setup will already be on place. I really do believe that at least Michelle and a few others really want to make this work for us, but are for some reason hesitant to voice it. Don't know why, but anyway...

[rachael - tigerluxe]

i couldn't make it to the workshop...but i gathered from somewhere, the forums i think, that if you tag something vintage you cannot tag it handmade as well. which is a dilemma for some things, like a vintage handmade doll and such.
but everything is so unclear now, who knows for sure?

[artsfarm]

You're ok in that sense to use the word 'handmade', as long as it's not the first tag. The 'vintage' 1st tag will keep it within the vintage category. It won't show up in any of the handmade categories, even if someone searches tags, titles, & descriptions for 'handmade/doll'

[rachael - tigerluxe]

ahhh...good! thanks :)

[BlackStar- Katie]

Ah Thank You! You answered my question about Vintage Supplies. I still haven't heard from HeyMichelle, but I'm sure I will shortly.
thanks artsfarm.

[High Desert Rose]

Thank you Swami! I appreciate you taking the time to go over this with us and what you are doing to work with admin. What is the best time to check these forums and in what categories? I'm in CA so I miss a lot and don't always have the time to hunt and peck for these threads.