this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
44 points (100.0% liked)
Technology
37702 readers
482 users here now
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I fucking hate this. Ty for letting me know, will not recommend etsy anymore
You definitely still can find real people making cool handmade stuff, but yeah there is a fair amount of just bot-posts reselling cheap wares.
You need to be somewhat tech-savvy (at least in terms of distinguishing automated accounts from humans, which might be more of a social skill) and knowledgeable about whichever craft you seek to purchase, though. And Etsy as a platform has gotten pretty bad for small-scale creators, demanding more of them (such as encouraging them to offer "free" shipping at their own cost) and offering less support.
Is there any alternative?
The Artisan's Coop is building itself right now. Only time will tell how successful it will be, but they're taking their time to try to build a useful and real cooperative.
Sometimes it's possible to contact people via their social media accounts and figure out a way to make the transaction happen without a middleman, but I imagine that's not all vendors. I'm not aware of any alternative platforms to Etsy at the moment, sadly.