@Bearlescent I have emailed you re website stuff.
I have just made a respectable sale on the other place I sell without any effort from me. Sales of art (mine anyway) are subject to peaks and troughs, but that aside this latest sale means my other marketplace is now outperforming Folksy by 25:1. I used to sell a lot here, so it all feels a bit of a shame really.
Part of me would like to give Folksy another chance, the other part of me wonders if it’s worth the effort.
I was curious so did the same search - my cat items didn’t show up either 
I was inappropriately amused though that there were pages of birds show up when I searched gift for cat lover!!!
I don’t have an Instagram account and would have liked to be updated on the October to December report. Please can Folksy be a bit more inclusive to those of us who don’t use social media.
The report was not at all useful. You missed not a lot .
Thanks Joy - but it’s the principle of the exclusion that matters as much as the content. Basic members have a tough enough time as it is!
I absolutely agree .cannot understand why it was hidden away there and unannounced as well.
I barely use it tbh Judy, and have actually been debating deleting it. I opened an account not long after I opened my shop, but I really hate creating ‘content’. And if you don’t use a smartphone it’s really hard to make anything that looks half decent on there anyway. Their new portrait mode has killed it for me, it’s 
trying to take portrait photos on an SLR!
I like the way I can create reels and auto post then through to my Facebook page and my story. I never do many words on reels though as the screens change too fast for the words to be read. IG is pictures, not text.
I have just done a search for ‘tote bag’ again to see if anythings changed from a few days ago when I did it. The 1st few rows of bags are all one seller and all the bags are ‘unavailable’ and when I go to the shop front there doesn’t seem to be anything in the shop! How on earth do these bags come up at the top of the search when they are not even available!
The same thing happens when i search Lino. The firdt two items are unavailable and the shop is empty
First page of a search for ‘ceramic vases’ had 24 (if I counted correctly) from one seller. But at least some of mine did appear in the search this time which is an improvement on earlier in the week.
As we said, we’ll be working on some of the search issues next week. The mention of sales wasn’t intended to suggest we’re happy with everything and will be ignoring the problems, but to reassure that we have been checking on buyer behaviour with search to make sure there are no worrying drops while we collect the data. We mentioned in a previous message that we were taking a couple of weeks to collect information - we haven’t actively been working on search during this time other than to fix a couple of bugs (as you all know, we’re a very small team and there have been other things we’ve had to work on), but if our stats showed a worrying change in buyer behaviour, this would have become the priority.
For the Christmas update - James’ updates do normally also go out in our Seller Tips & News emails, but unfortunately this one wasn’t ready in time to go out in the last email (as you can see, we’ve got a bit behind with them which is why they’re currently quarterly). I’ll pass on that you’d all appreciate the Christmas quarter being included alongside the most recent for the next email.
I really do appreciate your replies, and I acknowledge that the Folksy Team (from my personal experience) have done great work in supporting sellers. But if one of the problems (and one which is often mentioned) is that you are a small team, and if this is the root of the problem in operating Folksy, then are there any plans to increase the size and scope of the team? I notice from the blog that the current situation is that you aren’t looking to recruit staff at the moment and wondered why, if the problem is the size of the team?
The past two weeks sellers have been on the search more than ever before highlighting the issues and growing increasingly frustrated that nothing seems to be happening to improve it or to put right the massive errors that have been made. We believed that this was a priority and somewhere someone was working to restore a search facility that worked. We have spent a lot of time highlighting the ill effects the changes had and have asked continuously whether anything is being done without any reply from Folksy. Many of us have ,questioned whether anything had actually changed in this time. Now we receIve a reply which states “we havnt actually been working on search during this time other than to fix a couple of bugs” as Folksy is a small team. If the stats had showed a worrying change from the buyer it would have been a priority …I am absolutely gobsmacked to learn this has not been a priority but not surprised because clearly nothing has changed. I am fuming, I have wasted more time on this than I have actually put into working for my small business. The priority should be with the sellers not the buyers. This whole process has been about waiting for buyers feedback and stats. I completely understand Folksy is a small team but as there has been so much negative feedback from sellers on this it should have become a priority or at the very least we should have had an honest reply about not dealing with it at least a week ago that way I for one would not have wasted more time on it this past week.
Hear Hear Hear is my reply
It required no analysis or data collection to determine that the price labels are shocking, the lack of shcp name is abhorent, the missized boxes eye boggling, the limit of 7 pages is crippling and the gift guide in the middle is the icing on top of the mess. Those could and should all have been fixed ..while Doug thinks about out how to recode his search algorithm so it actually works.
It’s obvious you’re out of your depth and don’t know what you’re doing. That’s not a criticism. Just own it.
No successful business owner is an expert in every area, that’s simply not possible. What sets them apart is their ability to recognise that they have gaps in their capabilities and bring in people who fill them. They outsource the skills, knowledge, and experience they lack so they can focus on doing the things they DO know how to do.
A plumber doesn’t spend all day fixing pipes and then go home and make a mess of their books trying to do their accounts. Accounting is not their expertise - plumbing is. So they do the smart thing - they hire an accountant. They leave the numbers to someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
You need to do the same. Stop wasting time making costly mistakes - contract professionals to manage your IT. You also need to invest in some serious CX consulting to understand the psychology of ecommerce.
This site depends on you doing the smart thing.
Exactly, there is so much that is wrong with the changes, so why change in the first place . These are serious issues that could drive customers away, surely out of all the points mentioned folksy could at least sort one of the issues.. getting rid of the gift guide on every page would be a start! Or reistating the sellers shop name, but weeks go by and nothing is done.
Thank you @ChrisStoneArtist very much appreciated again, I will have a look.
It really is a shame, I remember when you were busy on here, 25:1 is a huge difference, I think if I were in your shoes i would concentrate on the one that is bringing the results in. I need to have a think and make some decisions when Whitby has been and gone. IF i want to continue with my business I might need to make some changes.
I think it’s fair to say we are even more annoyed now that we know this has not been a priority, which in turn means we as sellers are not the priority.
It also means you are not fulfilling your contract to us as sellers. Yes I am now fuming.
You should be able to reverse what was done. Backups are always taken before changes to ensure you can revert if need be. Nothing goes live until tested, tested and trialled on a test database. This is simple business procedure.
No maker goes into creating without testing what they are doing first is up to standard.
… and yet have not found the time to fix the bug that directs the user searching for my shop to the wrong shop.
I have been doing quite a lot of in person selling at markets etc (and have more lined up) and always tell people - just find me on Folksy. Mmm - well that doesnt work anymore, there is actually no way of finding me on Folksy. Frustrated does begin to describe it.