Well, I personally want to thank all of you that have been policing the newest shops (I know you shouldn’t have to) imagine the state of the place over the years if you hadn’t! Folksy has to be seen in a certain way or it ruins it for all of us.
I don’t see the problem with having a vetting process - most people wouldn’t think twice about waiting a few days for their application to be processed.
Well done for taking a stand though, let’s see if anything comes of it.
I went through a phase of not reporting because actually it’s not my job to do Folksy’s job for it. But when you see mass produced stuff contaminating the site it’s hard not to get angry and go into report mode. It’s about time Folksy either employed someone specifically to do this, or gave those on here who are willing to put in the time some discount on their accounts.
If we all keep doing Folksy’s job for them, they’re just going to let that happen as that’s more money in their coffers. It’s a no brainer.
And as the current business model appears to be to get as many sellers as possible and more specifically the Plus sellers there are going to be more and more sellers appearing on that list and looking down it at the moment well i quickly spot strung together beads, in your face copyright infringement…, links to sellers own shop, a shop with its IG page in Chinese …
I havent reported them of course 
…
Ok i get where everyone is coming from but a boycott of seller repotring is only going to mean lots of new undesirable shops can set up which is exactly the reverse of what we all want.
(Also I dont think ‘strung together beads’ is against the rules. Single bought in pendants on a chain are.)
Problem is Helen things need to get worse before they get better. If we continue to report nothing will change.
Do you ever when doing your weekly supermarket shop check the shelves for broken packages, out of date stock… things which makes the supermarket not look good. ??
Well I don’t. It’s not my job, it is the job of the supermarket. I am their customer, I pay them to keep my supermarket in good condition.
If theyre not reported, they may not be removed by admin. Maybe there’s fewer than it feels, maybe there will be dozens after a month. I guess we could look at it as research. If we dont report, are they even spotted? If not, it might prove the need for somebody on the PAID folksy staff to actually take on this task. Or prove that it’s not that big of a deal after all.
But they should be spotted. What happens when reported items are no longer removed, as on Etsy? Will you still waste your time then? When a place makes bold claims that all the goods are handmade only then it’s up to the company to ensure this is so.
Yes, they SHOULD be spotted. I can only guess that most of the spotting has been done by other sellers, not the folksy team who are very busy elsewhere.
If other sellers stop spotting on behalf of folksy, what will happen?
Spam shops making up the majority of new sellers probably wont go unnoticed. So what will admin choose to do? Ignore them? Start monitoring them themselves? Set up a verification process for new sellers? Ask us to help?
I wonder what @FolksyStaff feel about this? Do they already have things in place to check? What happens when a shop is reported? Is there a policy in place to ensure that Folksy is kept handmade and free from scammers?
If left unchecked, will likely turn customers away if they get a bad order.
Maybe Folksy can take on some ideas from shop owners such as some simple vetting system that could be manageable for them. Just having that extra step involved may be enough for some scammers/ mass produced item shops not to bother.
I agree 100% that it would be good for Folksy to have a pre-opening vetting procedure, however, Folksy have a limited number of staff and while some are obvious, it can take a ‘trained eye’ in a particular craft to spot an imposter - they can’t be good at everything.
For example, I could identify a mass produced or otherwise dodgy lamp at 100 paces but I wouldn’t necessarily (or reliably) spot a mass produced necklace, quilt or teddy bear where people in that particular craft would be straight onto it.
So, yes please, check shops before they open but I think there will always be a need for the occasional ‘citizen’s arrest’ here too…
Well to be honest I don’t think anything is going to change by not reporting because Folksy obviously don’t LOOK at the shops before they accept the shops on the platform anyway. I get the impression that as long as money is handed over they accept anything. They have always removed/ stopped the sellers selling that I have reported when I go back and look after a couple of days or so BUT it really shouldn’t happen in the first place! The damage is done because potential customers are exposed to mass produced items when they come on here or extortionately priced watches that are quite obviously not a craft item and they will have the impression that it is not a place selling genuine hand crafted items and never return and that’s why I report them.
I do occasionally remember and check out the newest sellers and have reported a few but don’t do it on a regular day or days as some of you do, I have to admit while some are very obvious I often end up unsure then spend ages looking for similar images or for the potential offending shop on google so it can take some time, but more often than not I really don’t know, end up feeling guilty that I may be reporting someone that is legitimate so walk away from it.
I think if shops were vetted it would save a lot of this for both sellers and Folksy admin, apparantly it only takes 3 minutes to set up a Folksy shop so it’s very easy for rogue sellers to sneak through without hassle but if they were vetted first the majority of them wouldn’t follow the process through.
If I was applying to sell on an online platform and had to be checked first and perhaps send images of examples of my work it would feel more professional and I would feel i had earnt my place on the site, I certainly wouldn’t be put off opening a shop by doing so.
I think you have put into words what a lot of us think. Well said Debby. x
Ps Just a little note to say that I do not believe at any point anyone has even hinted, mentioned or suggested we want to flood Folksy with undesirable things.
It is pretty clear in fact that that is the very opposite of our requests.
We are instead simply asking that they should, need to be, stopped before they appear.
We all love Folksy and we want Folksy to flourish. 
Thank you to everyone who uses the feature to report items, especially when it includes links if you’ve seen the items are resold from other sites or there’s information that shows the seller is unsuitable for Folksy, as this does speed up the process which means we’re able to deal with them quicker, giving the team more time to focus on other areas such as improving Folksy for both buyers and sellers and trying to get you all more sales.
The team do make checks for unsuitable items/sellers, but as we have various tasks to get through, there will often be times when a new seller has already been reported before we get chance to do this, and unfortunately there may be times when some slip through the net for longer.
We certainly don’t expect sellers to spend every day going through all the shops checking for offending items, but imagine this to be used more to report something if you come across it during your regular use of Folksy.
For anyone that does decide to spend their own time doing this - thank you!
If anyone decides they no longer want to report items that’s absolutely fine, however telling those that do want to report items that they shouldn’t, in the hope that Folksy will become flooded with unsuitable items is attempting to bring Folksy into disrepute, which is against the terms of our forum. Because of this, we’re going to have to close this thread.