I am getting fed up starting a thread then being spoken to as if I do not have 50 + years of experience not to mention my qualifications plus the work I did before.
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There are a few at the moment but they dont stay up for more than a few hours as I and many others check the list daily and report any we find. They are taken down within a day. We have pretty effective community moderation already.
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And can i suggest you change the thread category to the Folksy Sellers Area?
Also reconsider the title. It doesnt reflect the welcoming Folksy attitute I’ve been telling everyone about.
There are plenty of lovely new shops come across from E*** and its not fair to imply they are all the same.
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I would not of opened my shop if it had to be vetted and I’m not selling anything I should not be.
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Any fair I have booked in the last 50 years have had to submit samples to ensure they fit the ethos of handmade and are of a certain standard. The Guild of Craftsmen is the same. Any decent event vet first, if they do not do. It proceed with my application.
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What have you been told off about?
I put a suggestion about all the rogue sellers joining up that shops should be vetted, apparently not liked as not the friendly way of Folksy. Quite acceptable that it goes the way of Fleabay though shows the tat shops on the front page not a good look.
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Not wanting to prolong this, but as you see from my reply my issue was not with vetting it was the title and wording of the original post (now changed thank you) which implied all the new E shops were somehow lowering standards here, which is not true.
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I agree, there are many that sell mass produced at stupidly low prices, anyone who is genuine knows you cannot possibly produce items so cheaply if they are handmade.
You genuine makers and I know of many here at Folksy, I can see by your products and sensible pricing who you are and I salute your efforts. The fakers I spit on, a quick profit and to hell with those trying to make ends meet is all they care.
So this is where I stand, tell me off or worse , vetting is the only way forward and the real Mc Coy will survive the vetting and the dross will fall by the wayside.
Carolee crafts I salute you also for your stand against the fakers.
Totally agree that we need to maintain a stand against mass production and fakes!
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Vetting was what I originally suggested. As said any decent fairs are juried or ask to see samples etc. I expect a selling site for genuine handmade to be the same. If shops are vetted before going live it keeps the standard, if they will not wait for this process why not? New junk shops already cheapen what we do being on the front page for an hour let alone longer.
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I used to sell at Country Markets… which was the selling side of Women’s Institute which had to break off from them and become a separate entity because of charitable status rules. 90% of the things sold were sold by the makers because they needed to sell them to make room / get money for more material, wool . No profit involved. I sometimes had to have my beautiful glass displayed on a stall with peach crocheted baby blankets and paisley pegbags hanging all over them. I sometimes felt I was attending a Jumble Sale or at the very least, a church Bring and Buy.
There are times (many many recently) when I look at the New Sellers page (and remember these pages are ALL sellers with the newest at the front and the oldest at the end) when I think I must be back in my Country Market with the things I see offered, uncurated, for sale here… and I despair.
100% with you on this Caroline 
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I also think some kind of vetting before setting up a shop would be a good idea, obviously i have no idea how this would be done or how much workload it would involve to know whether it can be done but still worth a mention. Hopefully it would put an end to rogue shops and help to keep the standard of shops higher on Folksy at the same time.
Admin are very good at taking shops down very quickly that are selling items that do no comply but if there was a way to prevent them setting up in the first place that would be even better.
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There are several selling sites that insist on seeing your work via photos before they take you on.
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I remember applying for a craft fair a few years ago, I had to upload photos of my bears and fill in quite a lot of paperwork before they would consider me. I did get a place but had to withdraw as I didn’t have any stock by the time the event came around in the November. I had visited the fair the previous year and the standard of work was very good compared to other craft fairs I had been to.
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I suggested that a team of experienced plus sellers for perhaps a reduction in the annual fee could be set up to vet the new shops on application. Release if okay or pass back to Folksy if suspect etc. places such as NOTH’s are vetted first. Yes would put some crafters off but why? I would have understood it was a process and if nothing to hide would be happy to be vetted.
Most of the US fairs are juried, I applied for a table at the American Women’s Philanthropic Association in Cobham, being held at the American school there. Got accepted but then went down with bronchitis and could not make it. You had to submit photos, then samples. Applications took about 3 months. Not a problem.
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Yes a good idea Carol, I do agree vetting would be a good idea and would stop rogue shops setting up as well, perhaps it’s too easy to set up so there is nothing to deter them. I dont think it should be the job of sellers although I suppose that way it wouldn’t impact on Folksy’s time. I think anything would be better than nothing.
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I agree Debby but as made clear takes too much time as you said better than nothing.
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It is a difficult area. On the positive side I like the fact that Folksy is accessible for newer creatives to start online selling (we all have to start somewhere) BUT at the same time I do think we have to have some curation that promotes and showcases the best work of talented professional sellers - after all we want to make sure customers can quickly locate genuine handmade items of ‘quality’ that they would really like to buy and not have to wade through too much ‘dross’ to find the ‘gems’.
It must be difficult for Folksy staff to keep up - all we can do is help them by keeping an eye out for blatant infringements of the ‘handmade’ rule and report any dodgy shops.
As for policing professional standards of production and artistic merit … Ouch! that is a very touchy subject.
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I hate to say it but I agree about the policing thing. It think that should be confined strictly to Folksy admin to do this and not any of us sellers, no matter how professional and experienced we are. It’s not for us to judge whether someone else’s work is fit to be sold on here even if we suspect it’s not.
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