Now, I know I blogged the return of the
giveaway this week and I promise it will be up at LUNCH TIME, but in case you are like me and usually out of the loop
(and not like the amazing Katie of
BlackStar and
Sherry Truitt who stay on top of these things)
- there was a bit of controversy stirred up over the last few days over at Etsy. And since many of my blog readers are Etsy sellers I thought it important enough to report on.
(stuffs pencil behind ear and types furiously while swigging back can of Bud and stuffing down a pastrami on rye)It started with Blog Action Day which is an annual event asking bloggers to spend one day a year (Oct. 15th) blogging about the same important issue.
This year's issue was drinking water (team
Ecoetsy had a great post by Lorigami on the
correct topic actually) and Etsy's blog The Storque decided to join in on the action with a Blog Action Day
post.
Now, there were problems with this post from the very beginning because the post supporting
Blog Action Day, the point of which is every concerned blogger blogging about the same thing on the same day, was not about drinking water at all. It was about coral.
So, OK, I guess that was a mistake that was easy to make because ... well, coral lives in the water ... and uh, I guess because you might have to, I don't know, read what something is about before you sign on or google blog action day or something like that ...
(or maybe there is some kind of connection between coral jewelry and clean drinking water for the billions of people that don't have it that I am missing somehow - I am not really a scientist after all, I just play one on the internet)Now the 2nd mistake was that this blog post was not written by an Etsy staffer or even an Etsy shop owner, but a designer of jewelry for mass markets like Target and Nordstorms, and every market in between,
jewelry made with diamonds and silver and gemstones (none of which are without controversy) and possibly in places this designer would not likely admit to, who may have had intentions beyond self promotion (although a nice link to her off-Etsy business is quite prominent) this we will never know - but whose very presence on the Etsy blog which represents Etsy's incredible community that includes thousands of "handmade"
(as in made with their own two hands and not hundreds of other people's hands)jewelry designer/makers, was enough to incite a near riot ....
(now Etsy sellers are way too scattered to actually take to the streets and picket the Etsy Brooklyn headquarters, but many took to their keyboards for a kind of cyber riot, the kind that unfortunately doesn't last long in the forums before things get shut down - picture cyber police with night sticks and cans of mace or just an Etsy staffer with a "close thread" button)Truly, I am not so concerned for the Etsy sellers who sell coral jewelry (this post was about the important issue of the impact of live coral harvesting on the ocean's eco system) because I think people who buy coral jewelry will continue to do so.
The truth of the matter about coral is that coral is not a gemstone, but a
living organism that the World Wildlife Fund has on its top ten list of endangered species (according to Treehugger)
and jewelry makers should be aware of this and know that they are working with suppliers of dead coral - I don't have any idea how they are supposed to "know" this, so would just avoid it myself, but I'm sure there are conscientious sellers out there who know what they are getting, I hope.
How this will be spun (or ignored) by Etsy is anybody's guess - but it kind of felt like I was working for Ford and the execs brought over somebody from Chevy to blast me about the problems with my wing nuts
(do cars use wing nuts? for some reason Etsy and wing nuts just seem to go together in my head today)and I knew Chevy had problems with their bolts, screws and seat cushions ...
and they were Chevy for pete's sake ....
I know this isn't the best analogy, but you get the idea and I know Etsy is not my boyfriend caught making out with the head cheerleader behind my back (the cheerleader he had always proclaimed not his type) but why does it feel like I've been cheated on somehow .... and need an apology and a box of really good chocolate and an explanation of Etsy's TOU.
