I find it ironic. . .

 I have been on etsy for just over 5 years and in those years I have watched them ignore sellers opinions and input, even when they send out surveys and ask for seller opinions they do the opposite. 😕  

That may sound like a joke but it's not.  I have seen many in the forums complain that the surveys don't work, won't open, tells them they already completed it when they haven't.  When the discussions happen about surveys everyone tries to interpret the questions and guess what they are up to and regularly thanks to group-think we get pretty close.  However, in the discussion of fees no one wanted them applied to shipping but they did it, in the discussion of advertising fees no one wanted it to be mandatory or auto-enrollment, or more than 8% then the program came out with auto-enrollment, mandatory for sellers over $10,000 and 12% 15% so basically the exact opposite.  This is not new it's a pattern I've noticed.

For years many sellers have been asking for more photo slots, the ability to do videos in listings, more options/variations for listings, better support, marketing stuff, control of resellers and infringers, all sorts of things.  Most of those things have not materialized, they did increase the # of photos from 5 to 10 a few years ago but until this year that's about it.

So this spring when goimagine was created and started its beta life listening to the sellers. . .vetting for handmade, not allowing infringement, unlimited photos in listings, unlimited options and variations, fast and responsive support with actual answers, reasonable fees, no mandatory marketing fees, promising to give to charities, supporting sellers and offering marketing materials.  I am sure it got etsy's attention.  I know for a fact that it did because there was a forum thread where someone said they had signed up and were encouraging others to take a chance on goimagine.  That thread had over 400 replies when it got shut down by an admin, it didn't get closed right away but eventually "While it’s ok to discuss alternate venue and their relationship to Etsy, we ask that you not post direct sign up links, private team invites from off-Etsy sites, promoting your off site listing’s (with direct links), or support style discussions that do not pertain to selling on Etsy." 

I know it had to bother them to have the open discussion and direct comparison with goimagine (and realize they were going to lose) because in the 5+ years I've been reading those forums the number of discussions about ebay, amazon handmade, mercari, artyeah, and every other possible place have been pretty numerous but the comments have always been etsy sellers telling each other that etsy was better than all those other places and those discussions were rarely if ever closed. 😏

In the meantime, in the few months that goimagine has existed and etsy has been aware of it, etsy sudden released videos for listings, and special etsy packing tape, both things that goimagine has. 😏

Oh I'm sure those facts and their ironic timing have absolutely no relation. Now if only we could convince etsy to give their profits to charity. 😁