It's been a rough month for me on Etsy.
Don't get me wrong, I've been VERY fortunate to have found a niche, and the money I've made selling my 3D printed accessories has helped prevent some serious financial straits over the years, not to mention the great time I've had making stuff that people seem to enjoy.
While that remains true... Etsy as a platform has disappointed me to the point I cannot in good conscience remain there. The increasing number of "Alligator Alcatraz" listings was alarming, and though I had been communicating with Etsy support to flag and report those items, it doesn't seem like any of them have been removed. Then just this week, I started seeing "Alligator Auschwitz" merch. After reporting the item and shop multiple times, and sending the link directly to the support group, the only acknowledgement I got was the same canned response about "taking concerns seriously" and "here's the link for our anti-hate speech policy". A policy they have repeatedly chosen not to enforce.
I know there have been calls for a boycott, but there are few equivalent alternatives, and many Etsy sellers depend on their shop for their sole source of income. As one of the fortunate people who can afford to try alternatives, though, that's what I'll be doing - though it means a pretty sizable delay in getting to make any new stuff.
After doing some research, Storenvy (https://gwydionsforest.storenvy.com/) and BigCartel (https://gwydionsforest.bigcartel.com) seem like possible replacements, so I'll be working on moving all my listings to one or both of those (I'll try to document the process so I can hopefully make it easier for others to leave Etsy too).
As another gut punch, the 2nd season of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series dropped this month. Like many, I was a big fan of the graphic novels and still own a set, and the stories gave me a lot of inspiration for things to make. Things that just... feel wrong to profit from now. Before the first season came out, I had made my own versions of the "Key to Hell" and Dream's Ruby, but I took down those listings once the allegations against Gaiman were known. Still, I have several of each left over, so before I shut down my Etsy shop completely, I'm re-listing them, with all income (not just profits- the full amount) to be donated to RAINN.org, a charity that helps SA survivors. Once they're gone, they're gone. (I do plan on watching the rest of the series one time; a lot of other good people made excellent work around that before we knew what a predator Neil was, so I'm supporting the other artists who had their hearts broken)
