Hand Made Jewelery Making Vendors Venting About Etsy Server Crash

Has Etsy died? This is what many jewelry crafters have been asking at the popular "Etsy.com-love" Flickr discussion group:

Both buyers and handmade sellers at www.etsy.com stores had big problems gaining access to their favorite online shops over the last few days. And the internet has been buzzing as a result… at least it has been for the arts and crafts folks.

By the way, for anyone who does not know about etsy.com, it is an E-bay type of website where Indie artists and crafters can set up stores and sell their handmade jewelry, polymer clay beads, hand knit scarves and other handcrafted goods.

Anyway, here's a few of the news titles that have been popping up in Google over the last few days:

• Etsy DNS Changes – Venting About Etsy
• Flickr: Discussing How Etsy Has Died
• Starving Artists > Etsy Problems
• Is etsy.com down?

So what happened? Well, to quote Rokali, the editor of the Unofficial Etsy News:

… users of some ISP’s have been reporting connectivity issues to Etsy which are caused by Etsy moving their servers to a new data center. (These are the physical location of the server machines.)

Basically they moved some computer stuff and lots of people couldn't get in any more. This caused big problems for sellers who really depend on their income from selling on etsy. Also for the buyers coming to Etsy, especially those first time buyers… getting an error page when they arrive may prevent them from ever coming back.

However, what everyone seems to be most upset about other than the loss of sales and the frustration, is the fact that they weren't communicated with very well from Etsy Corporate. Although they were given some solutions to the issue, many sellers feel they should have been warned so they could prepare. Or at least not be freaked out by it when it happened.

Although the problems are starting to correct and many people are back online with their accounts, there are still some who continue to have issues. If this is you, Etsy corporate has provided some fix suggestions at their etsyblog.

If you would are one of the many hand made jewelery making shop owners at Etsy and would like to vent, feel free to get it off your chest in the comments section below. What do you think they should do next time to prevent this kind of confusion?