This team is dying if not already dead

[#1]

12 stickies half of which are stale as month old bread
Several members are serial spammers and nothing is done
Almost no moderation
60,000+ members but new QUALITY threads are more and more infrequent. With so many members if even 1% were active every month you'd see 600 new threads a month. It's no where near that.
Too many "critique my shop" threads.
Too few thank yous when people do try to help.
Pretty disgraceful.

[Plektra]

Hi Maria! Long time, no 'see'...

You changed your profile photo again...I changed mine too...the little angel (my avatar photo) is out of this site now....When I was forced to close my shop, I deleted as much as possible and took my little anger with me!

[MariasWorkshop]

Hi Minerva!

I hope you are doing well. I was sorry to see your shop close. Good luck to you in all your endeavors!

[fishcouple]

Hi Minerva and Maria --

You all changed your profile photos and I couldn't recognize you gals! It's nice to "see" you here again.

I joined this team when this team was very active and I was just started then. So many nice advice and it was so fun to interact. I'd come visit couple of time a day to just read those conversations. Sadly, some of the active members left and no one is monitoring spams anymore. Nowadays, I visit forum like I did with this team before.

I am glad to see Richard is still there for the members, giving excellent critiques and advice. Learned a lot from you! I truly appreciate all the tips and advice that I've learned from Richard and many members.

[Plektra]

Thank you, Maria!

Fishcouple....hello!

Does anyone remember the Business Topics team? That was purely for business topics. I think there were some shop critiques...or not? I can't remember.

The Success Team was still around, but no spam and promotions. Then the Business Topics team got merged to this one. What a shame! And this team now has 62,000 members!

[AllThingzSewn]

I have heard several say how sad it it that this is dying or dead. So what kind of action is need to be taken to get some enthusiasm going again and make it a place of action and information to help eachother.

Richard, you seem to be the center of the hub of those remaining here. What is your advice for this to happen or do you deem it worthy of the work. At this point I honestly have no clue what amount of work is needed or required.

Is anyone even interested in trying?

[LeedsRadio]

Tonia,
The critical thing is that consistent moderation has to come back and rules enforced. There are several members who are serial spammers. Why haven't they been kicked? Same thing for the people who ask for shop criticism or advice who really only want to build some traffic. And why when an offender's post is removed why is their name and thumbnail still up? They're still getting some of advertising they want

Then the stickies need to be culled. "What are your goals for 2016?", "Join us for Etsy crafts party 2016". This is just embarrassing.

Eliminate redundant posts. Keep people on topic.

[Plektra]

Also, most members have not participated or contributed in years or ever. Maybe there should be some screening? Some members don't even have a shop here.

[MariasWorkshop]

Hello, Fishcouple! So nice to see you here.

[fishcouple]

Maria -- Like your new picture! :)

Richard -- Wise words, as always! :)

As my shop has been fairly busy, I no longer have time to provide critiques to other shops but love to share some updates, discussions or just chat a bit with the members who participate.

[AllThingzSewn]

Am I to assume that nothing is going to change and I should look for another team? I don't mind being a part of a change, but I have no idea of what I could do. Thank you for getting back to me.

[MariasWorkshop]

Tonia, have you tried the forums? The "Discussions" group in particular? I check that group often and I have seen good advice given and a lot of information being exchanged.

https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions

[maydaylabels]

We don't run this team so we cannot delete promo posts or promoting sellers from the team.

[BlackCatStudio98]

I too have drifted away from this team. Every time I come here it's mostly "critique my shop" posts. It's hard to find time to critique an entire shop. I think it is more reasonable for people to ask one or two specific questions rather than expect a critique of their entire shop all at once.

When I do come here it's to look for posts about all the changes with Etsy, but there don't seem to be many posts on that subject. I guess I'll try the forums as well.

[StuckOnSilver]

When I see critique my shop requests I try to mention one thing--others can chime in anytime!!

All the best, everyone!

[AdriLunaStudio]

I think instead of complaining why not volunteer to be a mod and get this team back into shape? I have been a mod before and it takes a good chunk of time on an active team, so much that I had to give it up.

Any volunteers? Want to start a new team of active people? Let's work together and share our knowledge!

[RomaMiaTradingCo]

@adri, I tried volunteering a long time ago to be a moderator on this team (way back when I was more active on Etsy). I was unfortunately told no because this team needs to be run by people who work at Etsy.

I would love to see this team be run more by the sellers who able and willing too.