Issue with Links in Messages - Is Anyone Else Experiencing This?

[DIYPaperBoutique]

Hi everyone!

We're running a digital template shop and sometimes have to send access links to Templett (an Etsy Partner) for our customers. However, we've noticed that while the links appear valid and clickable when we click on them, they just lead to a blank page. The HTML Source Code reads:

target='_blank' href=\"http:\/\/www.templett.com\/design\" target=\"_blank\">www.templett.com\/design<\/a>"

so target='_blank' seems to cause the issue.

We're concerned this might also affect our customers' experience if they can't access their links either.

Has anyone else encountered this? Could it be a glitch, or is it something Etsy is doing to keep traffic on the platform? Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your input!

[michellepatterns]

It could be a glitch or it could be another way etsy is trying to stop scammers.  

New shops in particular are bombarded by scammers and they try to lure the seller elsewhere through links. I can see how preventing links from being clickable or simply making them not work could be a way to slow the scams down.  

[DIYPaperBoutique]

Thank you, Michelle!

I appreciate your input, but I feel that might be a bit short-sighted. Restricting links like that could make us appear as scammers, which is definitely not the case—especially since we’ve been around for a while with over 200,000 sales!

I totally understand if links were blocked in messages sent to us, but this feels a bit different. Would love to hear others' thoughts on this!

Thanks again!

[BagmakerSupply]

@DIYPaperBoutique: The target=\"_blank\"  reference only means open link in a new tab. How Etsy Messaging handles that is an unknown particularly since what you pasted is missing at the very least the opening anchor '<a' tag . Overall what you pasted seems malformed.

[DIYPaperBoutique]

Thank you! That makes sense - what happens is that Etsy opens a widget when a user clicks a link showing a warning message that they are about to leave Etsy. When the user clicks "Leave" they are redirected to a blank page. I can't see the source code for that, it's probably a Java script.