Items still miscatagorized as 'Designed by' instead of 'Made by'... Anyone have any new insights?

[FirstCampaign]

With the new creativity standards, all my 100% handmade items are still incorrectly showing as "Designed by" instead of "Made by". I'm wondering if anyone has any new updates or insight on this? Or maybe just a roll call for everyone still experiencing this? It doesn't seem like it has a big impact now (worried it might affect search in the future tho?), but it does seem a little strange because it was such a huge rollout... I mean there was a video about it from the Etsy CEO and everything!

I have an older thread on this here : https://community.etsy.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Items-automatically-categorized-as-Designed-by-when-t...

[JustMeToo]

@FirstCampaign   I had the same problem with a couple of my listings.  I went into edit and made sure they said "I did" for who made it.  That corrected the problem, and now they say Made by.  However, if your items are POD, then the category is correct the way it is. 

[FirstCampaign]

Oh I'm so glad it worked for you! Sadly, no matter what I do, it seems like I can't fix it. I even tried listing a new item. It showed correctly as "Made by" at first, but then I noticed the next day it had reverted to "Designed by" on its own. None of my items are POD except my mugs.

[JustMeToo]

@FirstCampaign  Yes, it was the mugs I was referring to. Make sure you try it on the things you made.  Perhaps try changing the category. The POD won't work.  Good luck!

[FirstCampaign]

Thank you! I did try, but no luck yet. None of my items are POD except my mugs. I cut, sew, hand embroider, and paint everything else.

[JustMeToo]

@FirstCampaign   Keep in mind that the site is as slow as molasses.  If you tried the "I did" and changed the category, it might show up in an hour or two.  

[CanningCrafts]

I had a few items listed as "Designed By" that were identical to other items in my shop that were listed as "Made By"... with the ONLY difference being the Category. So once I switched the category, the listings updated to "Made by". But if you aren't actually producing the items yourself & have a production partner, I think it will get the Designed By tag.

[FirstCampaign]

Yes, it's the items that I produce and make from scratch that I am worried about. These items are still showing as "Designed by" no matter what I do. Sigh~~~ :')

[DudleyandSprout]

Your mugs aren't made by you, they may be your designs but you are listing a production partner.  So they aren' t "made by you."  If you are personally hand embroidering the other items, then they would qualify as "made by you."

[FirstCampaign]

Thank you! Yes, I completely understand this categorization on my mugs. Since I design them and they are printed by someone else, this is definitely the right category. But my stockings, bookmarks, scrunchies, etc that are all made by hand (I cut out the fabric, do the embroidery by hand, sew them together, and paint by hand) should fall under the "Made by" category, should they not?

[Hertfordweaver]

I looked at the blue scrunchie and it looks like it would be all hand made but it does say designed by you. It is an Etsy Pick, so that's good. Try going into the core details and make sure it says you made it. I wonder if the POD somehow effects the rest of the shop items regardless.

[FirstCampaign]

Oh thank you for taking a look! In the older thread I had, a lot of people were saying they have no production partners at all for their shop and were still experiencing the same issue. I have tried editing the new 'Core details' section to no avail... Sigh

[Hertfordweaver]

FirstCampaign made this item with help from
Makes my blank napkins! :), China

This is a note at the bottom of the listing for a napkin. Is that suppose to be there?

[CarpetCollectionAU]

I think the same as @Hertfordweaver 

You are listing a Production Partner for your "blank" napkins etc and that is overriding your "I made it" designation.

FirstCampaign made this item with help from

Makes my blank napkins! :), China

You are altering / embellishing a ready made product so I do not believe that your "supplier" is a "production partner"

An analogy may be the "charm on a chain" jewellery situation.

I do not believe makers of Jewellery assembled from manufactured components are required to disclose suppliers of components.

Similarly, I do not believe it is necesary for you to disclose the supplier of the items you embellish / alter. After all. a furniture maker does not need to disclose the suppliers of wood, hardware, varnish or glue etc, They are turning components into a different item.

[StinsonPaperCompany]

No new insights, unfortunately, and I'm still experiencing it. All of my 100% handmade items that I edited to use the personalization box for a third variation changed from Made by to Designed by. The very same products without the personalization box still say Made by. All the questions in the Core Details are answered exactly the same, because I make the products exactly the same. It's frustrating for a number of reasons, but like you I'm most worried about getting filtered out of a handmade search. Things are tough enough already.

I've thought about filling out the survey again, but that's 15 minutes I could spend doing something else that would be more productive and less frustrating.

[BowValleyStraws]

I had some that were showing as "designed by" and I tested a whole bunch of different things over a few days, in the end I discovered what worked for me was I had to just remove the "personalization" box and then wait 24-48 hours until it updated to "made by" as it should be. I was able to add that box back afterwards and it stayed as made by.

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@BowValleyStraws That is very helpful information. The "Personalisation Box" has caused issues in the past, but it may be that, since the revised "Creativity Standards" were implemented, whatever caused the issues with "Personalisation" is now carrying over to other functions of the platform?

[WitticismsRus]

I have the same issue in my other shop where everything is habdmade by my old aching hands. I tried every possible fix and nothing worked. They all still say designed by which is very frustrating. I have a bunch of new handmade to list once I finish taking photos so will see what happens with those when I list them. I'm going to do brand new listings vs copying an existing one thats wrongly classified in hopes that they are categorized correctly as handmade by me. I'll try to remember to come back and let you know if it works.  

[GrainGrooveWoodworks]

Just wondering if anyone found a fix for this? I have multiple listings showing designed by when I 100% make them by hand. I have other identical items in different wood types showing correctly but of course the two that are wrong are Bestsellers and it seems to be lowering my sales on these two listings!

[LostCoastPebbles]

We are in a similar situation, but stuck in “Hand Picked” implying our gemstone cabochons, cut by us for jewelers, are not hand made. Our gemstones are not rocks that we picked up off the forest floor like moss, pinecones, and twigs, and they are not geodes and polished rock specimens. Many other gem cutters here in the US are in the same erroneous category. Yes, we are in supply category but that is where we are supposed to be. We have followed every suggestion offered by other Etsy sellers but nothing has worked so far. If we move our shop items into finished goods, we will be lost in the search with millions of other items that don’t relate, and the new form attributes for finished goods do not work for our gemstones in the supply category. The core criteria for “hand made from scratch by us” are being overridden by something and we can’t figure out what it is. We do all the work ourselves, no production partners. Tried brand new listings instead of renewing, but the entire shop is still stuck in the wrong category. Worried that in the future this will affect where we show up in searches if they start using the four new criteria as main search categories, if they haven’t already done this. We belong in Hand Made. Just a pass through our images by an Etsy bot should show Etsy that our items are not raw materials. And speaking of bots and images, Etsy bots said 11 of our first images are bad and we are “at risk”, threatening to send us to the bottom of the search barrel. They missed two that do need improvement, but the others are perfect. Crazy! Don’t see how we could be any lower in search anyway, with the broken search engine and being in the wrong category. Sales are perking along, though mostly repeat sales from our happy jewelers.

[FirstCampaign]

I am so sorry this is happening to you! I haven't found a fix yet... I even listed a new item and it correctly showed as "Made by" at first and then reverted to "Designed by" the next day. I haven't had any luck with any of the tips folks suggested. I talked to Etsy support again yesterday and all they could say was that they were aware of the issue and that in the future there will be a way to change it. No timeline or indication how tho :')

[LostCoastPebbles]

We finally just accidentally found a way to at least get into the Handmade category for our hand cut (by us) gemstones. For our gemstone cabochons, when we type in the word "gemstone" in the category box, we get the popup menu with what Etsy feels is the appropriate categories for us. At the bottom of the popup menu, hidden away, are other choices that do not show up unless you scroll down some more. Low and behold this is what shows up: 

“Craft Supplies & Tools Beads, Gems & Cabochons, Cabochons"       This puts the item in Handmade category finally. However, if we type in "gemstone" and pick the first and most obvious item at the top of the menu, i.e. "Gemstone" we get: "Craft Supplies & Tools Beads, Gems & Cabochons, Gemstones.  This selection puts our items in "Hand Picked By"

Why this is so, is beyond logic but at least it worked for gemstones, a switch of two word positions by Etsy! Who knows what lurks below in other people's menus. Tonight the scroll bars on the popup menu would not work or let us change categories using Safari so we switched to Firefox and it worked. We never had issues with the old form. We have no idea if this hidden menu item problem applies to other categories.