Lost star seller status due to spam message

[UnblessedTees]

I thought it was strange that I suddenly lost my Star Seller status this month, as I didn't remember having any issues or less than 5-star reviews, etc.  Upon further research, I found out that it was because I did not respond to a message, something very much not like me. So I went to my messages & found the message in question. It was a spam message from some person trying to get me to buy her page management system, or some such nonsense. How do you even dispute this? Why is it incumbent upon me to screen out spammers on this site, let alone be penalized for not immediately reporting the message, but rather deleting it?

[NanaLetha]

Why didn't you mark as spam? It only takes a second to do so.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

We never had a real reason to, before Star Seller.

[bradgoodell]

Mark is as Spam now.  It won't go back and change what you did last month, but in 48 hours it should change it so it doesn't count next month. 

[AAANativeArts]

You have two choices: 1)answer the message at least once, or 2)Mark it as Spam. This is clearly stated in the rules.

[MaldosQuest]

Wow, didn't realize we have to answer all of them.  I've also deleted some that look suspicious.  This really is confusing since everything that comes through these days looks like spam.  There really is no easy way to figure out if it's real or not. Just today, I realized that a message I marked as spam was probably someone who favored my product.  Confusing!!!

[BagmakerSupply]

@MaldosQuest: "Wow, didn't realize we have to answer all of them." The Star Seller metric is NOT all new messages but only the first message of all new incoming threads. You do not need to answer all new incoming threads - just be sure to either reply to or mark as spam each one within 24 hours. You can delete it after you have done one or the other.

[BagmakerSupply]

@UnblessedTees: "How do you even dispute this?" In Etsy's opinion there is nothing to dispute. The Star Seller metric for messages is very simplistic and binary - either you followed their rules or you did not.

"Why is it incumbent upon me to screen out spammers on this site ..." Because Etsy says so. As it says right on your Star Seller page and elsewhere, you need to reply to (or mark as SPAM) the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours. It does not matter who sent it, the subject matter, if it is a duplicate or blank or anything else.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

You have to answer each new message thread, OR mark as spam.

Very simple and straight forwards.

...

If you mark it as spam now, it will not count when etsy does the next calculation at the end of the month

[TBQSC · Accepted solution]

Set up an auto reply message ... it works for handling such pesky messaging issues related to Star Seller!