Many posts about this glitch - I haven't seen this in my shop yet, but in doing a bit of research on shops with listings affected, I've found the following -
* These listings show in shop search, as well as Etsy search - so they are not "deindexed" in the the usual sense.
*Once clicked on the thumbnail, it shows the error message "Sorry, this item is unavailable in your region"
* All the ones affected that I checked still show in the mobile Buyer App (the orange icon) - and you can click to view, add to cart, and (presumably) purchase.
* The glitch / bug applies to the mobile browser / desktop site - still shows "not available" when trying to view.
There doesn't seem to be anything Sellers can do, but if you happen to get a message from a Customer who intends to purchase, ask them to fave the item, and try viewing it on the mobile Buyer app.
Any other observations, comments from chat or support?
Results of my testing..... It appears to have something to do with thumbnails and body detention which it does not like. Zooming in via adjust thumbnail does not work, you have to actually crop the thumbnail image to remove as much 'body shape' as possible. Body shapes can exist in other images, but not the thumbnail. This explains the issues with so many items it swimwear/lingerie categories. If you change the thumbnail it should work
This makes sense. It was happening to a pair of mushroom earrings I had made. My neck showing in the photo definitely had curve appeal, although it was not sexual. My neck and jaw together could have tricked AI into thinking high midriff and slight underboob. I will try to edit it and see what happens thank you.
Thank you for this! I cropped a thumbnail to remove my mannequin's cleavage and now the listing is viewable again.
When I search for an item on the desktop I notice a lot of listings are only showing the keywords I searched for, when I click the listing it shows the full title that the owner put in their listings, maybe they're rolling out new code and they're experiencing a glitch or code break, and cuasing out listings to be restricted.
Could be they are rolling out new code. So frustrating and with so many people affected why aren't they communicating with us? At the very least let us know they are working on a fix.
Well, same issue for 2 books in my other shop with Nude in the tags.
For one book, I replaced the Nude tag with something generic and 5 minutes later the book came back 'available in my region'. In this case it's a pulp fiction book and not by any means mature by etsy guideline standards as the woman on the cover is strategically covered. Anyhow, 15 minutes later, I went back and changed the tag back to 'nude woman cover art' and it is still 'available in my region'. For now. Who knows about tomorrow. But I'll check and report back.
Another book, a Lucian Freud art book with a nude painting on the cover... I just removed the word nude from tags and it's back and 'available in my region' again... can't be bothered to fight that one.
Using words like Nude can get listings shadowbanned as well. Which was also the case for both of the above books.
Who knows what other surprise hidden listings we have in our shops... Do e have to physically click on each one every day to see if they can be seen? Or search for them.
But I am not even able to access my own listing in order to change it.
@MyOverstuffedAttic have you tried through Shop Manager - Listings? The gear icon should be available to try deactivating or copying. Clicking on it should put you right in edit mode. This is NOT through your shop view.
Maybe this is some kind of "soft block" on listings the bot programs may see as inappropriate, or contains keywords like nude or sexy.
So far, I've seen nude (vintage) Barbies, other doll-related items, vintage book covers with shirtless men, vintage posters and art with semi-nudes, even exotic dancewear shown on mannequins.
Anyone seeing unavailable listings that are completely innocuous?
* See @vintageNCtreasures post about the new rules.
Yes I have a listing called Movie Date? No swimsuits no nudes etc. Cannot imagine why.
@PillowDetails: Two out of 176 of my listings are experiencing the same issue. Both are digital patterns that show no nudity. In case you would like to check for similarities, they are the Tadmor sweater and Dylan scarf patterns.
Most items in my shop are just custom drawings of animals and animal characters, yet plenty of them are marked as unavailable. Im so upset because my best selling is unavailable as well and there's nothing against copyright or NSFW about it!
I have several blocked listings.
All of them are on dressmakers forms, not live models or even mannequins. The dress forms are headless, legless, armless and covered in white, beige or tan fabric.
Two are dance costumes with side cut outs. One is a figure skating dress, covered from a high collar to sleeves down to the fingertips. The skating dress is red and black with light tan nude mesh sleeves and insets.
I can see them in my shop and they are listed as active in my listings. I cannot view them if I click on them, logged in or incognito.
I do have several skin toned dresses in various shades that have the term "nude" in the title or description (such as copper brown nude toned or pale peach bisque nude leotard). All of those listings are active as of now. To be safe, I removed the word "nude" from all of the titles and tags, even though that is what they are called and that is the term used when a skater or dancer is searching for a skin toned costume. Better to be safe than to have my shop deactivated.
I have one listing affected, “Pair of white and blue Chinese vase”
not sure what words could trigger the bot programs
Ahem. Just tried an incognito search for "nude stockings" - I was thinking sheer, not what I got on Etsy.
Well - I clicked on a few, and saw no sign of the " unavailable " warnings. So much for my theory on nudies!
I did not do that search, but did visit several of my peers who sell jazz and contemporary costumes (mostly 2-piece and many fairly minimal designs) using live child and teen dancer models in dance poses. It appears that all of their listings are still live, visible and active, even the scantily clad designs.
If this is a bot trying to capture child models, then it is failing miserably.
@PillowDetails I think quite a few of them have to do with skin exposure though. There may be other bot sweeps going on in other categories too. Maybe the bot sweeps are currently looking and they have more to remove.
In my shop of 124 listings, 10 of the 11 are my backdrop necklaces.
I wonder if they are listing them as unavailable for now until they screen them further. Hope they don't permanently delete them or affect our quality score.
I have blank dolls, but only the patterns are blocked (pics showing blank, undressed dolls). The naked dolls that I sell as physical items were not blocked.
I use nude in some of my tags and those listings are showing. It's other non nude listings that are blocked.
Okay last update, I WAS able to edit and delete. From now on I will place my photos in a different order. I have a valid reason for selling dolls without clothing. A lot of doll collectors like to use their own clothing.
I am actually not too upset about this anymore. My shop needed editing anyway and it shows that Etsy is doing their job of cleaning up in the best way possible considering how many shops they have to monitor.
Anyway, I can't sweat the small stuff, gonna enjoy a weekend with grandkids. Thanks for the responses. Take care.
Thanks for this thread! I've been searching for help about this issue for hours!
My Dad has the same issue with a few vintage bikinis sold in his shop, they're displayed on an adult mannequin.
I just checked the details, I don't see any keywords that could be a problem.
But it could have something to do with bots wrongly seeing something inappropriate?!
It's possible the bots are going off images alone, if that's what's happening. I've seen the "unavailable" error on bikini tops on manniquins. Just saw a manga art type shop that had some listings unavailable with scantily clad cartoons.
Then again, search for "nude stockings" showed lots of kinky stuff that was unaffected.
UPDATE: I just removed "sexy" from the description of one bathing suit and it's back online!
it's an adult bathing suit so I don't understand why it would be a problem?!
And I don't see what to change with others that don't have any "problematic" keywords...
I will try to change the main picture for some people.
** "I will try to change the main picture AS IT SEEMS TO WORK for some people. (sorry half of my sentence was missing!) "
Okay, I found that when I replace the main thumbnail image of the affected listing it immediately fixes the issue.
I tested putting the original thumbnail back on and it got restricted immediately. So something to do with the thumbnail.