My compose button was there yesterday when I first read this thread, now it's gone this morning. I rarely send new messages using that button so it doesn't really affect me. Most of the time when I use messaging it's to respond to a message sent to me.
I'm on Safari, with a MacBook. I no longer have a way to originate a message from within Messages, but if I go to any shop's main page, I see a black button with an envelop and "Contact the seller" as well as an envelop icon just below the seller's avatar at upper right. There's also the "Message (seller)" button on the individual listing pages.
So I don't really see how taking it away from Messages prevents scammers from reaching sellers; they just have to take a different route.
This appears to be a two pronged response - both to scammers and spammers. How many people have complained in this forum that Etsy has taken away their ability to flaunt the law and Etsy rules because they can no longer contact people who favorited their listings, etc.
Will this stop them - no. But it will make it harder and slower to do.
@PieceByNumberQuilts "..I don't really see how taking it away from Messages prevents scammers from reaching sellers."
I think this change was meant to protect buyers. I am sure scammers are or will be going after them. Etsy probably lost some sellers due to scams, but sellers aren't as precious as buyers.
It should be possible to contact shop owners, but I don't see good reason to bother buyers that never purchased (I didn't even know it was possible).
So I don't really see how taking it away from Messages prevents scammers from reaching sellers; they just have to take a different route.
It at least makes it more difficult. They have to go to each page and start a new message. I'm sure some of these scammers are sophisticated enough to probably have bots to send out multiple messages at a time, each going to a different shop. You don't even really need to know the shop, just the name of the shop. This at least makes it so they have to go to the shop to send a Message.
You can reply to any messages, and you can send messages to buyers through orders.
What you can't do any more, is spam people from your messages, if you want to contact a specific shop, you can still go to their shop, and contact them from there .... but it is a lot slower, than bombarding from an account all at once, and time makes a difference here, as etsy is shutting down the new ones fairly quickly.
I always thought it shouldn't be there, as sellers used it to spam people, I'm glad it's gone.
Please, is there anyone who has lost the opportunity to respond to the buyer in any way? Not only do I not have the option to send a message, but I also cannot respond to the buyer's questions. Even if I reply through the order, I get an error message and cannot send any message. For example, one customer asked me for a refund for a digital product, and I wanted to offer him another product for free. However, there is no way for me to contact him.
As part of our ongoing efforts to keep our marketplace and our users safe, we recently made some updates to limit how messages are initiated, which helps us prevent members from receiving unsolicited or unwanted messages.
Etsy Messages is intended for buyers and sellers to communicate with one another about potential or existing orders. As a reminder, as a seller, you are always able to communicate with your buyers via the message feature on your Orders & Shipping page. You can read more about communicating with buyers here.
Please, is there anyone who has lost the opportunity to respond to the buyer in any way? Not only do I not have the option to send a message, but I also cannot respond to the buyer's questions from order site. Even if I reply through the order, I get an error message and cannot send any message. For example, one customer asked me for a refund for a digital product, and I wanted to offer him another product for free. However, there is no way for me to contact him. I am only a small seller, but I do not like not having the opportunity to respond in any way.
I think this is great. Now we need Etsy to do something about the scam messages being sent via Etsy's messaging system. I've only received one so far (I sent it to spam) but it came with an orange Etsy logo as the accounts avatar and account name 'Etsy Support'. How difficult would it be for Etsy to prevent the use of its logo as an avatar and its name as an account name?
There are far fewer posts about getting scam emails and getting scammed. Like at a minimum dozens of posts less compared to the same time frame pre-change.
To me the compose message function should never have been removed. I have Etsy seller friends in other countries and used to send them messages via Etsy messaging. Now, the only way to start a new message thread is to go to their store and click to contact. Honestly, a lot of things Etsy is doing now doesn't make sense. Removing this function doesn't solve a thing. Just this morning I received a message saying, "Let's talk about your products." That was it. Nothing else. To me, that is spam and that is where it went, to spam. So it doesn't stop spamming!
You have to wonder about the qualifications of the people they are hiring and the decision making process being used on Etsy. Who makes these decisions? Are they really even qualified and do they understand all the issues? Or do they just rely on someone who may or may not be qualified to tell them they should do something and then they go along with it?
At least if you spam that spam they are now blocked. It does seem Etsy is at least TRYING to stem the tide of some of this. This. The spam/block thing(which did have unfortunate consequences for some). Supposedly they made the forums log in to read but I haven't noticed that..once I am in it just depends on which shop I am logged into as usual? Is the forums seller only readable now? That would keep scammers and spammers from picking off new sellers or those reporting issues.
They're supposedly making the forums to not even be readable unless you're logged into a seller account, but I don't think they've implemented that change yet (because I'm sure there will be some unintended consequences and it won't be a smooth transition and there will be a rash of complaints once they do implement it)
@hopeandjoystudios I just opened an incognito window and typed in Etsy forums. From there, I clicked on one of the links. I was able to read the forums.
So I opened a different browser and one again did not log in. I did a search for Etsy forum and was able to read all the forum without being logged in. So it looks like it is still available to the public in general.
