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Coreyartus Imagery
Coreyartus Imagery
@Coreyartus@mindly.social  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

The platform I use for my art storefront where I sell my greeting cards and other handmade items may be falling apart.

I am not interested in a print-on-demand fulfillment platform like iNprnt or Fine Art America.

I am hesitant to embrace Shopfiy, as it doesn’t seem to have a solid “opt-out” when it comes to AI. And Etsy is drowning in hidden fees trying to become the next Amazon.

I sell greeting cards, prints, and other items that I want to print, package, and ship myself.

Any suggestions?

#FediGiftShop #Artshop #IndieArtist #Artistlife #Shopping #Art

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ina
ina
@3am@tech.lgbt  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@Coreyartus

wait, what happened to goimagine????

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Coreyartus Imagery
Coreyartus Imagery
@Coreyartus@mindly.social  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@3am Oy, it’s a bunch of things.

-They‘ve gone radio silent without any updates to their site for a year now. They used to do a weekly livestream AMA with the president, but there has been no word from him since.
-They had a community app, then folded it and started a forum site, then proceeded to ignore it in favor of Facebook without any updates. They’ve rarely addressed “fires” of frustration that get posted beyond saying they’re working on it...
-They failed to get financial backers for growth
-They didn’t get any integrations for their platform

After continued pleas for info they just given watered down responses of “Sorry, bear with us” and that’s it.

Now the last couple days they’ve had continual server problems, with the site randomly not loading at all.

It’s not confidence inspiring.

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ina
ina
@3am@tech.lgbt  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@Coreyartus

damn, sounds like theyre in the death throws of their site

still, im really sorry you have to go through this corey, i know its been hell trying to find a decent place to sell your art

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Coreyartus Imagery
Coreyartus Imagery
@Coreyartus@mindly.social  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@3am Yeah, it’s deeply frustrating. I think they had a good idea, but the admins don’t know how to do anything beyond that…

Much like most new endeavors, they only had some of the skillset they needed and didn’t have the know-how to find their missing puzzle pieces. A half-assed back-end revision has rendered two entirely different mechanisms to upload items to shops because they couldn’t take down the old version, and their very long list of up-voted revisions haven’t seen anything addressed in over a year now.

It still functions, but it’s clear there’s probably no future for it. It’s just treading water at this point. I think they have a team of three people working the backend now, with one actual coder? And I think perhaps the president had to get a new day job, maybe, to supplement their family income? They said there were some health issues, but regardless it’s obvious they’re overwhelmed. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I have to think of my own future, too...

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ina
ina
@3am@tech.lgbt  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@Coreyartus

sometimes things dont work out, and you move on with some important lessons

it just sucks because these are peoples livelihoods we're talking about :/

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Blue Appaloosa
Blue Appaloosa
@BlueAppaloosa@sunny.garden  ·  activity timestamp 7 days ago

@Coreyartus Might look at Artisan's Coop, although their on-boarding is a bit complex (and I think there's still a one-time fee?) https://artisans.coop/

I can't speak from experience on it tho, I'm still on Etsy. Despite the fees, it still makes the most sense for me. Artisan's Coop is where I'm considering setting up a second shop...eventually.

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