As usual in these "big company did something bad" stories on HN, OP carefully avoids saying what they were actually selling.
Whether that's the case here is irrelevant, it's important for people coming on HN with complaints like this to be specific, and it's worth calling it out early when they're not.
Posters do need to be specific but we also don't need to Boogeyman our own community. Nowhere in that post did OP ask for HN to be their personal army. They asked for advice at the end.
Give me back the account, I will come up with something else to design and sell, that's okay.
But nuking the whole account and keeping the money while warning/prohibiting me to create another account is just shitty.
I wasn't trying to turn anyone into a boogeyman, but I have watched more than enough outrage parades on HN that turned out to be in support of a scoundrel. If we can establish the expectation that you're fully upfront about the details, then we as a community can avoid repeats of those events while still helping people like OP who are genuinely confused.
More than enough or "most"?
The latter doesn't seem true from the threads I've followed and would qualify as "boogeymanning" to me. The former seems reasonable and a sensible request for more information. The difference is that the latter automatically lumps OPs request in with "most" supposedly fraudulent requests for help/words of warning.
The thread has evolved since then to seem less sketchy, and I believe that is largely because my parent comment was resurrected and spent a while at the top. It's easy to judge my methods when you're looking at a completely different thread than the one I came to.
> The part in question is a little addition to the normal window locks. You can slide the part over the window lock handle and it will anchor itself between handle and window frame due to its geometry. My friend asked for this, so his children would not be able to open the windows and fall out.
The wife of my friend thought Etsy would be a great place, because lots of people put caravaning accesoires up there for sale. There are also various hooks, cup holders and whatnot coming from 3D printers.
> Everything listed as handmade must be made and/or designed by you, the seller. ... Regardless, makers must be creating their items with their own hands (or tools).
My best guess is either their bots suspect that OP is outsourcing the work and didn't properly disclose it OR there's some unwritten policy that a 3D printed part that requires no additional assembly doesn't count as handmade.
I can definitely sympathize with them wanting Etsy to at least spell out what policy they supposedly violated.
https://www.etsy.com/legal/sellers/?ref=list#selling
Well, I could send them a photo of the 3D printer right behind me and me waving hands and displaying the OpenSCAD model code in the background... ;-)
> 3. Being Transparent About Your Business
> At Etsy, we value transparency. Transparency means that you honestly and accurately represent yourself, your items, and your business. As a handmade seller, you agree to:
> Disclose in your About section the names and roles of people who help make your items or run your business; > Use your own words and photographs (not stock photos) to describe your items; and > Respond to any inquiries from us in a timely manner. We may ask you how your items are made, what workspace, tools, and equipment you use; and how you communicate and collaborate with the people who help you run your shop.
> Remember: Our marketplace is built on trust. Providing false, inaccurate, or misleading information is prohibited by our Terms of Use. If we find that you’re not being open and honest with us, we may suspend or terminate your account.
could be in the DnD space. could be some kind of hentai thing which kinda runs in that kinda direction but also way more likely to run afoul of the tos.
could be a brigade of bot accounts that reported their account as a competitor. could be all sorts of things... automated scam heuristics. tough to say.
Anyway, that's not the space I want to work/compete in, those people shall print and sell articulated dragons all day if they want.
It's an accessory for the caravaning/vanlife scene. Nothing obscene, nothing legally critical.
Aside from what your parent said (which is 100% accurate), we can't give you any suggestions on what might've flagged the algorithm if we don't know the contents of your listings.
My spouse uses Etsy as the primary way to sell goods. It's a crappy company with crappy policies for sellers, so I'm with you on that, but all you've done here is take much of the initial interest in your story and immediately route it to a dead end.