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I once designed a site where the client basically asked us to clone Etsy screen by screen, to the point where we were even using their copy and I had to majorly intervene (etsy has some major usability problems). Not like a little shady outfit either, celebrity ceo with plenty of VC too. Sickening. Needless to say they bombed HARD.

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Ha, that's great. I'd love to know which site that was.

Really, Etsy doesn't have anything worth copying other than the basic idea and well, their success. Their copy and wording least of all... anytime there are words on the site, they are the wrong words.

Tell me about it...

Wish I could drop who it was but I'd rather not burn the bridge.

It was a ridiculous project, they had an India team that took the "just like Etsy" wording so literally that if I designed a screen that didn't look & function 100% identical to Etsy (ie: I improved it) they would have a hissy-fit. I have over a dozen emails that say "please revise to work like etsy.com. we can not move forward until design looks like etsy.com"

Thanks, I'm pretty sure I know who you mean now, actually. I ran into a couple posts on a freelance site where and Indian company said 'We designed a clone of Etsy.com, check out _____.com'. Not exactly the way I'd go about creating a site, personally.

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