Tyranny and The Etsy Teams

Every Etsy team has it rules that need to be followed. Some team rules are basically “Just be respectful to one another.” Some are down right ridiculous and run as if they are a small country and the team captain is the dictator.

I recently had an occasion to deal with the latter. I created a treasury that I just loved.  As with all treasury curators I was hoping for the greatest of success, first page at the least.

I went to work full force on promoting. Posting like a woman on a mission. I posted on several teams that have a requirement that you visit a certain number of treasuries posted before you and comment on them. No problem. I did just that. Some were quite good and I even gave a click to the old favorite button to share them with members of my circle.

Well in my haste I forgot to do that with one of the teams. You would have thought I had committed a felonious act!  I received a message from the Gestapo, also known as the team captain, chastising me as if I were a 3-year-old child who’d just poured red paint on the newly laid white carpet. I was advised that my post had been removed and I was not to post on the team discussion board at all until I had corrected my error.  I half expected the Etsy Police to kick down my door and drag me out by the hair, kicking and screaming.

Needless to say this message angered me. If I had been an habitual rule breaker or had been warned previously I would have accepted this reprimand, but that was not the case. It was an honest mistake and yet I had been spoken to like a naughty child or an habitual offender.  I’m not a rebel or a rule breaker, I generally just go along with the flow and mind my own business,  so this didn’t sit well with me at all.

Of course I went back as soon as I read the message and complied with the rules, and then I went for a long walk so that I would not write an angry message to the team captain, I do have some self-control.  

While mulling it over in my mind I realized that for some of these team captains this is a little slice of power.  They make the rules and their “followers” have to abide by them or they are reprimanded and/or thrown out of the group.  Oh what power and so easy to obtain,  it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to create an Etsy team.  Anyone with half a brain and an etsy account can create a team,  make some rules and start their reign of power.

So yea if the Gestapo gets word of this post I am sure to be tossed right out of the team.  I’m shaking in my boots at the mere thought of it.

On a side note, my post was reinstated and not one of the team “followers” has commented on it!  Maybe she’s loosing her grip on them.  Could this be a sign of an impending coup?