east vs. west

I make treasuries on Etsy (little curated collections of pretty, lovely things) because it's fun, and it's great free promotion for my shop and the shops of other people who make those pretty, lovely things. Every day, chosen treasuries are featured on Etsy's front page.

On Thursday, Etsy unveiled their newest version of the Treasury, which they're currently calling Treasury East. It's in beta form right now, and once it is all tested out, it will become the new Treasury. There will be just one, no more Treasury and Treasury West. This new treasury looks a little different and functions a little differently. And, most crucially, Treasury East is open to everyone, on an unlimited basis, all the time, forever. Instead of having to wait for the treasury to open so you can make *one* collection that would expire within 2-3 days, you could potentially curate 100 collections a day, and they would never expire.

I have been reading comments about the pros and cons here. No one seems to like the fact that they won't expire. By the time I noticed that Treasury East existed, there were already 80 pages of treasuries. They will keep piling up! The concern is, what is the point of making a treasury if no one can find it among all the others? It's instant frustration, particularly for those treasury makers who take a lot of time to arrange everything just right, so their favorite items and shop name may grace the front page of Etsy. Other people have pointed out the confusion to buyers when they link to treasuries that feature items that have already been sold. I completely agree that Etsy shouldn't confuse potential buyers in any way.

There are pages and pages of the controversy in the Etsy forums, for anyone who is interested in reading more. I see the pros and the cons, and I'm not too swayed in either direction. I just thought I'd write a little background information, because I'm going to do a little experiment.

Tonight I posted the same collection of items to East and West, approximately 15 minutes apart from each other. I made one comment on each, clicked twelve items in West and sixteen in East, and linked both to the most recent promotion thread for each Treasury. Besides mentioning this here, I'm not going to do any more promotion for these two treasuries.

I wonder which will be viewed, clicked and commented on more frequently in the next three days. I'll keep track and let you know!