Several technical issues

[whimsywhim]

Moderators,

Is there a sitewide technical issue affecting many areas?  I don't remember seeing so many areas breakdown before.  When you enter tissue paper in the search engine, none of it comes up.  There's the royalty history problem, the indexing situation and the last views not updating.  I'm sure I'm missing other things.  

I'm wondering if there is a system breakdown going on.  Should we wait to put products on the marketplace?

Thank you.

[gardenstyle]

Whimsy, I am a "Creator," not a Moderator. This thread goes back to 10/13/2022. Now I know why my new Thanksgiving and Autumn designs were not seen. On 10/13 I was still getting ample views, but on old inventory, things I made 5 years ago. November 25 or so I stopped getting any views whatsoever. The only views of my Holiday designs are ones I made to establish promotional links. It is not a good sign to have no attention to the small group of us who have been impacted. It seems like numerous people, but compared to the size of the Zazzle Community, we are very small in number. 

On the other hand, people are afraid to speak out because they might lose a Z. Point.

Obviously no one wants anyone to get the word out that Zazzle has a problem. It will deter customers- you know how people get. They will be afraid to order.

[whimsywhim]

I'm curious - how do you know it's not everybody who is affected?  And this went back that long ago?  I'm just at a loss why there is such a technical breakdown in so many areas.  The timing is just horrible.  I'm especially perplexed that you cannot search tissue paper and actually get tissue paper results.  You get everything else but.  Tissue paper is a phenomenal bestseller for a lot of us.  It's incredibly disappointing.

[Anne]

It's just the annual Christmas tradition at Zazzle. 🙂
Shooting for the stars and not having enough staff to tackle all the issues, site overwhelmed and more. We're all human and as designers we need to make the best of it, with challenges in place.
The latest I found it is that newly cheerfully announced socks are placing the design off-center, which especially gets ugly with the foot soles in view.
In the category of minor issues, compared to products not appearing in the marketplace, cover images not loading, font issues, lack of stats and views recording, and other stuff happening this season.
I think Zazzle is not alone in having issues.

[Digitalbcon]

Yes, totally agree...an annual tradition here...sigh!

[gardenstyle]

Disagree. I've never had it happen before in a crucial moment. No income for 7 days freaks me out. No explanation is plain rude.

[gardenstyle]

This is the announcement about those socks

"New product launch Crew socks

Posted 12/2/2022

Hi Creators,

Phew, our team have been super busy getting all these products ready for you. After this one, we will take a few days break"

It was important to crank out new products which aren't going to be seen.

Now it is time to take a break. 

That is real consideration for you.

[whimsywhim]

I don't remember so many technical issues at once especially during a critical selling time.  

[gardenstyle]

You will know who is not affected by seeing who takes up the first 10 pages of a Search for some item that you also sell, if you have been here a while and have ever been on the first pages.

[WHS_Designs]

The royalty history reports started updating properly for me again as of 3 hours ago.

[PacifierCity]

@whimsywhim 

I'm sure the site and the team are under tremendous strain right now.  Another week or two and seasonal sales will dwindle greatly.  But the site is up and running.  Shoppers can buy and sales are happening.  Probably thousands a day.  Many designers are pumping out products in hopes of last minute holiday sales.

As WHS mentioned, royalty history reports are now working properly.  Tissue paper just came back and the site probably needs to index everything back in.  It will take a day or two, maybe three.  But it will be searchable again.  The last viewed stat is nice to have, but by no means necessary.  Years ago it used to always be 3 or 4 days behind.  Many times in the last two years it has stopped working properly for a few days at a time.  Yes 7 days seems like forever but just because it is not updating does not mean that people aren't viewing your products.  People are selling so shoppers are seeing peoples products, it is just a stat that is not updating.

That bit about the socks is funny though.  They were released to all on Thanksgiving day(https://community.zazzle.com/t5/creator-news/new-product-launch-crew-socks/ba-p/51299).  No idea why it is dated for 12/2 in the onsite news section.

This is a huge platform supporting 900 thousand+ designers and who knows how many shoppers right now.  It is up and running.  Sales are happening and Z is busy making sure the site stays up and that customers orders are fulfilled and our sales are not cancelled.

I don't know.  Maybe it is just me... but I give Z props for keeping this space open for us all, and for all the shoppers too.  It is a huge task and I know things go sideways a bit here and there... and sometimes I get frustrated that products I spent a lot of time creating get discontinued... but all in all, they do a pretty good job.

Oh and I wanted to note that there was an issue on the old forum that many of us spoke out about, so much so that many of us got banned, the Z rank in all of my stores stayed the same.  I did not lose any points for taking a stance that got me banned for a bit.  Z also changed what they wanted to do based on the feedback that many of us gave.  So even though it was lousy getting banned, and I'd prefer not to be banned again, Z did listen and besides getting banned, nothing happened to my Z rank and my sales continued as normal during that time.

Hang in there and keep designing.  Think Valentines day and spring.  Maybe even start designing for summer.  Now is the time to be desiging for those time periods.

Take care,

PC

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[whimsywhim]

Thank you.  I guess I got very discouraged with tissue paper being out of stock and then when it got back in stock, you can't find it when searching.  Thanks for explaining about indexing.  I need to put things in perspective, as you have suggested, and be more patient.  It's great advice.  Thanks again.

[Harmony]

In this case,  the system is not registering views for days, and is not updating the last sold date. It is also not identifying which products needs optimizing. 

Therefore it appears that a person's store has had no views and no sales for over a week and has a number of unoptimized products. The system reads no sales as the last sold date isn't updating. It doesn't appear to measure this from sales reports. Zrank has dropped by 1-2 points for a number of people as a result. Zrank affects visbility in marketplace. 

So i would say this is not a periodic standard site bug. This is a significant issue that needs to be addressed quickly

[PacifierCity]

I hear you.  But the problems are affecting everyone equally.  I get that these problems are frustrating for folks.  For me too.  But there is nothing I can do except promote my own stuff, even the newest stuff that has not shown up in the marketplace.  People can still buy it if they come in from a promotional link.

Past experience tells me that all the data is being captured and once the system bug is corrected then everyones stats will be updated. 

I also doubt that Z is just ignoring the problem.  People demanding that it gets fixed doesn't help anything.  I'm sure Z wishes the problem was not happening too.

But sales are still happening, products are still being created and sent to customers...  Designers are still earning...  Designers are still creating and the product links work.  No 404 errors that I have seen.

So promote your wares and create for spring and summer.  Z will get this fixed at some point in time.  Why get so worked up over it that it makes you ineffective at creating and promoting??  

IDK.. that is just my point of view...

Take care,

PC

....................... 

[Marcia]

@PacifierCity My thoughts, exactly – I couldn't have said it better.

[gardenstyle]

It is the lack of communication which is problematic. I don't want to hear guesses from the gallery. A short release of one Managerial  Notice to Those Having No Sales and deleterious effects is the very least which meets a standard of mutual respect. My sales were fine until October. I get very busy, but that does not make me disrespect my clients.

I don't care if the news is, "don't expect much to change this month," but don't treat me like a child.

As an adult, I don't need pacification.

www.gardenstyledecor.com

I have a website where I showcase just my products with my referral link. The "back half" of my website sells garden furniture and large fountains, architectural pottery, pergolas, and the like. I have operated my own online stores since 1997.

[grafixmom]

I also find the lack of communication problematic and honestly professionally insulting. Five out of 10 of my most popular products are tissue papers, and at this time of year, the loss of sales is catastrophic, so these issues are not necessarily affecting everyone equally. Getting a simple answer as to whether or not this product is or isn't in stock shouldn't be a big mystery. I asked almost two weeks ago for answers to several legitimate questions affecting this one issue. No answers or updates have been forthcoming, as I sadly expected, including clicking on the option to be notified when this product was back in stock. I also find it problematic that it feels like even asking for updates is a waste of time, and that the standard "I'm passing this along to our team" response has become cliche for "Where our legitimate concerns and questions go to die," as evidenced by the fact that I couldn't find any of the promised updates offered by Roberta over the last two months on even one question or problem she acknowledged in threads going back to October. I love Zazzle as a meaningful creative outlet, but more importantly, as a life-sustaining business. I find it difficult, if not impossible, to make informed business decisions with little to no information. I, like many others, depend on Zazzle as a main source of income, at this season especially...a season I've been hustling to prepare for since May... so to be asked to just be chill and trust that the problems are resolved by Valentine's Day, Easter, summer or whenever, and make countless allowances for unknown factors out of my control, while being patronized and left in the dark on the failure of many aspects of expected behaviors that affect the income I depend on to survive, is a mighty big ask.