A Word on “Regretsy”

A Word on “Regretsy”


Right next to the hot button topics of politics and religion sits the topic of Regretsy. If you’re not already familiar, Regretsy posts the less desirable items found on Etsy. They also call out people who blatantly steal from others and Etsy itself for turning a blind eye to this sort of practice.

Regretsy tends to be mean spirited. It’s also hilarious, snarky, and blunt. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that it sucks to have something you’ve done or said made fun of by hundreds of people. But there are a few points I’d like to make about Regretsy and the internet in general.

1. We’ve had the internet long enough to know what goes on there. Identities get stolen. People get trolled. Rickrolls come and go. If you put something on the internet, you are automatically opening yourself up to ridicule and meanness. Some of the things I’ve written have gotten nasty comments, not just about the writing but about me as an individual. It stung, but I hitched up my big girl pants and got over it. If you don’t want people to be mean to you, lurk quietly in the cyberspace shadows.

2. I understand that art is subjective, but sometimes bad crafting is just bad crafting. Sure, you made something, you put your “heart and soul” into it, blah blah blah. I remember a time when just putting time into something wasn’t good enough. You had to actually produce something that was aesthetically pleasing, functional, or high quality. Now it seems that as long as you do something, anything, you expect someone to tell you how great you are. I call shenanigans and Regretsy does too (they just do it louder). Not everyone is a special snowflake just because they exist.

3. Hideous or not, stuff that appears on Regretsy sells. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked the link (because they do link to the original sellers work…yay page hits!) only to find that the item sold. One person actually wrote to Regretsy and complained that they suddenly had more buyers. Really! So yeah, someone called your stuff ‘crap’, but obviously someone else thought it was great because they paid you money for it. I’m not sure what the problem here is, other than someone got their feelings hurt (re: big girl pants…pull ‘em up). I opened an Etsy store for some of my knitted items and actually thought about putting one of my really bad projects up there on the off chance Regretsy would give me some air time.

4. What about the good things Regretsy does? They have a section called “April’s Army” which helps people who are having a hard time. They’ve auctioned things for charity. They’ve also developed rapport with people who were good sports about being featured and helped them sell even more stuff. Just because I enjoy following Regretsy doesn’t mean I always agree with their assessment. There have been a couple things that they’ve completely ripped on that I thought were adorable, and I was happy to see they sold before I even got a chance to go to the page.


Regretsy isn’t for everyone. People have the right to defend their work, but I think there’s also something to be said for a good sense of humor. So roll with it, people. Or don’t follow the blog. But getting angry and crazy about the stuff they post isn’t really going to help anyone, and it’s just going to make you a bigger target.

And please, please, please…just ignore the comments.