Comments on: Hanukkah is early this year and so is the MeFi Mall!

Hanukkah is early this year and so is the MeFi Mall!

jessamyn — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:04:25 -0800

After five years the MeFi Mall is going self-service. Sort of. It's that time of year when people who like that sort of thing can buy/sell stuff to/from other people who like that sort of thing. Last year we had over seventy participants. Interested in being involved in this year's Shops by MeFites? Read on...

Every year we make a little page which links to things that creative MeFites are selling or have for sale. We'd like you to be a part of it. Here are the guidelines. - Your stuff. Stuff you've designed, created, built, made or otherwise had a hand in. Etsy stuff and Cafe Press type things are AOK. - Available online. No brick and mortar stores please. No linking to a pdf price list or facebook group and saying "Contact me for details" - Short and simple descriptions. Aim for 30-50 words or less. Long descriptions may be edited. - MeFites only. If you want a friend or family member to be listed, get them a gift account. - No auctions or one-off items for sale. This is for stuff you've created or worked on, not a yard sale. This year we're going to try to have people write their own blurbs & we'll go through and approve them. This is a simple process. Go to this link. If you had a shop last year and want to use the same blurb, just click the "Looks great! Use this again." button. If you need to make changes or add a new shop, you can use the box and add a new description and choose a category. Here is a link to last year's mall, for reference. As with last year, we're going to have a sidebar of photos on the shops page. You can add a few photos [1-3 please] to this MeFi group on Flickr. Ask here if you have other questions. Thank you! Past announcements: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

By: Wordshore

Wordshore — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:10:22 -0800

Flippin' 'eck, that was quick! I hit submit, made a cup of most excellent camomile tea, c0me back and it was already approved and in the mall. MetaFilter mods, not for the first time you unnerve me with your speed.

Also, thanks!

By: chococat

chococat — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:23:17 -0800

Awesome. I love packing up stuff that I made and sending it off to people I don't know. And hoping they liked it. I wish there was a way to know how it was received.
As ever, thanks for doing this Jessamyn.

By: dayintoday

dayintoday — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:32:15 -0800

My shop link/description appeared for awhile, but then it disappeared. Are Spoonflower shops not OK for this? (Posting here instead of sending straight to mods in case there are other Spoonflower users.)

Either way, I love this and it's actually making me look forward to holiday shopping now. Thank you!

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:42:29 -0800

My shop link/description appeared for awhile, but then it disappeared. Are Spoonflower shops not OK for this?

Nope it's in there, we just queue everything up so that the mods can have a chance to take a peek at it before it goes live. Last year I was doing all the copy/pasting myself and that was ungreat for a number of reasons. So the workflow is

- if you have a thing from last year, you can basically enqueue it with a single click
- if you have no previous thing you have to write up a thing and then enqueue it
- if you want to edit your thing from last year, you have to edit your entry and then re-enqueue it

The only reason Wordshore's seemed instant is because we're all watching this right now and can approve things immediately, but I just approved yours and it's up there now. Thanks for being a guinea pig for our new system.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:02:16 -0800

The previous example goes to naught, so I'll ask: Is this more for handmade crafted items or are folks like me with a chinzy zazzle shop with some shirts they designed okay?

By: Wordshore

Wordshore — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:04:06 -0800

robocop: mine's a zazzle shop. Or, as we say here in England, Ye Olde Zazzle Shoppe.

We don't really, but some Americans like that kinda language.

By: Glinn

Glinn — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:24:29 -0800

Hooray!

By: grouse

grouse — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:26:18 -0800

Yeah, there doesn't appear to be much in the link to last year's mall.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:27:41 -0800

Weird, let me fix that....

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:30:44 -0800

pb fixed it!

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:40:31 -0800

Urf. Just realized my shop description was way long. Might want to jive the 30-50 words on this page with the 100 on the form.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 20:46:08 -0800

Thanks for this! I've got seps done for a new shirt -- this'll maybe spur me on to get it printed & up on my page.

By: woodblock100

woodblock100 — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 23:20:53 -0800

Jessamyn, thank you again! This has been very helpful over the years ...

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:28:31 -0800

eep! Gotta get some of mine arts in this time.

By: terrapin

terrapin — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:03:35 -0800

I didn't see an option to use last year's text, but that's okay because I wanted to update it. Thanks for doing this MetaFilter, and thanks to all the people who have bought things from us in the past to help our efforts to preserve our rare-breed Navajo-Churro sheep.

By: usonian

usonian — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:54:04 -0800

Yay! Thank you, Jessamyn. (And while some might say that MetaFilter doesn't do bow ties well, the orders I received from MeFites last year prove otherwise!)

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:00:48 -0800

Might want to jive the 30-50 words on this page with the 100 on the form.

The upper limit is 100 for people who need it but generally we want people to aim towards the middle. Thanks to all who have submitted stuff so far.

By: MsMolly

MsMolly — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:18:07 -0800

I have two. One Etsy one, which I just submitted, and a CafePress one. Any way to submit both?

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:19:57 -0800

You've got to link them both in one entry, there is no feasible way to have two entries in different sections for one person. I could delete your entry and you could entr it again, I think?

By: MsMolly

MsMolly — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:23:41 -0800

Sounds good. Let's do that.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:26:25 -0800

OK try it again and see if it works. If not, please send a note to the contact form because it may be a pb-level thing.

By: MsMolly

MsMolly — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:32:47 -0800

It worked. Thanks, Jessamyn.

By: sleevener

sleevener — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 09:48:38 -0800

Just wanted to say thanks for the MeFi Mall and for this post about it!

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:33:38 -0800

GOD YOU PEOPLE!

I don't have money, space or friends enough for all of the things I want to buy. Could we just...tone it down on the awesomeness for a while? Like long enough for me to make money and buy a big house*? Thanks.

*I'm giving up on the 'get enough friends' side.

By: chatongriffes

chatongriffes — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 11:45:48 -0800

I don't have a shop, but I do want to give MeFites my money! This looks great!

By: bedhead

bedhead — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 12:14:42 -0800

This is awesome! Submitted my shop, easy as pie. Mmm, pie.

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 12:54:01 -0800

Can we put this on the sidebar?

By: pb

pb — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:06:07 -0800

yeah, maybe once people have had a chance to submit their shops we can put something in the sidebar. It feels a little early right now.

We did put a link in the footer under the search form.

By: keli

keli — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:03:08 -0800

Awesome, I was thinking about making a yarn colorway specifically for MeFites.

By: Kitteh

Kitteh — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:44:25 -0800

A couple of questions: mine is an actual website. Is it okay to submit? I have to specify that I can only deliver to people in Canada. Is that problematic?

(For the curious, I'm a vegan baker. I mail delicious things. To people in Canada.)

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:51:00 -0800

I think that's fine.

By: Wordshore

Wordshore — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:59:03 -0800

Are there MetaFilter t-shirts, or did I imagine reading that somewhere? If they do exist, could / should they be in the mall? I have no problem with that.

MetaFilter mods are people too, my friend.

By: mintcake!

mintcake! — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:49:12 -0800

Thanks again for doing this, Team Mod.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:13:03 -0800

Is it cool to link to the main website for my pen-and-paper RPG that contains a link to the place(s) where you can buy it? (None of the links are brick-and-mortar; I just have a webpage for the game itself, and then links to online stores where you can buy it.)

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:28:50 -0800

That seems okay to me, as long as there is 1. info about the thing 2. a place to buy the thing, that is what we are looking for.

Wordshore: not sure what the inventory is like on shirts. You can still get them via topatco.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:46:55 -0800

Cool. Thanks!

By: chrisamiller

chrisamiller — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 06:22:31 -0800

Idea: randomize the order of the shops in each category, so everyone has a chance to be the top listing.

Thanks for setting this up, mods. I've vowed to do all of my shopping online this year, and that task just got a little easier. Hooray for supporting fellow mefites!

By: alynnk

alynnk — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:57:28 -0800

Yay, thanks mods! This was super easy - I was able to do everything from my phone while laying in bed 3000 miles from home!

By: flex

flex — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:25:13 -0800

I had no idea that "MeFi's Own" Sully was the author of You Are A Cat! - just found that out perusing last year's MeFi Mall. MeFites are so creative!

By: Wordshore

Wordshore — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 05:06:10 -0800

I've had a mini-flurry of sales on the "Use Libraries and Learn Stuff" Zazzle page over the last few days, which can only put down to the MetaFilter mall. Thank you.

Thinking about this. It's free advertising that works, for something I don't really run to make a living (am getting a buck / buck fifty per sale; Zazzle get the rest). I just like seeing the text pop up in odd places :) Am therefore happy after Christmas to either make a donation to either MetaFilter or to a charity which accepts Paypal donations.

Perhaps the mods (or maybe all MetaFilter users) could suggest, especially for this time of the year, appropriate charities for people (anyone, not just mall shop owners) wishing to donate? Groups, food banks, support networks, shelters, vulnerable people, animal protection, whatever people are into?

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 07:00:42 -0800

There's usually a good AskMe thread about worthwhile charities this time of year. I know we all have our own favorites but based on our userbase, I'd be telling people to give the money to your favorite NY/NJ/PA Relief organization whether it's Occupy or the Red Cross or the Queens Public Library.

By: Scram

Scram — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:50:53 -0800

Neat! Just added copies of my eponymous zine, with a special beanplating bulk back issue discount for any of you lovely folks.

By: Narrative Priorities

Narrative Priorities — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:03:03 -0800

Will a link to the MeFi shops be added somewhere to the main page as we get closer to the gift-giving holidays? I've been buying little things for various friends of mine, but I keep having to navigate back to the second page of MetaTalk to find the link.

(Of course I could just add a bookmark in my browser, but that would make SENSE and we can't have that.)

By: pb

pb — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 14:05:49 -0800

There's a link at the bottom of every page on the site. You'll find it under the search form on the far right. It says: Need gifts? Try the MeFi Mall.

By: Narrative Priorities

Narrative Priorities — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:59:08 -0800

....okay, that's so weird. I see it now, but didn't when I posted this?

Anyway, YAY! Thank you! My first MeFite purchase just shipped and I'm pretty jazzed!

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 07:55:23 -0800

We added a mall banner to the header today.

By: zamboni

zamboni — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 19:54:36 -0800

We added a mall banner to the header today.

Could we please have a hide button again?

By: pb

pb — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:27:49 -0800

Sure, got that added.

By: usonian

usonian — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:29:18 -0800

Just got my first MeFite order of the season. You guys are the best!

By: coevals

coevals — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:06:43 -0800

Thank you, Jessamyn!

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:00:21 -0800

A bunch of stuff from the Slumbering herd (both for myself and as gifts), on my recommendation a friend is buying Chococat's shirt for her husband, and a few other possible purchases from friends. I also have a wishlist a mile high.

Thanks, MeFites!