Reporting a Product: What Happens When You Report an Item?
Folksy is an uncurated marketplace, but that doesn’t mean anything goes. We have clear guidelines about the types of products that can be listed on Folksy and those that aren’t permitted.
At the heart of Folksy is our commitment to handmade and to the incredibly talented makers and artists who create the products sold here. Maintaining that authenticity is important to us, and our Support Genies and wider team members are constantly reviewing products across the site to make sure they meet our guidelines.
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You can report a product too
We also give sellers and customers the option to report a product if they believe it may not meet Folksy’s guidelines.
Reporting isn’t something we expect our community to do, and Folksy isn’t moderated by its users. However, we know that our sellers care deeply about the marketplace and about protecting the authentic, handmade nature of Folksy. We really appreciate that.
If you do choose to report something, your report may help us identify products that may need a closer look. It may also already be a product our team has flagged and are investigating. Reporting an item isn’t a judgement on the seller or an automatic decision that a product doesn’t belong on Folksy – it simply highlights an item for our team to review it.
As some of our sellers are using the reporting function regularly, we thought it would be useful to explain what happens once a product is reported.
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What happens when you report a product?
1. You report the product
You can report a product directly from its product page, using the reporting button provided.
2. Our Support team reviews the report
Your report is sent to our Support team, who review the product against our marketplace guidelines.
3. We may suspend the product or contact the seller
Depending on what we find, the product may be immediately suspended if it clearly doesn’t meet our guidelines.
In other cases, we may need more information from the seller before we can make a decision. For example, we may need them to provide additional information about how a product is made, the materials used, or where components have come from.
4. The seller has an opportunity to provide more information
Where we need further information, we’ll contact the seller and give them 48 hours to respond.
The outcome will depend on the information provided. The product may be suspended, we may need to have a further conversation with the seller to clarify the details, or the product may be cleared and remain on Folksy if the additional information confirms that it meets our guidelines.
We believe it’s important that sellers have the opportunity to explain their products and provide any information that may not be clear from the listing itself. We would hate to suspend a maker’s product automatically without reviewing it, or trust a bot-based technology to review something that is far more nuanced than it may immediately seem.
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What happens after you’ve reported something?
We really appreciate anyone who takes the time to flag a product for us. However, we don’t provide individual updates to the person who made a report about the outcome of each case.
There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, the information shared between Folksy and a seller may be private. Secondly, providing individual updates on every report would create a significant amount of additional work for our Support team – time we’d much rather spend supporting our sellers, improving Folksy and helping the wider maker community to thrive.
So, if you’ve reported a product, please know that your report has been received and will be reviewed by our team. You don’t need to follow up or take any further action.
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Why we review products ourselves
We believe handmade products can be nuanced, and that isn’t something we’d want to reduce to a simple automated decision.
A product might look unusual at first glance, but there can be a perfectly good explanation for how it has been made. The materials, techniques, processes and individual circumstances behind a handmade product aren’t always obvious from a photograph or listing description.
That’s why we don’t automatically suspend a product simply because it has been flagged or because something doesn’t immediately look right. We’d much rather take the time to look at the product, understand the circumstances and, where necessary, speak to the maker before making a decision.
We wouldn’t want a maker’s product to disappear from Folksy because a bot has decided it doesn’t meet our guidelines without understanding the full picture. Equally, we want to make sure that products that genuinely don’t meet our requirements are identified and dealt with appropriately.
It’s a more considered approach, but we think it’s an important one. Behind every product is a maker, and we’d rather have a human conversation than make an automatic decision about their work.
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A final note about reporting
We want Folksy to remain a welcoming community where makers can share their work and celebrate their successes.
If you see something that you genuinely believe doesn’t meet our guidelines, please feel free to report it and leave it with our team to investigate. You don’t need to contact the seller yourself, raise it publicly in the forum, or try to establish whether a product is legitimate.
We want to be absolutely clear about this: at no time will we ask or expect our makers to report other products as part of their role as a seller on Folksy. Our own team remains responsible for reviewing products and enforcing our marketplace guidelines.
And equally, if you see a seller celebrating a success or sharing something they’re proud of, we hope you’ll join in and celebrate with them. We’re all here to lift up the handmade community – and we’ll take care of the moderation side of things.
If you have any questions or concerns about products on Folksy please raise this directly with the Folksy team by emailing support@folksy.co.uk
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FAQs
What about products reported for concerns around UKCA compliance?
For these types of reports, Folksy will provide the seller with relevant guidelines and instructions regarding the affected product. Folksy does not currently have a legal obligation to automatically remove these products. Where appropriate, we will give the seller the opportunity to provide further information or take action in line with our selling guidelines.
What happens to products reported for breaching copyright?
If a product is identified on Folksy as potentially in breach of copyright then we will reach out to the seller with a warning and ask them to provide evidence they have the relevant rights or to remove the infringing material from their shop. If the copyright holder contacts us directly then we will remove the offending product directly on the sellers behalf.
Why does the process sometimes seem to take so long?
Our team takes reports seriously and investigates them thoroughly. This research often goes beyond what we can see on Folksy, and we may uncover additional information that leads to further enquiries or questions for the seller.
Waiting for evidence or clarification can also add to the time it takes to resolve a case. While we will always aim to deal with reports as quickly as possible, not every case can be resolved immediately. Some situations are more nuanced than others and require a thorough review before we can make a fair and informed decision.
What about reported AI-generated art on Folksy?
AI-generated art is not permitted to be listed or sold on Folksy. When an item is reported to us, or identified by our team as potentially AI-generated, we will investigate it thoroughly.
This is important because we need to distinguish between AI-generated artwork, which isn’t permitted, and digital artwork created by a maker, which is permitted. We therefore don’t automatically suspend an item based on an initial report or suspicion.
Once our investigation confirms that an item is AI-generated, we will suspend the listing in line with our policies.
Is AI generated product imagery allowed on Folksy?
Some products reported are genuinely handmade, but the seller has used an AI enhanced product image to showcase the product. In some cases this can be deemed as misleading to customers in which case we will reach out to the seller and ask them to change their imagery. For our full guidelines for sellers using AI to enhance product imagery click here.
Why does Folksy not vet every shop or product before they go live on the site?
We have considered introducing a pre-approval process, but it’s important to us that Folksy remains an open craft marketplace. While we curate particular areas of the site, we don’t believe every seller or product should have to pass a manual review before going live.
Thousands of shops join Folksy each year, and hundreds of thousands of products are uploaded, vetting every new shop or product would slow down the process for makers who simply want to get started. It would also create a barrier that sellers don’t generally encounter on other large online marketplaces.
Instead, we focus our attention on actively monitoring the marketplace, investigating reported products and carrying out our own audits, while also curating and promoting the best of Folksy through our collections, features and marketing.
This means sellers can get started quickly, while we still have processes in place to help maintain the quality and integrity of the marketplace. This is our current position, which may change in the future.
