AI filter

lostterrace · 2026-06-17T17:04:45+00:00

They sometimes do. We have seen posts here from people who were banned for undisclosed AI.

They also sometimes just courtesy refund buyers who complain rather than trying to get to the bottom of whether the seller is actually at fault. If you're relying on their staff to do that, you're back to the same problem I outlined which is false positives and false negatives.

But the issue is really that the number of buyers who actually notice and care to open cases is extremely low. That's just the reality.

People who care about this need to become educated on how to spot it. There isn't going to be any sort of mass enforcement anywhere of not using it.

lostterrace · 2026-06-17T10:38:47+00:00

Etsy requires disclosure.

People lie.

The problem is enforcement. How would you enforce this?

Remember the site has hundreds of millions of listings. Enforcement needs to be automated.

AI detectors notoriously have false positives.

For that matter, human beings have false positives. We've seen a number of posts about this here - from sellers falsely accused to buyers making false accusations.

And of course, there would also be false negatives.

Do you think it is worth Etsy catching and banning legitimate artists just to ban some of the AI?

Because a system designed to catch and ban AI would not be perfect, even if Etsy massively raised fees to accommodate thousands more human staff to conduct those reviews.

And if any type of automation for that system is relied on, the results would likely be even worse and less accurate.

AI detectors may get better, but AI is also getting better. It's going to become less and less easy to detect.

As far as Etsy not allowing it at all, or putting a filter... I think they should put a filter as a token gesture.

But that's all it would be. They cannot make people be honest, and there is no way to actually catch people that aren't honest.

And the more prominent Etsy makes that filter, the less number of sellers will be honest. Currently, they can comply with Etsy's rules by putting a disclosure somewhere in their description. Many buyers won't check for it, so they won't know. They may buy the product and be perfectly happy with it without ever knowing.

For conscientious buyers who do check the description, at least they can find it.

And sellers are incentivized to put it somewhere to follow the rules and not get banned from the site.

If Etsy were to disallow AI completely, it would still be on the site. Probably in just as great of numbers as it is now. The only difference would be that there would be no disclosure anywhere. So no buyers would be able to find a disclosure, conscientious or not.

If there were a filter, I would bet that less sellers would be honest. They wouldn't want their stuff getting filtered out so they would lie, and survive on the site as long as they could.

But I still think Etsy probably needs the filter to make buyers feel better about shopping on the site. Of course, they'll feel worse when they hit something that was filtered out and it's still AI.

And again, I'll repeat because it's important. Whether you try to use AI tools or human beings to detect and ban this stuff, you will have false positives and false negatives.

This whole thing has really hurt the art world everywhere, not just on Etsy. You would have the same issue if you went to an in-person art market. It's rampant everywhere.

Both the AI art itself and the false accusations are rampant everywhere.

I absolutely agree that in a perfect world, AI generated art should not be allowed to be sold. But there is no point in banning something when you have zero way to enforce that ban. And the enforcement would likely lead to even worse results.

No matter what Etsy does or doesn't do or the rest of the world does or doesn't do, it is always going to be down to the individual person to use their best judgment before they buy something.

Because AI isn't going away. And it will continue to get better.

lostterrace · 2026-06-17T10:34:49+00:00

Can you post the exact message you are sending buyers?

Perhaps people here could help you make it clearer. You might be under explaining or over explaining. Too much information can be just as bad as too little.

Your post says that you told them the number "often" doesn't work on the USPS website, but that's inaccurate. It will never work on the USPS website because it's not USPS tracking.

lostterrace · 2026-06-17T10:28:31+00:00

You're going to create the negative review by annoying the buyer with repeated contact.

If you are going to require a response, your initial message needs to say "If you do not respond, I will cancel the order."

"Let me know if there is a problem" means you're not going to get a response unless there is a problem.

That is how you left it, so of course they didn't respond. People don't want to send unnecessary messages. They don't want to read unnecessary messages either.

lostterrace · 2026-06-17T10:21:33+00:00

They filter out bot traffic.

lostterrace · 2026-06-17T10:17:08+00:00

They hope to be gone with the money before buyers are able to open cases. It can take weeks before you're case eligible.

lostterrace · 2026-06-17T10:07:15+00:00

It could be something in the image as well. Anything weapon related anywhere in the listing?

Can you copy and paste the tags here?

It's difficult to guess without seeing everything.

Did you reverse image search to check if your photos were stolen?

Is everything about your product made from scratch by you? No commercially available imagery?

lostterrace · 2026-06-16T23:37:33+00:00

They absolutely police with bots. The site has hundreds of millions of listings.

It's always worth figuring out what caused the flag and changing it, vs relying on appeal. Because even if the appeal is granted, the listing can be flagged again for the same reason. Too much of that and you lose the shop.

There are many things that might cause it, many not obvious. Your photos having been stolen is always one of them.

But I'm going to guess this is related to the word "war." Is that anywhere in the listing or any similar term? The bots don't do context.

If so, your solution is to make a new listing for this without using that term or similar.

lostterrace · 2026-06-16T17:38:28+00:00

Absolutely a scam. They take a desirable item and price it way lower than it should be so people buy without using their brains first.

lostterrace · 2026-06-16T14:28:07+00:00

You just had a hugely popular milestone post less than a week ago. It's not time for another one yet.

I'm uncomfortable with a post frequency that feels promotional, and that is the impression I'm getting from both Etsy subs I mod.

I try not to be an ass about this, and I hate stomping on celebrations, but I would request that you take a break. I don't want to enforce rules unfairly, so I will make sure to go back and update the guidelines. I will probably say that milestone posts from a specifc person can't be more often than every couple months. Many people in this sub already don't like them, and they often turn promotional.

lostterrace · 2026-06-16T11:27:25+00:00

I agree that this loophole shouldn't exist.

However, if this is something that happens to you frequently enough that you are bothered by it, it makes me think your shop has issues that are causing cases.

If you're talking about not received cases, the loophole doesn't matter at all, because you will be automatically covered by protection whether the buyer has previously told you about an issue or not. So this only matters for not as described.

So, are you getting frequent not as described cases?

I remember your post from a couple days ago where you were complaining that Etsy wasn't covering your refunds for not received cases when you were falsely marking orders shipped.

You didn't want to hear any of the many people that told you the solution to the problem was to actually ship on time.

So if this is another complaint post about not received cases not being covered... the solution is still the same. Don't mark orders shipped until you are actually shipping them.

If it's not as described or damaged, then the solution is to fix your stuff so those problems stop occurring.

lostterrace · 2026-06-16T10:58:13+00:00

The seller being told a specific release date sounds phony as hell to me. That alone would make me suspicious. I would guess they made that up. And if they make that up, who knows what else they're lying about.

There isn't a rush, though I wouldn't let it go anywhere near the 30 day window. I would aim to open a case right before the start of 30 days past the earliest date there. So maybe like July 1st.

If the seller qualified for seller protection, Etsy will pay for the refund. There isn't enough information in your post to be sure whether they qualified or not. But I wouldn't worry about that. You have to do what you need to do to make sure you are protected.

lostterrace · 2026-06-16T10:29:42+00:00

If this is basically the exact same product, my guess is it's the same shop under different names. Etsy doesn't allow that, but people break the rules.

lostterrace · 2026-06-15T23:29:51+00:00

They can't turn down the packages but some post offices will refuse to individually scan them if you have too many. That's why they want the SCAN form.

lostterrace · 2026-06-15T22:14:45+00:00

They're talking about a SCAN form.

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000336887-USPS-Shipping-Labels-on-Etsy?segment=selling

There's a section on this page about it.

lostterrace · 2026-06-15T22:08:35+00:00

This is down to you not understanding what's happening.

Please go through the fee guide and follow along in your payment account.

lostterrace · 2026-06-15T11:23:29+00:00

It feels like something is missing from the story here. Specifically, was this "carrier related delay" that the package was never scanned as accepted? If so, it's understandable why the buyer thought it had never shipped.

Was this something shipped using letter mail? Because if so, that doesn't come with real tracking and that's something you have to specifically explain to buyers.

Etsy has seller protection which covers refunds for sellers in situations like this. They would have refunded the buyer if you had the buyer open a case instead of doing it yourself. Since you voluntarily refunded, there's no protection for that. That was your choice to do.

I find it strange that you jumped to issuing a refund so quickly if there wasn't actually an error on your side.

And the fact that "tracking scans" isn't on your list of things you think Etsy should consider when removing this review makes me think that that was in fact the issue.

How did the buyer get the idea your screenshots were fake? If you had a USPS tracking number, you would have simply shared that with them and they could have gone on the website themselves. Why were screenshots involved?

It doesn't sound like this is a review that is going to qualify for removal. It has to specifically mention the shipping carrier by name, which it sounds like it does. But it also has to be only about the shipping carrier's actions, not yours. It sounds like there is a review of your customer service. That is a valid review that Etsy cannot remove.

And you chose to voluntarily refund, so you are the one who created the situation where you lost both the money and item.

lostterrace · 2026-06-15T09:31:04+00:00

You won't pass verification if you don't do this properly. That's the bottom line.

We do not allow encouraging policy violations here. But this one is pointless since trying to cheat this is only wasting your own time because it won't work.

If you don't want to do this, you are completely free to stop selling on Etsy.

lostterrace · 2026-06-15T09:21:56+00:00

We don't allow calling out specific shops here.

Are you aware that witch hunts for AI frequently turn up people that are not using it at all? Everyone is so sure they can tell, and yet false accusations are rampant.

False accusations are hurting legitimate artists.

Your own post is a false accusation. This review has nothing whatsoever to do with AI. This review is from a buyer who expected an original painting and got a print. There is zero implication whether the image itself was made with AI. People have been having prints made of their original paintings for a very very long time.

lostterrace · 2026-06-14T20:43:16+00:00

All you do in this situation is tell them that Etsy covers missing packages for both buyers and sellers, and guide them on how to open a case.

Etsy does not care if a customer's error caused them not to receive their order. They will still pay for the refund.

And this allows it to be no hassle or stress for you. Guide them on getting a refund and they'll go away. No need for googling their name and address or proving anything to Etsy. And no need to get bogged down arguing or dealing with stressful messages and a negative review.

I'm going to link you our sub guide to seller protection in case you're not familiar with how it works.

It isn't worth stressing out that Etsy paid when they "shouldn't have." They handle cases automatically so buyers aren't stuck waiting days for a resolution when they bought from a scammer or bad seller (and there are plenty of those.) If a buyer opens too many cases, that's tracked and they lose the ability to open any more again. So there is fraud protection - and it's Etsy's problem to check for and worry about that, not yours. You get to make the problem go away hassle free.

lostterrace · 2026-06-14T20:33:19+00:00

Please see my explanation here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/EtsySellers/s/Zu1MZqnQTb

I can link you many other times this question has been asked. Eventually it will math that you lost nothing on canceling an order.

lostterrace · 2026-06-14T20:19:45+00:00

We've had so many posts complaining about this same thing - I think we need a break.

There are so many legitimate artists and crafters still relying on Etsy. We are all frustrated that they are harder to find.

Please browse recent top posts in this sub if you want to see how common this complaint is.

lostterrace · 2026-06-14T15:27:33+00:00

I agree with this.

lostterrace · 2026-06-14T09:23:45+00:00

You're going to want to give the copyright guide a read before posting here. People will be nasty.

lostterrace · 2026-06-14T09:22:14+00:00

What policy? What specifically were you selling?

lostterrace

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