Making something new is difficult. Tindie is no exception. Over the last few weeks, it became clear we made many mistakes in 2013; we did a lot of experimentation and that sometimes resulted in us prioritizing the wrong things. We built a Frankenstein. Too many features, too many projects, too many categories, etc. Thank you for bearing with us through this wild ride.
It’s time to fix that. Over the next few weeks, we are doing a hard reset. This year we will be clearing the cobwebs, improving, and making every part of the experience easier and more fun. We are returning Tindie to our essence: a community built around buying & selling anything that empowers you. Tindie is a marketplace for innovation.
Community trumps all else.
We made a few big changes today.
- Simplified categories for showing off more products
- Bringing back forums and lively discussion
- To ensure a great customer experience, if an order hasn’t been shipped within 30 days, it will be auto cancelled & refunded.
One thing to note: for any changes we make, the first question we will be asking is:
“Is this right for the community?”
Effective March 1, we are returning our fee to 5%.
We have always wanted sellers to keep the vast majority of sales revenue. This ensures there is no question Tindie is the most innovator-friendly marketplace out there.
The final change we made today is around the promotion of products within Tindie. If a product is no longer for sale, but available somewhere else, it is OK to link to that new place.
As an example, congrats to Micah, creator of the FadeCandy – a dithering USB-Controlled Driver for NeoPixels! The project launched on Tindie, sold out multiple times, and has been taken over by Adafruit so it can be produced at scale (and can be found here). When a product outgrows a seller, that is a huge success for the seller. We want to make sure we celebrate with you, and help spread the good news. Our old policy was just wrong, and we apologize for that error!
These changes are set for 2014
These changes today are effective for 2014. We are through with the fast context switching. Time to make the best environment for supporting new innovations.
With that in mind, we are hiring an evangelist/marketing person. If you think you would be a great fit, or know someone who is, please let us know!
Thank you all for your patience and support. We strayed from the path, but are back and focused on the job at hand!
— Team Tindie
