To close a thread, Etsy team leaders now block new replies

Easy peasy trick for your team

Etsy team leaders manage their teams differently. Some teams start a new thread every month, every week, even every day. Before the team changes in 2019, team leaders used to “close” a thread and leave it visible. Team members could still read it, but no one could comment once it was closed. And closing a thread was permanent.

Good news, leaders can block new replies. 

And it is reversible, which is an improvement over the old teams (yay).

How to "block new replies"

This works well for leaders-only announcement threads

Blocked = Locked

Some teams have an announcement thread that leaders add to when needed. In the past, team members would inadvertently add comments to the thread. Team leaders have been torn... do they remove the post?

Now leaders can start a thread (or edit an existing one), and “block new replies.“ When leaders are ready to make another post on the thread, they can comment. (Commenting stays open for "moderators" who include team captains and leaders).

How to tell which threads have the replies blocked

Threads with new replies blocked have a little orange lock graphic on them. See the illustration on the right--->

Thanks for joining me for this tour of a positive change in Etsy's team spaces!

Check out my Etsy selling blog here.

Pinning and unpinning Etsy Team threads

This is a new blog for Etsy team leaders

Etsy team leaders are busy people. Not only do they run a business selling on Etsy, but they moderate one or more teams. The mission of this blog is to make your team leader job easier.

What are pinned threads?

Pinned threads are marked with a pin

Pinned threads are shown at the beginning of all the threads. Each pinned thread has a big orange triangle on the top right. On Lithium (the platform Etsy now uses for Teams) another name is "floated." Pinned threads display twice: in a group on the top and then individually (in order) mixed with the rest of the threads.

What is the issue with pinning threads?

Some teams keep a lot of pinned threads. It worked fine in the old teams spaces, but not so well in the new ones. (There is a problem with ordering pinned threads that we can hope gets fixed.)

(If you have issues with all of your thread titles in bold, see the instructions here.)

How do leaders unpin threads?

1. Open the offending thread 
2. At the top right of the thread itself is an “options” button [circled in green]. Click that. 
3. Look for “Un-Pin topic for all users.” [circled in red] Select that.

Your drop-down options box has choices for team leaders and individuals.

What about pinning a thread?

The procedure for pinning a thread is just the opposite: under "options" select "pin topic for all users."

(Note that although there is a batch edit function for team moderators [captains and leaders]. I do not see where it cannot be used for pinning and unpinning threads. Please contact me if you have mastered this.)

All Users or Current User?

The same drop-down that has an option "un-pin topic for all users" also says "Pin this topic for Current User" [circled in blue]. On teams, leaders are also members. So you can pin the topic for yourself but not for the team. Or you can put your "team" hat on and pin it for everyone.
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There... that was easy. Thanks for joining me on this short jaunt into managing Etsy's new team spaces!

Check out my Etsy selling blog here.