Treasury

From EtsyWiki

This article uses the Etsy website as its primary source. Please update it as the referenced section(s) of the site are updated.

What is the Treasury?

The Treasury is a Flash-based, multi-user, member-curated "gallery" on Etsy. Users can create personal, short-lived lists of twelve "hand-picked items." The application is limited to 150 active lists at one time.

All lists are given 36 hours by default (a day and a half). Then at the moment when the list is first opened by it's curator, anywhere from 1 to 24 hours are added onto the life of the list. This means new lists will live anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 days. Who gets how much extra time is completely random, but sufficiently distributed so that lists should continue to expire at odd times throughout the day, indefinitely. When they expire, they are gone forever; as Jared says, "Embrace the decay."

Lists are ranked by a combination of views, clicks (to item listing pages), and comments. You can sort the lists in the main menu pages by Hotness, Title, Curator Name and Expiration by clicking on the blue column headers.

Each list has the capability for viewer comments.

Since the Treasury is a multi-user environment that operates in real-time, it can be very demanding on your system and take a lot of bandwidth. It's best viewed with a high speed internet connection (it will work with dial-up connections, albeit slowly). Please note, you must have the most recent Flash Player plug-in for your browser in order to properly use this feature. You can download the latest version here: http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/downloads.html.

Lists are chosen by other Etsians, so your best bet to get on a list is to have great items that attract the attention of others. If one of your items is on a list, you will see a gold star next to the title in the main Treasury menu page when you are logged in to your Etsy account.

Exceptional Treasury lists may be 'promoted' to the front page of Etsy by Admin for the daily 'Hand-picked Items'. This is not always the 'hottest' list, and the list may be altered by Admin before featuring it on the front page.

You can access the Treasury here: http://www.etsy.com/treasury.php -- it is also linked on the left-hand sidebar of Etsy's front page.

Here's the blog entry announcing the 'official' launch of Treasury: http://blog.etsy.com/?p=99

Here's a post listing some Treasury alterations made on February 28, 2007: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5045215

You can also read more about it here in the Etsy Forums: http://www.etsy.com/forums_topic.php?thread_id=23182

And sweetestpea was kind enough to create a 'how to' for the Treasury, which you can read here: http://etsytreasurydemo.blogspot.com/

The Treasury was programmed by Jared Tarbell using the Unity multi-user server http://moock.org/unity/, programmed by Colin Moock and Derek Clayton.

How can I create a list?

Currently, the total number of lists on the Treasury is limited to 150. This means getting a list can be difficult, since there are over 100,000 members of the site -- many who would like to make lists. Here is a good strategy for snagging an open list:

Have your list prepared ahead of time

In a blank text document on your computer, type out the name of your list. It's also a good idea to copy and paste the URLs of all the items you plan to include on your list. This way, you can fill your Treasury immediately.

Timing is everything

Sort the active lists by expiration (click on the 'Expiration' column header) to see when the next several lists will become available. Then return to the Treasury when their time is up and wait at the bottom of the screen for the 'Create a New List' box to appear. Since Treasury updates in 'real time', you don't even need to refresh -- just wait.

Copy and Paste saves time

Since you have your title in another document already, select the text and 'copy' it. This way, when the 'Create a New List' box appears, you can just paste it into the box and click the 'Submit' button. This is important, as titles cannot be edited later!

Make your list

Once you've snagged a list, you can enter each of your items and re-arrange them until they look perfect. See the Treasury Walk Through for more details on that process.

Updated Treasury Grabbing Guide-2.21.2007

Tricks to getting a treasury list:

• It is easiest to see the form appear when a treasury can be made on the last page of the lists because it sometimes appears closer to the middle of the page rather than at the bottom where you may need to scroll to see it.

• Click on "Expiration" at the top of the treasury page to sort the treasury and bring the soonest ending to the top, or bottom if you are on the last page. Sometimes there are several lists ending quite close together. Or you can wait until the middle of the night. Many expire in the wee hours.

• Open a Word document (or other word processing program) and write a title for your treasury.

• I also make my complete treasury list in this document by copying and pasting the listings I want in the order I will put them in. It makes it very easy to populate your treasury quickly when you do get one. I open a Word document side by side with Etsy. Do your search on Etsy for you items. When you find something you want to add, mouse over the item and type the item listing number that appears at the bottom of your browser window into your Word document along with a brief description of the item for your reference. There is no need to go to the listing itself. If you do go to a listing page for the number, you will find it on the right side of the page by the item or the last digits in the address bar of your browser. You do not need the entire URL.

• When you see lists are going to expire move your cursor down to the area just below the text that says that the maximum number of lists has been reached.

• Wait for the title box to appear at the bottom of the page. It will do this without you having to refresh the page. DO NOT refresh or you will miss it!

• If you want to see the countdown simply keep clicking the column headers i.e. "expiration" etc. to sort the lists. This will also refresh the countdown. Or, open a new browser window to do just that. In Internet Explorer, go to File>New>Window.

• When you see the time get down to 30 seconds or less get ready. . . QUICKLY NOW! Click in the title box when it appears and type in a single letter, I usually use the first letter of my title. This will act as a placeholder for the time being. Now, type in your title and hit the 'create' button. As you are typing in your title the box may jump around quite a bit as others are adding their lists. You may have to follow it around a bit and re-click in it to finish your title.

• Now hit the "Create" button or enter on your keyboard.

• If you got it, you will see your list at the bottom of the page, then go populate it.

Did you wait but no form appeared?

Sometimes, at least once or twice a day, so many people are trying to get a list at exactly the same time, and they hit the create button in such synchronicity, that the system allows more than one list to replace the expiring one. When this happens, the maximum number of lists allowed registers above 150. When treasuries come to the end of their lives during these times, the system needs to be brought back down to 150 lists, so the form will not appear until it has. If that number in the upper left hand corner is more than 150, don't bother. You're going to be disappointed!

From Deb, of mothtoflame with editing and additions by meloearth

Links

• The Treasury
• Sweetestpea's Treasury Walk Through
• Etsy blog entry announcing the launch of Treasury
• 'Etsy's Secret Treasury' Forum thread
• Get the latest version of Flash Player