So I guess I’m doing something right over on www.shopcats.ca – I just got my first mimic!
The every so lovely www.shopcastr.com – and while they’re not doing exactly the same thing as me, they’re an etsy online sales place clone, of which there are many, and I’m doing actual in the real world craft events that people go to and that get press… ‘
They had the balls to follow me on twitter this morning, @Landfill and @shopcatsca.
Which is odd, so I guess they don’t think they’re stepping on my toes, and I’m here to tell you, you’re fucking stepping on my toes dudes! Not cool!
This is my mission statement over on ShopCats:
“Shop Cats mission is to showcase local crafters and artists; and exhibit their locally made handicrafts and goods at one of a kind pop-up craft markets.”
This is THEIR mission statement:
“Shopcastr is a new local shopping experience where retailers showcase their products for consumers to discover, curate and share.”
AND, they’re Toronto based!
AND AND they just registered that domain on Oct. 6/11.
AND AND AND it’s a RE-Brand of hipsell.com, which frankly is a better name than Shopcastr.
And if you type shopcats really fast how many people do you think get a typo, something like shopcast? In the past the search engines corrected it “did you mean shopcats” but now, with a brandspanking new domain and entity of that name its not going to, and people looking for shopcats are going to go to shopcast. And being a local crafty type sight they’re just going to stay on the wrong site!
/sigh
I know, it’s not really enough to say anything about, and its not really enough to get worked up about, and really its possible that is all coincidental and shit, especially because they followed me… but still, what a weird thing to wake up to!
Perhaps I should talk to them and we could exchange buttons or something… gee Emma, do you think being a rational human being and talking to someone with out flying off the handle might be a good idea? Shhh. I’ve not had my tea yet, so not in the mood to be yelled at by myself yet!
Thoughts anyone?
Holy crap! There are many coincidences in the universe… but this does not look like one of them, especially because they’re following you. Giving them the benefit of the doubt and politely drawing it to their attention is (I suppose) the proper way to manage this.
You with all your ethics and good virtues and stuff. Damn you WOMAN! You’re just too damn HOT! ;p
hi there – hope you got over your frustration. i love shopcastr, and found your site when looking up information about them! i checked your site out – don’t worry, your site is completely different. shopcastr is about retailers, while your site is about crafters – while the worlds may overlap, they’re still very different worlds. all the best!
Well hello!
I did get over my frustration, heck I even follow them on the twitter and they follow me. (Tho they totally did change their mission statement so it’s different now, so thanks for that guys!)
I’m generally of the “more the merrier” and “every one can win” mind set when it comes to business and crafts, I don’t see others as competitions and I don’t generally compete, don’t see the point really… just not in me.
But you did prove my point just a little… you only found me cuz you were looking for them, so likely the inverse is true as well. But its all good, as I said, the more the merrier, and one day when this business grows up it’s going to be a bricks and mortar store and will be on Shopcatr just like everyone else. It’s all good. 
I’ve debated taking this down, cuz knee jerk reactions are never pretty in retrospect, but its still me, and the emotion was honest at the time.
Thanks for the comment! I hope you come back in the future when I return to some sort of normal blog schedule! Ta!