April Winchell, a.k.a. "Helen Killer", the mad, mean genius behind Regretsy.com

One of the guidelines issued to new Gumbooters when we are coerced happily volunteer to write for this publication is to always play nice: while we don’t typically down a valium-vodka cocktail and proclaim that everything is sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows (we save that for the Christmas party), we are committed to keeping the nay-saying firmly in check. It’s a way for us to set ourselves apart from traditional media, and highlight the innovative things people are doing to make this world a more palatable place.

But what about criticism, parody, and a little bit of harsh truth? Do these things necessarily deconstruct positive communities?

April Winchell, editor-in-chief of clever, cutting Regretsy.com, thinks otherwise.

Regretsy.com is yin to Etsy.com’s yang. Etsy is an online marketplace where hundreds of thousands of crafters from over 150 countries pay to post their handmade wares. Accordingly, the quality of goods available on Etsy varies.

Widely.

While what you see on the home page of Etsy tends to be stunning, original pieces by crafters-come-artists, Regretsy’s home page is dedicated to the absurd and downright, well, sucky. Winchell trolls the Etsy site on a daily basis, lifting links to some truly bizarre and heinous handiworks and repurposing them as topics of parody.

“Regretsy grew out of my love for shopping on Etsy,” she explains. “In the course of looking for wonderful things, I started to see a whole other world of weirdness, and that’s the stuff I really got excited about.”

By “excited”, she means harshly cynical, and hilarious. Regretsy is “where DIY meets WTF”, and the WTF comes through loud and clear in Winchell’s spot-on commentary.

Not surprisingly, she doesn’t always get the best reception. “I’ve gotten a few emails telling me I was going to drive someone to suicide, and I got an email from someone telling me they hoped my cancer came back. I also had someone tell me they reported me to the police for posting a link to his necklace, but as far as I know there’s no internet-linking division of the police department, so that hasn’t caused much fallout.”

Still, the site does bear the burden of being a critical voice, with little public acknowledgement by Etsy. Which is a shame, because it seems to do a lot to foster the crafting community Etsy has established.

For instance, beyond mere mockery, Regretsy often acts a watchdog, drawing attention to “crafters” on Etsy who are obviously selling mass-produced goods.

Additionally, a lot of what appears on Regretsy becomes successful by virtue of its notoriety. There’s even a section on the site for buyers who have purchased their favorite Regretsy-featured items. This generates traffic and sales on Etsy, and not a negligible amount.

“I got an internal memo from someone who works at Etsy, talking about the need to study the traffic patterns that come from us, and how to use that information better. It’s a little disappointing to me that Etsy is so coy about it, but they’re sort of boxed in by their own culture. They can’t really talk about how useful we are, because we’re not nice. I think that’s doing their users a disservice, because we can do great things for people who would never get on Etsy’s front page.”

While it’s understandable that Etsy would want to protect its members from harsh criticism, it is indeed coy about the symbiotic relationship the sites maintain. In response to an email questioning Etsy’s take on that relationship, press manager Adam Brown stated only that “if sellers use the traffic to their benefit, then that relationship exists between that seller and Regretsy, not between our community or the site as a whole.”

A young Regretsy reader models her new headband, which she later ate, but not until after all of her vegetables had been consumed.

Curiously at odds with a certain memo about exploring the best way for their community to benefit from the traffic generated by Regretsy, no?

Winchell also argues that humorous criticism can lead to a lot of personal and, by extension, community growth: “Parody is funny because it’s based on something you can recognize. That means there’s truth at the root of it, and truth is the only thing you can learn from.”

Jenn Danielson, who sells gift cards, bookmarks and photo prints on her Etsy store (The Photographic Moment) confirms: “I think, if my work were featured on Regretsy, I would definitely re-evaluate my stuff. You have to give credit where credit is due: Regretsy usually nails it.”

So perhaps, with the right delivery, even harsh criticism can strengthen and improve communities. While I doubt the Gumboot will start mocking other community-focused publications (blogs in glass houses, etc.), a good parody can generate discussion, encourage improvement and, perhaps most importantly, cut down the troublesome ego.

“The ability to laugh at ourselves and each other is just completely healing and liberating,” posits Winchell. “It adds instant perspective and takes the sting out of everything. I try to laugh at as much as I possibly can.”

“It’s either that, or never stop crying.”