HELP A FELLOW MER OUT!

[KaetiIngram]

Hey guys! I'm not gonna make this super long thread I'm just gonna get straight to the point. I work seasonally as a mermaid during the summer and I LOVE making my own tails! I'm currently working on a much longer project of making my own latex tail. Anyway, I've made so many for myself that I thought, why not open an Etsy shop for tails? So I did! I'm currently making customizable spandex tails for incredibly cheap (especially children's) so I can get started! I know it's Winter time now but they would make a great Christmas present, birthday present, or even one for a photoshoot! So please help me out and spread the word!


https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScaleTails
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScaleTails
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScaleTails
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScaleTails
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScaleTails


~Mermaid Kaeti ❤

[BayouMermaid]

Spamming up the forum won't help you get customers here. No need for 7 different threads.

[KaetiIngram]

Not trying to spam, just trying to reach out to different people. :)

[Miyu]

We're all the same people here - you only need to start one thread and it'll be visible to the whole mer-community! And there's no need to post the same link to your shop 5 times in each new thread you've created. Doing all this only serves to annoy people and clog up the forums. You'll get a better response as a tailmaker if you don't make most of your posts spammy. Starting off with things like this may turn potential customers away. Now you're forcing a moderator to take a look at things when it's really unnecessary.

[Mermaid Kelda]

25713

We see all the posts in the "new posts" search, so posting in multiple subforums doesn't actually help you reach more people. It's mostly a courtesy thing, but it also does look spammy (bots tend to come in and post the same links over and over again).

That said, congrats on your business - hope you do well. It's always nice to have more options out there.

[MerEmma]

Not only that, but you CLEARLY have a 2tails image being used on your Etsy listing. I recommend taking it down until you have a picture of your OWN work on there. That's not your tail.

[Raayvhen]

Smells fishy. You come on here without any prior posts, clog up the forum with spam, and you're using other companies pictures to advertise your product. You're either a troll, a scammer, or an over excited kid.

[Marlin]

Smells fishy. You come on here without any prior posts, clog up the forum with spam, and you're using other companies pictures to advertise your product. You're either a troll, a scammer, or an over excited kid.


Bingo- My thoughts exactly.

[Raayvhen]

Just so you know I reported you on etsy. I suggest everyone else does so too.

Sent by Jellyfish

[Starfrit]

This whole thing reads like a blatant scam that I'll be shocked if it's anything but. Account made a year ago, yet they only post now to clog up the forums advertising for tails they're using stolen pictures to promote? Google's turning up some really bizarre results when I search for "Kaeti Ingram Mermaid"...

I'd be very, very suspicious of this. Reported the Etsy.

[ShyMer]

Mermaid Kaeti, if you're sincere, I'd suggest you apologize and fix your mistakes now before it gets worse. I can understand if you just didn't understand forum/internet etiquette and made a mistake, but if you don't admit to it, you're going to be considered a troll.
We don't know anything about you, so I'm willing to believe you might just have no idea what's acceptable.

[PhaylennMurúch]

if you've made so many tails for yourself, where are the pictures?

[Mermaid Isabel]

spam spam spam SCAM SCAM SCAM!!!!!!!!

[KaetiIngram]

Well aren't you guys just rude. I posted this on here hoping that I would get support from fellow mer-lovers but this just took a turn for the worst. Thank you, guys. I'll be deleting the threads ASAP.
P.S. - No, I didn't mean to spam or troll anything. I honestly didn't know that posting it on one thread means everybody sees it anyway. I'm HONESTLY just trying to get the name on my shop out there. I'm just taken back by how rude most of you are. I'm sorry you don't "know me" because I don't post on here ever, but I come here often and I read many many many threads. I just don't comment.

[Maethor]

They were concerned more about the photo on Etsy. Is that your tail or one from 2tails?

[KaetiIngram]

Yes, but I recently changed it. I only used it and cropped it because I haven't made any tails from that exact fabric yet so I don't have any pictures for the shop. All the ones that I made for work last summer were ripped up and destroyed. I'm sorry for using that image, I didn't know it would be such a big deal.

[Maethor]

That's considered plagiarism. If you created something, you wouldn't want someone else to use your pictures as advertising for their own product. And the customers don't want a picture of something you didn't create because they expect the product they can see.
My advice would be to take down the etsy listing and wait until you make a fabric tail as the model.

[Miyu]

I agree. I have an Etsy shop myself, and I won't list anything until I have a nice photo of either the exact thing that's being listed, or something I've made that shows what a custom order will truly be like. As a result, I now take pictures of EVERYTHING I make, before I give it to someone/use it :p That way I can make better custom listings, and accurate ready-to-ship listings.

I suggest making a couple of fabric tails in the actual fabrics you'll be using for sales - Having the neoprin tail pictured on the listing will make people expect that the fabric tails will have the dame thickness of fabric/texture/custom paint job/etc.

And yes, using someone else's work to advertise your own is considered plagarism, which can translate into lawsuits and other legal trouble when you're a business. That's like someone taking a photo of your tail, creating a store based around it, saying that they made it and can make more just like it!

If you read many many threads, how did you not know about the "new posts" box at the bottom of the main forum page, or the fact that new posts also pop up in the sidebar? At any rate, posting the same thing in multiple parts of the forum is bad net-etiquette on any forum/site, and it can clog up servers (which people have to pay for), etc. A lot of forums also don't allow you to delete threads, forcing you to instead just let them stay on the forum forever and hope they fade into obscurity :p Of course, 3 years later, someone new will necro a post everyone was trying to ignore...

[PhaylennMurúch]

Curious, what were you making the tails out of that they only lasted a few months?

[Starfrit]

Well aren't you guys just rude. I posted this on here hoping that I would get support from fellow mer-lovers but this just took a turn for the worst. Thank you, guys. I'll be deleting the threads ASAP.
P.S. - No, I didn't mean to spam or troll anything. I honestly didn't know that posting it on one thread means everybody sees it anyway. I'm HONESTLY just trying to get the name on my shop out there. I'm just taken back by how rude most of you are. I'm sorry you don't "know me" because I don't post on here ever, but I come here often and I read many many many threads. I just don't comment.

You have to realize that a lot of people on this forum have been the victims to a lot of scams-- when things like this crop up, people have a right to be wary. You've shown zero understanding of how to run your business (using photos of someone else's work, advertising a product that you yourself just admitted you've never made with that material before). You've given absolutely no reason for any potential client to have confidence in your business.

On top of that, there is no information available about you, your tailmaking or even your mermaiding online anywhere. Your MerNetwork profile is bare and the only posts you've ever made have been to promote your sketchy-looking business. A Google search for "Kaeti Ingram Mermaid" turns up literally nothing beyond a YouTube account called "ScrotumSatisfackshun" tied to the name Kaeti Ingram, that once liked a single silicone tailmaking video a few months ago and has zero relevance to mermaiding beyond that. Reverse searches of your profile picture turn up nothing. You're practically a ghost and to anybody who even tries to look for more information about you, the only results that come up are red flags indicating not to give you money.

And we're the rude ones for being suspicious? Are you kidding me?

Regarding "I come here often and I read many many many threads. I just don't comment"... If that's the case, then 1) you should know how often people here have been scammed, and 2) you should know about these:

25722

See the red blocks? There are THREE locations that direct you to all of the forum's newest posts and comments directly on the first page you see when coming to the forum. One of them even shows you the newest post without having to click on anything! They're obvious, and any regular member of the forum is at least familiar with them, whether they're active users or just lurkers. Your decision to spam half a dozen separate boards with the same copy-pasta doesn't strike me as the move of somebody who was remotely familiar with the site or its userbase on any level.


Curious, what were you making the tails out of that they only lasted a few months?

In fairness, Kaeti said the tails were "ripped up and destroyed"-- I took that to mean that they were physically dismantled when they were no longer in use, not that they only lasted that long. She did say her mermaiding was only seasonal, anyway, so that makes sense to me if she intended to reuse the material for other projects.

[Raayvhen]

Well aren't you guys just rude. I posted this on here hoping that I would get support from fellow mer-lovers but this just took a turn for the worst. Thank you, guys. I'll be deleting the threads ASAP.
No. We're cautious.

P.S. - No, I didn't mean to spam or troll anything. I honestly didn't know that posting it on one thread means everybody sees it anyway. I'm HONESTLY just trying to get the name on my shop out there. I'm just taken back by how rude most of you are. I'm sorry you don't "know me" because I don't post on here ever, but I come here often and I read many many many threads. I just don't comment.
The point of a community is to get to know other people. Just because you read our threads and lurk a lot, doesn't mean we know a single thing about you.
What we know based on this post is that you:

Plagiarize
Are only interested in advertising and not joining the community
Are unnecessarily defensive when called out

[ShyMer]

I'm gonna say it again, because I think you missed it.

You need to take responsibility for your mistakes if you want to fix people's opinion of you.

You did fix your thumbnail photos and you said you'd delete the other threads. That's great, but you kept trying to justify things instead of making a sincere apology. Getting defensive isn't helping you much.
Like Raayven said, you look like you're only interested in advertising, not the community. You don't have to care what people think of you, but if you wanna sell stuff, you'll need to change some things.

Honestly, most people here are pretty nice and understanding. Yes, some people are rude. It's the internet. If you swallow your pride and apologize sincerely, you can start changing people's minds.
It's okay to make mistakes. It's how you deal with it that really matters.