Built With You: A Week of Fixes Our Makers Asked For

I want to start with a thank you.

Over the past few weeks, the first makers have been joining ProvenMaker, connecting their shops, and putting the product through its paces. Some of you are jewelers, some weave, some throw pots, and some design wallpaper and surface patterns. What you all have in common is that you took a chance on something new and then took the time to tell us where it fell short.

That feedback is the most valuable thing we have. Every note, every confused screenshot, every "this didn't work the way I expected" email goes straight into our week. So I want to do something I plan to keep doing: tell you exactly what you asked for, and exactly what we shipped in response.

Here is what changed this week.

We made copycats visible

One maker wrote in to say she could see a message that we had found possible copies of her listings, but she could not figure out where to click to actually see them. She was right. The number was there, but the page behind it was not.

That is fixed. There is now a dedicated page that lists each flagged listing alongside the matches we found: where the copy appears, a thumbnail, how close it is to your photo, and a link so you can look for yourself. When a scan finds something, the dashboard now takes you straight to it. No more dead ends.

We cut down the false alarms

Here is one I am genuinely glad a maker pushed us on. Our early scans were too eager. They flagged listings as "copies" based only on the marketplace a similar image appeared on, without checking whether the image was actually a near-duplicate of yours. For plain or popular product types, that meant generic look-alikes were getting counted as copies.

We added a visual-similarity check that compares each candidate to your photo directly, including rotated and mirrored versions, before it counts as a match. The difference is dramatic. One seller's scan went from dozens of "copies" down to zero real ones. If your numbers dropped recently, that is why: a flag now means a genuine near-duplicate of your work, not a coincidence.

A flag is still a starting point, not a verdict. But it is a far more honest one.

Weekly scans and alerts, running for real

We told you we would watch your top listings every week and email you when something new turned up. This week we made sure that promise actually runs on a schedule and reaches your inbox. Paid plans now get a recurring weekly scan, and when it finds a copy you have not seen before, you get an email pointing you straight to it. You should not have to remember to check. That is our job.

We now recognize more kinds of making

A wallpaper artist wrote to explain her craft: she designs murals and surface patterns, sometimes starting from digital tools, then refines the work and has it physically produced and shipped. Our verification was treating any digital starting point as disqualifying, which is wrong. Designing a pattern and producing a real physical product is making.

So we changed our stance. For design-led crafts like surface design, wallpaper, murals, and prints, a digital or tool-assisted starting point is legitimate. What we look for is your own design work plus evidence of real production: your process and iterations, your working files, photos and video of production, receipts for the tools and print services you use, and real orders. We also added clear, on-page guidance telling these makers exactly what to upload, so the instructions match what our review actually looks for. Reselling bare downloads with nothing behind them still does not pass. Genuine design work that ends in a physical product now does.

We unblocked a maker who could not add evidence

A seller told us, in so many words, that the system would not let her add more evidence while her file was under review. She was right again. We fixed the gap so you can keep strengthening your case at any stage, not just before you submit.

Keep it coming

None of this was on a roadmap a week ago. It came from you. If you have hit a wall, found something confusing, or wished the product did something it does not, please tell us. The fastest way to shape ProvenMaker right now is to be one of the makers who speaks up. We read everything, and as you can see, we move quickly.

Thank you for being early. You are not just using this product, you are building it with us.

Join ProvenMaker today. And if you are already here, thank you. Keep the feedback coming.

I'm Chip. I worked at Etsy, and I left to build what sellers needed most. ProvenMaker is my answer to the verification gap. If you have questions, feedback, or a wall you've hit, I'm an open book. Reach out anytime.