Tips & Troubleshooting
Common problems artisans run into — signing in, getting your shop to show up, images and pricing, and how to get help.
What this covers
This page answers the day-to-day questions that come up once your shop already exists. It doesn't cover setting up your shop from scratch — for that, see Setting up your shop, Products, and Services.
Your left-hand menu also has a Get Help link near the bottom — the Artisanal Futures team controls where that link points, so it may or may not open this exact page.
Signing in
When you accept your invite, you have to sign up using the exact email address your invite was sent to — a different email gets rejected. That becomes your sign-in email (see Account settings for how to change it later).
The Sign in with Google, Sign in with Discord, and Sign in with Auth0 buttons only work if you already have an account — they can connect you to one that exists, but they can't create a brand-new one. If you try one of these without an account yet, you'll land on an Account Not Found page with a Join us link explaining that the platform is invite-only. If you've never signed in before, use your email and password instead.
Signing in with Google always shows Google's account chooser, so if you have more than one Google account, you can pick the right one every time.
Forgot your password?
- On the sign-in page, click Forgot your password?.
- Enter your email, then click Send reset link.
- Check your inbox (and spam or junk folder) for the reset email, and click the link inside it to set a new password (at least 8 characters).
Still locked out? Double-check you're using the same email your invite was sent to, check spam for the reset email, and if you're still stuck, reach out to the Artisanal Futures team (see Getting help).
Finding your way around
Every artisan's tools live in the same left-hand menu. See Getting Started for a full tour of what's in it. You only ever see and manage your own shop — a few menu items, like Shops, Categories, Users, and Invites, are for the Artisanal Futures team only.
Making sure your shop and items show up
You published a product or service, but it's not showing up on your public shop page. Check things in this order — most common cause first.
1. Check the item's "Visible to public" switch
Everything you create — your shop, products, and services — is public by default. If something isn't showing up, the most common cause is that its Visible to public switch has been turned off somewhere along the way. Your Dashboard's Hidden products and Hidden services cards point you straight at anything that's currently hidden.
Services created before this became the default may still be hidden from that earlier behavior. If one of your older services isn't showing up, open it and turn on Visible to public once — the Dashboard's Hidden services card will tell you if any of yours still need this.
- Open Products or Services in the left menu.
- Open the item that's missing.
- Turn on Visible to public.
- Save.
2. Check the Public/Hidden badge
Every product and service in your list shows a Public or Hidden badge right next to it. Anything marked Hidden won't show up on your public shop page.
3. Give it a category
A product or service with no category only shows up on the "all products" or "all services" page — it won't appear when someone browses a specific category. If you imported your products from your existing online store, they come in without a category, so check this after an import too.
4. Remember: hiding your shop doesn't hide your items
Turning off your shop's Publicly visible switch does not hide your products or services — the two are separate. Your public products and services keep showing up on the browse pages even while your shop itself is hidden.
When your shop is hidden, the public sees "not found" if they visit its page — but you (and the Artisanal Futures team) can still open it to preview. Clicking View Public Profile on your Dashboard shows the page with a "This shop is hidden" banner across the top, so you can check your layout before going live.
5. Just ran an import? Check what got hidden
Re-running a product import can quietly turn off Visible to public on items that have dropped out of your online store since your last import. If a product you still sell has disappeared from your public shop page after an import, check its Visible to public switch.
Quick checklist
- Is the item's Visible to public switch turned on?
- Does its badge say Public, not Hidden?
- Does it have at least one Category?
- Did you check with View Public Profile on your Dashboard, which shows exactly what a shopper sees?
- Did you recently re-run an import? Check the switch again.
Still not seeing it? Reach out to the Artisanal Futures team (see Getting help).
Images and content tips
Uploading images
Every image field on your shop, product, service, and event forms works the same way — one image per field.
- Only image files upload — the picker accepts any image format (jpg, png, webp, gif, and so on). Other file types won't go through.
- Each image has to be under 5 MB; anything bigger is rejected. If a photo is huge (straight off a modern phone or camera, for example), resize it smaller before you upload it.
Give each image file a unique name. Uploading a file with the same name as one you already used replaces the earlier image — two different photos both named photo.jpg will overwrite each other instead of both showing up.
If an upload fails, you'll see an error message on the screen. If that happens, check that the file is actually an image, refresh the page, and try again.
Prices and currency
Type your price in dollars, not cents — for example, type 19.99 for nineteen dollars and ninety-nine cents. All prices are in US dollars (USD) — that's the only currency the platform uses.
Descriptions
A Description is required to save a product or service — you won't be able to save either one without writing something in that field.
Events
The Events menu lets you create, edit, and delete events — see Events for the full guide. The end date has to be on or after the start date, or the form won't let you save.
Good to know
A quick-reference list of the things that trip artisans up most often:
- Your shop, products, and services are all public by default — the Visible to public switch is how you hide one on purpose. Older services made before this was the default may still need the switch flipped once.
- Sign in with the exact email address you were invited under.
- Prices are typed in dollars, not cents — type
19.99for $19.99, not1999. - Re-importing your products can hide items that no longer appear in your online store.
- Give every image file a unique name.
- Add a category to your product or service, or it only shows up on the "all" page, not any category page.
Getting help
If something isn't working or you're stuck, there are two ways to reach the AF team:
- Use the Contact page. Your message needs to be at least a sentence long (10 characters or more) — a quick note is fine, it just can't be blank.
- Email Andrew Alvarez directly at help@generativejustice.org.
When you report a problem, it helps the team fix it faster if you include:
- What you did (the steps you took).
- What you expected to happen.
- What actually happened instead.
The AF team can also set things up for you or make changes on request — you don't have to do everything yourself. Just let Andrew know what you'd like.