I think everyone who is unhappy with these changes should take action and either go non exclusive or start uploading items to other sites.
Honestly I think the conversion increase story sounds very weak and questionable if this really is the main motivation behind sorting by best sellers.
When the credits system was removed we got told that is was because Envato could not afford to maintain it basically, another very questionable story. It does not take much fantasy to understand that Envato Elements is a big reason why Envato Credits were removed. A convenient re-route of customers who needs items on an on going basis. Sabotaging the market customer experience in favour of a more attractive Elements experience. I still can’t believe this actually happened.
In the same way I can’t believe that sorting irrelevant best sellers from 2010-2012 actually happened and are still happening. In the same way I can’t believe that exclusive market authors are still advertising for free through a misleading banner to a competing market most of them cannot participate in.
Maybe the beginning of the category page experiments showed a significant increase of items sent from the market authors to Elements? A nice “side effect”, that Envato is very interested in? One thing is certain, Envato wants more items in the Elements catalogue, at least in some of the better performing item categories. In 2 of the 3 last emails about the Worldwide author conference there was a link encouraging authors to apply for Elements.
Envato is currently hiring a new author growth specialist here: https://boards.greenhouse.io/envato/jobs/1615009 One of the tasks is “Implementing strategy that generates interest from new authors with Envato and converting that interest into qualified authors selling high quality items on Market and/or Elements.”
So yeah, make up your own thoughts here, but again it does not take much fantasy to assume this hunt for new authors is aimed at Elements mostly. Why would Envato need more authors on the marketplace? They can’t even take care of the ones they have, that’s for sure.
So does it help to rant and request new items sort back on the forum? I don’t know, probably not much. I would assume many Envato employees agrees with the authors here, because it is really a no brainer in the end of the day. But does it help if the top decision makers have other plans and bulldoze over everybody (including Envato staff) anyway?
All I know is that it is from those authors that are currently in Elements the key and power to stand up and demand change for these absurd marketplace decisions really are. Envato cares more about Elements then anything, and if the authors in Elements gather together with an ultimatum of new items sort or every Elements author will reduce their Elements catalogue significantly, Envato would change to new sort within the same week. Unlikely that this could happen? I don’t know, it’s 2019 and everybody is potentially connected, IF the majority of Elements authors is unhappy with the way things are being run on the market, they have the power to do something.
Again, in the long run, I would recommend everyone to start uploading items to other marketplaces, preferably to those that show a little respect for their authors. Your future earnings will thank you.