PASADENA, Calif. — HAND-KNIT sweaters? Hand-thrown pots? How about quilts stitched on a sewing machine? In an age when artisanal items can be sold at a premium, what products should qualify as “handmade”?

This is the problem confronting executives at Etsy, the online marketplace for all things vintage and handmade, which has not allowed factory-made products to be sold on its site since it was founded in 2005.

But last month, Etsy announced new policies that would allow sellers to apply to peddle items they produced with manufacturing partners, as well as to hire staff and use outside companies to ship their goods — all provided that the sellers demonstrated the “authorship, responsibility and transparency” intrinsic to handmade items.

By easing the definition of “handmade,” Etsy is trying to accommodate individual vendors who are having more and more trouble keeping up with their growing volume of customers. But many Etsy users are outraged by what they see as Etsy’s abandonment of its commitment to human handicraft, with some jumping ship for purer artisan sites like Zibbet.