RavelryReviews 510

SO many people have left this website in the last year. It's laughable that they use the word "inclusive" when they chose to exclude a large segment of their users.

For accuracy, I will review Ravelry using its own words. All quotes are direct from Ravelry. I am not making this up.

"We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy. Support of the Trump administration is undeniably support for white supremacy."

There is ZERO proof that The President is a white supremacist. Ravelry might not agree with The President, but it doesn't make him a white supremacist. People who support The President are not automatically supporting white supremacy. How ridiculous and narrow minded.

"We are banning support of Donald Trump and his administration on Ravelry."

"This includes support in the form of forum posts, projects, patterns, profiles, and all other content."

As an American you can no longer have an avatar that includes anything related to The President of the United States. You cannot upload a pattern for a MAGA hat or anything similar. It will be removed, and you will be suspended or banned. This happened to people, including me.

"You can help by flagging any of the following items if they constitute support for Trump or his administration." (Followed by a list.)

They want their users to report on one another. Where in history have we heard similar stories?

"Note that support of President Trump, his administration, or individual policies that harm marginalized groups, all constitute hate speech."

Marginalized means relegated to a marginal position within a society or group. That is EXACTLY what Ravelry is doing. Oh, the irony!

Ravelry is anything but inclusive. Feel free to read their full policy online. It's full of exclusivity. This policy was of great detriment to them, though they will never admit it. They lost a LOT of users, and that translates to dollars. I hope it was worth it.

The backlash of Trump supporters against Ravelry is both comical and saddening. Support of the Trump administration is support of their views, which include condoning white supremacy, discrimination against women in the workplace, misogyny, taking away LGBTQ civil rights, ignoring climate change for future generations to suffer, and advancing hate and fear of anyone who does not look like you. All of these agendas are in support of financially enriching Trump and his family. They do not serve the people. If you believe in such things, why do you want to bring that to knitting? Leave it out of Ravelry by taking yourself away if you are a source.

This site used to be great. Sure it is a simply a useful data storage site at it's core but the heart if this place is the community. At least, it was... then "Cassidy" happened.

Jessica and Casey Forbes started it back in May of 2007. I joined not long after. It was great. The folks that came in were kind, helpful, accepting, open, and tolerant of all... naturally just loving folks.

About three years ago, things started to get weird. A witch hunt on specific designers occurred, then the banning of all conservatives, the gay pride flag that has been flying for over a year, the constant forcing down your throat of political agendas by the Forbes, and now they are abusing a marginalized community who have been effected by their web redesign that has been causing migraines, eye strain, and seizures in users. Their response was to call those effected liars... literally, Casey (now Cassidy) tweeted that this group of disabled users are liars.

He came out as transgender in the middle of all of this mess. You do you. If that is what you need to be your true and authentic self then go for it. However, Casey was always polite, considerate, kind, and compassionate. Cassidy is behaving like Regina George without the posse or position. She is mean, rude, and an overall b*tch towards the community.

They have lost their focus. They have lost the trust of the community. They have lost the respect of the community. Their monopoly on this is coming to an end... soon. All because they forgot the golden rule.

It's a great place for finding patterns. But! Post roll-out "new" skin 2020:
Accessibility is not top-priority. People's feedback is not welcome unless it's praise. Every critical voice is silenced. Period!
Communication is non-existent.
Everything is fine and dandy on the surface and oh so inclusive, but the archives and the actions tells a very different story.
For years thousands of people - a lot of them disabled -have made a huge effort to contribute their money, time and patterns, have helped and made the database and the community what it is. Exclution is a very poor way to thank them.
The message is clear however: if you can't use the site anymore due to accessability issues - too bad for you - hit the road.
Time to vote with the feet. Done.

BLACK LIVES ONLY MATTER IF YOU DONT HAVE READABILITY ISSUES

PERFORMATIVE BS

Woke owners should write a book on how to ruin a brand

They almost succeeded last year banning Trump but this year is the final nail in the coffin

WARNING
Site has caused seizures

New designer Livia who failed Elizabeth Warren campaign took a year rebranding

Owners actually approved her design destroying a fiber community by excluding the disabled

Seriously who likes dropped shadow buttons?

Designers linking to patterns should be held liable for damages!

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT ANYONE?

Ravelry is the industry leader in fibre arts for sure, and it's a great platform for discovering patterns and businesses, but there is a troubling undercurrent of ableism that has been exposed in the last week. At least seven seizures have been reported by users in the last eight days and hundreds of users have shared their experiences of migraines, eyestrain and headaches caused by the new layout. Ravelry has shut down all discussions of accessibility and safety and the team has refused to make any apologies for the suffering that has been caused. One user who had worked hard for the last ten years to create accessible patterns for blind knitters has shared how her work has systematically been targeted and removed from the site, and how she has been told in no uncertain terms that her style of knitting will never be considered equal. Ravelry has been a safe space and my favourite place on the internet for years but their silence is deafening and it's clear that the team and their volunteers are not as passionate about inclusivity as they claim.

For a website which brands itself as trans friendly, black friendly, democrat friendly etc, it's sad that a recent website redesign has made itself disability UNFRIENDLY. This is a community website and many knitters find comfort there... and many people with and also without underlying medical conditions are now experiencing migraine from a website in which they have never had migraine before... from any website. And some people who have had past epilepsy's have had seizures and had to give up their driving license (as the law stipulates this). Ravelry response? "Tough", get over it. They are deleting any post that shows negative feedback to their redesign effectively brushing all problems under the carpet. If you dont like the migraine inducing website... leaves is their response. Despite this being AGANST W3C web guidelines as there is NO WARNING on the front page. To top this all off... if you say anything legally ok, but against the design. The admin delete your account!. It's become a dictatorship. No consultation, no discussion, we dont like your negative (though constructive) comments, get lost. Posts and accounts deleted within 5 min to avoid anyone else noticing issues from sharing thoughts with others. And to think the owners of Rav are Democrats... Theyre behaving like Republicans censor this, censor that... What the fxxx has happened? I think all designers/sellers/buyers should quit.