RavelryReviews 510

I joined Ravelry when I first started knitting. Found great patterns and learned a lot by viewing projects. Stepped away for a couple of years and came back to find it had become political. I found that the owners of Ravelry label all Trump supporters as white supremacist.

Wait a minute. I'm black. I support Trump.

While I never participated in the forums I found their statement incredibly one sided:
You can still participate if you do in fact support the administration, you just can't talk about it here.

Especially, since it is unbalanced in continuing to allow hateful patterns in regards to Trump to remain, but thanks for allowing me to remain. I had nothing to say in forums, but the idea that a craft site would silence one side of ANY issue was appalling.

Either ban all politics or ban none.

Luckily I found lovecrafts.com.

If I'm ever feeling hateful I know there is a one-stop-shop to go to. All have to do is pick a pattern, feel the hate and enjoy my afternoon knitting. WAIT. That's not why I knit. This group along with so many other liberal groups has gone to the limit to promote suppression of free speech and thought and to promote hate. I knit to relax, not to take my dislike of someone else's opinion out. I used to watch television to be entertained, not anymore. Same with ravelry. If these people hate as much as they do there are so many other violent and hateful groups on their side they should go there. I know they need to marginalize everything to promote their agenda, but knitting? This is what happens when you cannot convince people to swallow your values, but then why do your values have anything to do with knitting etc? If you find yourself so morally correct, why do you allow the hate and discontent in your patterns that fit your agenda? When looking at a pattern I could give a hoot if it was designed by a cow that thinks it's a bird, why do I even have to be told about the desires of this person. If the design is good Ill consider it. If it is hateful or not to my liking I still have the option scroll past it. I guess the people that would stick with this sight have no ability to censor what they are and are not supposed to believe, they need to have someone else do it for them. Sad situation but I can find ideas and patterns elsewhere. It was getting to the point where I was scrolling past so much discontent that it was probably time to leave anyhow. Knitting to RELAX, not HATE

Many patterns... many redirects to get the patterns. We decided to remove our patterns from the Ravelry database because of the bounty of hatred on the site. Of course white supremacy is 100% wrong but to give this label to half of our country because they support our elected administration is just as wrong. We would have stayed with Ravelry if they could have removed only the hate and not just any disagreement with their views... or if they removed all political items and not just those that differed from their views. The site had great potential but we would rather give up that portion of income than remain a part of that.

I was part of the Ravelry community for years. While there, I overlooked groups, statements, projects, and profile pictures that I found offensive or vulgar. Choosing instead to utilize their pattern database and mind my own business. Unfortunately, their move to censor and ban certain groups who did not agree with their ideology, while ignoring the vitriol of those who did was too much. Therein lies a slippery slope that I want no part of. Of note: This site claims to be inclusive but they have a management staff that is 100% white. How is that "inclusive"?

I belonged to Ravelry for five years, beginning when I learned to knit after my son was born. I loved coming to the site for creative inspiration and I also made some great connections for charity knitting projects.
Fast forward to their "new and improved", "think like us and only like us or GTFO" community rules. Not so great anymore. The focus is no longer on knitting, but instead is on making sure everyone on the site agrees with the mods/founders/admins in terms of politics (AKA the Trump ban).
I'm pretty darn progressive, a registered democrat, LGBTQ ally, etc, etc. However, I am aghast the founders of Ravelry don't see how incredibly hypocritical and divisive their new policies and political focus are. Just ban political topics altogether, as the only other forum I belong to does quite successfully. It seems these folks are the type who want to live in a world where everyone else thinks just as they do, all while espousing to be open and liberal. That's not how progressiveness works, kids.
The last straw for me was starting a thread in which I suggested going back to featuring creatively focused posts on the home page, rather than 90% of the home page posts being focused on tech tips, politics, and profiles of their "team." Know what happened? I was flamed by "oh so liberal" members who claimed the Ravelry community needed to be "protected" from the forces of evil by the Ravelry team. Say what? You would think I had announced my loyalty to Pol Pot or something. Then, the thread was locked because it violated "Community Guidelines." I asked for clarification on this and was given none, no response at all.
As a progressive knitter, do I care to have anything to do with these folks? Nope!
Stay far, far away.

I found ravelry a few years ago and thought it was a nice site to find some new patterns to try out. Turns out the site is run by open bigots who will ban people they disagree with (anyone who supports trump) and call them nazis. I've never posted anything about my support for our president, but I can't continue to use a site which is run by intolerant children. Goodbye ravelry, and may you burn in hell.

By the way, their site is horribly insecure and I know for a fact that they store their passwords in plaintext.
https://www.pcicomplianceguide.org/my-site-uses-paypal-so-im-not-subject-to-the-pci-dss-right/

If you're looking for a knitting site, here are a bunch more which are run by adults:
https://www.sparklesofsunshine.com/20-websites-with-free-knitting-patterns/

After many years on Ravelry, they have become quite against anyone who does not move in lock step. No matter your politics, they have chosen to disregard anyone who does not agree with their politics. IF you are a Trump supporter, you are considered a racist. Period. Full stop.
I have taken all my patterns out and have contacted the folks who develop patterns. I will get my patterns from their Etsy stores but not from Ravelry.
Bad business decision. It may end up for them the same as it did for ESPN. Tanking in ratings and followings
The GOOD news is there are three sites up and running that are going to have forums, patterns etc.
Fiberocity is one. Unraveled is another.
Bye bye R - at the very least you should have remained neutral. IT is sad that you SAY you welcome all and are against hate, yet if one checks the work Trump in patterns they will see quite a few that are obscene. Can you say "Hipocrite"?