Ravelry

I know that I am just one person, but I would like to state my resistance. When the word inclusive is used, that means all, no one is excluded for any reason. When someone is told that they are welcome but because their viewpoints are not the same as yours, then you must not state your views, and you must keep it to yourself, that is bullying. When someone can post a negative concept to an idea, thought, or point; however, no one is able to post the opposite to that same thought, idea or point in order to have inclusivity, that is hypocrisy.

That is what Ravelry has done with their statement of position, stating that all Trump supporters are unambiguously white supremists The definition of unambiguous is not open to more than one interpretation. So in calling Trump supporters unambiguously white supremists, they have just made themselves unambiguous at the same time.

What they do to each other is not my concern, however, what they do to others is. In doing what they did, they shutdown any possibility of promotion of patterns that supporters could have bought. That is economic oppression.

It is one thing for Ravelry to have created this fiasco. They could have easily said NO POLITICAL items at all, banning all. Instead they opted for the 1st Ammendment restriction. Limiting the voices of those they don't agree with.

I really wish everyone would have looked at the total statement and outcome before they jumped on board because of a few key words and phrases, BIPOC, LBGQT+. Perhaps they would have thought a little more towards a total Political ban instead of a subjective ban.

Do not use ravelry if you are anything other than a BIPOC, and/or LGBTQ+, and/or a leftist sjw and/or a white savior.
Their policies are hypocritical and discriminatory. In the same breath, they ban all hate speech while defaming more than half the American population as supporters white supremacy.
They ban patterns that say things like "god is love" while allowing patterns that say "f*** trump." They flag pictures of Betsy Ross sewing a flag as hate speech while allowing pictures of Kathy Griffin holding a bloody, severed head effigy of the sitting president.
Not only is their policy unfair and hypocritical, questioning the fairness of the policy has become "against the policy." I made it clear that I do not support the current president while questioning why they wouldn't ban all politics instead of silencing the people with differing opinions. I was restricted from posting, commenting or messaging for 120 days. For suggesting that the site go politics free. Nothing pro-trump. Nothing bigoted, racist, sexist, ableist, etc.

All of this, while they continue to operate with an all-white cis-gendered team.

Instead of creating a safe space for all, they have created a hostile, fearful, treacherous environment where one wrong word will put you on the receiving end of a gag order.

Ravelry has an amazing database of crochet (and knitting) patterns, many of which are free.

Some patterns are political or otherwise likely to offend; these are marked as "mature content" and you can choose not to see them.

Signing up is free and you can upload as many images to your project and stash pages as you like. Keeping up to date notes of your projects is really handy in case you want to remake a pattern and you can't remember how you altered it, or you've got several Works In Progress and you can't remember what size hook you used in one of them! You can also look at other people's pages and see what that sweater looks like made by other crafters on all sizes and shapes of bodies.

If you want to venture into the forums, and if you want to upload images to the forums, and if they're not the images from your project or stash pages, then there is a small annual fee of $5.

The "Big Six" main forums are strictly moderated and no thread drift is allowed. They're really helpful if you want to know about a particular yarn, pattern or technique.

There are other forums based on groups, and the Crochet Shoulder Wrappers group is particularly good, well-regulated, knowledgeable and helpful. They have three Crochet-A-Longs a month: one free pattern, one paid, and one that can be free or paid that the members have voted for. CALs never really end so you can always get help or advice on any of those patterns quite easily.

Some forums focus on chat or on politics. If you don't want drama you can avoid those.

All in all a wonderful site. As with any internet site there can occasionally be drama but it really is very easy to avoid it.

One of the worst sites ever. Lots of rude people who often say hateful things if you don't share the same beliefs and opinions on everything. This problem actually goes farther back; but only gotten worse over the years.

They practice double standards and banned people who just simply disagreed with them. Tasteful designs like God is Love hat weren't allowed to have patterns up to sale or for free use but vulgar and obscene patterns with curse words are allowed if they agree with the message, even though it breaks the sites rules. Some groups bully those who are Christians or conservatives even though hate speech is supposed to be banned. Hate speech isn't banned as there is plenty of it towards people they don't like, just different opinions are banned even thought they claim to be inclusive.

It is supposed to be for people who love knitting and crocheting, where they can look for patterns and share their interests with others. Now it just a hardcore Liberal/Political site and it sad to see it come down to that; but not surprising though given their history.

Worst is what they labeled peopled who come from all sorts of backgrounds and never said a hateful word to anyone as White Supremacist because of different political views. That is not only a sweeping generalization; but racist. Half of my family is of Mexican descent and yet we were still called such horrible things just because of we're not Democrats.

Tons of ways to find free and paid patterns, Ravelry is not needed. They are extremely unprofessional and should of just said no politics at all in order for everyone to feel welcomed. Bad business practice to exclude half your members, many who helped the site.

I was a member for about 12 years. As the site has always had a vocal leftist agenda, I always kept my head down and concentrated on using the site as a place for all things yarn! I briefly joined a conservative knitters group, but left after a few weeks, as I didn't feel it was the place for politics. I am pretty politically active and loved that I had a place to get away from it all.
Fast forward to the comrade Casey's crack down on conservative talk, patterns and eventually posts, which culminated with his banning anything positive that was said or posted or in regards to POTUS. But left for all to see were the Fu@k Trump items, other hateful, and inappropriate items.
Then the purge began. People started to have their accounts closed, designers had patterns removed, and many business owners were hunted down on other social media platforms and bullied and attacked, forced to take a pro or con stance on this situation. Some people were so hounded that they closed businesses, had their followers harassed and some even experienced health problems because of it. I had my account closed by them, but luckily I had backed up all my purchased patterns sever months earlier.

Many people who oppose these fascist tactics have gone into hiding. Secret and closed groups are springing up. Groups are afraid that the most virulent of the pro-Rav groups will infiltrate and harass members, as they have done on Instagram and Twitter already.
Those who use force to silence, bully and harass those who don't agree with them need to be shown for the jerks they are. Once the dust settles I will be looking for alternative places to talk about yarn and knitting and leave politics out of it.

There is also new information that is looking like their payment platforms also post a security risk for anyone making purchases or selling through their site.
I have tried to reach out to them via email about refunds for purchases I made from them for add on usage, and why my account was shut down, but they refuse to answer.

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.