Ravelry

I was a member for over 10 yrs until recently. I left because they don't want my kind there. Don't miss the site at all. Too bad I can't give them zero stars.

I've been contemplating deleting my Ravelry account. While the resources are excellent, the site has become a cesspool of politics and overall nastiness. Let me start by saying that I am not American and have no dog in the fight, but I can't fail to see the Trump hate that has seeped into every crevice of the site. The owners certainly play favouritism, often being very rude and unfair to conservatives while allowing the liberals free reign to abuse their political opponents. I just want a fibre craft site to be just that - leave the politics outside please. Worse than the blatant left leaning favouritism, is the way the forums are completely overtaken by the long time regulars who can be absolutely mean. Sure there are nice and helpful regulars, but the negative ones spoil it and turn everything into a confrontation. If you are a Trump hater, you'll feel right at home. If you support him, better stay out of the main forums and stick to the pattern searches. I'm neither a Trump hater nor supporter, I'm just really sick of the fights and the attacks and the way the owners don't stay neutral.

I was a member of Ravelry for over a decade. When it was in dire need of funding to start up I donated; and they did not ask for my race, political views, sexual preference, religion or any of the other alphabet subgroups they support. Casey took my money in a flash without an acknowledgement or a thank you. Now that Casey has made his millions he has decided that a large group of people that supported Ravelry are hateful and should not have an opinion that he does not agree with and should be banned. Yes it is a private company, but their policy on group participation and 'group think' should have been stated in the beginning before I bought patterns and supported the advertisers. How selfish Casey is now that he has his millions to make a decision that negatively impacts the lives and financial well being of designers and advertisers. Designers and advertisers are being boycotted, new web sites are being created to fill this void; and though in their infancy they are thriving. Tyson A. Says that it is the best social media site in the world, but I thought was that Ravelry was a free site for people that knit or crochet, not a social media site for a specific and non-inclusive group of people. Casey boasts that Ravelry has 8 million members, but why every time I sign in to download my patterns (before I am banned) there are less than 1,800 people signed in? Should it not be millions online supporting designers, advertisers and each other as they enjoy their craft? Where are the other 7,800,000 people, or they just bots that were created to falsely inflate the number of members?

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

I was a member for 8 years and I'm one of the people the owners called a white supremacist. They've always been lazy and left learning, but to consider "MAGA" hate speech, but not ACTUAL hate speech, like calling us White Supremacists is just delusional. Their minions don't even know the difference between INclusuon and EXclusion. You can't be INclusive by EXcluding an entire class of citizens! The dumb is astonishing! May their site go down in a rolling $hitball of flames. I can find patterns elsewhere.

Ravelry has incredible resources for materials, tools, and patterns. You can search several different ways to help find new projects. You can track your own supplies. Search for patterns using your yarn. Track your in-progress and complete projects. It's an organizer's dream.

There are also discussion fora. Many discuss fiber arts. You can get assistance from experienced knitters. Meet fellow enthusiasts of different techniques. The depth of expertise that the site can bring together is amazing.

Other fora are purely social. In some of those, there have been political discussions. As the fiber arts world has been discussing inclusion and (unintentional?) exclusion, the owners decided to make the space as welcoming for as many as possible. In their opinion, support of the Trump administration was support for its racist, nationalist, and sexist policies. They elected not to host support of the current administration on their site. They didn't ban anyone. They elected not to host language they determined was bigotry.

Use of fora is not mandatory to use Ravelry. I support their decision to exclude racism, sexism, etc. The 1-star reviews are not based on the site itself.

Put on your big girl panties and get ready to rock and roll. Ravelry welcomes ALL types and people from all countries and walks of life. Patterns are input by designers and are not censored. ALL PATTERNS from EVERYWHERE are on Ravelry, not just special patterns created for the site. Knitting, hooking, machine knitting, looming, everything. Are you right wing? There's groups for that. Are you liberal? There's groups for that too. Is there drama? Hell yes, make some popcorn and join the rubbernecker group. It's pretty funny watching the right wing nuts get their panties in a twist because Ravelry celebrates PRIDE or allows patterns that aren't to their political views or tastes --- and yet they cry about "snowflakes" having meltdowns? Obs they can dish it out but can't take it themselves as evidenced by the whiny reviews here about "socialists" and "political patterns" and "LACK OF TOLERANCE." WUT? Tolerance goes both ways...