send as gift. Please see my two more recent posts about where I am with regard to leaving Ravelry. Ah well, hopefully they learn their lesson. We can only hope that if enough people sign, it will have an impact. In 2012, Ravelry co-founder Cassidy (formerly Casey) Forbes wrote this post detailing where their revenue comes from and, in this recent Twitter post, she updated that same info using numbers from 2018. Many have had to find an alternate way of selling patterns (LoveCrafts, Etsy, Payhip), spending hours setting up these systems to support those that cannot access Ravelry and finding ways to send copies of patterns to those customers who cannot access their libraries. I’m severely dyslexic, have a panic disorder and get migraines (in life). Accessibility decreased with the changes, many users were harmed, many designers can no longer use the site through which they sold their patterns leading to a loss of income for many. At this point, I was able to log in, read the forums, see how widespread the issues were and how many people were being adversely affected. You are as important to Ravelry as we, the staff, are. They invite users to send them emails, but although they respond promptly to bug reports, to my knowledge no one has had a reply to emails about accessibility problems. Hello, I have also sent comments to the team about their accessibility both about putting the ‘skip to content’ option on the new site only and about alt text on the site. We would also like an apology to those users who have been harmed by the changes to the website and also to Katie for the harm they have done to her. The rules of civil society are being rewritten. I think a massive part of it was the amount of time they spent dealing with issues and complaints. The Ravelry brand has now become, “We are a community of victims.” (Of not their race, gender, or sexual orientation, but victims by the choices they made). Ravelry is somewhat like the Amazon of the knitting world, with a side of social media. And they're still keeping her on board, and as far as I know she hasn't sent a single apology to anyone she gaslit and mistreated. Cassidy has since deleted her account on Twitter. Thank you for your post! This is the real issue. We have not been as aware as we … This means that anyone who is not logged in who follows a link to Ravelry (eg, through the IG app, when using a library computer or anyone without a Ravelry account) will get the migraine-inducing, seizure-causing website. Cassidy has 6 jobs listed on their profile. If you're disabled you know how hard it can be to navigate the world because you are always overlooked. Disabled knitters don't matter to them; they've made that very clear. In Episode 54 our feature interview is with Ravelry founders, Jessica and Casey Forbes. As a more-or-less neurotypical Rav user — I outgrew my migraines at 60 — I have no experience with the issues caused by the new site, but it must be torture for those affected. She continues to use them in every post about site updates. I’m disabling comments on this post as the situation has moved on in the last couple of weeks. This morning’s announcement has been met with overwhelming support on Twitter where it had already garnered over 10,000 likes in … It will take a period of adjustment, but in the future Cassidy's role will be focused on technical work. It has , ironically, become harder to be open about having a disability in the hiring process, because now companies worry that I will demand a host of expensive accommodations and when really I may need none or very simple things. My advice to Casey Forbes is to get out of your head, out of your bubble, out of your echo chamber, out of your circle of friends. But the most damaging factor is that the staff of Ravelry consistently deny that the website causes physical harm to its users, leading to doubts that anything will be done to improve this. Cassidy is a colorwork hat using three shades of the brand new Berroco Ultra® Wool.The modern colorwork pattern starts after a deep ribbed edge. Consider for a minute the stress that this would cause to a neurotypical person when a site that you’ve used regularly over many years (daily for a lot of users) suddenly changes significantly without warning, and then consider that Ravelry has a large number of neurodiverse users to whom these changes were even more alarming and confusing. Many of you will recognize the name Ravelry, and you should. Ravelry is a free social networking service and website that beta-launched in May 2007. This is potentially dangerous for anyone stumbling across the site. This is one email she has sent out. This has been the best July ever.” You can see a screenshot of the tweet here. Oh please, I have 25 years of working with accessibility and I have never in my entire life seen so many that have so much problems about this matter. But, have you seen the madness that Ravelry's decision has caused? And Cassidy, with ,obviously, no formal schooling in customer support or PR should have given the job to someone more experienced. A week later (July 24th) it was announced that “Ravelry customisations based on the survey data and feedback received” are being designed. Ravelry download $6.00 USD. I don't want to misgender them) basically called every disabled person who complained about the new Ravelry design a liar. I can guess who it was from. I usually use a screen reader and speech to text. The accessibility is as bad as before, they have literary just polished the surface, but give them a break. Basically sent emails saying that the epilepsy foundation and other medical professionals found that ravelry's new design doesn't cause seizures, migraines etc, and invalidating people's experiences. Our Mission is to properly prepare families when they need assistance. Update 8/3/2020: Designer KatieBea posted on Instagram that she received an email from Cassidy, one of the founders of Ravelry, saying “we have found zero evidence that there is anything about the new design that causes migraines or seizures.” In her post she writes “ For well over a month, we have begged you to do something. It was started by Cassidy and Jess Forbes in 2007. These icons cause visual difficulties for some and cause screen readers difficulties. No. I’m Liz and I'm a Scottish Knitwear designer! Ravelry claims to have eight million users. I design and write clear and fun knitting patterns for adventurous knitters who love cables, lace and texture. (Silvia Maggi has written an interesting blog post from the point of view of a User Experience Designer (the same role that Livia holds at Ravelry) about the issues, how they could have been avoided and with links to many articles on these issues: How Rebranding Cost Ravelry the Trust of Their Community). These changes have caused harm to disabled and able-bodied users. They are seeing a loss in income as users turn away from Ravelry. I’m sorry you were on the receiving end! I would be curious to know if this has affected Ravelry’s business. I miss it, but refuse to patronize any business that actively hates me. I doubt it would be something they publicize, but it would be nice to know that their actions had consequences. About this pattern Cassidy. A knitter named Katie Bea (@ktb38 on Instagram and Twitter) seems to be at the heart of the conflict with Cassidy. Since the changes to Ravelry, Katie has also been advocating for accessibility for all those who have lost access to Ravelry. As for Casey/Cassidy, he/she/it makes my skin crawl. I have been an active member since November 2007. It’s been very popular on Instagram over the, It’s definitely the start of sock weather season here in Scotland. Ravely staff have proclaimed that they are an inclusive website. I do believe taking away the writing rights of Cassidy was another such blunder. Especially when u had all the good intentions, and made ravelry more accessible to a broader audience (I personally loathed the old design). It functions as an organizational tool for a variety of fiber arts, including knitting, crocheting, spinning, and weaving.Members share projects, ideas, and their collection of yarn, fiber, and tools via various components of the site. They have removed or put warnings on links to Ravelry to avoid causing harm to the unwary. Unfortunately, I work in a yarn store so I do have to use Ravelry (fortunately was switched to classic view after I was unable to see out of my right eye after using it for a few minutes) but I won't be using it personally. I hope that the ability to use the site in its familiar Classic mode along with ongoing updates and improvements to the new design will help folks to enjoy Ravelry and gain trust in us again. At present, Ravelry is actively harming users, including LGBT+ and POC users. While this allows for comparisons between the various options, it made the test very long, and the screenshots of the site used in the test triggered the same headache and migraine responses as the website does, meaning that many of those who most need the changes were unable to complete the survey. There was no warning, no mention that it was coming and happened literally on the refresh of a page. During a global pandemic, when millions of people around the world are self-isolating, and disabled users are even more isolated than normal, Ravelry’s new look has taken away users access to their friends, social networks and support systems. Cassidy is also calling every designer who answered the survey a liar and let’s remember one really important point - there are thousands of designers on Ravelry, a very large percentage of whom do not earn enough to pass the threshold to pay Ravelry fees. Cassidy’s (co-founder and developer of Ravelry) was to tweet about her, saying “There’s a person on Instagram who has been spreading straight up lies about Ravelry non-stop since we have updated the design. Jessica for the Ravelry team: Cassidy… Cassidy and I have always stated that Ravelry will be free for users, to make it available to all regardless of budget. At the very least a formal apology needs to be issued, particularly from Cassidy, and a commitment to fixing the issues, both with the site and in how Ravelry handles similar issues in the future. Ravelry is my favorite free resource website! They cannot provide pattern support through the site any more. Your experience on Ravelry matters so much to us, and we're working hard to make our site work as well as possible for all of you.” (issues being migraines and seizures, “some aspects” being can’t look at it at all), then told us their automatic web checker said accessibility was better than ever (the automatic checker cannot check things like colours, contrast or brightness, and is mostly limited to checking everything has alt text and a screen reader can see it), before transitioning to tell us it was they have more sign-ups than last June, and 92% of active users are using the “new” look, with no definition of what an active user is. It is not your site, it is theirs. Ravelry don’t want to change things. What we have been asking for, since the new look has gone live is for the site to be rolled back to the way it was on June 15th 2020. Ravelry’s old logo, complete with Pride flag to show their history of inclusion. Cassidy needs to get it together and make her OWN apology statement. They have chosen the wrong hill to die on with this issue. We sent the letter. Have you seen the nearly 1000 posts on my facebook about it? I spent eight hours lying down in a dark room, with a stabbing headache every time I moved, nausea, and unable to do anything. The most recent one is that pattern sales are down. They have also closed comments on their Instagram account, deleted comments on their Facebook page, and are not responding on Twitter. They’ve donated money to Black Lives Matter, stood up for LGBTQIA+ and supported size inclusivity but when it comes to access for the disabled members of Ravelry, they have been ignored, dismissed and, at best, treated as an afterthought. As a bystander I believe both sides overreacted, and I got the impression that some who had minor issues with the new design did join on the seizure bandwagon. I design and write knitting patterns for accessories, produce tutorials and write about what I do! Over the last six weeks, Mary-Heather has been asked repeated not to use the new icons as bullet points (and to just use the normal black dots instead) in both blog posts and forum posts. Made with a cotton blend yarn, this sweater is soft, light, and easy to care for. Yes, I just read the full statement. add to cart. I'm glad they're starting to think about things, but wow did they burn it to the ground first. So, you've all obviously seen the posts I've written about this whole Ravelry issue, you know my stance. The whole episode has opened the eyes of many of us to the team’s previous failures around accessibility and ableism, and their failure to actually enforce their no hate speech policy, allowing racism and homophobic abuse in their forums. If this isn’t possible, we need “Classic Ravelry” to be the default (with bugs fixed), and the new look to be the opt-in option until the new look has been fixed, checked for accessibility and no longer harms users. A pride flag has been part of the Ravelry logo for a long while now and Cassidy and Jess have had a no-tolerance policy towards accounts that express views against gay rights. A day later, Casey / Cassidy & Jess Forbes the ‘owners’ of Ravelry went above and beyond their anti-Trump tirade and took down another of my knitting designs which expressed aphorisms espoused by Canadian clinical psychologist, Dr. Jordan Peterson - common, age-old, ‘wisdoms’. Read More... I’m delighted to be sharing Giuthas with you at last! She no longer has access to the customer service emails and her Ravelry mail is disabled.”. So, there is my empathy. As a knitting and fiber website, it has a shocking 9 million members. View Cassidy Forbes’ profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. This is the Open Ro, Time for a bit of colour I think! The final box for “other comments” was limited to 500 characters, leaving very little room for anyone to talk about accessibility. Ideally, they would hire an expert in accessibility web design to ensure that the site is as accessible for all users as possible. On Sunday, June 23, 2019, Casey Forbes, Ravelry's developer, owner, and administrator, released a statement forbidding users to post in support of Donald Trump. But as a brand you still have to take the higher ground and fucking apologise. Cassidy came after her when she said sales were down on Ravelry due to the accessibility issues with the site, and Cassidy called her out and basically called her a liar. It took ten days before the animation on the login screen was finally stopped and people could log in without it causing them problems. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, mainstream media, academia, and now Ravelry are redefining community. ravelry patterns yarns people groups forums my notebook I’ve spent a lot of time, I’m so excited to share Tuinn Bheaga with you at last! Just another reason I won't use Rav anymore. The survey was closed after 10 days with “over 10,000 completed surveys”. I am leaving Ravelry <> There is a knitting website called Ravelry who have, knowingly, hosted a very hateful thread about me. This unisex hat pattern is available in three sizes, and with all the shades of Berroco Ultra Wool, this is a great hat for anyone. Purchase. It was atrocious, demeaning, and outright cancelling a whole group of ppl - which is exactly what we should be avoiding in these troubled times, and more so, if u write inclusiveness on ur flags. This new look changed the colour scheme, font, line spacing, rearranged menus and added animations to the login and purchase pages. Inside of 10 years Ravelry has turned the knitting industry on its head, enabling independent producers to really flourish, so it’s really cool to get to meet the couple who helped make this happen. Keep pushing and Ravelry may just decide to close down entirely, and while I’d hate to see that happen, I couldn’t blame them. After three days, the Rav team introduced the option to change back to the “classic” look of the site. Ravelry is among the most popular online platforms for knitters and crocheters, with 8 million members, more than 100,000 followers on Twitter and 80,000 Instagram followers. Basically she's doubling down that there's nothing wrong with the site and those who have been vocal in stating issues are lying. Sure, she should focus on other things, butNow ppl are left with an indirect apology. And given how supportive the Ravelry community was when Casey became Cassidy, it seems… odd how they appear to be non-supportive of this group of users. I love the trip down memory lane that this #NorthE, So last year's plan to crochet toys for my kids fo, Five inches done out of eight! This will protect users who are not logged in and new users, who follow a link to Ravelry will get the migraine-inducing, seizure-causing website. In my opinion, Cassidy appears to be coming quite unhinged over the … No. This subtly conveys the opinion that it’s just a few people who are complaining so it’s not really that important and look, lots of shiny new users to replace the old ones! She made an Instagram post with the survey results, clearly stating that “75% of the designers who answered the poll had seen a fall in sales”. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, 1,2,3, stitches... oh a squirrel..damn...lost count, https://blog.ravelry.com/humans-of-ravelry-meet-katiebea/, https://madmanknitting.wordpress.com/2019/09/03/why-casey-forbes-is-the-worst-knitting-flub-in-history/. The loss of access to Ravelry has meant that some users cannot access the pdf patterns they have bought, and cannot use the database to look for patterns, choose yarns, see projects in different sizes or access their project notes. We have not been as aware as we should be that these messages were being sent. There is an open letter on Ravelry today apologizing and explaining recent drama, and it sounds like they threw Cassidy right under the bus: “With regard to tweets and emails sent by Cassidy, we would like to make clear they do not reflect the opinions and professional intentions of the Ravelry team, or the way we think about what people are experiencing. With regard to tweets and emails sent by Cassidy, we would like to make clear they do not reflect the opinions and professional intentions of the Ravelry team, or the way we think about what people are experiencing. I’m keenly aware of how I would feel if suddenly unable to use Ravelry. It’s worth noting that after asking whether you had drop shadows turned on or off at the start, every image of the buttons within the survey showed them with drop shadows. Cassidy (and the whole team to some extent especially at the beginning) has shown that disabled people do not matter. It’s possible for a large number of small designers on Ravelry to lose sales, while a small number of the bigger name designers have a great month and lift Ravelry’s sales numbers as a whole. As a professional (web) product manager i can totally see how the new design increases sales and the total user numbers. Designers have cancelled advertising in protest, and many have even removed their pattern sales from Ravelry completely. This has been the best July ever.” You can see a screenshot of the tweet here. If we were talking access to healthcare information, school or requirements for my job, then I’m going to push back. I know when one person has a stranglehold on something they can get very defensive and controlling about their particular project, but at some point you have to give up some control. The most recent one is that pattern sales are down. This is problematic because if the changes are only to users personal settings, as I said before, anyone who is not logged in who follows a link to Ravelry will get the migraine-inducing, seizure-causing website. Cassidy has since deleted her Twitter account after criticism of the tweet. Next, they put up a blog post starting with “For those of you who are having issues with the New Ravelry design, we’re truly sorry that aspects of the site are not usable for you. 06.Tem.2018 - Ravelry: Cassidy's Cap pattern by Bonne Marie Burns Cassidy Forbes from Ravelry is now sending out emails to people saying there is no problem with the new ravelry design, that it does not cause migraines and seizures and that people should “consider the sources” of such information. Being called a liar is also a touchy subject because a lot of chronic invisible illnesses take a very long time to diagnose because they're not believed when discussing symptoms. The survey gave different options for font, background colour, footer bar colour, and button colours. Nearly two weeks later the Ravelry team produced a new “readability survey”. No matter, it exploded many weak minds of the Brave New World. Ravelry includes tools to help you plan and track your projects, and to organize your yarn and tools. Ravelry has enhanced my knitting life immeasurably, and I have found criticism of the new interface — and of Cassidy and Jessica — disproportionate and, in some cases, inexplicable. Yes, Ravelry changed their design, the new design is not good but the old wasn’t any better. In my opinion, Cassidy appears to be coming quite unhinged over the issues with Ravelry’s accessibility. It has since come out that testing was only done over six weeks, with just 100 testers (which is a tiny sample for a website that boasts 9 million users, with approximately 900, 000 being active on a monthly basis) and while many of those testers have come forwards to say they reported suffering eyestrain, headaches and migraines from the new look, no changes were made before it was launched. People were fit to be … This letter on the heels of the "accessibility review" just is gobsmacking. http://imgur.com/a/ZIgo5gS. She is ashamed and sincerely sorry. I’ll leave you to work out who the second one was from. The survey asked opinions on the new logo, colours, the new navigation bar and the users’ medical history. Maybe Cassidy needs to step down step back for the time being, take some time off and let someone else handle her job for a bit. She was asked to help the Ravelry team find ways that they could support size inclusion through the database. For designers, many have been unable to access their own accounts. We are constantly told "oh it's not that bad. Ravelry has set itself up as the ultimate database and community for fibre crafters over the last decade, but now, for so many people, it’s gone. She’s been keeping everyone informed about any changes, listening to stories from those affected, and recently ran a poll asking if designers had noticed a fall in sales. I received two very constrasting replies one thanking me and another being very defensive and aggressive. Cassidy’s (co-founder and developer of Ravelry) was to tweet about her, saying “There’s a person on Instagram who has been spreading straight up lies about Ravelry non-stop since we have updated the design. This is quite the takedown over here (from last year)--> https://madmanknitting.wordpress.com/2019/09/03/why-casey-forbes-is-the-worst-knitting-flub-in-history/. Cassidy looks fabulous made in wool, alpaca, cotton or blends using popular worsted gauge yarns. Screen readers could no longer navigate the site. These kinds of campaigns turn real disability rights situations into a joke, and/or companies and individuals just stop trying because it’s becoming impossible to achieve the bar. Though we have had the opportunity, we have not taken outside venture capital money to … I accept that the accessibility on the site has never been great, but the website was not causing migraines or seizures to a large number of its users before the changes, and some users with screen readers were able to use the site before. The ongoing saga, #ThrowBackThursday to last year and my other DK sh, Making progress on my Open Road for #OffRavWIPWedn, Web accessibility for seizures and physical reactions, How Rebranding Cost Ravelry the Trust of Their Community, Designer's Open Letter on Ravelry Accessibility. These were repeated in different combinations. These are known effects and can be linked to bright contrast, colour and a flashing effect as pages load or are scrolled (see Web accessibility for seizures and physical reactions for more information). But obviously that does not excuse the fact how they communicated at all. I’ve always been proud when Cassidy said she would keep Ravelry privately owned so it would remain the site we all love, but that means a lot of work and there have been times when she had clearly had enough of people’s shenanigans. It was a really interesting read! My personal experience was headaches the first couple of days when I only used Ravelry for a couple of minutes at a time, then on the third day, after attempting to use the site for half an hour I got the worst migraine I’ve had in years. You can find patterns for sale and destashed yarn. Some have held back pattern releases and found alternate ways to host Knit-Alongs and pattern tests. We were given the option to turn off the black drop shadows in our settings. Follow her on Twitter @HScheer1580. I've always thought it weird that they didnt expand their employee base considering how big the site is, and to not go externally for an accessibility review just makes no sense. Universities are now removing free content they provided to the public in the past, because of the manpower required to make everything accessible and they don’t want to be legally liable. Cassidy was not in a state to be talking with people, though she does understand that this is no excuse and that the emails that she wrote were hurtful. Eugenia, have you heard anything? She (they? There’s a distinct chill on our way to, I saw a post on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, about a knitter who had gone on a, Very interesting insights, Liz and thank you for linking for post!-Silvia. And the short answer to the question is more than half comes from the ads you see. by Bonne Marie Burns. 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