Community Matters

Where to even begin?! These last two days have been an absolute rollercoaster. I believe it was in "Alice in Wonderland" (Disney cartoon/movie, not the book) that someone said: "Start at the beginning and when you come to the end, well, stop." Here goes!

Yesterday afternoon, I saw KatieBea* tweet a screenshot of an email that they'd received from Cassidy. I then saw someone else tweet a screenshot of a very similar email from Cassidy. Needless to say these created a lot of buzz, and for quite good reason! Telling people who've contacted you with feedback on accessibility that they need to consider sources before spreading lies is a mighty big load of bullshit. I quote retweeted the first person's tweet with my own take on this, and yes, I did use the word bullshit to describe it. But here, read it yourself: 

Now this afternoon, Jessica, aka Ravelry's other cofounder, made a new blogpost. And not from an only-accessible-if-you-can-log-into-Rav channel! She actually addressed yesterday's emails from Cassidy and several other points. Some are hoping this spells a new more communicative response. Others have said it's a case of "too little, too late", which for the record I don't blame them for saying. It's been 6 weeks and this is the first real point of actual communication we've seen. 

And at least one person who received an email yesterday has gotten an apology today. I, for one, want to see a public apology made to KatieBea for the targeted bullshit she's been on the receiving end of since this all broke open. 

Where does this leave us? I'm glad to see an actual response instead of another pompom waving for one thing. But there are still issues with the migraines/seizures/screenreaders not able to access the site not being afforded more, or even equal, weight with people not liking the twee icons (And for the record, one can be on both sides of that comparison very easily waves both hands in the air). Quite honestly, I don't know where this leaves us. I had planned to close my Ravelry shop today after seeing the portion of Cassidy's letter to KatieBea. Jessica's blogpost is gave me a brief pause. All of my patterns are in my Payhip shop, including my 3 free ones. Love Crafts has all of my paid patterns and one of my free ones. I had set Ravelry to only be hosting my paid patterns a week or so ago. Now they're listed in the database but they aren't open to Ravelry sales. I just can't with everything. 

I will continue to work on getting my patterns integrated with this blog and I will continue with my designs. Ravelry may have afforded me the chance to start designing and getting my patterns seen but I control how and if I continue. And I really want to continue. This blog serves as my hub; links to any social media I use and any platform where my patterns are found will remain here, although they might move to a different setup than being in the sidebar.

My hope is that this post explains what has been happening and where my decisions are coming from. I like being honest with people. As always, you can respond by comment or email if you prefer; I value your input.

I'm really hoping my next post will be a fun one!

Til next time,

Síle

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*KatieBea is a designer who a few months ago was featured as a "Human of Ravelry" for her work in designing and promoting inclusive sizing in patterns. She's been very outspoken during this accessibility "conversation" and has done a lot to keep people informed, especially on Instagram. She has taken a lot of shit and abuse from individuals because of her outspokenness.