How Politics Tested Ravelry and the Crafting Community
“Jessica admitted that Ravelry has struggled to pinpoint exactly what constitutes inappropriate content. “Some of this stuff is so nuanced,” she said. “Think about what tweet got Trump banned. It was not about attending the Inauguration.” She went on, “We went through some pretty crazy rabbit holes: ‘O.K., this is an eagle, but it isn’t really the Nazi eagle. Or is it?’ It’s just, like, ugh.””
There's a lot in this article, but it was super interesting to me as a Ravelry user. I'm on that site more than any other site these days, I track my projects, buy most of my patterns through it, and keep up with what my friends are making. But there's one part I don't really use much at all: the forums. And so much of what Ravelry is experiencing is happening in those communities and that's where the hard part of community management is. The other thing I was thinking about after this article is how much how Ravelry started (with the community buying things to raise the money) plays a huge part in how many of those same folks feel about the site, they feel a unique sense of ownership. Last thing: they lightly touched upon topic of the new design and accessibility came up at the end and I agree with the developer they talked to, Ravelry isn't doing anything horrible in that department so the complaints have been really puzzling to me.