Is Ravelry Out of Control ????

I was sitting at Knit Nite when people began to talk about Ravelry. There are same wonderful things that Ravelry has given us as Fiber Artists, there's no denying that. However, the conversation was more on the negative side mainly referring to the concerns of the forums. One main topic was of Mystical Creations and the drama. I can not believe how many posts people have made to this incredible dis-service. Then, there's the discussion of "What makes you hate an LYS?" Here's another thread that is out of control.

Here's the question, why is it Ravelry as a whole out of control? I remember not too long ago when the Harlot posted info about the socks with all the leaves and vines that she was knitting and someone posted that the socks were ugly. Stephanie made the point of posting her offense to how it was said. Ravelry is not the problem. Its the fact that people type before they think, just like they open their mouth and say something embarrassing, and can't take it back. This is no different than the situation with Facebook with the girl that committed suicide because of harmful comments made by others.

I think people need to consider two things in this, one - think about the consequences of what you post before you post it, and second, remember drama and gossip are both harmful to yourself and others. If you would tell your kids to stay out of it, then why are we as adults not?

Comments

Are people out of control? Yes, try working in a library you would not believe how rude people are, one woman last week told me I had a fat ass. In what case is that anything but rude. And I love ravelry it keeps me up on all the awesome knitters I know and miss.
Annie said…
Great post, Kim. I love Ravelry and I can't stand it... Both in the same day. It's so easy to type something snarky for an audience and not connect it with the hurt it might cause someone. Especially when you don't have to experience their pain first hand...
CraftyGryphon said…
It's the whole anonymity-and-no-feedback of the internet. People can make a snarky (or downright malicious) post, and there isn't anything negative said/done to them with enough immediacy to reinforce that they've done something wrong. (The number of times I've seen things get posted and asked "Hey, would you have said that to his/her face?" and gotten a shocked "No!" makes me wonder...)

The Ravelry honchos are trying to keep it in check (if you saw the MagKnits debacle, or the Vintage Socks "scam" debacle, they were pretty proactive) as much as they can, but the users have them so vastly outnumbered that some of the bad stuff gets through before they can really stop it.

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