I’ve been on Ravelry since it was in Beta. Raveler #3535. I’ve been a huge fan since the beginning. I used to spend hours on the site, and when I owned Happy Fuzzy Yarn, naturally I listed all our patterns for sale there.
I don’t spend as much time on the site anymore for the same reason as I haven’t written a blog post since February. I just don’t have the energy. Fibromyalgia is a bitch. I spend most of my time sleeping, watching tv, hanging out on Twitter, and…sleeping.
But I follow Ravelry on Twitter, and when they first announced the new design, I took a look, thought it looked really amateurish and old compared to the old (and much cuter) design, thought all that white space is going to give me a migraine for sure, and figured I would come back after they’ve had time to work out the kinks.
It’s been about six weeks now. A lot of users are having migraines, seizures, etc., or are simply unable to use the site at all. Cassidy has been sending out letters telling people it’s perfect the way it is thank you very much, and anyone who says otherwise is lying.
Wow. I’ve always thought Ravelry was good people. Not putting up with racism, fascism, homophobia, transphobia…I really admired them for that.
But ableism is ok, I guess? That hurts.
I have multiple invisible disabilities. I had to try ~40 migraine meds before I found one that worked enough so I only have 1-3 headaches/month instead of 28-30. Bright light is painful. Having one’s health concerns dismissed is even more painful. Having one’s own physical experience dismissed as invalid is infuriating.
I don’t have a huge number of patterns for sale, and I don’t get a lot of sales anymore, but I’m working on moving my patterns somewhere else in solidarity with my disabled sibs. I’ve started the process, but since I have the energy of a sloth, it’s not going to happen overnight. I’ll let you know when I’m finished.
