Be Excellent To Each Other

Ravelry is perhaps the biggest craft site in the world. It’s member base is huge. There are thousands upon thousands of interest groups on there, and forum posts are millions upon millions. There are MANY conservative republican groups on there. Their popularity absolutely exploded both when Obama took office, as somewhere to moan about his every action, and when Trump came in, to basically hail him
as saviour. There have been many, many threads. There have also been pro Trump, pro Wall, pro Life etc patterns published.

Just now the site made this statement: !

https://www.ravelry.com/content/no-trump

I am so very impressed they’ve taken this bold, and no doubt difficult decision. They mention the source of much of it in the post.

That’s a very civilised statement and approach. Has their been much grumbling about “free speech”?

Its only just happened, so only a few initial grumbling within a sea of gratitude, BUT I do know from past bannings (if you ever have a spare half hour google ‘Ravelry The Bunker’ for some ) that this usually means they are coordinating efforts off site to basically hit out. They will be forming groups and contacting media outlets as we speak. Loads of people with no idea what they were talking about, like Toby Young, suddenly were all writing about conservative knitters a few months ago.

That seems like an entirely reasonable policy to enforce at this point.
Yes, it may cost them some users and traffic, but it's worth taking the hit IMO.

I only use one US-centric forum that has a ban on all political discussion - not just Trump as it predates him - as stuff gets out of hand very quickly when it does get raised.
Not as quickly as discussion of guns though.

I shall, of course, commit suicide immediately.

So many idiots think the world owes them a platform to amplify their stupid thoughts. I used to run an IRC (ask your grandparents) server, and after banning one guy for being a dick, I got a very shirty email where he called me a complete bastard and demanded that I unban him. From connecting to a server daemon running on a PC in my house.

(I know I moan about being kicked off Twitter for questionable application of their rules, but I recognise it’s their site, it’s not a public service, and they owe me nothing.)

The ‘what about my free speech?!’ers are rolling in, now.

https://twitter.com/ravelry/status/1142766608680660992

We are banning support of Donald Trump and his administration on Ravelry. We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy. More details: https://t.co/hEyu9LjqXa

— Ravelry (@ravelry) June 23, 2019

This is a good article from today, on the subject of free speech: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... suggest-so

It's simply like a parent saying "My house, my rules".

Yeah, I tried that

I just told my 21-month old daughter "it's not a democracy" (after she sought a third opinion about whether she should sit down and drink her milk, rather than, say, wander about, dripping it on the carpet).

Do Ravelry still allow buffalo stances?

Yes, sir!

That must be one of these "sucka DJs" I hear all the kids talking about. Never knew it stood for Dad Jumper.

...now I have the "Len Ganley Stance" running through my head.