i hear the voices when I'm dreaming

A) last night I wrote a breakup letter to rav, just to get my feelings out. My feelings are less intense today, possibly in part because of the third thing, but I went ahead and made it public anyway: https://ysobel.dreamwidth.org/600530.html (sorry, too lazy to bother with html right now)

B) I have updated the post before that with text of the terrible horrible no good very bad missive that triggered the latest round of firestorm, in case anyone needs it. I'm sorry it took me so long to do that.

C) Jess (aka mama rav) has posted a letter on Ravelry that is an actual fucking apology. It's not perfect (seizures and migraines are not "anxiety") and I wish it had come five weeks sooner, but it's a good start. I remain skeptical that there will be enough useful changes to let me keep using rav once Classic goes away, but I'm also feeling hurt and cynical right now. (Rav as a whole does not have a good track record with access and visual issues.)

D) I'm not going to delete my account. There is too much of my life there, and too much of my knitting knowledge. But as I have the time and energy for it, I will be writing blog posts with some of my various knitting knowledges -- things like stitch mount and decreases, charts, lace charts and decreases and markers, möbius structures, my pet peeves in pattern writing (things like "each end" and "knit to X stitch" and whatever else), why yarnover video tutorials are misleading, etc etc etc -- so that it's not just on rav.

E) for that matter, I'm not abandoning rav. Yet. I have too many friends there, too many important people that I don't really have other ways of engaging with. But I feel seriously burned by this whole thing. (I'm sure rav tptb are ... more than burned, probably; charred? ... for different reasons.) Jess taking the wheel is a good start, and to some level my heart hurts for her (having to put out fires and keep rav from imploding and also support her wife through what's probably some serious shit) and I really hope she and Cassidy both have a good support network in place right now. But my heart hurts more for all the people who can't use rav because of NuRav, especially the people who had fucking seizures, who were then called liars; and it hurts for the designers who relied on rav as a central selling platform and now in some cases don't know whether they can or should.

F) I breathe in other peoples' pain; I breathe out a sense of comfort for them. Pain in, comfort out. It's a form of meditation (tonglen, I think, is the name in Buddhist traditions). I don't know if it works but it makes me feel less helpless, and also makes my heartache (and physical pain) more meaningful if part of it is a shared burden from other people.

G) what am I doing up, it's after midnight argh. Go to sleep, self.

You know the shitshow that is Ravelry's new look? Which was causing eye strain and migraines and seizures? And the site updates since then have all used perky icons (that are in some cases impossible to determine the meaning of) rather than bullet points?

It just got worse.



I'm shaking too hard to transcribe, but summary -- form letter response from Cassidy saying NuRav isn't causing medical issues, people are just spreading malicious lies.

Or, as ktb38 says:

Ravelry is now sending out a form letter.
Saying there are no problems with the updated design.
Everyone who has problems is lying.
The disability community is lying, according to ravelry.
Share this. Tell everyone what ravelry is doing.
#ravelryaccessibility #ravelry


I'm pretty much in shock right now. Of all possible responses from C, this was not even imaginable.

I fully expect rage tears later, but right now I'm just ... numb.

Edit with transcript:

Ravelry's updated design does not cause seizures, migraines or other medical issues.

The Epilepsy Foundation did not "call out" Ravelry. Angry users stared [sic] a letter writing campaign and the foundation published their warning based on these letters without any verification or research, as appears to be their policy. A medical doctor who specializes in migraines and seizures has said that he does not believe that Ravelry is causing seizures or migraines. We have found zero evidence that there is anything about the new design that causes migraines or seizures.

I would like people to consider their sources before spreading false information.

Cassidy

So the fucking disaster that is Ravelry's makeover

that is literally giving people migraines and seizures

and not usable by screen readers

has not been rolled back, or de-animated, or in any way made accessible

and there's been no explanation

the front page still has just a chirpy twee "explanation" of the redesign with stuff like "We tried a bunch of different approaches but ended up with a simple misshapen circle with the r in it. Like the primary logo, we kept the secondary mark simple so that it could be flexibly used. We affectionately call her "Lumpy" :)" and "We already had our cinnamon color for the logo, and now we needed some color friends." (the logo is coral not cinnamon) and "we didn't want the colors to follow current web trends in color schemes" (coral/teal is not unique) and "I can't stress enough how much hard work, thought, and love went into the new look."

there have been daily feedback threads that pay lip service to "We also will not permit accessibility issues to be dismissed." but also say "We understand that those of you giving feedback in this thread would like us to make the Classic Ravelry site the default site. We feel that keeping Ravelry’s New Look as our default, with an option to opt-in to the Classic Ravelry look as we improve the new site, is the best option." and there are no answers or explanations for anything, so it has the feeling of shouting into a void

this is not the first time rav has had accessibility issues, but holy fuck this is just a dumpster fire

I am so very out of cope