My oh my have the team at Ravelry really got themselves into a big big quagmire of controversy. They are not the first and certainly not the last to get into a quagmire of claims and counter claims. The fact remains and no matter what the Ravelry team say or any ‘doctors specialising in’ – anything, happen to assert, if your customers say they can’t use your site, then, they can’t use your site; simple as that. The Ravelry team need to accept the problem they have created and then further exacerbated by their lack of humility and beligerence. There may have been a way back a few weeks ago, but I feel that is long gone.

There are a couple of thoughts that came to me as it all started. “they will have really improved the accessibility with the new update” and “they will have done some significant user testing”. From the outcomes of the launch and subsequent aggressive responses it would seem that I was seriously wrong on both of these issues.

I did get a reply from two members of the team when I emailed them with what I thought was helpful and constructive suggestions. One reply said thank you and the other was very agressive and confrontational. In a way I can understand this response but it doesn’t help.

There is a well known saying about picking your fights. This is one they cannot win as essentially they are telling users that ‘no you don’t feel that’ or ‘you are lying about your experiences’. Surprisingly this doesn’t go down well.

Come on Ravelry – you had the most adoring, appreciative and supportive bunch of followers possible and you’ve just screwed them.