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See my other post on this topic: Q and A for designers with patterns on Ravelry
POSTED 6/28/2019 – I’m a crochet designer with 31 patterns on Ravelry. As soon as I read Rav’s new policy (see above) and while in total shock, I deleted all my pattern PDFs from my Pro account, thinking I was taking a stand. Then I discovered my pattern INFORMATION pages were still there. Rav doesn’t offer me the option to delete them.
My most important message to the reader…
I have always voted Republican, ever since I was old enough to vote. I have one reason and one reason only for this…I’m against abortion. I take no other factors into consideration, when I vote. So, whoever happens to hold any government office, whether I like them or not, gets either my respect and cooperation or my disdain, based on this one factor alone.
Several Facebook groups formed immediately after Rav’s new policy was published, seeking to provide a place where we, who are in shock over this, have a place to share thoughts and ideas and get back to our yarn crafting without the drama.
One of these groups has a rule that stipulates that, as soon as a designer has deleted their Ravelry account, they can then list their patterns in the group. There are quite a few posters in these groups who are refusing to support any designer who still has a Ravelry account. This is quite frustrating to me.
Even if a designer deletes her account, the pattern INFORMATION pages will still be there. Ravelry is a database of patterns and they never delete a pattern page. It’s there for all time, sort of like a worldwide catalog of every pattern ever entered into their database.
If a designer deletes her account, ANY Ravelry member can then ADOPT the pattern and update the pattern information page any way they want. Deleting my account would mean losing all control over what’s on my pattern information pages. I feel the need to keep control, so that no one can ever sabotage my patterns or disparage me.
So, what I’ve done is put a link to my Etsy shop for each of my patterns, so at least any funds from sales will no longer go to Rav. This step alone is costing me money, because Etsy’s fees are higher than Rav’s.
UPDATE 7/8/2019 – I rather doubt that many people are even aware of this, at the moment. A lot of people in my Rav group, who test for me on a regular basis, are in other countries, so they may not even understand the entire situation.
I would love to see my sales soar because I’m taking a stand, but so far, I’m not seeing the love. People seem to be drawn to free patterns and so am I. However, I’m not successful enough yet to be able to make money from free patterns, like the big designers do via ad revenue on their YouTube channels or web sites. Someday, I hope to be there.
Please be patient with us small fish. I’m doing all I can at the moment to take a stand. I’m glad I don’t have hundreds of patterns on Rav, like some designers do. It could take literally months of working round the clock to delete every bit of information I had contributed to Rav.
I would ask that any new FB groups, when establishing their rules, would keep this in mind…that designers can’t remove their pattern information pages from Ravelry and that there is significant risk in deleting our accounts altogether.
However, that doesn’t mean we designers can’t take a stand in other ways, such as removing the option for Ravelry to get any of our revenue, directing customers elsewhere to buy our patterns, and adding other indications of our dismay with the new policy.
Rav doesn’t mind if I remove myself/my account. But, if I do that, I lose all control over my pattern information pages. There are lots of fields on the pattern information pages where data can be entered and I want control over every one of those. A disgruntled person could change the title, the tags, the photos, and the notes. That leaves me open to a lot of potential sabotage and hate. Sorry, I can’t do that. I hope other “Rav-ugees” will understand this and not bash designers who keep their Rav accounts.
You can support me here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/CherylDeeCrochet
https://www.youtube.com/cheryldfloyd
https://www.facebook.com/CherylDeeCrochet
October 11, 2021 – It has now been over two years since the first post on this page. I have now published a total of 52 crochet patterns in my Etsy shop. I still have my original 31 patterns on Ravelry, as explained above. Even though I’ve been tempted to put the additional 21 patterns on Ravelry, I’ve resisted, because I just can’t bring myself to support the values still being promoted there. My stance may have cost me some income, but at least my conscience is clear. #walkawayfromravelry
My name is Tracy Doyle and I’m a long-time knitter and crocheter. I even owned a yarn shop for a while. I also support our President. I was so horrified by Ravelry’s policy, I downloaded all my purchases and favorites and I started a Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/walkawayfromravelry, that reached 1000 members in FOUR DAYS. I do not reject Ravelry’s premise of promoting inclusion, fairness and kindness. I DO reject their premise that anyone who supports the president is somehow a white supremacist. We are nothing of the sort. A number of us tried to protest their bizarre proclamation, but they only shut us down, one comment at a time. It’s unconscionable. There are many of us, including our group’s membership, who appreciate your stance and would be thrilled to support your store and your product. I hope you will join us. You are welcome to add your free patters to our downloads section and to promote your paid products among those who appreciate your support.
Kind Regards,
Tracy
Thank you so much for your kind words, Tracy. I’ll come and check out your FB group in a moment.
Just FYI, this is from their TOS:
“With respect to any Content that you have submitted to the Site, you have the right to request the Company remove such Content, thus revoking any rights the Company has with respect to such Content. Requests of this kind are to be submitted to legal@ravelry.com.”
I don’t know how quick the process is, especially given recent events, but based on that info you should be able to undo this and fully cut ties with them if you want to.
Wow! Thank you so much for telling me this. I really appreciate it. This puts a whole new spin on things.
I will gladly support your Etsy shop!
Thank you so much, Teresa.
I know a lot of designers have put their patterns at https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-us/ so that’s something you may want to check out. 😉
Thank you so much for responding. I’ve already done that, but I need to double check all my listings over there. Right after the Rav announcement, two of my patterns on LoveCrafts were “temporarily unravelled.” I contacted them about it and they said it was due to a recent server migration and it should get back to normal soon. Until that gets resolved, I was hesitant to mention them.
Sometimes doing what one believes is “right” can be – well let’s just say not always pleasant.
I hope you will consider joining https://ourunraveled.com/ in its infantcy – but they are already working and will soon be testing a marketplace.
You have some lovely work, so I hope to see you there
mean while, I understand you can remove the PDF from further downloads, and even replace the image – not the best solution but until enough designers get together to fight Casey’s confiscation of other people IP, likely the best you can do.
Thank you for the kind feedback. I have joined that group. I hope you enjoy your fiber pursuits.
I’m wondering if you could put some kind of a generic photo of some other object onto your pattern if you cannot delete them. That would probably discourage people from downloading the patterns directly from Ravelry if someone cannot see a picture of the finished project.
Hi, Donna,
Thanks for taking the time to comment on my post. I really appreciate your input.
What I did was remove all my pattern pdf files, which DOES prevent anyone from downloading them from R. However, I hope everyone understands why I can’t delete my account. If I do that, I lose control over my pattern pages. The pattern pages are the descriptions of the actual pattern files.
If I lose control over those, anyone can change my pattern pages to say anything they want. After what happened in Portland recently, I wouldn’t put it past some insane person to go into my pattern pages and update them with horrible words and images.
So, for now, I’ll leave things as they are, until I figure out something else.
I hope everyone understands and will give us designers the grace and patience not to boycott us, until we get something better figured out.
Warm regards to you,
Cheryl
Thanks for your insight regarding all this nastiness. I too have a few patterns listed there & my immediate thoughts were to take it all down, change my pattern description to route to a new place to download or purchase the pattern and delete my account. Before I could do that, I let my tongue get loose and got myself put in “time out” for 30 days. No comments, forum posts, etc. This included making changes to my own pattern descriptions. That’s okay, It let me cool off a bit & make some rational decisions. I’m keeping my account just to make sure no one else can adopt my patterns. I’ll use their bandwidth & server space to self promote my patterns.
I agree with your decision. I just hope we designers can get the word out that folks must be understanding of this strategy. We were basically given no choice.
I am so sorry about the work you have to go through. I understand. I also am a designer, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to remove my patterns because I was told that from the very first pattern by one of the moderators, when there was an issue with the pattern that I found, she told me that patterns are never removed from R.. So the only thing I could think to do is stop the activation of any sales, (I never thought of removing the copy of the PDF… ugh.. but after I deactivated the sales part of each pattern, I got the rest of my stuff off and closed my account. Then when I went back in as a guest and sent others, they said all my pattern information was there, but my photos were all gone, so the basic information about the pattern is there but no photos and no way to purchase. I also didn’t know that I could put Etsy as a seller too. Live and Learn I guess. But I am in the midst of finding other places to put my patterns besides Etsy. Love Crochet turned them down because I have digital photos of the finished product… they want different photos, I don’t have the finished product to each anymore as I give them away, and I refuse to remake 70 something products to retake photos of them. lol…. so I will continue to look. I also have my own website. Much Blessings too you, and may all this cause a major boon to your business and your patterns sell like crazy. ~ Kathy
Hi, Kathy! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave me a nice comment. Please send me an email at cdfloyd1 at gmail dot com. I have an idea for you on a place to sell your patterns.