Also heads up for Ravelry. They are saying "classic" Rav remains unchanged. THIS IS NOT TRUE.

I am using Classic Rav and now get a green box that shows up when I click certain links. When clicking forum reaction buttons, the green box appears then disappears.

I posted about this last night. Some poking around revealed that folks noticed it started mid-afternoon yesterday.

As of the new official thread this morning, there is no response.

Also they changed the wording about why they aren't reverting the changes. Next two tweets are a direct quote:

"We understand that those of you giving feedback in this thread would like us to make the Classic Ravelry site the default site. (1/2)

Based on our overall accessibility feedback and data, 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." (2/2)

Another direct quote:

"Classic Ravelry has not changed, and we will not be making changes to it."

This is horseshit. I didn't change my phone or browser, but it behaves differently for me. Others have posted screenshots comparing actual old Rav w/"classic".

They are also sticking to "we used best practices" and just

Seriously as someone who used to work on enterprise-level software changes for a living? The hell they did.

They certainly did not use best practices for communications.

They did not use best practices for testing (I have talked to testers. There was no comparative or iterative testing, no direction, no effort to include disabled folks, no confirmation of what platforms folx used.)

They didn't use best practices for rollout.

They didn't use best practices for rollback.

They sure don't look like they have their version control in order.

They didn't use best practices for accessibility testing.

They literally made every user a beta tester, and now we cannot even reply to each other in the feedback threads.

Someone made a Stylish/Stylus/etc. skin to make New Look work better for folks.

She is no longer allowed to post about it in the Big 6 forums, including in the feedback threads.

I reported multiple bugs with the New Look, some in the bug threads of the first few days, some via the fancy bug reporter only available in New Look.

Posts before and after mine in the bug thread had notes about what bug number they were. Mine have gotten no response.

Everyone saying "well it's a free site", yep, it is!

THAT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DEPEND ON IN THEIR BUSINESS.

I found this blog post, from over a year ago, that uh I am pretty sure I did not see then:

https://pressable.ravelry.com/2019/03/04/help-livia-with-raveler-research/

Like... I did not know this blog existed!

I also never see the home page!

This needed way better communication because I bet their usage info got super skewed!

And I am going to bring this up too:

*they are making changes in prod for the new look*

I have not looked at the new look in the past couple days. But it is in production. They have apparently changed some of the lines in the forums to grey.

"Best practices", when you roll something out and get immediate feedback that includes "this made me literally ill", is to ROLL BACK the changes, so you can go back to dev and test them there

They're changing the live site! While people are using it! A site that we know is harming people already!

I don't know what (or whose) best practices they are using, but they're not any that I ever learned.

I still can't get over the animation at login.

People told them "No animation, please."

The response? "We slowed down the animation, although we did use best practices in designing it."

So 1, you didn't listen to the feedback, and 2, you're deflecting criticism by a claim of "best practices". Again.

I just... like people have said. "This harms me" is not the same as "I don't like it".

Oh also? The animation apparently even plays for a number of folks who have a browser-side setting to disallow animation.

*slow clap*

Also? Like I said before. "Thanks I hate it" is valid feedback!

A good testing procedure would have dug deeper in to WHY people hate it. It is not always just a dislike of change, and it is incredibly enraging to see people act like it is and dismiss negative feedback repeatedly

Also? A shit ton of dyers and designers and yarn stores link to Ravelry from their sites.

There is also a program whereby yarn stores can use Rav in store to purchase patterns on Rav for customers without accounts.

Yarn stores are starting to allow customers again.

Who aren't gonna know about the changes to Rav, including the ANIMATION when a pattern is purchased.

That is still there, btw.

It is so awful getting this "we hear you and our first priority is fixing the accessibility" and then getting "our accessibility feedback tells us to keep the new site (that has harmed people)" and "we did exactly not what you asked (best practices say ur wrong btw)"

And then the gaslighting stuff, about calling the logo "cinnamon" when it's coral, changing the appearance as people are using it with no prior announcement, the insistence "classic" hasn't changed when it def has... good lord.

And now with more and more people raising accessibility concerns being banned from the "Big 6" boards, where the official feedback threads are....

(I'll say this here too: the mods of the Big 6 have a history of allowing ableist shit to be posted, while deleting posts that call out said ableist shit.)

I fully expect to be modded on the main board for saying it, but their response seems to indicate they think the crisis is "they don't like it like we do and they are talking to each other!"

By the way? I have found out some folks I know were beta testers. They're saying "we brought up the eyestrain and that it caused migraines in testing, and got no response."

That is so damning.

Also? The beta testing pool was not "randomly" selected. I am told that all 9 mods from a very busy group was asked to join.

The odds of that are absolutely astounding.

Meanwhile only 3 members, that we know about, from the largest group, period, on Rav were asked to join.

They also asked people who had the "collect usage data" box checked, but not the "I volunteer as beta testing" box.

Again, these are options in user settings that are not and have not been widely advertised.

Also here is a screenshot of my checkout page from Etsy five minutes ago.

Note the grey, yellow, and coral.

(Ooops, sorry, I mean "sage", yellow, and "cinnamon")

(Yes I am petty and I just bought some petty yarn.)

Oh also I have seen comments that the new look is completely shit in screen readers. Let me dig and find the specific feedback.

OH MY GOD

All the buttons in the forums are labeled "image" for screen readers.

The toggle to switch back to classic? Not visible to screen readers.

Headers are incomplete and trapping screen readers in a loop.

On the blog page? Screen readers read every link (there is no skip link option on any page in new look).

What they don't read is the actual content on the page.

Oh, my fuck.

Oh cool. Hearing from more folks invited to beta test.

They were asked to test in LATE MAY - so at most 3 weeks before this went live. Some are saying "I didn't send any feedback. No one followed up with me."

HEADS UP:

The Epilepsy Foundation is looking in to issues with New Rav. They have asked for help finding info, and reports of user symptoms. You can send in your reports at the email address on this page: https://www.epilepsy.com/living-epilepsy/about-foundation/contact-us

I am also being told that sometime today, "Classic Rav" became the default, and "New Rav" became the opt-in. Only a week after folks said that's what it should be.

ALSO WARNING: THE LOG IN PAGE TO RAVELRY IS STILL THE NEW, ANIMATED VERSION THAT OVERRIDES BROWSER SETTINGS

If you are using EWM's Stylish etc. skins, she has apparently updated and the skin now stops the animation.

Also, there has not been a mod post or info from TPTB that Classic is now the default. Which... given that those have been demonstrably lies recently, may not be as meaningful as it would have been.

Also, I am still seeing people say no, Classic is not the default for them.