Knitting news: Ravellenic Games go down in flames

Ravelry is no stranger to Olympics-related drama. Two years ago Ravelry was sued by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) for use of the term "Ravelympics," which the IOC felt infringed upon their trademark. Among much consternation and outrage, the event - in which knitters form groups and push themselves to tackle a challenging knitting project while the Olympics are on - was renamed the "Ravellenic Game," in honor of the original Olympics (the Pan-Hellenic Games).

This year, the Olympics' location in Sochi, Russia is causing an even bigger furor. A lot of knitters are LGBTQ or LGBTQ-friendly, and want to openly protest the IOC's controversial decision to host the Olympics in Russia, where homosexuality (and whatever the Russian government deems "distributing homosexual propaganda") is criminalized.

Unfortunately the organizers of the Ravellenic Games added fuel to the fire by heavily moderating any "political discussions" which cropped up on the Ravellenic Games board. This basically amounted to deleting any threads which mentioned the topic, and banning users who refused to stay quiet about the issue of gay rights in Russia.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's easy to say "Let's just keep this a fun space for everyone and not discuss difficult political issues" when you're not the one being discriminated against. As honorable as their intentions may have been, the Ravellenic Games organizers quickly found themselves on the losing end of an epic flame war, and their attempts to stifle the discussion only made things worse.

Instead of apologizing or deciding to allow discussion of LGBTQ rights in Russia on Ravellenic Games threads, the organizers quit. They disbanded the group, handed the reins over to Casey (Ravelry's co-creator and lead programmer), and left it to Casey to pick another group of organizers.

Which, frankly? I feel like, "Good riddance."

Will there be a Ravellenic Games this year? Will it allow rainbow-themed projects and discussions of gay rights? Stay tuned…

Image courtesy Flickr/Cynthia_ess