Cease? Desist?

[etesla]

For those of you following my blog (either directly or via the Livejournal feed), you'll already know that I posted a followup to the letter I posted last week due to being sent a cease & desist letter from a lawyer representing the store.

If you don't, you're welcome to follow along.

Comments

[zandperl]

FWIW I'm uncomfortable with the following sentence in his reply post:

"Being the older brother to five sisters I've always tried to be considerate of womens feelings and sensitivities."

To me it smacks of "let's humor the women because they don't have a valid complaint but it's easier to hush them up than actually address what they say."

To be very honest...

[etesla]

...I'm not completely comfortable or happy with the reply post - but it's kind of a tree thing, and I've got a whole lot of forest.

[sinboy]

A veiled threat of a lawsuit is a proper response to a public complaint about a negative experience? Classy.

[karenbynight]

I adore Ravelry, but I think its community ethic goes too far in protecting designers and yarn store owners with bad business practices. The community is just really against criticizing fiber arts business people, no matter how well deserved. I understand that they want to foster participation, but there are some bad stories that should be told. I wish someone had told me when I started knitting that the yarn store nearest me (at the time) was atypically bad; the owner is perpetually snotty, overbearing, and condescending. As a result, I had a few false starts before I decided that I did indeed want to engage in this hobby. Myself, I think a Ravelry warning to new knitters in that area to either ignore the owner or go somewhere else would not go amiss, but I haven't posted one because the belief that negative comments are always inappropriate was something I saw the creators build into the site from the very beginning.

Hive mind.

[etesla]

I could not agree more. It's almost like there's so much invested in this idea of The Great and Holy Local Yarn Shop that people forget they are businesses, and they cater to crafters for money.

I totally understand the impulse to protect the local shop. The internet has been rough on a lot of local businesses - it's hard to compete on price. The way local yarn shops can compete is in tactile time-with-yarn (I can walk away from internet yarn pretty easily, but if I've held it, I'm easily hooked), community-building, and face-to-face customer service. And those are actually the reasons for wanting to protect them - I want yarn around I can touch in a space where I can ask questions, get advice, and enjoy time with friends.

But to be worthy of protecting, you have to actually furnish those benefits. I want a well-stocked yarn store local to me, but not one that treats people with disrespect. No amount of tactile time-with-yarn is worth that.

[rosefox]

A dyer/spinner friend of mine had a terrible time dealing with a woman who offered to sell yarn on consignment and then never sent her money or returned the yarn. Apparently she did this to dozens of people. In some cases she eventually sent the yarn back reeking of cigarette smoke. Whenever anyone called her on it in public, there was a surge of support for her because clearly anyone being criticized must be beleaguered and suffering.

It sucks.