The Ravelry Army!
July 27th, 2007
Dear Ravelers, We love you guys! — Casey and Jess
Jess and I owe A LOT to our wonderful users. I don’t know how we’d do this without them. Most people don’t know about the huge role that our users play in creating Ravelry and I thought that I would take this opportunity to explain.
First of all - the donations. We are so grateful for all of the donations! We see each one as it comes in and we really appreciate each person’s contribution. Without your donations, we would have a much much harder time getting this thing off of the ground. We started Ravelry on our living room couch with absolutely no funding and we are so lucky that you guys are helping to make this happen. Thank you!
Now here is something that many people don’t know - nearly 400 Ravelers have donated their time and volunteered to adopt and edit a section of our pattern and yarn database. Ravelry’s giant pattern and yarn index (10,000 yarns, 13,000 patterns) is built with the contributions from each and every user. New patterns and yarns come in every day from people’s projects, stashes, and queues and our editors make sure that the pages are correct, complete, and useful. Without their hard work and dedication, our database would be inconsistent, disorganized, and just not that pretty. People have been going above and beyond the call of duty - digging in libraries, calling up contacts, and going all Indiana Jones on the hunt for yarn and pattern data. Jess and I are so amazed and so thankful for all the hard work that our volunteer editors have been putting in. Also, a HUGE thank you to the sooper editors who wield the special powers that are too dangerous to hand out to hundreds of users. You’ve been doing a great job helping volunteers with their requests, answering questions, moving mountains, and cleaning up spills ;)
Ravelry users can expect to hear from the editors from time to time. Often, you’ll receive a message asking if it’s okay for us to use your photo as the featured photo for a yarn or pattern. Also, you might receive a note with questions about a yarn or pattern that you’ve added. (Especially if you are a person who uses super rare yarns and out of print patterns!) If you decide that you too would like to volunteer, please stop by the Editors’ Group and say hello. We’d love to have you!
We also have volunteer bug/idea trackers who add bugs and suggestions that come up in the forums into our issue tracking system. This really helps me stay sane and it is much appreciated. I don’t have to stress out about forgetting about somebody’s bug or awesome idea and users know that they are being heard (even if I don’t have a chance to reply, which I usually do). It’s also cool because we now provide The List of bugs and ideas on the site. Thanks, trackers! And thanks to all of the beta testers who have shared some great ideas with us (and bug reports too!)
I also want to say a big thank you to the folks over in the new Help! Group. Starting that group was a great idea, guys! - I think that new users really appreciate that there is a friendly place where there is no such thing as a stupid question. I’m also learning a lot from the questions that people are asking and it gives me ideas for improving the site. Thanks!
And of course we have to thank ALL of our users for helping us grow. Using Ravelry means improving Ravelry - without you, we wouldn’t have anything. The projects, patterns, yarns, groups, forum posts, wiki pages - everything exists because of you guys. We’re so glad that you are enjoying our site and spending some time with us.
Our lovely volunteer editors:
oh duh - I should probably post a status/waiting list update. Has everyone seen the list checker at http://www.ravelry.com/antsy? Good. We’re inviting about 1200 people a week right now. I’m trying to speed things invites up, but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to go much faster until we move out of our baby beta environment and into our Grown Up datacenter with our real servers. You guys have been very patient - I can’t believe that it’s been almost 3 months since we started the beta! We’ve still got a ton to do before we open to the public, but as we add capacity we’ll crank up the invites. I’ll post more information as it comes!
July 27th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Keep up the good work!
(BTW I love the status checker… the one bad thing about getting my invite will mean I can’t play with the checker anymore… but I’ll get over it)
July 27th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
you guys are great! love to all the volunteers!
I love the collage of all the editors! what a cool group they are- hell- what a cool group we all are!
:-)
July 28th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Wow, I really can’t believe just how many knitters there *are* on the internet, it’s scary! Once you’ve invited us all you’ll be ready to unveil the secret “mind control” part of the site and then knitters will take over the world!
Seriously though, the site just keeps getting better. The groups thing is working really well (aren’t there some strange groups out there!) and it’s amazing to see the content just growing and growing. And a big hurrah to the volunteer editors, there are so many more photos up because of them.
Also an apology for using so many obscure NZ/Australian patterns and then leaving them at home so I can’t check the details! I think the editors have corrected at least one of my projects!
July 28th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Casey and Jess,
I am so happy I got my invite and now I see HOW wonderful Ravelry is for knitters and crocheters!! OMG I’m enjoying meeting new people.
Keep up the great work!!
July 28th, 2007 at 9:11 am
HOORAY FOR RAVELRY VOLUNTEERS! Thanks for everything!
~Viv
July 28th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Hurry up! :) I want to be one of the cool kids, too, and see what the fuss is about.
July 28th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Am blind where all these patterns etc. you are talking about? I don’t see a place to click to go to them?
sorry for my stupidosity……………
Celia
ps people are spreading the word you guys are hot!
July 28th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Great posting update - thank you for keeping us in the know as we wait and check to see where we stand on the antsy page.
Right now, I am not seeing the image of the volunteer editors.
July 28th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I love the tracker!!!!
awesomeness
my day usually goes like this
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goto bed
P.S. I did some math and it appears with th epeople in wait plus the people already online you have over 20,000 knitters
July 29th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Wonderful! Thank you for the update! I cannot wait to use Ravelry.
July 29th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
ok, now you’re just messing with me. i’ve been #20 all day. now, all of a sudden (yes, i’ve been refreshing all day, i admit it) i’m #25.
oh please. stop the torment.
;-)
July 30th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Yay! for volunteer editors!
July 30th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I can barely wait until it opens!! Especially since I have so much free time! Oh well, only 9517 people in front of me. *sigh*
July 30th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Anything worth waiting for is, well, worth waiting for. I am cool. I am calm. I am willing to wait.
knit-knit-knit!
(repeat)
P.S. From what I’ve heard, Time Spent Knitting falls off dramatically for several weeks after the Ravelry Invitation Arrives and I *really* need to get these socks done first. So not getting on right away would be a good thing, right?
P.P.S. I’m loving the “Check the waiting list yourself” thing. Just look at all the people I’m ahead of! :-)
July 30th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Went away and had a thought, so I’m back to share it.
It would help us ravelrrs-in-waiting a LOT with the whole patience thing, if every couple of days or so you’d post a new screen shot from the inside to this blog.
I’ve viewed the available screenshots a few times now and they’re getting stale (for me).
July 31st, 2007 at 11:56 pm
With the adding of patterns, one thing that might speed up the process is having designers submit pattern information to you as new ones are released. I’m sure online sites would be receptive to this as these are our customers who are frequenting your site. I’mnot sure if this indeed helpful, but if it is, you could always make a list of the information req’d and we could send it to you in the same format (to make it easier for you). Again, if this fits your scenario. Not sure yet as I’m anxiously waiting my invite. ;-)
August 1st, 2007 at 9:33 am
Oh my gosh…someone bump up Brooklynne on the list for the sheer effort she put into the above comment. That was too funny!
I, too, look foward to joining and will be photographing my (laughable-quantity-when-compared-to-other-knitters) stash this weekend.
Have a great one and thanks for thinking of this incredible forum!
August 1st, 2007 at 11:07 am
You guys are brilliant. Period. End of sentence.
August 1st, 2007 at 11:16 am
If I make a donation can I get jumped to the front of the line? Hey, it doesn’t hurt to ask, right?
August 1st, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I have searched high and low. What exactly is Ravelry?
August 1st, 2007 at 4:43 pm
It seems the percentage is moving SO slowly. I still have over 6,000 ahead of me. I am anxiously waiting.
But I’m hanging in there!! Maybe by Christmas???
Gina
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:36 am
Yep - The percentage is moving slowly cause more people sign up each day.
Hang tight! The number ahead of you will only be shrinking by ~1200 a week until we move from our beta server to our Grown Up Servers.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 am
This site is absolutely genius! I don’t know what else to say - I am #8710 - only 1068 people ahead of me - I think that means I only have to wait 1 more week!!! WOOHOO!!! ***happy dance***
Seriously, Thanks guys - you are amazing - I know the challenges of running a business, and you guys have worked your ***** off!
August 4th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Holy cow I am #31 on the list now! I signed up June 8th. :) And I thought I would have nothing to look forward to after Deathly Hallows came out. ;)
August 5th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Thanks for the update! Am really excited about being able to keep this online “journal” of knitting! What a great idea. Only 432 folks ahead of me. How about a list of cities and states showing where all the members are?
August 7th, 2007 at 3:04 am
it´s been two weeks now, don´t you think a small new entry would be great?
Just like “we´ve invited everybody till the 15th of June, there are now XYZ users” and so on.
I mean with more than 3000 people on the list before me I guess in 3 weeks (based on 1200 invitations a week) it will be my turn but I´d love to read the numbers and what has been going on since the end of July and what improvements you have achieved…
Just a litle note from a German knitter keen to get on and help you with beta testing as I´ve done it before for so many friends.
Greetings from the Berlin, Germany area
Yours Elisa
August 7th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Hi there, I am astonished by the amount of volunteers you have. A big thank you to them all :D I am available to volunteer if you need anymore help.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:54 am
I cannot wait to be come a “ravelry” person!!! I too find myself checking daily to see if I’ve moved up on the list — 14,000 ahead of me…. I had no Idea that there area so many knitters!!! Knitters who have Ravelry, really love it, and I cannot wait to going the community. Go Ravelry, Go!
Karen
Atlanta GA