Some of you may be aware of an incident that occurred recently. An alpha pattern with the text "black lives matter" was declined by one of our moderators. The decline message stated that BraceletBook does not accept such patterns for being "too political". Understandably, the user was dissatisfied with this response and deemed it censorship.
The pattern in question was not declined for being "too political" despite the decline message. Instead, it was declined for being a simple word pattern. All such patterns are declined, unless they are logos, due to the fact that the BraceletBook database already holds numerous alphabet patterns from which any phrase can be made, negating the use for any patterns containing a phrase.
The user submitting the pattern was informed that they can submit an alphabet pattern using the same font as in the original pattern and this will be accepted.
It should be made clear that while each of our moderators are a valued part of the BraceletBook team and their work is invaluable to the knotting community, they are not BraceletBook representatives. Our moderators are external volunteers. Any views expressed by a moderator, within BraceletBook or otherwise, are their views as a person and they do not reflect the views of BraceletBook as a whole.
BraceletBook has never believed in censorship of any kind. A quick search of the database will show plenty of Black Lives Matter patterns already on the website. The same can be said for other topics that are viewed by many as controversial.
BraceletBook has always aimed to remain entirely neutral in any political discussion, controversial subjects, conflicts or debates. Thus, many controversial patterns, on either side of a particular issue, are accepted, often breaking out conflict in the comments.
Any pattern submitted onto the website is entirely the user's creation. Thus, any views, political or otherwise, that the pattern represents, only represent the views of the pattern's author.
As a result of this incident some changes were made to the moderator team. This issue has been talked over within the remainder of the team to ensure that each moderator understands BraceletBook's views on such topics and that such misunderstandings will not occur in the future.
We at BraceletBook firmly believe all humans are equal, no matter which race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality or anything else. We also firmly believe in a person's right to express themselves through their art and thus we do not believe in the censorship of this art.
We apologise for any harm this situation may have caused and wish you all a happy time creating and knotting!
An important announcement regarding censorship
by Admin 4ย years, 4ย months ago