THE VOID!! *sucking sound*

The void. It means empty. No space. A vacuum where air or gas doesn't exist like out in space. A great emptiness. Sometimes that word is used literally and at times figuratively to describe a situation, an idea, a concept, a person, a group of people, an organization, or what have you. But in vacuum there is always an opportunity to exploit the seemingly empty space. But let's take a little stroll through history first on how such a "void" or "vacuum" occurred in the Deafread aggregator site that have allowed bloggers to take advantage of less opposing bloggers.

First there was a group of Deaf people that wanted to get rid of "deficit thinkers" from Deafread in order to control views seen and heard in the Deaf community via Deafread aggregator  site beginning in 2007.

They tried that and....failed.

Another year passed and suddenly a new idea on the effort to control Deafread's content and that was to try and force Tayler Mayer to institute guidelines in DR by implementing the "a" word. And attempt to heap social guilt on him.  But Tayler realized it'd be an impossible job to enforce that concept because there is no acceptable definition and it was just a cover.

They tried that and.... failed.

So after three years of trying to control Deafread people as a last resort boycotted DR by walking out as bloggers who were once linked in the Deafread aggregator list. That action has undoubtedly left a vacuum, so to speak, in Deafread. And when that happens bloggers who have not left Deafread will get to see their own blogs become increasingly unopposed in Deafread's aggregator site. It is easier for readers to visit an aggregator site to see who is what what and to whom than to try and remember which blogger wrote what. It may look like a "void" in Deafread when the first boycott began but whenever there is a vacuum bloggers will use that to their advantage, naturally. And that is to allow Deafread to continue the linking to their blogs. This ensures that their views get to be heard more often with greater frequency. Bloggers like me and many others can see that.  So, does that mean the boycott of Deafread has failed as well? Good question. You make that call.

Now, what's next? A Deaf video anti-cyberbullying Public Announcement? It'd be great if this anti-cyberbullying video include every stripes of deaf and hard of hearing people to make that announcement by saying "Cyberbullying isn't cool." Include people from NAD, AGBell, and deaf and hard of hearing people of all stripes and backgrounds. Maybe throw in a couple of 6 year old kids with cochlear implants and have them use their cute voices and say, "Cyberbullying isn't cool!"  Include late deafened adults as well and have them speak or sign. Of course, you'd have your Deaf people signng "Cyberbullying isn't cool!" one by one as each of them speak out. The point I'm making is to have different individuals with different backgrounds stand collectively against cyberbullying over the internet. Personally, I think it'd be cute to see those kids with CI speak up and say, "Cyberbullying isn't cool!" Don't you?

Let me end my thoughts here about the void discussion.

It may seem like Deafread is "suffering" from the lack of participants but traffic to Deafread has increased by 20% over the last month, and up to 10% over the last 3 months according to Alexa's traffic stats. Which means more people still depend on Deafread to follow the latest blogs on its aggregator site. This trend will simply continue to grow after all even after all those earlier attempts at controlling Deafread's content. It's not just Deaf people who visit Deafread but the deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people who will increasingly discover and visit Deafread's site regardless of the opinions rendered by various listed blogs seen in Deafread.