Best and worst deaf/hh forums?

Facebook, Twitter, and other online social media have gradually impacted many deaf/hh online discussion forums in the competition to maintain relevancy when they lose members. Over the years many forums have come and gone.

The first online deaf discussion forum outside of Listserv newsgroups that came onto the scene was Deafnotes (www.deafnotes.com). It began in July of 1999 but prior to that with the same website owner a site called www.deafchat.com started in 1998. This began to draw the attention of participants of Deaf-Lnewsgroup on wanting to belong to a forum that is owned and operated by a deaf person.  The number of participants in Deafnotes was about the same as bit.listserv.deaf-l at the time and consisted about 20 or 30 active participants each day. It wasn't long until people gradually began to prefer Deafnotes over Deaf-L newsgroup.

For example, the popularity of Deafnotes bulletin board lasted only a few years when some members of Deafnotes who felt repressed by Deafnotes abusive moderators began to design their own online discussion boards. Others wanted to branch out into discussing more about U.S. politics, or cochlear implant issues and not feel restricted to discuss them whether you're supportive of it or not. Some felt that forum members should be allowed more freedom to discuss various deaf, hearing loss or non-deaf related topics without fear of getting banned or locked out of a discussion forum for political or apolitical reasons. Some members left because of personal reasons.  Others left because of obvious bias and prejudicial behaviors seen in moderators favoring certain members over others. Or saw bias towards a certain issue. The reasons for leaving or joining a deaf/hh discussion forum are many.

During the 2000s the number of deaf/hh discussion forum websites began to increase and suited and appealed to certain groups of people. There were online deaf discussion forum websites, discussion groups and even chat groups during that decade such as www.deafonline2.com (cochlear implant friendly although the site is in limbodeafonline2 was established after leaving www.deafnotes.com), www.deaflore.com (defunct see Wayback archived section), www.deafnotes.com (in limbo but is vociferously anti-cochlear implant anything),  www.deafbase.com (see Wayback archived section),  bit.listserve.deaf-l newsgroup (hardly any activity but is now a Google run newsgroup), www.deafreedom.com (defunct, see Wayback archived section), www.hearingexchange.com (forum does not exist, it was once a private forum, see Wayback archived section), www.deafmadness.com (defunct but see Wayback archived section for goodies),  www.alldeaf.com (forum is active but favoritism and moderator bias continues to be a problem, supporters of CIs are out of luck), www.deafchat.com (defunct, see Wayback archived section), several deafness related listservs newsgroups, www.deafspot.com (defunct, see Wayback archived section), www.hohtimes.com (defunct, see Wayback archived section but forum was private), and a few other similar deaf and hard of hearing discussion or forum websites that I'm sure I may have missed. Let me know what I missed.

Over the last 4 years deaf/hh people have been increasingly moving towards Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (the "Big 3 social media") rather than go to a forum website as part of their online socializing activity. Online discussion forums are becoming a dinosaur in the age of online social media.  It will only be a matter of time until some of the remaining existing deaf/hh online discussion forums will simply cease to exist. These forums show the nature of people on how they essentially need a "refuge" to come together to mostly agree with each other rather than a site they can't  agree to disagree in a discussion. There was only one forum site that I've been a member of whose moderators did not abuse its moderating duties. As moderators they had a policy to  "agree to disagree" rather than to allow prejudice and bias rule the day when it came to politics and deafness related issues. They expected members to handle arguments without needing kids gloves from moderators to handle constant and ongoing complaints from thin-skinned members who cannot handle a difference of opinions. This was a site where no members need not fear reprisals (i.e. banishment) from other members over a difference of opinions in their effort to "game the system" and that forum was Deafreedom. Which reminds me of this....

As a matter of curiosity sake which one of the past (defunct), old and active discussion forums were the best ones and worst ones that you have participated in, and why? This is your chance to speak up.

Deafhoodism Voodoo

* click me and check inside for free! *

Just to be fair in the name of this so-called "transparency" game I am just now realizing that DBC, a grassroots organization with several core leaders running it, never disclosed any financial or commerical or venture gains with, if any, "Deafhood" workshops," amount of money donated to DBC via CAD (which is questionable on tactics used to receive money), products sold (e.g. t-shirts) , "Deafhood" trainings, re-imbursements, gifts, any relationship to Deafhood Foundation and so on.

Under DeafRead's policy regarding using blog or vlog sites on commercialization:

6) Commerical Sites

We do not link to commerical sites for the purpose of generating profit, other than our own (we have expenses to cover!)

Though DBC's website was linked numerous times in DeafRead and now it is reasonable to ask the question regarding any commercialization aspect, according to Jared, concerning the danger of becoming a "mouthpiece" for an organization:

DeafRead highly values the true ethos of blogging- that is a blogger sharing independent thought, meaningful analysis and personal opinions without undue influence.
When a blogger is part of an organization backed by a for-profit corporation and both of them can stand to benefit financially from the blogging effort, there is an inherent conflict of interest. These bloggers can optionally receive other means of compensation. The integrity of the blog posts then is called into question. The blogger can run the risk of becoming a mouthpiece for the corporation.

DeafRead prefers to distance ourselves from these types of blogs. This is why we continue to allow personal blogs of CI bloggers who display the true ethos of blogging. Any blog that start to push for a product to the point of almost becoming commercialized will be revisited by the DeafRead team for a possible change in its subscription status.

Indeed. So, what makes a product a product? Is it something tangible that you can touch that has value? Or can pushing a product be about pushing certain ideology or a concept in the hope of receiving some kind of monetary or beneficial (self-serving) gains through the incorporation of an idealogy and use that to sell their products?

Seems like this whole thing is this inexorable march towards this whole"Deafhoodism" folly. A few years ago I, as the original author (see here, here and here), came up with word "Deafhoodism" and provided a definition on what it means:

Deafhoodism - a Deaf status quo regarding Deafhood; a system of Deaf beliefs accepted as authoritative where acceptance and, sometimes, blameless actions toward other deaf and hard of hearing individuals outside of Deaf culture would be required. It is also a self-discovery oriented process involving sustained meaningful interaction with and commitment to, Deaf social, cultural and/or political life where a deaf or hard of hearing person would become a Deaf person someday.

In short, hoping these "deaf and hard of hearing people" will "see the light" and reach for "Deaf nirvana" someday.

But it seems like DBC cannot keep "Deafhood" separate from their now quagmire of a mission that's already beginning to show mixed messages and letting Deaf politics become their mission du jour that's seemingly filled with hidden agendas. It's becoming more and more painfully obvious in what some of these people are doing.

But with the latest revelation by Barry Sewell with a copy of an IM between core leaders of DBC did it show that there are clear disdain towards hearing parents who get cochlear implants for their deaf children or the use of AVT. And the general atmosphere of disdain towards the idea of oralism as well. Not to mention personal agendas of somehow tying DBC with that of Deafhood Foundation. Of course, they have a right to their own personal opinions and beliefs but certainly and obviously so we are seeing that conflict of interest is occurring.

All in all, it seems like all of a sudden a bunch of Deaf people are simply wearing masks with the intention to further their own personal agendas regarding ASL, "Deafhood," "Deafhood" workshops, NAD, DBC, grab for power and any and everything in between. Remember what I said about carrying unnecessary baggage with you? Which is exactly why the below cartoon precisely describes what's going on.