Point of View

Let's get this straight. No one is saying that having different point of views is censorship. As in the case for Deafread, people have been and are trying to force the owner of Deafread through intimidation, protests, slandering, harassing, and conjuring up myths about the owner of Deafread, Tayler Mayer, in order to get him to acquiesce and run an aggregator site that accept only Deaf POV videos and institute a so-called better "R-List." Thus pushing the practice of censoring to the extreme.

What is "censor"?

cen·sor
noun
1. an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.

In fact, Tayler and his moderators do censor what's allowed in Deafread since there are certain requirements to be met in order for a blog or a link to be posted in Deafread. But the big irony is that because of Deafread there are loads of POVs from all kinds of people who are deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened, culturally deaf, CODAs, cochlear implant wearers, signers and non-signers alike, those who prefer to speak and listen, and hearing parents of deaf/hh kids.

Tayler Mayer made it clear that he does not want to censor Deafread by restricting it even further and have it accept Deaf POVs only but rather have Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing and hearing POVs instead.

One central reason for developing DeafRead is that Jared and I wanted to empower the deaf community; we wanted to allow everyone a voice, a place where people could speak out.

What is censorship?

the actions or practices of censors; especially : censorial control exercised repressively

So what Don and others are advocating? More censorship and control through force and intimidation against the owner of Deafread, and get him to capitulate at all cost.

If Don and others want to create their own aggregator site that accepts only Deaf POVs they are more than welcomed to create an alternative aggregator site that reflect their own policies, rules and ideals. Deaf Village did the same thing by breaking away from Deafread to create its own blog aggregator site. A place to provide aggregated and filtered online content that reflects a spirit of inclusion, collaboration and partnership among the diverse members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.  They didn't whine and moan for 3 or 4 years when they disagreed with Deafread's actions or policies. They up and left and created their own blog aggregator site in a matter of months which is now in its 4th year.

There's a similar situation for vlogs as well. You have DVTV for signers which is an aggregator site for vlogs via YouTube. At one time people got upset with Tayler Mayer's (DVTV) policy regarding the ground rules on accepting vlogs and decided to create their own vlog aggregator site and the first one was ASLrocks. That attempt failed spectacularly and ASLrocks didn't even last for one year probably due to the rampant cyberbullying that went on.  Next came along Deafcube and it is still going.

Instead of complaining, go out create your own if you're not happy with Deafread. Using the strategy to try and bully Tayler Mayer into changing will not work. That tactic has obviously failed. It's better to hear from all sides than to be fed with only one viewpoint all the time.

Controlling the message...

Here's what DonG said in his YouTube comment:

Expanded close up:

 

First off, let me make this obvious to everybody. DonG makes the claim in his YouTube video comment saying that there is no background noises being heard because he said:

"...sound settings automatically turned off because I don't need sound to make my vlogs!" 

I never heard of a laptop that can turn off sound automatically but certainly it can manually be turned off.  But that doesn't matter. What we have here is that DonG is either lying or he doesn't really know that the microphone is actually turned on and assumed it was turned off when he made his video. I think it's the latter. The sound of a dish washing machine can obviously be heard with its washing sound in the background immediately once DonG shows up in his video after the intro. The washing machine sound continues throughout the whole video with an occassional sound of gurgling water from it. If that doesn't convince you perhaps this will:

At the 0:23 seconds mark he signs the word "pick" and you can hear his hand slap against his other hand.

At the 0:58 seconds mark he signs "whole" and you can hear his right hand slapping against his left hand.

At the 1:42 mark you can hear him slap his hands doing the sign for "negative."

At the 1:51 mark you can hear him slap his right hand into his left hand for the sign "identity."

Beyond the 2 minute mark you can hear him smack his lips on occassion.

At the 2:58 mark you can actually hear the washing machine go through a different washing cycle as it actually gets louder. The washing continues throughout the rest of the video.

At the 3:18 mark you can hear him when he signs "defective" (i.e. "negative" sign) against his hands.

So, what does this all mean? Well, the microphone was indeed turned on and DonG had no clue. Ask anyone who can hear.

As for the "control" response by DonG in YouTube? I'd say that Tayler Mayer is the master of that control in Deafread. Not DonG or anybody else. Besides, Tayler made it clear that Deafread wasn't meant to be a "deaf-centric" aggregator site. He made it clear in his website:

"One central reason for developing DeafRead is that Jared and I wanted to empower the deaf community; we wanted to allow everyone a voice, a place where people could speak out."

When he says "everyone" he means everyone and not just for culturally deaf people only but deaf, hard of hearing, late deafened, pre-lingual, post-lingual, CODA, AGBell supporters, Tracy Clinic supporters, AVT supporters, parents of deaf/hh children, hearing people with an interest in deafness, cochlear implant users, hearing aid users, ASL supporters, SEE supporters, Bi-Bi supporters, oral/aural supporters and so on and so forth for those people to have a voice. This includes those who are against such supports. Not a monopoly but a voice for anyone who wants to be heard. What DonG is advocating is really about monopoly and censorship control which Deafread is not about.

What is censorship?

Censorship -- the control of the information and ideas circulated within a society -- has been a hallmark of dictatorships throughout history. In the 20th Century, censorship was achieved through the examination of books, plays, films, television and radio programs, news reports, and other forms of communication for the purpose of altering or suppressing ideas found to be objectionable or offensive. The rationales for censorship have varied, with some censors targeting material deemed to be indecent or obscene; heretical or blasphemous; or seditious or treasonous.

What is monopoly?

"exclusive possession or control"

In other words, I think this is a matter of some people who are afraid to allow the competition of ideas, arguments or commentaries and thus feel the only way to "win" is by force against Tayler's own conceptual idea of what Deafread is supposed to be all about by leaving or stopping/encouraging those from using Deafread. But one thing for sure, people will get to see less competition of ideas in Deafread's own aggregator site and those particular voices will become even more louder in Deafread.

What a bargain.

Alldeaf - the censorship factor?

I've heard about it but didn't think much of it until I sent a Private Message (PM) to another Alldeaf member. And then I saw it. The returned PM message back to me I noticed the one word I used. I was replaced with a long ugly line of asterisks instead. My original message out got censored! How could this be? And then I tried at first a short list of words (see screen capture) to see what would happen. All done in the name of research only involving our privacy.

After that quick experiment I tried a long list of words based on discussions with a few people. Several of words in the list ended up as "flagged" words and were replaced with asterisks. Incredible!


CLICK HERE FOR LARGER VERSION.


Now, see how petty for Alldeaf to censor Deafreedom, Deafsummit, Deafmadness (currently inactive but you can see the archived part), and Deafparent (no longer active but you can see the archived part).

There is no justification to do this sort of invasion of privacy on a regular basis. Even under a "spamming rule" it doesn't apply to PMs having a friendly conversation mentioning another deaf run forum site. If the receiver of PM messages feels that he or she has a spammed PM then simply forward the offending PM to one of the moderator and ask for help there. Censoring other people's Private Message is good way to ruin their trust. How many other unknown flagged words are there in AD's list of "offending" and "offensive" words are there? No one knows except the moderators.

Here's an interesting question. How come only four forums were censored but not the other three such as Deafchat ("temporarily closed" like...for long time but you can see the archived section), Deafonline2 (or Deafonline), and Deafnotes? Well? Oh, fer crying out loud, don't give me the spamming justification when one can forward the offending PM to the proper moderator who can easily address that rather than resort to flagging "questionable" words in the first place. Typing in the word n***er and seeing it get censored on the receiving end in a PRIVATE message (PM) isn't about spamming, is it? No. But an outright invasion of AD members' privacy, no matter how vulgar the PM might be between two consenting adults.

As I continue to learn about other deaf run forums and what moderators have done in the past I found out that at least one member was banned when one of the moderators actually used that member's PM (flagged words or otherwise) and subsequently banned him/her based on what was said in his/her PMs. A fact or a bit of truth stretched some? How much power do these moderators have anyways regarding PMs? I know that PMs cannot be read by a 2nd party unless they know the password but what do I know? How people got banned because of their PMs with the flagged words were justification in banning that member? I don't know but I suspect that was back during the earlier days when many forums were up and running and competition was fierce to retain members. But regardless of what happened in the past there shouldn't be any excuse to remotely censor words for fear of spamming. Time to grow up and be more responsible and conscious on the privacy issue. As Dale said, who is the owner and moderator of Deafreedom, about PM,

Anyway, PM's and Emails are sacred around here, I wouldn't read 'em.

And, no, I'm not trying to advertise Dale's Deafreedom site but to show a voice of reason, common sense and sanity knowing what's right and wrong when it comes to privacy issues and moderating. Invading members' PMs is good way to lose their trusts.

Remember, this is a Private Email. "P" means private. Not censorship. Or looky loos into emails. Things like that. It's either a private message or not. Otherwise it'd be an Orwellian or Big Brother thing going under your radar without knowing exactly what are moderators are doing in those forums behind that screen of theirs. Have they peeked in the past? I wonder. As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Stay tuned, I have more including wacky excuses for person to be banned or why messages were censored. Politically motivated or just a bad moderator?