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.

Naturally so...

A certain person who used to be a moderator in one forum recently claimed that I made a slanderous remark against a new forum in a recent blog I did. A claim that is certainly unfounded. The problem is that I've always supported competition as I've said before elsewhere. If people think they can build a better mouse trap (i.e.better product, services, etc), go for it. This is exactly how it happened between Deafread and Deaf Village. Both are blog aggregator websites where Deaf Village was borne out of its own need (and frustration) on a matter of principle and ideology in 2008 to build it's own blog aggregator site instead of relying on Deafread's blog aggregator site. In fact, I was one original Deaf Village staff who helped get Deaf Village off the ground in 2008. And yet I am a blog contributor to both Deafread and Deaf Village blog aggregator sites.

The same story goes between DeafvideoTV, Deafcube and ASLrocks.net (now defunct) which are (or were as for ASLrocks) video blog aggregator websites but Deafcube (and ASLrocks) was, too, born out of its own need (and frustration) on a matter of principle and ideology recently to build it's own video blog aggregator site. So, nothing is new under the sun when Naturally Deaf came about a few weeks ago borne out of its own need (and frustration) and as a matter of principle and ideology against All Deaf to build it's own forum.

People are free to make their choices when it comes to competition over the internet and that's what makes America great. There are now more choices to chose from for deaf and hard of hearing people, late deafened, culturally deaf, cochlear implant wearers, CODA, hearing parents of deaf/hh children and people who are simply curious or interested about deafness issues. I've already told a few people about the new forum site to check it out yet the snarkiness and sniggering on congratulating me for helping generate traffic to their new forum continues as I speak which certainly tells the story. 

As I have said before to the new moderator, good luck on the new endeavor and duty as a moderator. I mean it.

Now, back to my blog.

It's understandable that some people would miss my warning that I'd play the devil's advocate (I made it abundantly clear in the beginning) in one of my recent blog.  Long story short, I explained that some people might think of the phrase "naturally deaf" as applied to people would find it odd. Much the same questioning could be said for "naturally blind" and so on. But if people actually think I did make a slanderous statement against the new forum in my recent blog then show exactly where I made that slander. Otherwise it'd be smart to retract that accusation when it was never true in the first place which, ironically so, is the very definition of a slander. Go figure. Yet, I have my own opinions and beliefs regarding forums, blog and vlog aggregator sites. I have the right to express them as I see fit. Even when I believe some favoritism and bias have played a role on influencing moderators. There is no such thing as a bias-free moderator, naturally so. And in retrospect, I'd be wary of joining a deaf discussion forum with that kind of rampant bias and favoritism.