Drama! Drama! Drama! DeafDirt! Come read this post! NOW NOW NOW

There. Now I’ve done my part to convince people to come read this post. In reality, I don’t dish out drama or gossip, for the most part; I tend to take rather sober, sometimes dry, but mostly thoughtful takes on many topics.

Usually a post is composed of two parts: the post itself, and the comments. Our current drama revolves around Deaf Read and its role in our community. A number of people (including myself) are rightly bothered by the quality of blogs and comments of late, and how harmful and destructive some people’s behavior has been. Quite a few people have expressed disappointment with Deaf Read, to the point that some have left or are thinking about leaving.

My last post was about my take on the issue, and a plea of sorts for people to reconsider before they continue to split the community further. I received a dozen or so comments in response, with a near unanimous number being thoughtful remarks.

Normally, I leave comments in the comments section. But while I was typing a response to Joey Baer, I realized what I wanted to say was perhaps too important (at least to me) to leave in the comments area, where only a handful of people will probably bother reading it. Additionally, a few others made good points that I think need to be shared. So I’m dragging up some comments to make a posted comment on Deaf Read and the current situation.

First, Joey– the man needs no introduction. He was kind enough to read my blog, and then to leave his own thoughts. Here’s what he had to say:

“I still believe that DeafRead is partially responsible. If b/vloggers kept on telling each other that we must raise our bars by doing better jobs, why can’t DeafRead raise their own bars as well? It is time for DeafRead to set higher expectations from Deaf v/bloggers to do better job in order to reach on their front page. If they really care about Deaf community, they would do it instantly and they haven’t.

Other than that, thank you for sharing your thoughts by outlining specific excellent examples on how people were pushed off DeafRead.

I simply closed my door but I didn’t lock it. I have other things to do that is more important than DeafRead at this moment but I will keep my eyes open (I have always done that). ”

In response, here’s what I replied:

“Joey, thanks for stopping by. I think you have made some good points on your vlogs, but I also think others have made good points as well, from moi on Random Thoughts and Musings, to Ben Vess on his most recent post. I think both of them are right.

I’d say I’m somewhere in the middle. I think Deaf Read has a responsibility to follow its own rules and standards; so where posts and inclusion of posts are concerned, yes, I think Deaf Read needs to reconsider its rules, and work on applying even standards all around. This appears to be what moi and you would like to see.

However, where comments are concerned, I’m in complete agreement with Tayler (and this seems to be what Ben Vess is driving at as well). There is absolutely no way the editors at Deaf Read can control the comments, or be expected to spend their time wading through comments and judging posts by them. That takes far more time than they have. All of the Deaf Read team have other responsibilities, including jobs. They are not paid full-time to babysit Deaf Read. They are largely volunteering their time in service to the community.

Each of us who owns a blog have ways to screen comments– I don’t moderate my comments, but I know moi does, and many others of you do. THAT is our responsibility, and we need to step up and be more proactive about maintaining a fair playing field for all.

I’m glad you’re keeping the door unlocked. Let’s hope in the future you’ll re-open it.

What I see as part of the problem as well is we all have our own version of what Deaf Read should be. This isn’t possible. As I said on Ben Vess’ blog in the comments, “…Deaf Read will never please anyone everyone, because if Deaf Read changes to satisfy one group of people, a different group will object. The key is finding a balance that meets the more crucial needs/concerns.”

We’re going to have find a balance here, people. Tayler’s offered to talk to us, via his recent posting on the official Deaf Read blog. Those of us who truly want to find a solution need to take him up on this, and start talking it out. Otherwise, nothing will be solved, and we’ll just be right back at square one again.

We’ll also end up going through this again if we don’t get to the root of the problem. Sheri Farinha Mutti stopped by to comment as well, and I think she hit the nail on the head, so to speak: we need to ask ourselves WHY this happened. It isn’t just a matter of venting our frustrations towards Deaf Read, or trying to start the healing overnight (something I’m guilty of as well). We need to first step back and really examine why this came about in the first place. Once we understand that, only then can we truly work towards a solution that will (hopefully) prevent this from happening again.

If we can’t do this, then there isn’t much of a community, is there? It won’t matter if people split off and start another organization; it’ll just happen again a few months from now, when people have drifted away from this current mess, things get calm again, then– blam. All over again.

My opening sentence indicates part of the problem: too many people come for the drama. Look at the posts on Deaf Read with the highest view counts: they’re the ones that offer sensationalism, drama, gossip. If we don’t want to encourage that, why do we feed the fire? Someone commented recently on another blog that they don’t pay attention to my blogs because I don’t write “sexy” titles. While writing a title and a post that grabs people’s attention is an important factor, I think the content is far more important than the glitz. Unfortunately, this is not a symptom limited to our community. All you have to do is look at the headlines on TV and in the newspapers these days. We were far more concerned with Paris Hilton than we were with much more serious matters. We’re being fed information about Christie Brinkley’s divorce trial while Congress essentially shreds the Fourth Amendment.

As always, there’s more I want to say, but I think I’ve offered enough for us all to ponder for now.