I finally have some time to attend to business here; that includes responding to the many comments in my last post.

Since I was last here, the furor at and over DeafRead seems to have died down a bit. It’s still on enough people’s minds, though, that I want to add a couple more things.

First, a good friend and I were discussing what’s been happening, and the degrees of responsibility everyone shares, and should assume, in the wake of this incident. My friend showed me an article published last month in Time magazine; the article was quite timely, and I want to share it with you. The level of flames, sophomoric humor, and inane comments are not limited to the deaf blogosphere, as you’ll see after reading “Post Apocalypse.”

This article brought to mind another one I read earlier this month, about film critics and their readers. This Los Angeles Times piece is about the flak that film critic David Edelstein received for his critical comments on “Dark Knight.” As Edelstein notes:

…the Internet has a mob mentality that can overwhelm serious criticism. There is superb writing in blogs and discussion groups … but there are also thousands of semi-literate tirades…

Sound familiar?

So I don’t think what we’re experiencing as a community is all that unique, nor do I think it is “safe” regardless of where you are on the internet– in the blogosphere, or on a newspaper article’s comments section.

That doesn’t mean we can’t change– as I’ve noted in my discussion with one of my frequent commenters [Observer], self-policing can work (see DT’s excellent suggestion, which I noted in my earlier post), but it will take time and shared responsibility.

Keep in mind also that the deaf blogosphere is small, and the number of commenters is even smaller– those that show up to comment are the most motivated of readers, and each will often bring their own strong opinions and voice into the fray.

So how do we maintain order? That leads into the second thing I wanted to mention tonight…

For a beginner’s primer on how to approach the internet and the blogosphere responsibly, I refer you to LaRonda Zupp’s outstanding presentation from the DeafRead Conference in February 2008 (a presentation I hope she takes on the road– it can be applied to lots of things on different levels!), “Why We Blog and Vlog” and “Dealing With Web Harrassment.” There’s a third part, but I can’t seem to find the post right now… Still, the previous two I’ve listed are worth spending some time watching/reading.

I think that’s it for now– my feeling at this point is we need to work on supporting each other, self-policing when necessary, and giving DeafRead a chance to follow through on its revised guidelines and applying them consistently. Until then, it’s back to the usual mix of politics and life beyond deafness here at the Sandbox…