Rachel Ejected!

DeafRead booted Rachel because they felt she supported a commercial operation...Cochlear America has an auxiliary corps that they call the Cochlear Awareness Network composed of volunteer supporters. The company does not pay these volunteers, but offers them training and materials to do their work, and probably perks such as inspiring conventions, social backup, glowing testimonial material and prestige. There is still much to be learned about this system, granted, but it would not surprise me if there were more compensation than revealed.

This happens in other businesses as well. Commercial enterprises fund conventions and freebies for physicians, engineers, automobile dealers, indeed, any group that represents a consumer base. Lobbyists throw extravagant bashes for politicians as part of their outreach. Much of this is not disclosed because it borders on the illegal, if not unethical, but it goes on all the time. The pitches in these gatherings are intended to whip up enthusiastic support and to have it spread beyond the reach of advertising. Word of mouth is an effective way of commercial advancement.

To be fair, Rachel and others like her may not be aware of their exploitation by the industry. They have every reason to believe that they are doing a public service by spreading awareness and by convincing others that they, too, can benefit from cochlear implants. To understand this thinking, one looks at religious converts.  They are eager to proselytize and to urge others to become converts too. In doing so, they gain satisfaction in validating themselves and by sharing it with others.

DeafRead's Unenviable Position:

Now, Tayler stuck out his neck and deservedly is catching criticism for it. Complaints and suspicions about the nature of Rachel's blog are not enough grounds to boot her for commercialism, even if proven accurate at a later time. Personally, I found her blog to be interesting, (if irritatingly audistic at times,) so her exit from Deafread is a loss.

Since the influx of CI blogs started on Deafread, when the DeafSide idea came up I became interested.  Some took this the wrong way; that it would mean censorship, exclusivism, clannism,  or whatever. Not to me; keeping Deafread as a general aggregator and setting up DeafSide as a cultural website made sense. 

Rachel's DeafVillage:

So does Rachel's setting up a new aggregator, DeafVillage make sense. By attracting the CI blogs and other blogs that emphasize aided hearing as part of the deaf experience, it offers an alternative philosophy that encompasses more hearing culture. We all can use a dose of this at regular times to stay connected with the world  at large and still keep the Deaf-centric cultural aggregator.

New aggregators could also serve as concentrators--by encouraging groups of similar-themed blogs, they offer more choices for reading pleasure. For this reason, I hope individual bloggers don't list themselves on both because it would be time-wasting to sift through duplicate blogs to find the unique ones.

The evolution of DeafRead:

To Tayler and company, I don't envy you the responsibilities in trying to shape DeafRead as a generalist aggregator and in trying to please the d/Deaf community in all its tastes. This blogger is going to stay with DeafRead, not because I support their booting of Rachel, but because I understand the humongous Solomon-like decisions and accommodations that are made by the Deafread board. Perhaps this experience will prove that it isn't possible to be inclusive without diluting the overall atmosphere...consider the magazine industry. The generalist magazines such as Look, Saturday Evening Post and Life have died, and instead there is an explosion of specialized magazines. This probably is the future of deaf aggregators.