lemontree

I found Tayler Mayer's actions inexcusable. I thought to bring this to your attention in case you're subscribers to DeafRead.com. I have since deleted DeafRead.com from my Favorites.

On 4/12/07, Deafweekly wrote:
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>
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> deafweekly
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> EDITOR'S MESSAGE
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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> I am sorry that I have not been able to send out Deafweekly in recent weeks due to my own personal illness and the recent death of my mother.
>
> This morning I wrote an entry on my blog about my mother's passing and it did not show up on DeafRead.com. When I emailed to DeafRead.com's Tayler Mayer to ask him to please post my blog, he responded with a one-word email saying "No."
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> If Mr. Mayer is too cold, heartless and insensitive to share this posting with DeafRead.com readers, I will just go ahead and send this message directly to Deafweekly subscribers.
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> You can read my posting at Tom’s Deaf Advocacy.
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> I hope to have Deafweekly up and running again next week. Thank you for your continuing support,
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> Tom Willard
> Editor, Deafweekly
>

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Nesmuth

Taylor is known to use the deaf yardstick on the posters. He dont take in posts from people not deaf enough.

To see him do to it to Tom Willard too is really sad and paves the way for a major falling with in the hardcore ASL deaf world.

I suggest Tom to clone up a deafread like portal and he can grow his own field of bloggers.

Richard

Cousin Vinny

For what it's worth, this particular blog entry did appear at DeafRead Extra, which is made available only by RSS subscription.

At any rate, I extend my condolences to Tom and his family for their loss.

Nesmuth

And I just found out there taking in our blog as well. So in that light I can say theyre improving on their inclusivity.

Richard

lemontree

I had emailed Tayler Mayer basically saying "shame on you." This is the reply I got with some parts deleted:

This is what I said in the email I sent Tom Willard.

"It's not personal and I sympathize with your mother's death. I cannot
imagine what it could be like."

I have made it clear on several occasions on DeafRead and personal
correspondences with Mr. Willard that DeafRead limits its blogs to
those discussing issues substantial to the deaf community. We consider
this akin to a media outlet, and you do not see reporters talk about
the death of their parents there. My heart goes out to Mr. Willard and
I did not simply say "No" to him, and is particularly disturbing that
this is the light Mr. Willard has chosen to put me in. I hope you
understand that DeafRead aims to bring news and discussion to its
readers, it is not a personal outlet for specific bloggers. We cannot
make exceptions and we work hard to ensure that our editors select
blogs in a fair and balanced manner. Currently our approval rate is
between 55 and 65% so clearly a lot of postings are not published.

Thank you for contacting me directly.

I guess there will always be some sort of politics when it comes to deafness or personal issues.

__________________
When life hands you lemons...Simply refuse to sign for them. Life's lemons can't be delivered without an authorized signature.

webexplorer

I am sorry that you had to deal with your mother's death. You are not alone. I read your story that made me very sad. I like your video on the internet, and I have never thought of it. I am impressed with your history story, "The Wondering Years." It is important for anyone to write their story for their children's next generation.

My previous generations never brought up their story except several old pictures without their names on them. I was the only one to find and scanned very old photographs and saved them on my CD. I was very exhaused from scanning them because it was slow, re-fix the positions, and the corrected resolutions. Now, I forgot all about the stories. It was too late that my grandmother passed away a few years ago, and she doesn't remember her old time except she loved to talk about her father and they speak in German. She spoke English very well.

In your "The Wondering Years," there is a picture of a lady that looked like my grandmother - almost same face (2nd page, in the middle, and above the picture). Her name was Josephine. She never smiled in her whole life because she rather to live in Germany, but her family moved to America during WWI. That's about it.

Tousi

With condolences to Mr. Willard for his loss, I fail to see where Taylor Mayer is wrong.

SxyPorkie

DITTO!!!!

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Life Goes On!!

Deaf258

Thanks for reminding me why I took a 2 year hiatus from AllDeaf. Too many gullible members, not enough critical-thinkers. That's just so unfortunate that those gullible people jump the gun before they actually know the facts!

Nesmuth

Deafread.com pays way too much attention to their fans and works hard to keep a very sanitized website. That sounds like the business practices of Wynd and GoAmerica. That's pretty much why their approval rate is at the midpoint.

But again I suggest and encourage competition in the deaf blog portals.

Richard

Deaf258

As always, you're living in a fantasy world, Cancer man.

Here's the official statement from Tayler at DeafRead:

"During this stressful time, Tom Willard requested a post of his to be published at DeafRead, which was declined. It was an obituary for his mother’s recent passing, and I replied with a “No”, then followed up with an e-mail three minutes later sending my sympathies. I apologize for my moment of thoughtlessness in my initial response.

DeafRead generally does not publish obituaries unless they are for someone well-known in the deaf community. To learn about how DeafRead selects posts to publish, see our Guidelines. Unpublished posts are available in our DeafRead Extra RSS Feed. We encourage you to subscribe to blogs that you enjoy and don’t want to miss any posts."

DeafRead Official Blog » Blog Archive » Early Friday the 13th Incident

Did Tom announce on Deafweekly that Tayler "then followed up with an e-mail three minutes later sending my sympathies"?!? No, Tom Willard did not. He purposely omitted that fact from his Deafweekly readers in an attempt to run a smear campaign against Tayler and DeafRead. It backfired now that Tom made an ass out of himself! The DeafRead's guidelines were established a long time ago and he failed to read it before posting. You can read the Guidelines here. DeafRead also made another site: DeafRead Vote / Home. In fact, before last weekend, I remember seeing Tom's blog about his mother's passing was posted in DeafRead.net!

IMHO, Tom Willard only made sure he discredited his own status as an editor and a Deaf professional.

I have no respect for people who use their dead loved ones in a situation like this.

P.S. DeafRead.com does not always post my blogs or vlogs, because I don't always follow the guidelines. It would be unfair for me to expect DeafRead.com to bend their rules and post something just because I felt emotionally compelled for them to do so!

Tousi

Thanks for that Deaf258; I, too, saw that but knowing Nesmuth, I didn't think it was worth the effort.

webexplorer

I would think that it is ok for anyone to write a brief biography of the deceased person or friend on the forum. I suggest that Tayler would have created a directory for obituary. Why not? It would do the same thing for AllDeaf's directory. How will you able to find a blog's story? It would be on the forum so that someone who is interested to read the obituary.

It is emotional for some people who loved someone who passed away, and the person needs to write a story on the internet.

Deaf258

And no comment from lemontree?

Now I find this amusing.

Tom

I just learned of this thread and would like to share a few comments.

It is inaccurate for Tayler to describe my posting as an obituary. An obituary is filled with biographical information about the person who died. My posting was about my mom's passing and her reaction to my hearing loss in earier years, and it included a link to my photo exhibit about the years in which I slowly became deaf. It certainly does fall within the DeafRead guidelines.

While it is true that Tayler tried to backpedal after sending me his one-word email saying "No," it reminds me of Don Imus backpedaling after his "nappy-headed hos" comment. It is the first comment that one remembers, not the lame attempts afterwards to repair the damage.

I've been an editor for 35 years and I would never dream of responding with a one-word "No" to someone who asks me to share something with my readers. If I have to say no, I would take the time to explain. I found Tayler's response to be rude, cold, callous, insensitive and indefensible. And I had no qualms about sharing his response with others (despite his retort that I was "shooting myself in the foot") because people should know how he behaves.

Personally, I find many of the postings on DeafRead to be incredibly boring. There is way too much emphasis on Gallaudet University, and I feel the editors show too much favoritism. For example, what is the fascination with Carl Schroeder? He seems to have several postings every day. Why does he think the world wants to know his thoughts on everything and anything, and why do the DeafRead editors agree?

Incidentally, I was advised to share my feedback with the DeafRead editors. I did so, and not a single one had the common courtesy to respond. That only gave me an even worse impression of DeafRead.

It's interesting to note that my posting was clicked on more than 1,700 times after I mailed my note to Deafweekly readers and I received over 100 emails in response. It's obvious that people wanted to read it, thus I continue to feel that DeafRead was wrong to reject it.

I hope this will be a learning experience for the DeafRead editors, who strike me as inexperienced and overly cliquey.

Angel

!!!!! .. They rather jump the gun than knowing the REAL truth behind this all...




Edit forgive my manner here, Tom, I'm sorry to hear about your loss of your mother, RIP...

__________________
"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is brought in our life, OR in the life of another." ~ Helen Keller

Deaf258

I respect the passing of your mother and I am sorry you lost someone you loved dearly. For this reason, my heart goes out for you.

But I don't think it was necessary to use her as part of your agenda or smear campaign against DeafRead. If you don't like how DeafRead editors run their site, why don't you try being proactive and set up your own RSS news syndicating website?! I looks to me that you'd rather be overly reactive and negative towards those who have made it successful. Whether you think DeafRead is all about favoritism or not, you could have encouraged your readers to vote for your post on DeafRead.net. After a number of votes are counted, DeafRead editors would have to post it on DeafRead.com because their guidelines said this would happen. I would expect DeafRead editors to follow their guidelines to the dot.

Again, you didn't check the guidelines and learn how both DeafRead sites work. You just had to make a big pooh-pooh out of this mess!

Tom

That is fine with me if you want to look at it that way. It's a free country and not everyone will agree on everything. Thanks for your input and have a nice weekend.

Chris#33

I've heard a lot of complaints about DeafRead lately. Mostly about favoritism.

Deaf258

I don't see any favoritism on DeafRead.

The reason some people tend to be listed on DeafRead.com the most is because they always follow the guidelines when they make their vlogs or write their blog entries. It has nothing to do with favoritism.

If you don't follow the guidelines, you don't get posted. Unless you get at least 20 votes on DeafRead.net, then your post will be moved to DeafRead.com.

It's that simple.

Nesmuth

It's not about favoritism. They started of with huge 'blinders'



I see the blinders theyre wearing are shrinking. Just give them more patience.

Richard