Peripheral vision of the online community

April 17th, 2009

On a post by Mishka Zena, she tries to understand what makes some people consider cochlear implants as evil. I made a comment unrelated to cochlear implants.

I don’t think the commenters that we see are representative of the deaf community. Passionate people are more motivated to comment – making moderates appear non-existent. Silent moderates make up the majority of the community.

If you think carefully about the dynamics of the online world, exposure to ideas and opinions are limited to the people that do comment. What about the readers? Take Mishka Zena’s post as an example. How many people will read it? Maybe 200? 300? How many unique commenters will it get? Maybe around 10-15. That makes out to roughly 5% of her audience.

By far, most visitors are observers. In Mishka Zena’s example, this figures to 95%! There is a well-known “measuring stick” that say online content is created by 2% of its community. The invisible audience is reading or observing. Their reasons for their passive participation vary. I can tell you one of the main reasons: they don’t care enough to comment. It’s not that they don’t care about the issue, after all they do care enough to read the post. They discuss among themselves with their co-workers, friends and family. This is why readers are just as important. This is the unseen impact—but to comment, to submit their idea or opinion into the public domain, a higher level of motivation is required.

What brings on this motivation? Heightened passion about the issue. Therefore, you will see more pronounced–and striking–opinions. Thus, the ideas and opinions that we are gathering through our blogs aren’t only from a fraction of the community, but are shared by a certain kind of people.

So what to do with comments? Are they worthless? If it is, then is there any point in blogging?

What I’ve written above discusses just one reason why people prefer to read and not comment. There are other reasons. They may care very much about the issue, but for other reasons, they choose not to comment.

Comments is still a great place for idea-sharing! Two brains is better than one. I’ve gotten many fresh perspectives from my commenters and comments on other blogs. There is a lot of genuine and thought-provoking commenters that I enjoy.

While absorbing comments, I try to keep my vision as wide as possible, reminding myself that this is only a fraction of the deaf community and what has motivated them to comment. Or how they were so motivated to comment. I do find myself falling into tunnel vision, but from time to time, I snap out of it.

Reliance upon comments is taken with caution, but less so with blog posts. Bloggers are obviously taking more time to write them–investing more thought in their words. Comments are shorter posts that more easily foster impulsive thoughts and feelings.

An advice for fellow bloggers: turn on moderation. Moderate. I am in no way suggesting that disagreeable comments be filtered. But there are comments that occasionally cross the line. What good does this do if you keep receiving these comments? Not so true. The climate of your comments will influence the comments that it WILL get. If a blog allows grossly negative comments, you can count on getting more of those. Set your own limits; with time and patience, most commenters will follow it.

18 Responses

MM | April 17th, 2009 @ 11:30 am

Do you not think that these pure ASL vbl;ogs that are put out which are non-accessible to many CI deaf should be allowed when they apparently attack CI people and the issues involved. For fairness should not Carl Schroeder who has excellent English text skills give those of us involved an ‘in’ to what he is saying ? Deaf. read is being perused outside America, time the contributors realized that, and where the ability is there, make their blogs accessible and not put out very thinly-veiled attacks on other deaf offering no avenue of response, play fair, or not at all. And no, I think it unreasonable those of us outside America should learn ASL first,your own deaf don’t, neither do we demand they learn BSL or speak. Cannot Carl at least offer a summary of what he is saying ? Not hiding his anti-view behind a signing wall. Perhaps he can only criticise not justify….
RLM | April 17th, 2009 @ 12:00 pm

Tayler,

I strongly disagree with you about filtering out unappreciated or negative comments.

Open dialogues are very healthy thing to do!

Stimify any kind of unpleasant dialogues equalize
censorship.

I sometimes have been horrified about some comments
leaving on my blog postings, but have to embrace the freedom of expression and the speech.

I am one of the handful of the Deaf America and the rest of the deaf world SEEN the CI as truly evil. No buts!

My personal goal is to see our federal government and other state government to halt the payments on CI surgery for deaf babies and youngsters.

Any government have no business of “social and cultural engineering”. Look at the classic Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” which the government officials hunt down the replitians.

What the replitians done to anyone else because they are so different from the rest of society. In the end, the replitians fought for their own survival in violent ways.

Who blame the replitians? In the original movie ending of very same film did leave the Harrison Ford character to question the government policy to destroy the replitians.

No questions about the replitians in “Blade Runner” film to be us, deaf people to fight for our own survival from being extinct.

Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog
tayler | April 17th, 2009 @ 1:29 pm

MM,

It’s true that it’s an irony that we’re asking for better accessibility while not providing it ourselves. It boils down to cost. We are individuals who blog on our personal time, while corporates make a business out of information and should partition some of their expenses to make it accessible to everyone. There is responsibility in journalism.

RLM,

> I strongly disagree with you about filtering out unappreciated or negative comments.

Where did I say negative comments should be filtered? I wrote: “I am in no way suggesting that disagreeable comments be filtered. But there are comments that occasionally cross the line.”

Where the line is up to the blogger. I’m sure you’ve seen a share of god-awful comments and that they were deleted. Extremely negative comments contribute absolutely nothing to the blogosphere. Other commenters will feel unsafe commenting on blogs that allow this.

The remainder of your comment is about cochlear implants. My post isn’t about cochlear implants.
cnkatz | April 17th, 2009 @ 1:58 pm

tayler, you made an insightful commentary. Ever since I first studied Deafread in May 2006, I knew the online deaf community is a small fraction of readers and nonreaders, to my short-lived disappointment.

I wrote this on 1/26/2008 in my “teaching the deaf child” website (click on my name to go there):

“I want to see the deaf blogsphere EXPAND! I did the above also because many deaf and hearing academic, professional, administration people in the field of deaf”ness” have not yet begun blogging. They could enjoy blogging and have their posts appear at any aggregation engines like DeafRead.”

I have a feeling the online deaf community will slowly expand to the point when almost every one participate. Just as the invention of the telephone way back when few people began using it until everyone did. The car, the TV, the TTY, the internet, and now the blogsphere.

I agree with you Tayler that everyone needs to moderate their comments. I feel strong or harsh criticism should be allowed, along the line of what RLM said. But there must be a line somewhere.

I could go on and on so I pause here. Tayler, you gave me morsels to discuss in my presentation soon at DCARA blogging conference arranged by the incomparable LaRonda Zupp.

More, I sign to you, Tayler.
Ann_C | April 17th, 2009 @ 2:35 pm

Indeed, Tayler, I’m well aware from checking my blog stats that there are far more viewers than commenters who drop in.

Some of the problem may be that some are uncomfortable typing responses in English, which may not be their primary language. I would set up video commenting in my blog, but again, my primary language is English and not ASL. Come the day there is easily available software to help with translations between English and ASL, I’d certainly use it in my blog. OTOH, should such software become easily available, it would be incumbent upon vloggers to provide “post comment” space for those who wish to respond via written English as well as video comment. Such a development would open communication wider among all d/Deaf, and we can certainly learn a great deal from one another.

In the meantime, a person more versed in ASL is forced to use written English on my blog if he wishes to comment, which sometimes requires me to ask for clarifications before answering such comments.

Commenting is a lot like writing to the editor of a newspaper regarding an article it published. Some people care enough to sound in with their views, others could care less. But for even those who don’t comment, the fact that the viewers have read it doesn’t mean they don’t talk about what they read with family, work colleagues and friends. That’s the power of the internet.

Ann_C
J.J. | April 17th, 2009 @ 2:37 pm

I wrote something similar months ago (pasted below)…the moderates will not take over…indifference is a weakness in our society…but it plagues us all…oh well..

==========================
The problem is that those who do not embrace diversity and/or engage in combative v/blogging will unfortunately draw the most attention. I mean, come on…none of us watch those boring TV shows or movies where everything is all rosy…it is human nature to be drawn towards conflict, like we all slow down and look at an accident on the side of the road. Just take a look at the front page of Deafread and the number of hits for each v/blog…those numbers are VERY telling. A post entitled, “Deafread SUCKS” will always get more hits than, “Deafread is the greatest thing since sliced bread”. It is my opinion that everyone should from time to time take a step back and realize that most of the problematic issues are driven by less than maybe forty v/bloggers out of about fifteen thousand v/bloggers and readers (a rough guess here). The truth is that most of us are moderates stuck in the middle as spectators. Trust me, the moderates far out number everyone else…why cannot the moderates lead the way?

The reason the moderates cannot lead the way is simply because none of them feels that passionate about the issues as the extremists do. (Note: When I use ‘extremist’ here I mean anyone who strongly believes in or strongly opposes a particular issue.) There is no way to control this…just like most of us aren’t like Sean Hannity nor Michael Moore…most of us fall in the middle and may lean one way or another a bit slightly. However, make no mistake…the moderates are the greatest force in Deafread. They are the ones that drive up the hit counts and allowing Deafread to remain popular. (FYI, traffic is VERY HIGH this summer and summer is usually a “down season” for Deafread.) They are the ones that provide the extremists with an audience. If you really wanted to hurt a v/blogger…the best way to do it is to not visit their v/blog. I have seen some v/bloggers die a slow death after “shooting themselves in the foot” with their audience because their audience stopped coming back. In short, the moderates need to speak up more or stop visiting those v/blogs that “stir the pot”.

Source: http://blog.deafread.com/iwii/archives/30 (6th/7th paragraph)
Dianrez | April 17th, 2009 @ 3:24 pm

Thanks, Tayler. I sometimes get the feeling that blog reading is entertainment in the way some might watch a mean wrestling bout or an especially lively hockey game. Bashing is entertainment in itself (except to the bashee.) Emotion runs high and there is a lot of inward booing and cheering going on. Yes, and popcorn.

But this soon wears thin and bloggers quit, spectators get bored and stop reading, and are replaced by new bloggers and spectators.

What is the meaning of all this? Does the good information and ideas get lost in cyberspace, get recycled, or end up in some future researcher’s notes? Or does it contribute to the growth of wisdom in the d/Deaf community and to greater understanding overall? Or does it contribute to groundswells that end up toppling college presidents and resulting in a civil rights revolution paralleling what has happened in American history?

I don’t honestly know. But I feel fortunate to have a front row seat and to be seeing all this happen. Thank you, Tayler, and your group.
tayler | April 17th, 2009 @ 3:32 pm

Good comment, Ann C. Language is another reason we see a narrower audience in our commenting community.

J.J., we must think alike from our DeafRead discussions. I’ve always enjoyed them. Your paste is right on.

Dianrez, like Ann C, J.J., cnkatz and many others, I enjoy your comments. One point to ponder is the mood in which the post is written; it influences the mood of the comments. Most of the time. Scholarly or academic posts begets similar comments.

The same goes for the post author’s responses in the comments. The author’s comments carries the conversation’s mood and direction.
Penny | April 17th, 2009 @ 4:18 pm

Tayler-

I have noticed that you often presented your intellectual discussion in writing and not in ASL. Are you not comfortable using ASL or is English your primary language and you are more comfortable to share your perspectives/opinions in writing? You gave some vlogs in ASL but it is when you had to scold our community—their behavior in Deafvideo.tv or to talk about upgrading features etc. I do not remember you presented intellectual discussion in ASL like Ella and some others. I have been asked why I always give comments in writing and not in video. Actually, I need a new pair of glasses with non reflection lenses otherwise audience will not be able to see my eyes. You know how important to have eye contact with audience. I am going to get a new pair of glasses with non reflection this summer and share comments in ASL. You sign ASL beautifully and I wonder why you do not care to use it when you want to share topics with us in ASL. Just curious.
tayler | April 17th, 2009 @ 6:24 pm

Hi Penny,

I think the short answer is time I don’t really have. If I don’t make an vlog, it probably means the vlog would require much more time to present the topic clearly. This is my blog, and whether or not I want to reach all audiences is up to me. I make a judgment call on a per post basis, time being my foremost factor.

When I am communicating on either DeafRead Official Blog or DeafVIDEO.TV, I take the responsibility to try to reach the largest audience as possible without expending too much. This is probably why I don’t caption my vlogs for DeafRead Official Blog. They take way much more time.

I’m comfortable with both blogging and vlogging. At first, I wasn’t with vlogging, but after a few videos, I got the hang of it.

I’ve vlogged “intellectual discussions” including those of Sorenson’s boycott, and What caused the economical mess?, and Organizations taking extra steps for accessibility to name a few.

Every time someone tells me I sign ASL beautifully, I just don’t believe it. I think I sign even worse on video–but thanks, Penny!
MM | April 18th, 2009 @ 1:48 am

Taylor it doesn’t boil down to cost, stop giving up excuses for those completely able to offer access to their blogs but refusing as per ‘cultural right’, we ain’t convinced with them. It seems to be the norm the ost able deaf are the ones manipualting access to prove some point or other, they divide us. We object, we are audists etc…
tayler | April 18th, 2009 @ 6:39 am

MM, give me a vlogger who refuses to caption their video. They either don’t know how, have the technology or have the time.

What about BSL videos? They aren’t always captioned. I cannot understand them. http://bsl.deafvideo.tv/
MM | April 18th, 2009 @ 12:33 pm

Neither can I ! and yes I have asked some, they say the same as Carl, learn it or tough….. You represent the aggregator, you have agreed the irony is there deaf are not providing access even for each other, perhaps follow the ‘Village’ rule of insisting where access is possible it is at least basic fairness to offer it to other deaf people. Did they not GO to the ASL vblog area to avoid providing access ? Are they not ‘making a stand’ for ASL and culture so doing ? Re-creating a deaf space they feel has been lost or ‘invaded’ ?

I thought they went there to get away from CI bloggers ? I don’t have a CI. You could ask them who has capability to provide access, they are more likely to respond to a fellow American than me, or even ask them to allow others who have offered to translate them, where they won’t or can’t, however this may leave a suspicion of poor accuracy, so its better coming from them.
pdurr | April 19th, 2009 @ 7:20 am

tayler

great entry

yes the blogger / vlogger sets the tone and moderation is essential for good discourse

re: access issues

i think we need to realize that what some non-signers are shouting out about re: access issues is really LANGUAGE issue – its not an access issue

for example:
video on youtube is in spoken English – there are not subtitles

that is an access issue – folks who can hear and understand English have access to it

Deaf folks (from all across the English using spectrum re: of degree or amplification assistance do not have full access to it)

now if video is in French – can a Hearing or Deaf American or Canadian or British person say – HEY u r violating access – i cant understand that video cuz no captions

its a different language

now French Deaf folks could say – hey i cant understand spoken French cuz im Deaf (duh sometimes we have to spell it out for folks) but i can understand text French so it should be subtitled / captioned – then that is ACCESS

that is from spoken form to written form of the SAME SAME SAME language just 2 different forms

soooo with any person DEMANDING that ASL videos be TRANSLATED (this is not the same as putting spoken language into a text of the same language but rather having 2 different languages represented) that is is not an ACCESS in terms of we can’t hear issue

its a language topic – it is not a language rights violation because hey – u can learn ASL

hey i can learn French

hey i can learn German

hey i can kinda understand spoken English but i can NEVER fully access it especially on recorded form – videos soooo that is an access issue and not a language rights issue

now for the ideal world

yes yes yes in an ideal world any video that i took interest in say spoken spanish vlog about the 4 Agreements – one of my favorite books – id LOVE to have a version with English subtitles because:
1. i dont know Spanish and
2. even if i knew spanish i would not be able to access fully the spoken spanish audio

so eventually over time we will see more and more vlogs being translated cuz folks have more time and money and want to invest in that

in terms of other sign languages – i actually really like when Japanese SL vlogs have no captions or French SL have no captions etc cuz it forces me to try to acquire more of that language visually and not be dependent on the English

there is no ACCESS issue for me because i CAN see the video – the only issue for me is that i do not know that Sign Language and that is my problem and my challenge

now if non-signers want to DEMAND that all ASL vlogs should be translated into text english for them – then i hope they would be doing the same of all the spoken foreign language videos that they all be translated into text English and captioned

that would be fair

also i trust non-signers who want to understand ASL vlogs that they can find creative solutions – ask a friend who knows signs, get an interpreter etc etc etc

if non-signers are to DEMAND that asl vlogs be in text English then they must make the effort to put all their blogs into ASL (via finding someone to sign it if they dont know ASL) as a show of good faith and mutual exchange

peace

patti
tayler | April 19th, 2009 @ 10:27 am

Excellent comment, Patti! I hope “MM” sees it.

I covered a similar topic where I argued that subtitling spoken English required transcribing, while subtitling ASL required translation. The latter is more difficult.

Transcribing = same language, different form
Translation = different language

“Vlog captioning is translation“
patti | April 27th, 2009 @ 2:20 pm

good post tayler

thanks for linking your other post

peace

p
Reza Kuweiti | April 29th, 2009 @ 11:22 pm

Hello, I wonder how to contact with deafread.com if I have some questions for them? It is not easy find info for me. Please let me know if anyone have email or link to contact them. Thanks.
tayler | April 29th, 2009 @ 11:39 pm

I co-founded DeafRead. You can contact me or any DeafRead team member through this online form.