The first online deafdiscussion forum outside of Listserv newsgroups that came onto the scene was Deafnotes (www.deafnotes.com). It began in July of 1999 but prior to that with the same website owner asite called www.deafchat.com started in1998. This began to draw the attention of participants of Deaf-Lnewsgroup on wanting to belong to a forum that is owned and operated by a deaf person. The number of participants inDeafnotes was about the same as bit.listserv.deaf-l at the time and consisted about 20 or 30active participants each day. It wasn't long until people gradually began to prefer Deafnotes overDeaf-L newsgroup.
For example, the popularity of Deafnotesbulletin board lasted only a few years when some members of Deafnotes who feltrepressed by Deafnotes abusive moderators began to design their own online discussion boards. Others wanted to branch out into discussing more about U.S.politics, or cochlear implant issues and not feel restricted to discuss them whether you're supportive of it or not. Some felt that forum members should be allowed more freedom to discuss variousdeaf, hearing loss or non-deaf related topics without fear of gettingbanned or locked out of a discussion forum for political or apolitical reasons.Some members left because of personal reasons. Others left because of obvious bias and prejudicial behaviors seen in moderators favoring certain members over others. Or saw bias towards a certain issue. The reasons forleaving or joining a deaf/hh discussion forum are many.
During the 2000s the number of deaf/hh discussion forum websites began to increase and suited and appealed to certain groups of people. There were online deaf discussion forumwebsites, discussion groups and even chat groups during that decade such as www.deafonline2.com (cochlear implant friendly although the site is in limbodeafonline2 was established after leaving www.deafnotes.com), www.deaflore.com (defunct see Wayback archived section),www.deafnotes.com (in limbo but is vociferously anti-cochlear implant anything), www.deafbase.com (see Wayback archived section), bit.listserve.deaf-l newsgroup (hardly any activity but is now a Google run newsgroup), www.deafreedom.com (defunct, see Wayback archived section), www.hearingexchange.com (forum does not exist, it was once a private forum, see Wayback archived section), www.deafmadness.com (defunct but see Wayback archived section for goodies), www.alldeaf.com (forum is active but favoritism and moderator bias continues to be a problem, supporters of CIs are out of luck),www.deafchat.com (defunct, see Wayback archived section), several deafnessrelated listservs newsgroups, www.deafspot.com (defunct, see Wayback archived section), www.hohtimes.com (defunct, see Wayback archived section but forum was private), and a few other similar deaf and hard of hearingdiscussion or forum websites that I'm sure I may have missed. Let me know what I missed.
Over the last 4 years deaf/hh people have been increasingly moving towards Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (the "Big 3 social media") rather than go to a forum website as part of their online socializing activity. Online discussion forums are becoming a dinosaur in the age of online social media. It will only be a matter of time until some of the remaining existing deaf/hh online discussion forums will simply cease to exist. These forums show the nature of people on how they essentially need a "refuge" to come together to mostly agree with each other rather than a site they can't agree to disagree in a discussion. There was only one forum site that I've been a member of whose moderators did not abuse its moderating duties. As moderators they had a policy to "agree to disagree" rather than to allow prejudice and bias rule the day when it came to politics and deafness related issues. They expected members to handle arguments without needing kids gloves from moderators to handle constant and ongoing complaints from thin-skinned members who cannot handle a difference of opinions. This was a site where no members need not fear reprisals (i.e. banishment) from other members over a difference of opinions in their effort to "game the system" and that forum was Deafreedom. Which reminds me of this....
As a matter of curiosity sake which one of the past (defunct), old and active discussion forums were the best ones and worst ones that you have participated in, and why? This is your chance to speak up.
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