Interesting commentary on whether or not one is ‘hooked up’ to deafread.com. I’ve found it very useful — lots of commentary, etc on the deaf related topics I choose to post about. I’ve gotten feedback I would never have otherwise, so I’ve found it quite worthwhile.

I suppose there are some other aggreggators like deafread.com for other things, but there seems to be an unusual degree of community in this one. In fact, I can almost treat my posts that will go on deafread as *comments* in of themselves to what others have said in addition to being posts in their own right. To me this is a fascinating development.

(Perhaps one of my other minority niches here should be my extreme geekitude and longevity on the net — a CS major and I’ve been online since 1987, which gives me quite an overview of the development of all kinds of forums in the last twenty years.)

I also think surdobitch raised a very interesting point. I dunno. My answer to this overall question has always been to publicly discuss those things that I find of interest. No one will notice you if you say nothing (Yes, many times they will still not notice you when you do say something, but then at least you’ve done your part…

Like Wolfers, I too am a Deaf Pagan Female Blogger. I have a blog site also - “Deaf Pagan Crossroads.” While I have had individual posts listed on DeafRead, I am not hooked up to DeafRead - part of this being because my blog is of a spiritual nature, and this presents a “slippery slope” for the DeafRead administration. I understand and respect their views on this issue, and am appreciative for the opportunities they have given me to have individual posts listed.

One of the things I have noticed is that those posts which are listed in DeafRead have (as can be expected) gotten considerable more traffic than those which don’t. As an example, a recent post of mine which was listed in DeafRead garnered over 175 hits in one day, at a time when I was averaging less than 40 per day. Clearly, hooking up to DeafRead has its advantages in allowing for greater readership from a larger viewing public.

But this does leave me wondering…what about those blogs which for whatever reasons are not hooked up to DeafRead? Is this part of the problem - they remain relative “unknowns” to the majority of Deaf readers, thus prompting the very questions being asked in this post? Do they tend to cater to a smaller, more select readership who either knows the blogger, or has an interest in their particular “focus” or whatever?

Truthfully, the only blogs I myself am aware of are the ones that are hooked up to or have posts listed in DeafRead. I just joined the Deaf Blogosphere myself less than three months ago, so I’m still “learning the ropes” about blogging and the Deaf Blog Community, myself.

Naturally, I don’t expect my blog to draw in the same sort of stats as some of the other blogs do - it does focus on Deafness and Paganism, after all. Nevertheless, it would be nice if I could generate a little more traffic from the Deaf Community, so that they might indeed discover the diversity of Deaf Bloggers out there.

How can we go about doing so? Anyone have ideas that perhaps I am missing?

I sure would love to see more diversity of bloggers at DeafRead. I enjoy Jamie and Andrea’s blogs and was glad when Chrstine said she’ll start a deaf-blind blog, as I have always enjoyed her beautifully written articles.

The more, the merrier!

First-generation Finnish-American, Feminist, Bisexual, Married, Deaf and Female. Those are my minority labels if you feel so inclined to put me in a certain group.

I don’t think it is necessary to hunt for those minorities– I think they are ALREADY among us. That is what is so wonderful about internet– nobody cannot judge you other than what you write about. So maybe Deafosphere is already diverse than you realize because of the power of anonymity which equals lack of discrimination.

It is interesting to note that Jill Bradbury did not select any gay/lesbian blogger on the list — so much for her claims to be all for diversity, hon.

R-

Um … all over the place, actually …