Deaf, Gay, and Out for Blood

Ricky Taylor calls himself "arguably the most controversial deaf blogger in America." At the very least, he is one of the most popular and thought-provoking.

In the almost three years it's been online, Taylor's blog RidorLive has built an impassioned readership that almost every blogger on the Web would envy. Taylor's long, almost daily posts on politics in the deaf community and elsewhere usually receive more than 50 comments each from readers.

In this interview with Nonprofit Technology Consultant Marshall Kirkpatrick, originally published on TechSoup's NetSquared site, Taylor discusses how he built his readership and the role of multimedia in deaf communities.

Marshall Kirkpatrick: Let's start with an overview: blogging, you, and the deaf community, and the role that blogging has played in your larger engagement with your community, the world, and social change. The big picture.

Ricky Taylor: Initially, I did not create my blog for the deaf community. I did it for me, myself, and my soul, when I resided in New York, the greatest city in the whole world, where you can do many things with your fingertips.

But [New York's] deaf community was rather poor for me. Being Deaf and gay kinda spells trouble for me in New York, where there are not many deaf gay men that can stimulate me and my mind.

Then one day, a friend suggested me to write stuff on a certain blog. And I did it. Then for the next two years, the readership went from 50 to 800 hits per day. I always made it clear that I am part of Deaf Community but I do not represent them. I am who I am, you know?

I guess what changed everything is last May 1, [2006], when the Gallaudet students erupted in protest against the selection of Jane Fernandes as the next president of Gallaudet [University, a liberal arts university for the deaf and hard of hearing]. I blogged heavily on that — I knew the administration would choose [Fernandes] all along since last September. People in the deaf community started to rely on my blog for information.

My readership just exploded from 800 hits per day to 14,000 hits per day. I averaged anywhere between 4,000 to 8,000 on a good day these days.

I guess you could say that they adopted me as the source of information within the community because I'm brutally honest when it comes to things like that. Basically, Deaf people are tired of bulls**t and sugarcoating comments by others. They wanted the real meat to kill. And I guess they found it in my blog.

I think my blog is entertaining and informative for all kinds of people. You know, what really made me gratified is that deaf people seemed to be OK with me being gay. They are willing to overlook that and read stuff about deaf people in general.

I started on September 14, 2003. I feel so ashamed when I read [early entries]. I was so lame.

MK: That's how they say we all start! So now it seems you've settled into writing long posts frequently. What's your work flow like in writing the posts?

RT: Thank god for 90 to 100 words per minute. Blame it on my parents and Mr. Wayne Dingledine, who forced me to learn how to type in very effective manner.

You see, I was raised using the TTY machine, whom my parents insisted me to learn from day one. You know what the TTY machine is? It is a telecommunication device for the deaf, but deaf people prefer to call it TTY instead.

Basically, I tried to shorten the postings but the readers protested. They wanted more information.

MK: Your posts get so many comments!

RT: I think many readers are tired of the misconception that deaf people are so nice, patient, and all that s**t. So when they saw that I have no patience for things like that, I think they related to me.

Of course, I expect every four readers to like what I wrote, one to dislike what I wrote. Thanks to deaf clubs, I learned how to gather interesting information that may entertain the readers, to select the right ones. I want the readers to react, though.

It kinda surprised me that people would check my blog every morning when they woke up — they even coined "RWS" — Ridor Withdrawal Syndrome. If I did not post anything more than 48 hours, they go insane.

MK: So persistence, brutal honesty, and key information; anything else you've found helpful in building a passionate readership?

RT: I think the key to everything is to find a pulse of what they want to hear, talk, learn, discuss, or even fight about — this, that, and there. And when people emailed you in private, it is important to treat them with respect — after all, respect is two-way street, not one-way street. I think they appreciated my position.

Recently, at National Association of the Deaf Conference, where many readers donated money for me to attend and report — so many people I met, they remarked that I was much nicer in person than online. So I think it also helped them to see that I can use several hats, you know what I mean?

MK: That's great. What kind of role does blogging in general play in the larger deaf community? It seems that there are a lot of deaf bloggers and video bloggers. Not that I'd ask you to speak for anyone else, but what's it look like to you?

RT: It is growing, I'm glad to say. I was bit annoyed few years ago when I saw few deaf bloggers outside of my friends!

Many deaf people has blogs on Xanga.com, whose templates are designed for kids. I despise Xanga — but I want interesting stuff. In the last 12 months, it slowly gained — but during or after the Gallaudet protest, I think I saw more blogs than ever.

That's good — it provides the means for Deaf people to share their voices, professionally or not. Since the national newspaper for the deaf has folded, I think Deaf people has been looking for a way to communicate — and they found it on blogs and the current trend, video logging [vlogs].

I think it is healthy for the deaf community — it empowers themselves in many ways.

MK: That's a pretty different scenario than the "Will blogs destroy newspapers?" discussion.

RT: I think the deaf blogs already killed [Deaf Digest and Deaf Sportzine Editor] Barry Strassler's crappy email distributions! Many loathed the way he wrote. I think people abandoned him already, though. No big deal.

MK: These are good specifics; are there other specific or general observations you'd like to share with a global community of nonprofit, philanthropy, and social-change technologists?

RT: Right now, many of us are annoyed with the fact that we have the technological means to add the captions on streamlining videos on Web sites but not many of them do that.

Just recently, AOL finally did some. What the f**k? Get with the program already! That is probably their most annoying ... they could not read anything when they posted the latest videos.

My attitude is like this: if I can't understand, so can't you! If they cannot put the captions on it, then there should be no videos. That would certainly piss off the hearing viewers. But that is me, though.

If hearing people wanted to improve the living standards for deaf people across the globe, they can work with, but not "for," deaf people. Do not work with them just because they are "deaf." Do it because it's the right thing to do.

There are many talented deaf individuals who can contribute to the imaginations within technological views, but they are largely ignored. Start including them; that would be a good start, I feel.

MK: Are there other things, like trying to use video software that supports captioning, that would be good steps toward being good blogospheric allies? Or is just getting together with folks and aiming to be inclusive the best first start?

RT: I'm not technical whiz ... but from what I understand, there is free software that the Web sites can add the captions on the video — one deaf friend who tested it and told me that it was so easy! If they can do it, why can't these hearing-owned Web sites do that?

MK: Fair enough.

RT: Blogoshperic allies? Yes, a deaf blogger has talked about the lack of "centralized" system for deaf bloggers — and they decided to set up one at DeafRead as the first step towards the centralized system. Maybe it [is] a good way to build the ally. But I think that if we only focus on deaf-owned blogs to do something about the captions, it simply will not work — we must have the hearing-owned blogs to be part of it — so being inclusive is the best option, yes.

Ricky Taylor blogs at RidorLive.com . Other blogs he recommends include Joseph Rainmound's Deaf in the City , Jared Evans' Jared's Rambling Thoughts , Taylor Mayer's Y3 , Beth Szymanski's Human of the Female Slick , and the way not-safe-for-work (depending on where you work) I Probably Hate You .

Excerpts from five recent posts to RidorLive appear below.

• Keep 'em Coming, Dah-lin'™!
  August 31, 2006
  Good morning! I took a timeout from blogging for the last 48 hours. And it was well-deserved break. Thanks so much for the compliments regarding the milestone that RidorLIVE.com has accomplished in a short time ...
• Crossing The Magic Line: 500,000!
  August 29, 2006
  Sometimes around 9 PM on Monday the 28th, RidorLIVE.com has surpassed the 500,000 hits. The blogsite was created in 2003 over on Ridor.blogspot.com but I did not add the site meter until a year later in 2004. From there, it grew on its own ...
• What A Weekend! Drama All Over the Country!
  August 28, 2006
  Worst Interpreter Video Turn Private: In the previous entry, I mentioned the horrible interpreter who thinks she was doing a good job as an interpreter. It was hysterical and disgusting. VioletKitty seemed to get the message and shut it down ...
• Why I think DHH-Community Sucks
  August 27, 2006
  Pluto's Response: Erfo wrote, "I asked pluto what it thought of being kicked off one of the most important lists after the holy trinity. there really wasn't much but an icy silence. Good one, Erfo! More Drama About Colorado ...
• More About San Diego Deaf-Bashing Incident
  August 25, 2006
  Pepe Initiated A New Blog: In San Diego, Pepe Cervantes has set up a new blog in an attempt to bring 10 men to justice after they beat the Deaf teenager at a city park in City Heights, a section of San Diego. The purpose of the blogsite is to bring ...