In its day, Deaf UK was the best email list I’ve been a member of. It began life as a social contact list on e-groups, in the days before it became a yahoo group. The ease of posting sharing news, gossip and events made Deaf UK a popular list, and as a consequence its membership grew. So much so, that many established Deaf organisations. saw it as a marketing contact.

Deaf UK was originally set up by John Savva [do your own research to find out all about him, and I have had a couple of run ins with him - smirk!] whose moderating style was, “Me Tarzan, You Jane!” or in Deaf parlance, “Tarzan Me, Jane You!”. I was roped into joining by Alison Bryan, whom you all know as G.O.D., and then the fun began.

John Savva overcome with laziness, co-opted Alison into co-moderating, which in practice, became moderating. And, John would only show his head [or beat his chest] when things got hectic, he had something important to say, or Alison chucked a spaz, and demanded that he put in his share of the moderators duties.

But having Alison as moderator, was the best thing that happened to Deaf UK. Unlike many moderators [and leaders] whose moderating style is off the status illustrating style, that is, “I’m the boss, hear me roar!”, or the nannying style, “Don’t say anything nasty here. Let’s keep it civilised kids!”, Alison’s style was very much the hands off and let the group set the pace. She stepped in only when the situation demanded it, or when the membership demanded it.

The freedom that Alison allowed the group, is what gave Deaf UK it’s character. Untamed and unruly. Which was very unique in a cyber culture that was trying to be ordered, disciplined and boring. Anything went. And when I say anything went, believe me anything went.

It was expected that many people would be put off by the style and manner of Deaf UK, and they couldn’t deal with the warts and all nature of the group, so they left. People joined expecting yet another deaf and hearing support group [for ****'S SAKE there's enuff out of them out there], or they expected everyone to sit around in a circle, holding hands, singing “Kumbayah, My Lord. Kumbayah!”

Lord, we weren’t allowed to be human by some well meaning folks.

What was amazing, was that some of the most obtuse and up their arses people join, and over time began to actually see through all that bluff and bluster and grew to take it all in stride. [Cue: My Name Sake Tony R., whom I use to bait with glee, and watch as he bit. Bit, HARD! But through it all, he came to see right through me and me in turn began to appreciate and allow him his space. And that is summat that was achieved in a heated environment].

Some came in with the intent of changing the group into a light and love and let’s not say anything nasty, there’s too much out there alright, smarmy new aged, laid back, Californian style [man all this baadddddddddddd energy just vibes me out], and that didn’t work. They got told to piss off!

Deaf UK, was a reminder of how you don’t always learn to respect by biting your tongue and saying nowt. You can learn to respect by accepting the style and personality. Just like the Seven Dwarves, “Off to work we go! Off to work we go!”

Then one day, a cyber citizen came a-roaming over the hill. Who, having eyed the shenanigans with some considerable envy, decided to join Deaf UK. Right away he began to offer his opinions, and all was well with the world. Except for one small, wee problem…. when you engaged in a debate or argument with him, it became circular. So when you responded to a post of his, he would respond to you by going off on a tangent. This would have been OK, if he eventually got back to the point, but he never did. It just got worse, that began to look like he was purely trolling. It’s pointless quoting him, when you can read his blog or contributions at the Tower Of Babble!

Things got into such a state, that a poll was instituted for the membership to decide whether he should be expelled from Deaf UK, or allowed to remain as a member. He was unceremoniously kicked out, and he never got over it. You can argue the toss if you wish, that we could have just ignored him and gone on our merry way, but we didn’t. He was followed by a few members, namely his mate Andy, who quit in disgust at Deaf UK and in support of MM. As a direct consequence, Alison was branded a dictator and control freak, for carrying out a group derived consensual act.

Give it time, and you would think that things would calm down, people would pick themselves up and dust themselves off? But no.

We had forgotten all about MM and his band of Merry Men, until I was alerted to a strand in the RNID forums [now closed due to the libelous nature of some of the postings, of which I have kept copies] bagging Deaf UK and Signing Deaf in general, and libeling Alison Bryan. The slagging got so bad, it was defamatory [Like I said, I have saved copies of the pages], that Alison wrote asking that the offending posts be removed, and NOT TO HAVE THE FORUMS CLOSED. That was an RNID decision.

The gnashing and wailing continued unabated. It had moved to a new forum, under the guise of free speech and democracy. But a cautionary note, I have met Alison, and know her from my time in the UK. Whereas MM, and cohorts only know her [and me] from cyber space.

MM and his fan club, went on to set up their own forum called Deaf Tribes, which I dubbed daft tribes, the land of the scum bags, and in there [without much help from us] they became defamatory again. They just could not let the original issue go. Whihc was MM being banned form Deaf UK.

Quite frankly, if they are not moaning on RNID, they are moaning at the Tower Of Babble and MM, started using various blogs [creating and deleting with such regularity, that blogging became a by word for laxative], to attack Deaf-Blogs [drawing parallels between Deaf UK and Alison's moderation of it, various factional warfares and other paranoid delusions, and then reframing it all to make himself look like the victim] and by extension Alison Bryan, and me because I put my literacy skills to good use when I call the kettle black.

Look [hands out in supplication], I know I [indeed, we] could have been more adult in my [our] responses to him, but he craves attention, so I just give it to him. In spades. Coloured blue. Brits have a thing about swearing, but I enjoy swearing. I’m an Aussie for God’s Sake! It’s an art form Down Unda.

Imagine using AVT [Averting Verbal Teaching] to teach a deafie how to swear! Now that would be an oral program well worth participating in.

Anyway, my friends, this was the beginning of what has turned out to be one continual moan from the poison people [which I will explain in the next post], and a continual source of stress for my friend Alison Bryan. Before I go, I should point out, that the target of MM and his cohort Andy’s derision has expanded to include Joe, Fin, TB, Me….[actually I have always been a prime target of their "insert your favourite adjective here"].

It must be said though, that this all began back in 2002! An awful long time to carry a grudge against someone whom you’ve never met, and only know them as binary code or text on a web page!