Deaf Read, Commercial Sites, and Rachel's Unjustified Removal

I've just read Deaf Read's response to commerical sites, by Jared Evans.

To be honest, I'm still disappointed in their stance that they still have not reinstated the blog for even reading what Jared had to say, Rachel's blog still does not violate ANY of said 'guidelines'.

Jared pointed out these 3 guidelines...

1) Posts about non-profit organizations are entirely OK

2) Posts about for-profit organizations are OK as long as:
- the blogger is not in any way affiliated with said organization and/or
- not paid by the said organization in any form (currencies, freebies, reimbursements etc)

3) Advertisements outside of the posts are allowed

Rachel got kicked of Deaf Read for apparently violating Item 2.

That is -

'the blogger is not in anyway affiliated with said organisation

AND/OR

'not paid by said organisation in any form (currencies, freebies, reimbursements etc..)'


That is a huge step in differentiation from the rules of deaf read about commercial sites in the first place... Taken from their website..

6) Commerical Sites
We do not link to commerical sites for the purpose of generating profit, other than our own (we have expenses to cover!).

These 'guidelines' or 'rules' have just been made up by Deafread today, to justify their expulsion of Rachel's Blog.

Rachel, like myself, and others on Deafread, are VOLUNTEERS for a company. We don't PROFIT from it. We are not PAID by the company. I've already told you in a previous post we get travelling expenses paid for but hey - in our blogs we're not travelling, so we cannot get reimbursed for our blogs. In any case, the blog is entirely separate to our duties as a volunteer, it's a personal thing.

But - how come - Rachel is kicked off Deafread, and I'm not. I'm a volunteer, I'm affiliated with Cochlear because I volunteer for them. I don't get paid by them, but I do get any expenses reimbursed for travelling out of Auckland to give talks to community groups. They did replace my cochlear implant when it failed, so that could be classified as a freebie.

But it's all about raising awareness of deafess. Isn't that a good thing?

Lots of people volunteer for many organisations, and most volunteers will get paid for their expenses. Therefore, anyone who volunteers with any organisation, and is on Deafread, should be kicked off.

Doesn't make sense to me. It makes even less sense now than it did before.

I like how Deafread changed the rules to fit the situation. Where is the justice in that?

Rachel has never ever pushed for one brand over another, or been seen to try and market Cochlear Corp's Implants. She's spoken of her own personal experiences (and others) only. Just like we all do. Deaf, deaf, ASL, Cued, AVT's, implantees - we all blog about our lives and our experiences.

So - is Deafread going to kick me off? What about the other Volunteers for both Cochlear and AB??

Or is it ONLY RACHEL you have your knickers in a twist over?

If you don't kick others off, then you aren't being consistent, so there's no reason why Rachel shouldn't be reinstated.

Deafread - you need to rectify this one way or another.

Robyn