The Yahoo groups for homeschooling blind children are an example of that dichotomy. Two groups exist with almost the same name, yet one is the superhighway and the other is a lawless frontier. How did this come about?
In 1998, Debbie Day founded the blindhomeschoolers group. When she changed her email address some years down the road, she found herself unable to get into the system to moderate the group or make any changes. After many attempts to get in touch with Yahoo and correct this, she moved the group to another address in 2004.
The newer group (which is really the old group, actively moderated, along with lots of new voices) is called Blindhomeschooler - with NO s on the end. If you want nothing but spam (sometimes x-rated spam), join the old abandoned group that ends in an s. But, if you want to join some wonderful people to learn and network about homeschooling a blind or visually impaired child, or about being blind or visually impaired and homeschooling one's children, please join us. You can find the group on the web here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Blindhomeschooler/
Or send a blank email to this address:
Blindhomeschooler-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Just remember that you are ONE Blindhomeschooler (or considering becoming one blindhomeschooler). Because you are one, you want to network with others, each one with something unique to share, one blindhomeschooler touching another, touching another. "Blindhomeschooler" in the singular tense, with no s on the end, is the one you want. (You can also find the address at any time in the sidebar of this blog.)
Join us today. We would be happy to have you!
NOTE: Added later. The old group has finally been successfully deleted.
P.S. If you are receiving this as an email, you can read this post in a blog format, or read past posts, at: http://viphs.blogspot.com/
