AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! Dammit, DU!

[tblue37]

Once again the DU "hearies" have given me the runaround for being deaf!

You know how it goes. Someone posts a video without even the slightest explanation of its content. Or they post some cryptic comment that can be understood only by someone who has seen a certain video or heard something on TV.

When you ask for a brief summary of the point or an explanation of the cryptic comment, they say, "Watch the video." So you explain that being deaf means you are not likely to understand the video. So they say, as if we don't have a clue, "There's a button to click for CC."

Then you explain that CC is most often absolute gibberish, and that even when it is not, it is virtually unreadable because of being provided in very pale grayish white print on a black background, which blends into the video image.

And it goes on and on and on, with one hearie after another advising you to just watch the damned video, as though being deaf is merely a matter of being lazy or recalcitrant.

I finally got so frustrated by their ironic unwillingness to hear what I was explaining that I hunted up an article that explained "TBD," the cryptic initialism in the OP that started the whole thing. (It means "to be determined," in case you are interested.)

Here is the OP:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8749716

And here is my last exasperated response to the runaround I was given, not just by the OP, but by several other people posting on the thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8750834

[tblue37]

1. Thanks for the recs. Are you deaf or hard of hearing--or just sympathetic to those of us who are? nt

[AwakeAtLast]

12. I have an uncle who is

Although he was one of the first people to receive a cochlear implant. He still relies on lip reading and CC as backup. He is almost 80, sign language was not taught in our area when he was growing up. He is an excellent lip reader.

Growing up around him, I learned to be descriptive in writing and speaking. I over-enunciate words.

Sorry you are having this issue. It is better for all if there is a description, but especially for you!

[Chiquitita]

2. Recommended!

Thanks for this -- I'm a hearie, and I think people should consider that when someone asks for a description of a video, there is a good reason. They can oblige without assuming that the asker is lazier than they are (and they are!).

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. While I am a hearing person,

I likewise get very annoyed at cryptic posts here that assume you're watching the exact same thing the poster is watching. Or that you know every single obscure acronym.

Fortunately for the latter, a fast Google search often (not always) solves the problem. Earlier I read a post in which someone wrote that something or another was PITA. I could tell they didn't actually mean as in the bread, and I did find out that it means pain in the ass. But it would be vastly more considerate to actually type out the full thing.

Another issue for me about videos being published, is that I'm rarely willing to spend more than three or four minutes watching one. Especially if there's a lot of talky-talk leading up to the pertinent bit.

[tblue37]

15. It is considered polite to give the actual time stamp in the video for the pertinent bit,

but most posters don't bother to.

[mercuryblues]

4. get what you are saying

I get limited bytes. The way I determine if I watch a video is to read a short explanation about it in the OP. No explanation, trash thread. I used to google what the video was about. Not anymore.

Quite a few times a video has been posted with no description of Maddow, a SNL skit or other shows. I record all of them it is a nuisance to start watching a video only to find out it is something I have recorded and can watch without eating up my bytes.

If an OP really can't spend the time to provide a short description, I am not going to waste my time or bytes.

[RelativelyJones]

5. What does being deaf have to do with not understanding what TBD means?

Couldn't that apply to anyone not familiar with the term?

[tblue37]

6. My deafness is what made the ongoing exchange in the thread so frustrating. I kept being advised to

watch the video, even as I kept explaining that I am deaf, so I would not be able to hear it.

All the OP or other posters had to do was tell me what "TBD" meant, but instead they just kept telling me to watch the video!

This sort of thing happens to us deafies all the time, and it gets really, really old.

[RelativelyJones]

7. I am sure that is frustrating. They probably just didn't realize.

[tblue37]

8. They don't--but considering that they have ears that work, they could try listening to

what we say.

BTW, I just watched the video, but I couldn't get the meaning of TBD from the text graphics, which is what one poster on the other thread said I could do.

So I asked a visiting friend to watch it with me and tell me what the voice over was saying. Guess what--none of it explains what "TBD" means--and that was all I asked in my original response to that OP: What does "TBD" mean?!

Apparently it is a common initialism, but not everyone knows all common initialisms, so when someone says they don't recognize the initialism, it seems that it would not be too much trouble for the other person to simply say what it means, without giving their interlocutor a runaround.

That would solve the problem PDQ*.
_________
*Pretty damned quick.

[RelativelyJones]

9. In all honesty, I didn't recognize it immediately either. I know TBA for To Be Announced

But TBD was not immediately clear for me either. Maybe I am a bit old and missed the corporate memo on that one.

[NBachers]

10. It's the "Turn on Rachel right now!" phenomenon.

As if everybody lived in the same time zone as the blockhead poster. Or, that everybody pays for the same cable TV channels.

All you can do is keep calling out the blockheads that do this. Keep pointing out how annoying, ridiculous, inconvenient, and lazy it is.

Thank you for posting here

[tblue37]

11. About once every month or two I used to post a thread in which I asked people

to please offer a very brief summary of the main points of videos they posted, just so we deaf people could be included in the conversation.

Every time I did that, I'd get a couple hundred recs and a lot of thank yous--including from those who can hear, but who for one reason or another were not in a position to listen to the sound on the video.

Obviously, then, a lot of people really, really would appreciate a brief summary of the main point of a proffered video. One person complained that he didn't have time to do a detailed, blow-by-blow summary of a 12-minute video, but of course all I had asked for was a brief main point summary--maybe 2 or 3 sentences.

I don't think that is too much to ask for.

[JudyM]

13. I haven't been aware of this but now that I'm tuned in I will also try to facilitate it and

build awareness. There are far too many cryptic OPs, maybe they think it's cool shorthand but it feels inconsiderate all the way around. And too much vacuous clickbait.

[tblue37]

14. Thank you! I suspect the super short posts are because of texting habits--some of them at least. nt

[DavidDvorkin]

16. No kidding

It's endlessly frustrating.