GT-Talk Mailing List

GT-Talk is an electronic mailing list provided by GT World, an online support community for Gifted and Talented individuals.

This list is intended for adults who share an interest in exploring issues not directly related to being a gifted adult, discovering giftedness as an adult, or growing up gifted (whether or not recognized as such during childhood). The forum for the foregoing issues is the GT-Adults Mailing List.

GT-Talk is for the discussion and debate of issues which are off-topic on the support-oriented GT-Adults, but which many gifted adults feel a need to discuss among similarly intellectually-oriented peers. We welcome all who fit that description, as long as they agree to follow the rules and principles set out below.

Promoting a Civilized Environment

We find a list works best when everyone treats everyone else with respect. Below are a few suggestions designed to keep GT-Talk the kind of place where the experienced want to stay and the brand-new feel welcome.

Every list evolves its own culture over time. One of the best ways to make a good impression in a new place is to spend some time "reading the room" to get a feel for the place. Take some time to read the posts over a few days, then please write a note to introduce yourself to us. We ask that you post a message to introduce yourself within 4 weeks of subscribing.

Please be aware that GT-Talk is an archived list. Any person can review the archives at any time for any purpose. This list is also a public forum. Think twice before divulging information which you would feel uncomfortable mentioning in a restaurant or another public venue where anyone could overhear you.

While our listmember agreement outlines acceptable use of the information on this list, our open membership policy means that it is possible for anyone, with any motivation, to join the list and read our posts. Please use the "review" command (found later in this message) if you wish to see a list of current subscribers.

To the extent that we are successful in creating a friendly, helpful atmosphere, it is possible that we will attract people you actually know in "Real Life"; neighbors, elatives, friends, or co-workers. Once you've been around for a while, the Internet quickly ceases to be a place where you are truly anonymous. For this reason, you need to take the same responsibility for the things you say here, as you would anywhere else.

We recommend including your name and e-mail address in the last two lines of each message sent to the list, to make it simpler for people to communicate privately with you via e-mail. However, please do not use signature blocks which occupy more than five lines of text, or which contain lines longer than 80 characters.

Remember that people read this list using a very wide variety of hardware and software, and that some users are limited in their mailbox space or must pay according to the volume of mail they receive. As a courtesy, please configure your e-mail software to use "7-bit" encoding, and turn off the use of "attachments".

It is helpful to include part of the message to which you are responding, but please don't quote the whole thing. If your response is a simple "I agree", those of us who labor with full mailboxes will thank you for sending that privately to the poster's e-mail address instead of to the entire list.

It's important to remember that each of us speaks only from our own experience and reading. What works for one person does not work for all. Each listmember is responsible for evaluating the information presented here in terms of the context of other opinions, the credibility of the source, and the applicability to the listmember's own situation.

Flaming

We don't "flame" here; here we are trying to *learn from* one another. Because it is difficult to exchange ideas intelligently when people are on the defensive from feeling personally attacked, it is important to phrase challenges in such a way that it is clear that it is not the worth of the writer you are questioning, but rather the validity of the idea.

What is a flame?

It is important to recognize that disagreeing respectfully, or politely requesting a change of behavior, is not "flaming".

The following is NOT a flame:

I think it's simplistic to attribute the actions of the Columbine high school attackers to their suffering isolation on account of being intellectually gifted. It seems to me that giftedness was only one contributor to this tragedy, and a minor one at that.

This *is* a Flame:

What kind of self-serving drivel have you been listening to? Only an idiot would fail to see that those two kids had a few screws loose, or at the very least, were failed by those who were entrusted with teaching them morals and ethics. It's people like you, who are willing to excuse psychopaths because of the victimhood they "suffer" on account of being gifted or rich or whatever, who are causing the crumbling of U.S. society!

GT-Talk will be a much more effective resource for all of us if we endeavor to keep it flame-free.

Please don't post the following to this list:

• warnings about e-mail viruses. For more information on these and other hoaxes, see http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html
• chain letters (in ANY form)
• blatantly commercial messages (although where relevant to a discussion, please feel free to mention specific products you have found useful).

Expected Listmember Conduct:

1. All posts to GT-Talk remain the copyrighted work of their individual authors.With the exception of "fair use" applications such as quoted material included to clarify replies, no posts may be reproduced in whole or in part in any medium without the express written permission of the author. This includes reproducing or forwarding any part of a list post in private e-mail to non-listmembers. Please do not, under any circumstances, post private e-mail to this list.
   
   
2. GT-Talk is maintained for the benefit of the adult gifted community. While lively discussion is expected and encouraged, listmembers will maintain a tone which is constructive of community and respectful of fellow listmembers.
   
   
3. Posts which appear to be destructive of community will result in revocation of list membership. The list owner is empowered to revoke list membership at his/her discretion, but is required to inform the GT World Board of Directors of such actions. List members who wish to appeal the decision of the listowner may take their case to the GT World board.
   
   
4. List members understand that information exchanged on GT-Talk is the product of anecdotal individual experience and in no way represents professional advice. Listmembers implement strategies suggested on GT-Talk at their own risk.

Listmember Agreement: By remaining subscribed to the GT-Talk mailing list, you demonstrate that you have agreed to the above conditions. If these conditions are not acceptable to you, then you must immediately unsubscribe from the list by sending e-mail with an empty subject line to:

listserv@listserv.icors.org

containing the text

unsubscribe gt-talk

This message was last updated on June 23, 1999 by GT-Talk listowners Pat Mitchell and Valerie Bock

Technical Details

The GT-World mailing lists run on listserv Server version 2.548 software. For a list of commands send e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.org with the one word help in the message body. 

listserv offers two methods for managing your membership options. You may send commands to the listserver via e-mail, or use the web interfaces for the various lists.

Web Interface

The following link will permit you to set your preferences for GT-Talk List:

E-Mail Interface

The following is a summary of the most common e-mail commands: 

To subscribe to GT-Talk	send e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.org with the command subscribe GT-Talk in the body
To unsubscribe	send e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.org with the command unsubscribe GT-Talk in the body.
To contact a human being	send e-mail to GT-Talk-request@listserv.icors.org
To send a post for distribution to the mailing list	send e-mail to GT-Talk@listserv.icors.org NOTE: Only subscribers to gt-world lists can post to them!
To receive multiple posts in a single mailing	send e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.org with the command set GT-Talk digests in the body
To set list to send no messages	send e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.org with the command set GT-Talk nomail in the body
To set list to send messages as they come in	send e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.org with the command set GT-Talk mail in the body
To resume a held membership (if your email address has been bouncing email for several days listserv may put your membership on "hold" and stop sending you electronic mail.)	send e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.org with the command unhold in the body
Other mailing list commands	send e-mail to listserv@listserv.icors.org

Technical Details updated on 2/11/2006 by Valerie Bock