Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan F on October 23, 2011 at 22:19

I am turning control of various groups back over to their former group owners (now group administrators) as they check in.  Please let me know if you would like to volunteer to run any of the groups I am currently covering.

The list from the archive (with new group names) is:

Languages                    iconoclast
STEM Group                 iconoclast (standing in)
Music                           iconoclast
Philosophy and Politics  iconoclast
Writers' Group               barefootwriter
Staff Group                    iconoclast
Gaming                        barefootwriter
Gifted in the Workplace  thoughts_abound
Parenting Gifted Children iconoclast
Teaching Gifted Children  iconoclast
The Gifted Adult             iconoclast
Advocacy                      iconoclast
Dabrowski and TPD       iconoclast
Exercise and Nutrition    iconoclast
Trivia                             iconoclast
Entelechy                      barefootwriter
Gifted Socialization         iconoclast
Emotional Issues           iconoclast
Talk                              iconoclast
Relationships                iconoclast
Mental Health                iconoclast
Spirituality                    spiritj
2E - Twice Exceptional  iconoclast
Bibliophiles                   iconoclast
Psychology and Neuroscience    SueBlue
Puzzles                       BudBudderly
Foodies                       thoughts_abound

Some of the subdivided groups on giftedness have been removed so that the main page of the site will be the place to present most of the general information on giftedness.

Please let me know any questions and comments.

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Permalink Reply by Gwyneth Wesley Rolph on October 26, 2011 at 9:52

Dan, is there any way of retrieving old PM's?

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Permalink Reply by Dan F on October 26, 2011 at 14:48

I do apologise, but no.  I understand this might be frustrating, but I didn't even download my own PMs with the risk that was happening at the time.  I took emergency action with people threatening to shut us down.

The PMs were doubly secure, in that even I as the webmaster didn't have access to their content.  So while the data is intact in the database, the PMs are encrypted in such a way that only the applicable users concerned could access them on a working site with the correct encryption key. 

So other than re-establishing the site that was hacked and opening it up to the internet again, it's not currently possible.  I'm wary of promising anything in the future, but if it becomes possible I'll let everyone know.

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Permalink Reply by Dan F on October 26, 2011 at 21:19

I should also put it here where it's visible that everyone does need to register at the new site, because the old logins won't work.  I had to cut our losses at the old hosting company because of the security problems, and this is not only a new company, the site is actually now hosted by Ning, where OGTOC used to have their site and where a number of educational sites I visit are hosted. 

The good news is that I've enabled the buttons that will let you sign up straight from Google with a Gmail account or even from Twitter.  You'll also be able to echo your posts directly to Twitter and Facebook if you want.

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Permalink Reply by Shulamit on February 6, 2012 at 2:28

Hello Dan,

My name is Shulamit. I have left Facebook, because it is overwhelming. But I was looking for a place that was, well, a place for people to have online social networking in the gifted community. A friend of mine suggested starting something, but it occurred to me that someone else may have already started something, we just didn't know about it.

The first one I found (and I have not continued looking yet) is yours. I see from the posts on this thread, that you had something before, but something went wrong. Can you tell me how many members you had on the old site? How long you've been at this? If you are still interested in working on this website?

You have a lot of good things going. Please do tell me more.

Best,

Shulamit

www . shulamit . net   (you can look at my website, just get rid of the spaces in the URL)

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Permalink Reply by Dan F on February 7, 2012 at 10:59

Hi Shulamit,

As I said in the original post, we had problems with being constantly attacked by online criminals hijacking the server and the hosting company was not able to maintain security on the server.  While we never had problems like that when we ran our own server, I didn't want to go back to all that extra work.  So I moved the site to Ning, where the Ning staff have a vested interest in keeping security up.  I chose Ning because it had the social network aspects that we had been developing on the old site.  Ning allows for more depth than Facebook but still has the ability to do quick updates and chats.  It's like Facebook for people with an attention span, only without constant game requests (for you to send someone you don't know 3 otters and a missile system for some dark, unfathomable reason).

The old versions of the site have had generally a couple hundred members total, with about 12-24 people frequenting the site during a given period.  People go through times of having more and less time, social involvement and inclination.  MGL has been going for at least five, probably eight years in various forms, since we started when the SENG forums closed (a few of us were moderators there), and I don't have any plans to stop working on the site, so we should be able to build a nice community again.  We've made a good start so far.

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Permalink Reply by Alex (up-late) on April 18, 2012 at 8:03

This is so much better than facebook :) Are there any plans to hold scheduled chats? Either general chat at a time when most people are on or a topic specific conversation?

Do I vaguely remember something about artwork? Something for the site? or am I thinking of somewhere else. Sites like redbubble do merchandising, print on demand from user orders, they take a commission and forward the proceeds to the client. I can't  speak as to the quality and the commissions are substantial but they do carry the risks. Maybe it could contribute toward running the site or even raise money for something?

Does Ning do business websites too or just the social community ones?

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