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I think that that model of handling "difficult" topics - those that clearly may not be of interest to everyone on the board, or that have an obviously controversial component - has been pretty much the norm, and has contributed to the general welcoming tone and overall civility that has characterized the board during the time I have been here.

I don't know if we need to make a formal rule about it, though. I think that the forum is, as a rule, pretty effective at self-policing to enforce a cultural norm of free and open yet still generally respectful discussion. There seems to be an expectation that we are all grown-ups here, and can be expected to make our points and present our opinions about even controversial issues in ways that don't resort to personal attacks. Even in the threads that have sometimes started to veer off into unpleasant territory, the community is generally able to intervene and bring the discussion back to some degree of reason and civility.

We have a pretty diverse group of individuals here and some of us do have an interest in discussing hot topics relating to gifted education and educational policy, especially since we frequently have differing viewpoints. I have always believed that it was possible to entertain an idea without getting married to it, and it has been really interesting to me to get a sense of the varied viewpoints on many of these hot-button, big-idea topics. I think I'd find it really annoying, though, if people were constantly interjecting these kinds of debates into, say, threads that started out as discussions about the implications of a child's WISC scores - but I haven't seen that happening.

I guess if I had to suggest rules or guidelines for the forum that had to be read before being able to post, I'd suggest ones that looked something like this:

1. You are posting in a public forum, not a diary or private journal. Other actual people are reading what you write. The person you are replying to could be a family member or a friend. They are almost certainly someone's family member or friend. Please try to remember this when composing your posts. Give enough context so that people reading your posts can give you helpful replies, and please be aware that different families and friends have different thresholds for what constitutes courteous verbal interaction, and that other posters are not necessarily trying to be rude just because they don't talk to you like you would talk to them.

2. The other people reading your posts don't have the benefit of hearing your voice or seeing your body language. They can only use the actual words you wrote to get at your meaning. Forgetting this is one of the most common reasons for misunderstandings and disagreements on the internet. Use emoticons or rephrase before posting if you think there is even a chance that someone could read what you wrote in a way you didn't intend it.

3. When reading posts, remember that human beings wrote them, human beings are reading them, and human beings are flawed. If you feel like you are being attacked, take a deep breath, calm down, and re-read to try to see if there was any way that the person could have meant what they said in a way that was not a personal attack. If there was, then that was probably what the person meant.

4. You are not required to rise to bait.

5. Everyone else doesn't have to agree with you, and you don't have to agree with everyone else.

6. You always have the right to stop reading or posting in a thread that has ceased to interest you or that has ceased to be productive.

7. If you want to talk about something in particular, start a new thread. Don't hijack other people's posts.