New user? Old user? Lurker? We'd love your views.

what barriers do you think users may come across that stop them from joining in the chat?
1. Idiotic "Guidelines" Hangovers from "Founding Persons" days! "Thou Shalt not" comes straight out of the preachers handbook!
2. When someone cleans out their PM Intray prevent deletion from the Sender's "Sent" tray. Can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings. After all; I might want to use that carefully crafted message for others!
3. Assure newcomers that we don't bite even though some of us have still got our own teeth!
OoRoo

I like everything about GN apart from two things: HQ do not answer my posts or they take a long time to do so. I also feel that their policy on banning posters is totally ineffective. These people often return under a new name so what is the point?
I particularly like the meetups and the book club. Thanks GN.

I agree n&g.

oldgimmer

I have to disagree on your comment about off topic posts being disrespectful.

I actually think that’s where threads mimic real life conversations? You often start off in one place with the intention of a linear discussion but frequently veer off and actually end up in a place that is quite different.

So, I don’t see it as disrespectful but as more realistic.

I have been here since the beginning and it was a great place to exchange views and get tips.
Recently we have had some posters with very strong views making one or two threads very unpleasant. One comment this morning was really quite nasty using horrible language to another poster who really did not deserve it.

It's like being in the Big Brother House

Sorry Doodledog, I didn't mean any harm. I suppose I am a bit dim, it just never occurred to me.

I have sometimes wondered there are times why we are used as a giant unpaid focus group

Good grief! Please can we have an edit function?

'. . . if there are times when', obviously!

Yes, I definitely think so. Some of the political threads just seem to feed in information and questions in ways that resemble focus groups. Also, there are some that are so bonkers they just can't be real, surely?

Yes it definitely happens.

I have sometimes wondered there are times why we are used as a giant unpaid focus group

Do you think so? I had never even thought about that. Puts rather a different light on things!

Thanks.

Showing my ignorance, what does ‘OoRoo’ mean? Is it some Australian term?
Calendargirl; Yes! but please don't ask me to define it!
Simply "Cheers, Cheerio or even "Down the Hatch" and showing my ignorance, possibly "Slainte"
OoRoo

That's the trouble though, Rufus.

Posters don't stick to the thread title!

It's disrespectful to the OP and would certainly put off many new posters, and pee off many regulars.

I'm not in favour of more moderation, but a gentle prod as a reminder of the thread title may be a good idea?

Rufus2

Showing my ignorance, what does ‘OoRoo’ mean? Is it some Australian term?

to make the site more welcoming to newbies
Lara Can I suggest that you open a new thread that might be free from all these arguments and get back to serious, commonsense discussions aimed at improving procedures, as detailed in your original post?
Thank you. OoRoo

I’ve been on here a while about 6 years or so I think can’t be precise . I have a look most days and do post pretty often , some days I just lurk.

The political threads and religious threads can be a bit lively but I’ve a thick skin and can hold my own, not easily upset.

I have occasionally started a new thread and on the main have had very helpful replies, especially when I started a thread about an illness once and was really worried.

I’ve also had regular PM’s over the years and am in regular PM touch with a lovely poster.

All in all I think there is more positive aspects of Gransnet than negative, you get unreasonably unpleasant people in RL too. I do think some threads could be more robustly moderated , I also think moderation is inconsistent which is unfair and unhelpful. I intend to stay though have never felt put off enough to consider leaving.

Yes, I have sometimes wondered there are times why we are used as a giant unpaid focus group.

Journalists and politicians have a ready made and vociferous bunch of people on here. Obviously we are not scientifically segregated, but to get a general idea of whether they would get away with a policy, or to see which phrases or concepts trigger reactions, a broad brush is probably enough as a starting point.

What I initially found off-putting were the posts about other people's fashion sense, manners (or lack of), parenting etc. - all seemingly trivial to me.

Next, the odd 'problems' where solutions seem so obvious it made me wonder who would even bother asking about them.

At that point, the realisation that they were probably written to order and totally fake. (An effort to keep up site 'traffic'?) I was pretty miffed that we'd all wasted time trying to answer them.

The many self-important, serious and entitled (interfering) grannies on here are amusing yet alarming at the same time.

Also plentiful, the spoilt (yes, self-important and entitled) mothers who seem to think that one small baby is hard work and they rule the world.

Inevitably (given the above cast) the 'estranged' folk. I'd never even heard of estrangement before Gransnet, but it's no surprise, considering the characters involved!

I try to answer seriously - just in case the poster is really genuine - yet find it all a laugh. Still, it's harmless, having a giggle behind my screen!

Charleygirl 100% certain not anyone I have met, they were good souls! There was (obviously) a postmark on the letter, although of course one person could have sent it to another, and asked them to post it on.

Aaanyway, that was then, this is now, still here, older, (maybe no wiser!) greyer, still in the same job (yes, take that, nasty person!) and actually more respected and valued due to taking on other stuff since the death of my boss.

(Phoenix wanders off to the kitchen to top up wine singing "I'm still standing" and cutting the odd move, with apologies to Sit Elton John)

Take that and party, nasty person!

Is it cliquey because I have "known" phoenix for quite a few years but never met her in RL so I am well aware of the rough time she has had personally because she did mention it. I am aware of the problem with that nasty GN. Maybe it was somebody she met at a meet up because I think phoenix has been to a couple. We will never know and as phoenix has just informed us, her boss is now dead.

Maw may have many descriptions but bully is not one of them.

Off-sodding ma’am. Dog to walk!

Actually, it's also brought a bit of a tear to my eye, so can I respectfully ask you lovely people to sod off and get back to whatever you should be doing!

Thank you all, you have made me

My gammon on the other hand, has never been the same since!

And very glad we are too Phoenix. Although I am still waiting for your curse on The Idiot to work!!

That might sound clique-y but I have been here almost as long as Phoenix so feel I know her to an extent.