What can we do to help?

Not that I am aware of.

That is a shame Monica . Another time I hope.
I remember when we held a Midlands meet-up at the Edwardian Tea Rooms at the Museum in Birmingham. I too found myself approaching and peering at groups of total strangers.
Security were fortunately not involved

Good Lord, Experienced Not Old can't we even meet up with friends (or potential friends if it is a first meeting) without being accused of forming a clique?

If you meet a couple of YOUR friends for coffee and a chat, do YOU spend your time plotting who you will exclude from the privilege of joining you - speaking to you, even? If you do, what a weird life you must lead!

Have you ever actually met any other Gransnet members in the flesh? Or do you think we should all sit in our isolation booths, communicating only online in the widest generalities and not expressing any opinions on anything ever?

Sheesh!

Elegran

You obviously choose to ignore the wry smile. Surely you can appreciate that the thread does appear to have veered off the original purpose which was to address the idea that new posters could be deterred by what could be seen as cliques.

Threads always veer off the original subject. Where they veer to is often more interesting than the way they start.

It wasn't a wry smile, by the way. The label of that emoticon is "confused" and the wording of it is "hmm". If you had a wry smile on your face, it wasn't visible in the post.

Is it really that important that I got the e-whatever wrong? It depend on your understanding of wry, I suppose.
And threads always veer? Do they? I’ve seen it called out elsewhere on GN. As this thread was a RFI from Admin the veer wasn’t really helpful, eh?

I'm glad you cleared up the confusion, ExperiencedNotOld.

I too, took it to mean the same as Elegran and thought I was seen to be a member of yet another clique, having been to quite a few meetups. ?.
I even mentioned it to my husband!?

Discussing how meet-ups are organised and run, what works, what doesn’t, so that new members don’t feel excluded isn’t veering off the subject.

I’m giving up with these “how can we improve GN” threads now. What a waste of time.

If GNHQ really wanted us to help they’d be on here joining in the conversations and engaging with those of us who’ve come up with suggestions. Perhaps expanding on them or explaining why they do things as they do.

And asking those who only come on to criticise others what their helpful ideas are.

Hetty58
I never check my inbox (and have forgotten the password for it anyway). What am I missing? I keep reading about daily newsletters etc.

It does demonstrate clearly just how exact you have to be in posting - particularly posts that you intend to be taken as a joke. When you are talking face-to-face, your very face shows that you are not serious. When there is only the text, then the difference between a "confused" icon and the meaning "only kidding" can make all the difference.

I agree Elegran, tone of voice and facial expression can change the meaning of what we say and we have to be so careful how we write something. Even then, it can be misinterpreted.

We can post until the cows come home, but it won't change the views of some posters, that they are being excluded.
I sometimes wonder if they actually want to be included. ?.
I used to say to my pupils:
To get a friend, you have to be a friend ! It just doesn't happen automatically.

I think threads can be cliquey when the subject under discussion is swamped by a few posters exchanging a string of emojis with one another. That does happen, and it's annoying for other people.
The lifeline for those who live alone is an essential element of Gransnet, but other people don't look at it for days or weeks at a time so it isn't surprising that we aren't recognised when we surface. When I see welcoming messages posted by other people I'm amazed that they spot that a name is new.

Yes, there are so many members, and so many of those only post occasionally, that a completely new name is not easily recognised. That is why I suggested colour-coding the first few posts from a new member.

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Reported.