What has happened to GN just lately?

Not a single flake has fallen in Kintyre, when. The sky is mostly blue and there's very little breeze.

anno I looked up to the sky earlier on, and all I could see for miles around was clouds full of snow ready to drop on us! It's lifted a bit now, but some poor souls are going to have several feet deep of the stuff when it decides to come down somewhere in the north west!

? Lucky Edinburghers! Here the sky is uniformly grey though at the moment the snow seems to be thawing. Still cold though!

*kitty I see you as a warm sensible, kind member of GN, I' m sure you have not caused offence (((hugs)))

A wise old, not so old! ele

Well said, Jings...

Moved me too

Typed that with the in my eyes behind the laptop, hence the typos.

BTW I was talking very generally there, and not about any particular poster.

What I should have added is that the "old hands" need to make allowances for posters who - as in any new environment - are not aware of the existing dynamics (and these may well change as a reult of the new blood.)

The problem get bigger as Gransnegt gets bigger. It is not always obvious that a poster is new and needs welcoming, as there are so many threads to read. Large organisations have more difficulties with people feeling excluded that smaller ones, and there is no "acclimatisation course" on Gransnet.

Did I really say that?!

No one thought that kitty.

(((group hug)))

Ah, Elegran I hope you don't mind being compared with a wise old owl

I apologise if anyone thought I was saying new members weren't welcome. Of course they are. What I was trying to say was that maybe, as the membership changes, so will the dynamic and, as we have had a large influx of new members, I am finding it difficult to keep up with the names.

And, whilst the house is strange without the dog, I am not upset enough to deliberately try to offend all the new members of GN and I am sad that anyone would think I was. It maybe proves my point that we haven't all gelled yet.

Compare joining Gransnet with moving to a new house in another area. If you have just moved in, and walk along your street, you are likely to meet a couple of neighbours discussing something. You say hello as you pass, and they say hello back. If what they are discussing is of no interest to you, you go on your way. If you want to know them better and be included, you introduce yourself. Then you say, "As I passed I heard you talking about ( whatever. ) My opinion on that is ( whatever. ) If your first words to them as a stranger had been on the lines of "You are talking a load of bo****ks", you would not be surprised if they were a bit sharp in their reaction to you.

There are some new joiners (a minority) who do just that - They have perhaps been lurking and not posting, then disagree so violently with what has been said that they must reply, but they forget that their post comes out of the blue, and is exactly how a troublemaker posts messages on random forums to get posters at odds with each other.

There have in the past been a few of those troublemakers. The thread would divide between those who answered the objection with equally strong words, and those who thought that a newcomer was being victimised.

It has already been played baubles

I always think bangles and beads when I see your name

Good idea j07 , knocking it on the head, that is.

Doubt very much that its all your fault though Let's not play the blame game.

Oh, let's just start again!!! From today!!!

Clean slate. #hadenoughof it all

#itsprobablyallmyfaultitusuallyis

#knockitonthehead

Ooops! Seemed to skip a page there, to avoid confusion, that was addressed to Kali.

No need to shout !!

Spot on phoenix

I think another thing to take into consideration is that this way of communicating (including email) will always have the problem of not actually having a voice or a face. Both factors can impact a lot on the way things are put across and of course received.

Even though there is a range of emoticons to use, the meaning of some statements may not be exactly as they were intended.

Does that make sense, or have I lost it again?

(Also apologies for perhaps "stating the bleedin' obvious", as the saying goes.)

I was thinking of that, too, Jess. Forming, storming, norming, performing....and mourning, when things go wrong, or Grasnetters leave

Group dynamics. Most groups go through a "storming" phase early in their life. Then things settle down. But if there is an influx of new members then often "storming" crops up again. Every month or two there is a stormy patch on GN and then things settle down again. It is to be expected that if new members significantly change the 'group norms' then established members will feel unsettled.
It is also the case that there are sometimes personality clashes, as in life outside GN. But these are not major.
GN is much bigger than it was a year ago and it is no longer possible to participate in all threads or to interact with all the other members. If there is someone you just don't want to interact with, then it should be perfectly possible to find some threads where they do not appear. This is one of the advantages of a bigger membership I think.
For me the only thing that has irritated me during my membership is if people who prefer cosy threads seek to disrupt threads where a serious discussion is going on. There should be room for both. And lots in between.

I think people have to speak for themselves celebgran and not generalise, as there are so many different opinions about how Gransnet operates.

My experience of Gransnet is that new members are welcome, and it's lovely to see names from the past reappear to tell us how they are these days. I choose to stick with Gransnet, but will ease off contributing when people start making remarks that are hurting others, as I don't want any part in it. If things get a bit boring, we can introduce another thread. There are endless subjects to debate or chat about, and many different slants on them.

I guess it depends on how we look at life. I've got a half full glass and like to take an optimistic view. I appreciate that might irritate some people, but I accept them for who they are, so would appreciate it being reciprocated

Well said Movedalot. Having had my posts twisted in the last day on another thread has been quite irritating. I do wonder is it done to be malicious or is it just ignorance.