Saga Zone

I should have added the link.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2274348/Saga-Zone-shuts-social-website-bullying-offensive-comments.html

I used to use Saga Zone a lot, what a shame , what pleasure do people get out of shutting down a good informative forum like this? The mind boggles.

I don't think it will happen here. Saga have many more irons in the fire so this would have been very small beer for them.

Did they get lots of complaints about their business? That might have been a reason for closing it? Only had dealings with them once and had to complain.

I see there is another thread on the same subject. Great minds....

Hi All, I was on Saga zone for about 5yrs, so I really do know what I"m talking about. I used to stay in one or two "rooms" where I made some lovely freinds some of who I now know personally. The "bulk" of the site was general day to day chat and above all comfort and a "hug" when needed . I tended to stay away from the parts of the site where the conversations could get rather heated at times , but after all we are all adults and should be allowed (within decent reason ) to air our views. What the press is saying now is a total fabrication concocted by saga to cover the fact that they needed an excuse to shut the zone ( for whatever reason) ! People (includind several of my dear freinds) were banned for absolutely no reason ! and because some of us started to query this we were also banned. I"m so sadened by the way this has gone but am glad for the time I had on the zone , for the side-splitting laughs and fun , for the wonderful freinds I would"nt have met otherwise . It would be wonderful if I can find a similar site, am wondering if this could be it. Sorry to ramble on .... nice to meet you... JonJon ( JJ) and my German Shepherd who everybody knows and loves Suzie.

Hi Tanith, Totally agree with you. So sad for the housebound ( quite a few ) who relied on the zone for company. Don"t know if we ever met there, I was JonJon from the smokers room !

Lots of dog owners on here jonjon! Welcome.

Welcome, Jonjon, and please spread the word to other ex-Saga members.

Hi everyone. As another Sagazone user of many years, can I just add to JJ's post above. Saga are making out that the site was full of racist and homophobes. Nothing can be more from the truth.

The happenings on that site in the last few weeks had to be seen to be believed.
There were a few offenders, (about 6, out of hundreds of daily posters) a few months ago, and they were banned, and the offending messages were removed, which was good. These people amounted to a tiny minority of the hundreds of people who posted in the site every day. After they had been banned the site immediately got back to normal.
Many members are completely housebound and this site was their daily company. Somewhere where they knew they would get sympathy when they needed it, but also have a laugh and enjoy the company. Many good friendships were struck up.

Then a couple of weeks ago they suddenly started banning members for no reason whatever. They got no notice and no reason was given to them for the banning. If you questioned why your friend had been banned, you , in turn were banned. It was bizarre in the extreme.

I myself was banned for telling members to look at my friend’s posts and tell me if they could see any reason for her to be banned. They banned me, removed my post and removed the entire “room” that my friend always posted in, so that no one could look at it.

I met my partner on the site in 2009. Very sadly he died last year. There is a memorial thread on Sagazone full of beautiful comments by all our Saga friends and they removed the link from his profile so that I couldn’t access it to copy it. Then they banned him. They Banned a dead man!! It has always been their policy NOT to remove the profiles of people who have died, and other peoples are still there but my Franks has gone. I know all this sounds unbelievable but I promise you it is what has been happening there. We felt as though the lunatics were running the asylum!

For a company that is supposed to be all about the elderly, they have treated their members appallingly.

Ooops so sorry. I didn't mean my first post to be so long.

Hello jonjon on the whole were very friendly here. I enjoy it and I'm fussy.
Seriously, they're a great and very supportive gaggle.
(I presume Thats the collective noun for grans)

And to you Cynth[ smile]

As I said on the other Saga thread I used to visit the Saga Zone until I found Gransnet. Welcome Cynth and JonJon and like Greatnan says, do spread the word to others from Saga.

... Thanks for the welcome guys, was a bit aprehensive as I"m not exactly a Gran ( despite the long hair ! )... haven"t had a chance to have a good look round yet but I really like what I see so far. Have told freinds on FB and I see Cynth"s allready here. XXX ( my normal sign off ! )

What a sorry tale, Cynth. I am sure you will find that you will find our GNHQ administrators more in tune with the members than the Saga ones seem to have been of late. I felt your very heartfelt grief in your post - they really rode roughshod over your feelings. ((((hugs))))

Saga is a business. They felt there was a threat to their brand.

Surely they must have had some reason though. They wouldn't want to piss off potential customers without a good reason.

I know GN is a business as well. But there is no brand as such.

HI jonjon (and Suzie) and Cynth welcome to Gransnet.
Why not find the new members thread and tell us a bit about yourself?

jonjon, Suzie's a cutie, but as I'm more in tune with furniture than dogs may I see what a nice looking sideboard you have there!

That is a really terrible story - have anyone thought of contacting the national press and shaming Saga?

It's already in the press.

here

Suz says thank you very much, but a sideboard can"t get you up in the early hours to roam round muddy fields , hear the owls hooting and watch the sun rise ! XXX

Thanks for the welcome folks and thank you so much to Annodomini for your kind words.

j08 we are conjecturing that the reason was financial although we obviously can't guarantee that. There used to be plenty of advertising on there which slowly but surely dried up, until there was none.
Saga are owned by the Aromas group, who are preparing to sell the company.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/23/private-equity-aa-saga-acromas)

They would not want to show that Sagazone was possibly a loss making arm of the company, and would therefore possibly need a reason to close down without it appearing financial. (I'm chosing my words carefully here for obvious reasons.!)

The members were badly betrayed.

Hi jo8 my freind, reading this makes my blood boil ! How they are manipulating the press is nothing short of criminal !

Does sound like lazy moderating. Sounds like they knew for some time that multiple identies were coming from the same computer.