Infiltration

You're not thick at all gillybob. As I said upthread, the volume of kind, supportive and helpful responses on that "other" thread simply demonstrated how many kind and empathic members are on GN. You were one of them.

Fennel I agree about first posts being moderated. That’s certainly the norm if you join a group on Facebook - your first post usually has to be approved before it appears on the page.
I have a blog in Wordpress and people can leave comments on the posts. If someone makes a comment for the first time, it comes to me via email & I have to approve or delete it. Wordpress also has a very effective spam filter.
I’m sure it wouldn’t be technically difficult for Gransnet to set up something to monitor first posts.

Not so thick gilly. I cried !

Well I thought the GrannyFoxton thread was genuine I even posted some “advice” on it . Shows how thick I am .

I am a wimp, right I will look for the signals x

I've belonged to 2 forums in the past where the Moderators check out the credentials etc of all new posters and the contents of their first posts before they publish.
I wonder if GNHQ could do this? Or too time consuming?
One forum was a very busy one, the other quiet.

Snap Marydoll! Looking at the same thread?

It's getting more and more difficult to know whether a post is genuine or not lately and that's spoiling GN for me. Some of the new threads this week have been heart rending in the details they give but have then turned out to be complete rubbish. Think there might be a new one today. Onesie has already been called.

Annie, keep posting. As Mapleleaf said, they will have achieved what they set out to do and upset everyone.
We just need to be vigilant.
The word onsie has already been used this morning on a thread that may or may not be suspicious.

True Mapleleaf.

Yes, it is upsetting Annie, but it would be a shame to avoid threads because of the actions of a few very immature individuals. If we do avoid threads we’d previously enjoyed looking at, then I feel these individuals have won. Instead, let’s go along with a code word as grannyactivist suggests, if we suspect something is not quite right and report our suspicions to GNHQ. Try not to let these individuals upset you. .

This is all so upsetting, I am now avoiding some threads

Excellent code words!

Yes, like Anja I also spotted the GrannyFoxton thread was most likely a wind-up and responded to her ? emoji.

I wouldn't like to put off a genuine poster so if I think there may be a 'joker' in the pack then the mention of a onesie or plimsolls will at least alert others to the possibility that all may not be as it seems.

Elegran that phone cal thread was so obvious that I posted a ? emoji on page 1. It is true that some of us can spot them. I volunteered on a crisis phone line for years. You wouldn’t believe (actually probably you would but most people wouldn’t) the kind of calls we would get from weirdos.

Effwits like that spoil what they have no intention of using themselves - dogs in the manger!

Same for me Jane10

It's annoying though. It certainly makes me question almost every new post no matter how innocuous it seems and most likely is.

As my old mum used to call people like that- "-pots for rags " ( barmy )

Eggsactly. There were two opposing sides, but I'd say that the fruit came first, then the fruit's colour was used to describe anything that . . . er . . . orange colour. The reasons were in the thread, which is now no more.

Elegran like chicken or egg ? ?

You'd have enjoyed it, Annie. It was probably started in the hope of getting us to fall out over whether the fruit or the colour came first, but it went off into all sorts of tangents about fruit and colours. The joker who started it must have been quite disappointed.

It was quite interesting Anniebach

Thank heaven I hate oranges and the colour so didn’t read it ?

Yes they ll all come back with new names ?? we ll just have to be one step ahead