The changing face of Gransnet?

Good post, LauraNorder.

GNHQ. If a banned poster has not broken a law of the land then please reinstate.
By banning someone who lives alone, having nursed a very sick husband and having been widowed and then living alone through a national crisis which leaves many with gransnet as their only lifeline.
Are you going to be accountable for the possible repercussions of your actions?
Same question to the poster/posters who report such people.

Well I am astonished at finally having deduced who the victim is. I can honestly say the person in question has never struck me as controversial or bullying or whatever crime she is alleged to have committed. Shame on those who reported her.

To answer the original post.
I've been on here for 4 or 5 years, first as Peardrop50 now LN.
Yes I think gransnet has changed over the last year. There are many many more posters, The political threads are more feisty and at times vicious and quite often continued on and on by just a few with deeply passionate views.
Themes, as to be expected, have been very much about covid or are covid related and Brexit of course.
On the whole though I think, politics aside, the vast majority of members, new and old, have continued to be supportive, compassionate and caring. Still a good variety of topics to cover all interests.
I do agree with almost everyone that the over moderation stifles good debate.
In my opinion there are a couple of posters who enjoy stirring the pot which can be fun and enliven a debate BUT when argued with by more than a couple of others will cry bully. This is often followed by one or two others of the same ilk piling in. My advice to those who claim to be bullied after provoking would be to back away rather than hit the report button. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
Threads are not a playground where one is forced to return. We can choose to go in, we can choose to lurk and leave or we can choose to stay and take part. Moderators not needed unless laws are broken such as racism.

Thank you for the information about the thin…etc. I've been trying hard to work out who it was, but couldn't. I really can't understand that, as I don't remember ever seeing a post from her that was so terrible that it required punishment!

Bogmyrtle, many of us have had nastly and cowardly PMs. It says more about the sender than the recipient.

I do hope you can move on from it. ?

I'm sorry to hear that Bogmyrtle having myself been on the receiving end of nastiness over a sustained period of time on several threads, some of which much to my relief were deleted.

Not recognising your name, I thought you were a new poster.

Bogmyrtle I forgot to say I hope you are ok after that nasty PM. You are not the first and no doubt under the present "rules" will not be the last to receive horrible messages but just know most people on here are a lovely supportive bunch.

ps several crossed posts.

Like Gill57 I've just read the entire thread - took over an hour.
The greyhound clue told me who the banned person is - I can hardly believe it!
Hoping you'll return [flowers}.

You are so right nanaandgrampa on the button There have no reason to care about us as one leaves another fills the place and so it continues
We have no rights at all

I don’t care if I get told off here, but have been wondering if annsixty, is ok, if you are reading this, hope you are well?

Jane 10 - Yes. And now both of us will have our posts deleted.

There have been some very thought provoking posts on this thread that I have enjoyed reading and thinking about .

At the end of the day we have no control on this forum, no say, no input. We are asked our views and NOTHING ever comes of that discussion. We have requests that are ignored.

What we are is a cash cow.

This forum generates income through advertising and other marketing means and that's what we are - unpaid employees of the machine.

The only recourse if we don't like the way things are run is to leave but the bucket of 'employees' will continue to fill , so we wont be missed and leaving gives us no leverage.

Its a lose/lose situation in my opinion.

Right I'll say it. Is 'the thin dog lady' MawBe? I've been wondering whats going on and where she is.
I can't believe poor Charleygirl is on a warning. What on earth has got in to GN?!

well, I have just read this entire thread. I have never reported anyone, but would do so if I read any perceived racism or homophobia or similar, otherwise I prefer to 'fight my own corner' so to speak, rather than run to teacher if someone says something I disagree with. I hate the continual use of the term bullying, ironically often used by the very people who have little gangs who always find it necessary to let their mates know they agree with them. As for private whatsapp groups.........I would really like a 'Taking a Break' corner, as there is one member in particular who I have been concerned about, she spoke of her concerns about her business pre-covid and I do worry how this period of shutdowns has been for her. I must be really dim though, as I cannot get the reference to the thin dog lady!! All in all, I think that GN has changed, and for the worst. We used to have good robust and intelligent debates, that was what I came her for, to keep the grey matter firing, hear other people's opinions and experience, but the atmosphere has been unpleasant at times, provocative threads, almost goading in their nature. I don't agree with banning threads on controversial subjects such as covid denial or anti=vaxx, these are people's opinions and must be respected, discussed and maybe even manage to challenge the beliefs, but most of all, we must be allowed to decide for ourselves what is a fit subject for discussion.

Hazbeen, also the hidden agenda of some reporters needs investigation.

Can you see what is happening on here GNHQ? Read what people like Bogmyrtle have had happen to them and then think about how some posters have been suspended or banned simply because another member had taken a dislike to them.
As I said before sometimes the written word can be misconstrued but sometimes a poster is at the end of their tether with stalking, personal comments and downright rude remarks and snaps back. The whole background of reported threads needs to be looked at not just that one post.

You don't have to be a "fragile little blossom" to be deeply affected by bullying and hounding Bogmyrtle, which if you've ever been unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of, you would know
Actually I have Smileless and at a particularly low point in my life where I was indeed “fragile”
Reporting a cruel slur and blatant untruth in a nasty pm was deemed “not to breach guidelines” so I had to put up with it and, disillusioned, actually gave up posting at the time.

I remember jings coming back but she was unable to change her unique style and someone obviously reported her, so she soon disappeared sgsin.

I’ve only ever reported scams written in poor English with an invitation to open a link. I’ve then written “reported” underneath.

If a member feels a post is so “bad” that it needs reporting, maybe they should write “reported” too.

It’s uncomfortable feeling that someone is reading this lengthy thread, probably commenting, but has (possibly) been responsible for others’ demise/last warnings.

I do wish GNHQ would return with a more comprehensive explanation and answer to the many questions people have posed.

We should tell The Daily Mail it would make a good story lol, Grans banned for no apparent reason and others on final warnings for God knows what, posters who gave been banned sneaking on again under another name them some b---er outs them, secret WhatsApp groups, PMs flying back and forth the mind boggles, who knew posting on Gransnet was such a minefield ?

And without a trial!!

I worry about the effect on the mental health of someone who is either banned or on a last warning!

Smileless and I remember the banned poster who outed herself by mistake then banned again.

It's all rather ridiculous, treating adults like this and taking more draconian measures than that of the CJS.

I have just re read the 'Gransnetiquette '.

It all sounds inherently sensible: only say what you'd say face to face etc etc. Don't swear...

I do worry that it suggests it mainly relies on reporting from users to alert moderators. I have reported what I felt were racist posts in the past but I would not report a poster because they pi88ed me off or were rude to me.

I went through a period when a poster came for me and my posts... said all kinds of things I found hurtful and personal.
However I gathered her life was an unhappy one and s/he was dealing with a lot of stuff... not an excuse particularly but I did not want to make her more miserable by reporting her. Maybe others are quicker to report and are less robust or more self important than me?

Reporting is open to abuse. If poster A & B have a spat over X and poster B reports A, but continues to start threads about X knowing that A will get upset and reports them again.... and so on...

Maybe we need a 'guideline' or Gransnetiquette to manage repeat threads by the same poster....

But it does fail to outline how the personal sanctions that are imposed on people work... e.g. yellow card/red card/on the bench...off the team.

As far as I'm aware not every reported post gets deleted and that's been said by others on this thread. If it's suspected by a poster that a banned poster has returned under a different name and they make GNHQ aware of their suspicion, this is investigated and if found to be the case, they are banned again.