I joined soon after the inception of Gransnet, which I realise would have been 2011, a whole ten years ago! it was a few months old I believe. I had a different user name then. I think I read about the proposal to set this site up on MN where else! with the suggestion that it would be tailored for the older woman. At the time I was a fairly new grandmother so I felt it would be more of a niche place for my age group, although I was only in my fifties at the time so continued to lurk on MN, a site I joined mainly for the book threads, rather than getting involved in arguments debate.
I remember many of the "big" characters during my time here, the sad and untimely death of Greatnan, the sharp and acerbic wit of Jings in her many guises, Ana who was a prolific poster and who is also sadly no longer with us. I also miss the "gentle" posters such as Printmiss, Frank and his dog. Sad to read downtoearth you have lost your confidence to post, I hope it comes back. I notice POGS hasn't posted of late, she came back briefly to let us know that there had been some deaths in her family due to Covid, I do hope she is okay and will return one day, she was a great contributor imo. Similarly, Phoenix who has been a GN regular has been missing for a while and sadly MawB, I know she isn't able to return, I wish all of them well.
Overall I have enjoyed my time on GN and have had many enjoyable exchanges via pms, often with helpful advice all from very nice people, bar one, who sent an absolutely vile vitriolic outpouring simply because we had a different opinion about tattoos which left me pretty gobsmacked
Of late I tend to stick to innocuous threads rather than sticking my head above the parapet, there does seem to be a futility about going round and round in circles and depending on one's frame of mind, it can be draining. Nowadays it does seem quite easy to get comments deleted. I think that's only happened to me twice in ten years, I'm clearly lagging behind!
Happy Birthday to GN and all its members both old and new wherever they are.