Sorry GNHQ I don't like the Oldie Borum

PS I won't throw my rattle out of the pram and I'm not leaving (too many good friends here); but you asked for feedback and this is it.

I think GA is articulating my own unease that somehow the forum has become more public. I don't want to be too "nimby" but just as I have been beginning to get to know other Gnetters and share some very personal stuff, I feel the "net" has been widened and it has become more impersonal. Will it continue to address and reflect the issues of grandparenting and grandparents? - or become just another chat forum?

I don't think all our threads are going to be on their forum. Just stuff posted under the topic Oldie Borum. If anyone approaches their forum from the Oldie mag, they won't see all of GN.

I think it will be quite interesting to see if they get anything posted by their own readers.

Not quite sure why it has to be tied in with Gransnet.

We could just ignore that thread topic.

We probably will!!

Have you seen what Cari puts up on Twitter about us?!

She told the whole world I ate that Christmas chocolate!!!

Jingl my unease is the link to the press. Presumable someone at The Oldie is going to be managing the Oldie Borum and monitoring the link with GN. I think that is a significant change - and introduces a whole new dimension. I have no problem with The Oldie per se, but I do think that this introduces a significant change to Gransnet.
I am also very disappointed that not only were the current users not consulted, but were not even informed until after the link was made. I think this indicates a distinct lack of concern for the GN community by HQ and seems to demonstrate a 'disconnect' between GNHQ and those of us who use the fora (forum).

I'm with you on this ga

I think it might have been a surprise to GNHQ when 'Charlotte' started posting today.

Not sure what I think about the link to the Oldie. Will sleep on it.

I must confess it does leave me a tad suspicious.

I am absolutely with you ga. You have said what I have been struggling to put into words.
For me it changes significantly the 'feel' of GN.
I find the posts by Oldie Borum impersonal and it does smack somewhat of piggy-backing journalism.
No, I'm not happy with it, nor in the way it was introduced. Not at all.

I can only speak for myself, but the trust I was beginning to develop within this forum and it's lively community, has now gone. No doubt I shall still post, but somewhere along the line the intimacy of GN has gone.

.....and please can someone tell me what Borum means??

I'm sorry to say that I share these views - the way the Borum has piggy-backed on to the forums is parasitic (sorry it's such a strong word, but it feels like the most appropriate one). There are existing threads, such as 'what are you reading...' which have been dismissed and a fresh one added under Borum Forum - as though to say you lot no longer count!

When we have reassurance that media, surveys, research and advertising are monitored on here, then this great big thing just plonks itself in the middle of the forums, it's rather disconcerting.

I have no problem with change, and Gransnet evolves beautifully, with occasionally spats and mad parties, and plenty of new members showing up to take us in other directions.

If I was at GNHQ, I would probably be saying 'but they have to realise we need funding and resources to keep going, otherwise we become stale and will dry up.' I take that into account and sympathise.

Therefore, I will just post on occasion and be very careful about which threads I join - I will be avoiding the Borum Forum, most definitely. Sorry GNHQ.

The Oldie Borum threads feel intrusive to me too.

It would be such a pity if members were to be deterred from posting because of the introduction of Oldie Borum. I know I posted on the war memories thread; nevertheless there seems to me to be a hint of a Trojan Horse. Although we have always been open to public scrutiny, this is different because 'they' are trying to be 'us' - and they aren't. How about a boycott from now on?

Have to say I am not comfortable with it either. I am probably being a bit hypersensitive, but some of the threads seem to assume we are from a bygone era. For example, the one about treatment before penicillin or the question about if you met on a bus or a park bench seem to assume we date from sometime between the wars.
Er no actually, we met at university in 1968; mini skirts, the pill, the student revolution, that sort of thing.
I am up for a boycott of the OB as well.

Not that the 1960s isn't a bygone era, of course. Just not as bygone as the OB threads seems to expect.

Have I got this wrong might (have got a hold of the wrong end of the stick), do they have their own forum and were their members going to post over here?

If that is the case I dont think I have seen anyone other than the administrators, has anyone else?

Do NOT like it at all!

Yes, I was a bit taken aback about the assumption that I would have memories that belong to my mother and grandmother. It's just another indication that they have misjudged Gransnet's demographic somewhat. If avoiding the Forum Borum is to be called a boycott, then boycott it is for me.

....just another thought - why wasn't the introduction of a tranche of new potential members just raised as an opportunity, and the threads allowed to continue in a way that would have allowed integration, rather than be presented as 'here's something to be superimposed?'

That's true, Carol. It reminds me of my GD when she was in primary school, asking me, 'What did you do in the war, Granny?' Answer: 'I wasn't even at school!'
One of the things that surprised me about Gransnet is the age span. We have grans in their 40s and some in their 80s. Any 90s? I found that I was one of the older ones (71) but don't regard myself as having an 'elderly' attitude whatever that might be.

....and another thing. It is usual for the poster of a thread to join in, in some measure, to the ebb and flow of comments, thoughts and ideas. If not then suspicions can be aroused as to the purpose of the thread. I have not seen any participation from T.O.B or CharlotteOldie.

Quite. They seem bluntly interrogative and nothing more. Humph!

I'm not at all happy. I feel that the way Oldie Borum dropped into GN was disrespectful to us all. No explanation was given prior to this, and for GNHQ to 'apologise' after the event and agreeing that they were a little remiss in not informing us first....well, we may be Grandmas but we're not in our dotage!