Sorry GNHQ I don't like the Oldie Borum

I thought we were supposed to be Grans? So Oldie staff can sign up if they choose. I know that you don't check up on GNetters, but surely the whole balance changes if our membership no longer has grandparenthood in common?

No. Not the printed version! Just on their online website.

I'm not surprised GNHQ didn't try to explain it in advance. Where would they have started?

Oh yes. I did say 'in their mag', didn't I? Meant the online version.

I would be running for the hills if I thought my posts were going to be printed in a magazine appearing in WH Smith's!

(I mean, nobody reads online stuff, do they?)

Although it was very nice when I was in a Mumsnet thread in the Times.

Pamaga this is what is written at the top of the Forums page ...

Welcome to Gransnet. We've selected some topics below we think you might want to discuss but you're free to talk on any subject you like. You need to be a member of Gransnet to use the forum. Please be aware this is a public forum and your postings are open for all to see. Please note that Gransnet has non-exclusive copyright in all submissions to Gransnet, and reserves the right to edit and re-publish these in print form.

What on earth does "non-exclusive copyright" mean? It doesn't sound very watertight!

Golly, well first of all, I must apologise. I put lots of threads on our Oldie Borum site from the start because the page looked empty. I put them in question format in order to provoke discussion. I am the editorial assistant at the Oldie and have no editorial input or influence in the magazine. My role is to run the website, write the newsletter, organise Oldie lunches and functions. I am not a journalist per se and any copy I do generate - ie for the website or our newsletter - is derived exclusively from the magazine or from Oldie Towers.

We simply thought that Oldie readers would enjoy their own forum - and Gransnet offered to run it for us. If you go to the Oldie website, you will see that, viewed from that perspective, the page appears to be discrete. We had not appreciated that my suggested topics would cut across existing chat. The Borum is intended as another facility for Oldie readers and aficionados. We strongly believe that the internet is a huge asset for 'silver surfers' and that its importance to them in particular is only going to increase.

Were any of you to come to Oldie Towers, you would understand that we are a hundred miles from the phone-hacking sweatshops of News International. We are a tiny office, very hard-working, little or no time to surf ourselves and no journalists in house. Moreover the Oldie is a magazine that comes out monthly and is features-led.

Please feel free to chat away among yourselves - we are delighted to be part of the Gransnet universe. But prying and prurient, we are not. Not enough hours in the day!

Charlotte

You girls at GNHQ have been very busy posting on here over the last two days ...if it was glass of last night ...reckon it could be a bottle of tonight

I have been unavoidably away from Gransnet fro a month and knowing nothing about the Oldie Borum when I came across it I found it deeply odd and unsettling.

We are Gransnet, they are something else entirely. It is not as if Gransnet does not have Gramps already on it.

Likewise I noticed the strong probing of what we remember from our youth in its threads on Gransnet. One query generated by a nostalgic thread from a Gransnetter is one thing but the Oldie Borum has been very persistent with these kinds of threads.

Lets remember journalists consult Gransnet regularly for our views on current topics, I found myself quoted in a newspaper a few months ago and nanapug was mentioned by name in one newspaper recently.

Thanks for that info about the non-exclusive copyright, GH, I've learned something new!

I mean GN

As a relatively new member of gransnet, I don't like this at all and I shall be boycotting it completely. I don't understand why they can't set up their own forum instead of highjacking this one. I agree with Carol that all their threads have the appearance of a parasite or a very nasty virus!

And please CharlotteOldie, don't refer to me as a 'silver surfer;' I find it such a patronising term. I do wonder how old the current staff of The Oldie are - they seem to regard us as dinosaurs. I know it's a well established publication but it reminds me of the episode of The Apprentice where the contestants had to design a magazine and chose to produce one for pensioners and to name it 'Hip Replacement'

I missed most of this yesterday, but having read through the thread, I agree with all that has been said previously. I don't feel too comfortable with it.

I think that GNHQ have seriously underestimated the friendship,affection and support we all feel for each other on here, and have shown us a lack of respect by their disregard for our feelings.

However, I daresay everything will settle down and we can ignore the Oldie (horrible name) threads if we so wish.

I think we're much too young and frisky for them anyway!!

Quite. You've hit the nut? On the head!

It has to be paid for though, doesn't it! Gransnet is not making enough money to cover it's overheads at the moment. This is a way to bring in some more cash.

The site will have to close if they can't get enough money.

I don't like it much either, it has injected a lot of insecurity into the forum and may send some people away.

BUT - has anyone any ideas of other ways in which GNHQ can make money to keep the show on the road? I am sure they would be grateful for any suggestions that we can come up with. If there are any substitutes for this, then it can be allowed to wither away.

If not ................the financial backing has to come from somewhere. How much would we be prepared to pay to subscribe to the forum? What does it cost to join a social club? A leisure class? How many people would leave and never return if it cost them something?

Yes, let's just diitch this Oldie label that has pervaded and carry on enjoying our chat, welcoming new members from wherever they come, and forgetting that Oldie Borum was ever thrust on us - we don't need that distinction to be able to integrate anyone who is interested in joining Gransnet. It just creates an artificial divide that we don't want or need. All Oldie readers are welcome, although I gather many are not grandparents, so they might only want to be involved with certain threads - that's ok.

I accept that GNHQ doesn't see that label as being divisive but we have said clearly that we do, so we'll agree to disagree.

It is noticeable that no Oldie Borum threads are currently running when I have just logged on. We were flooded with them and the consternation it caused was unpleasant.

A £5 joining fee for all members?

Annually.

If it had been put the other way round - that the Oldie was going to feature Gransnet and show it on its online magazine, and people could join Gransnet from an Olldie page and read and send posts, what would the reaction have been then?

Well said carol I agree we should wellcome them, but, without the oldie label! Also no duplication of threads.
Let's amalgamate without a takeover bid .

elegran

whotsit If the finances are not coping, there will have to be a charge of some kind. You either sell space to someone else to advertise on, or you sell the service you are giving to the customers - us.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Now I am going off to eat my nice cottage pie and baked beans.