Gransnet in 2024 - have your say!

Wheniwasyourage

Why cliquey? If you see posts from the same people over time you get an idea of their political views, or whether they live alone or where they come from just by reading what they say. That hardly means there is a clique - just that some of us have been on GN since 2011 and some of us look at the threads more often than others.

I never said anyone was a clique. I said that the words you used sounded cliquey. But the forum is open to anyone in the world and I often see lots of usernames I don't recognise. So many people who probably have no idea where in the world anyone else is and therefore it would be nice to have their country shown.

Elegran and I are not a clique!!

Thank you Elegran. As often before, you have said what I was meaning, but said it much better and explained more fully!

You can't avoid getting to know the posters who post often and have been posting for years. If you read articles in a newspaper or magazine by the same writer every week for years, it is impossible to pretend that you are not aware of their politics, opinions, and taste in breakfast cereals.

On Gransnet that doesn't stop you reading posts by new members who have just joined and are posting their first views on topics of the day. What they say may be a different take on the subject, or it may be something that has been said before.

Agreeing with a poster more than once in a blue moon doesn't make the two of you into a clique - it just means that you agree. We don't HAVE to disagree with everyone - for one thing there aren't enough different opinions in existence for every poster (thousands of them) to have a unique one.

Why cliquey? If you see posts from the same people over time you get an idea of their political views, or whether they live alone or where they come from just by reading what they say. That hardly means there is a clique - just that some of us have been on GN since 2011 and some of us look at the threads more often than others.

Wheniwasyourage

Are Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland not still in the UK, Chestnut? Perhaps you meant England instead of UK.

Actually, I don't think that would help. We get to know some posters and where they are from, and you can often tell an American by the spelling.

I meant England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, plus all the others. Not everyone is familiar with people's locations. New or infrequent posters won't know and I certainly don't know where everyone lives. We get to know some posters and where they are from sounds very cliquey, don't you want anyone new to join in?

And yes, it would help because I've been seeing threads where people have been wondering where the OP lives because it is relevant to the issue.

Are Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland not still in the UK, Chestnut? Perhaps you meant England instead of UK.

Actually, I don't think that would help. We get to know some posters and where they are from, and you can often tell an American by the spelling.

Chestnut

Just to add, it would be soooo helpful if the poster had their country next to their name. People often talk if if we know where they are, but they could be in Australia, Canada, USA or Europe. It is often relevant to their comment and therefore confusing to not know where they are.

Just to mention this again. There have been a few threads lately which have caused some confusion because the country of the poster is not known. Please can we have UK, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, USA, France, Australia etc. next to the username because it would be really helpful. 🙏

No no no to a name change.
I would like the competitions to come back please.

DanniRae

Callistemon21

Please, please could you remove the annoying adverts and videos - they are so old and we're bored now!!

The same makeovers, the cakes must be stale by now, we are fed up seeing the swimming picture on the home page. Time for something Christmassy, not a summery photo.

Please update the site.

We are feeling neglected, forgotten, like second-class citizens.

Thank you 🙂

This!!

Oh, please!!!

I would most definitely recommend that ALL ORIGINAL POSTERS SHOULD HAVE ALL THEIR SUBSEQUENT COMMENTS HIGHLIGHTED!

I was on an AF and Pacemaker site some years back. Many comments and questions daily. One could simply touch the comment you wanted to respond to, and hey presto, it appeared, with a reply box.
Some messages got 20/30 replies, all on a string, others, non… SO easy 🤯😛

nadateturbe

Doodledog

I would like the ability to edit a quote,

Is this what you mean?

No . I can cut and paste easily enough, and often do when quoting, putting the quote in bold. I mean quoting as I've done with your post above, but with the ability to delete what is not relevant to what I want to say, so your name would appear, as would the bit of your post I was referring to..

Galaxy - yes, it is possible not to be found in Google, but only if the site is made private, so only members can post. I would much prefer that (no lurkers, no freeloaders, and nobody reading who knows who you are without your knowledge*) but it will never happen, as the business model needs as many people as possible to see the ads.

*Of course nobody knows who anyone is online, but there is less chance of having, say, a nosy neighbour or relative reading your posts in a private board, particularly if people who never post are deleted after a while. Some boards have a members only forum, which you can only join after so many posts and is hidden both from Google and the rest of the board. People can use it for personal posts, to moan about their boss, their in-laws or whatever, knowing that they can't be searched for and 'spied on'.

Nothing is foolproof of course, and people could cut and paste from the most private of places, but that's the only way I know of that means our posts can't be searched.

I am not very IT savvy, but is that even possible?

I would prefer comments did not show in a search outwith Gransnet (Google etc).

Doodledog

I would like the ability to edit a quote,

Is this what you mean?

Can we have a ‘string’ button please?
Today, someone put a sunrise picture on, I wanted to say “that’s beautiful “, but it was two pages away, so didn’t bother, happens so often. Cutting and pasting is a faff!
I know we have some geniuses on here, others, not so! I’m the latter group !!! 🤷‍♀️

Doodledog

I would like the ability to edit a quote, so that we don't get enormous posts quoting the whole of someone else's. particularly if the quoted post is directly above the one that's quoting it. Often we only need to refer back to a sentence or two, so the ability to delete the rest would make for much easier reading.

Also, a way of being alerted if someone has quoted you would be good too.

I agree with this too - the first paragraph, that is, which is exactly why that facility, available on many forums, is so helpful.

Though in this case, I do also agree with the second paragraph 😁

The thing is, administrators, that we want to be able to respond quickly but clearly to specific things that have been said, and the less copying and pasting we have to do in order to achieve that, the more likely we are to engage.

Parsley3

Elegran

The most useful thing that gransnet could have is moderators who are in the same age bracket as the average GN member, and who are specifically working for Gransnet not moonlighting from Mumsnet. Sometimes it seems as though the moderators are on a different wavelength from the posters, and inclined to assess reported posts, bannings, complaints about unpleasant posters and so on from a different point of view.

We are probably a lot of fossils in their eyes, but we have been living in the world and observing human behaviour for a long time.

I agree. When I joined the moderators used to join in some of the discussions.

The moderators used to be fun and come and eat cake!

Maybe the grey pound is forcing their hand?

If that is the case, a good place to start would be with making the ads more appropriate to the demographic - particularly those with money to spend. One wonders what the image of an over-50s woman must be in the minds of some of the advertisers on here just now. If they aren't getting a good return, I'm not surprised. As others have said, having staff on the board (in all of the forums) on a regular basis would give them a better feel for what we are about, and there would be no need for threads like this, from which I'm sure most of us expect very little.

I notice that Gransnet posted on Facebook this morning for the first time since March.

Why not have volunteer moderators who can do the non-controversial stuff like moving and deleting posts at users request, leaving the main moderators more time.

I agree with Doodledog's post too. I do think it would need to indicate the quote has been edited to only include that particular passage.

I sometimes highlight a sentence and cut and paste it into my comment box if I don't want to quote the whole post.

Oh yes, I agree with Doodledog’s post of 12.47.