Gransnet in 2024 - have your say!

It would be wrong and divisive to have a separate section exclusively for Scottish Gransnetters on here.
I agree. I am a Scottish poster who I hope is not judged as bombarding you with Scotophilia.
Would we want separate sections for any other country? No.
However, it is sometimes necessary for all of the devolved nations to speak up when political differences and misunderstandings arise. It would be a shame if such posts become unwelcome.

A ‘like’ and ‘ don’t like’ button please

I feel that the current wish for independence is a sign of the pride that Scots have in their country, which was a separate entity when it was joined to England and Wales as a result of a voluntary treaty, not a result of conquest. That pride is a good thing in itself, but we are now living in a world where strong alliances are essential for small countries. Neighbours need to work together for their common good, not split apart.

I changed my mind as to the most profitable demographic for Gnet admin to aim for. I now guess that, because oldish women are increasing in proportion to the wired population, Gransnet is a winning title that ought to be retained. Maybe Grandsnet would rope in a few men contributors.

I have seen it written as Grandsnet by some posters, and by non-members too.

Parsley3

^It would be wrong and divisive to have a separate section exclusively for Scottish Gransnetters on here.^
I agree. I am a Scottish poster who I hope is not judged as bombarding you with Scotophilia.
Would we want separate sections for any other country? No.
However, it is sometimes necessary for all of the devolved nations to speak up when political differences and misunderstandings arise. It would be a shame if such posts become unwelcome.

This. Completely agree and couldn’t have put it better.

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!!

No to Nananook its awful.
Yes to a like button.
Please please better threading.

garnet25 if you mean by "better threading" that more attention should be paid in sorting the threads into the correct forums (fora?) that is up to the contributors (us). We can ask for the threads to be moved, but sometimes that takes a while. Obviously GNHQ is very busy - although what they are doing remains a mystery, as they are clearly not paying attention to the contents of the site, marketing it, nor making it any more attractive.

If there was a separate section for Scottish grans, then there would need to be a separate section for English grans, and for Welsh grans, and for Northern Irish grans, not to mention American grans, Canadian grans, Australian grans and grans from various other countries. I don’t think that would be in the spirit of Gransnet to be honest.

maddyone I agree, also if there were to be separate sections for various countries there would be a tendency to not look at them if you felt they had no relevance to you or your life. But, by doing that you probably miss out on a lot that could be interesting. I want to read how things are elsewhere not be an isolated little bubble of English only.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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,

Is this what you mean?

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

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

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.