Do threads sometimes disappear from the Forum?

Alright!!! I got it wrong. She was talking to absent.

Don't be 'orrible to Kat.

Or else......... ! [grr]

Some Gransnetters did report a possible troll. Don't assume that because they did not tell you about it, they did not do it. Like a lot of things, come to think of it. Still waters run deep.

Yes Miss

Indeed yes.

Silly me.

Not for the first time.

Nanadog What are you talking about? I think you are older than I am, although not necessarily wiser, but how can we know? Perhaps neither of us is very wise. I don't think I have ever addressed Gransnet members as girls, but if I have, I am profoundly sorry. Surely all this ridiculous brouhaha has gone on because Gransnetters didn't report a possible troll and then went into discussing the possible troll by name on a public forum. So what did I do that was so wrong that I deserved the sharp side of your tongue?

Dear absent

thank you for your informative and interesting post. I would never have thought of that myself. I do so love it that we have older and wiser GNetters who can educate us and keep us on the straight and narrow. I think we were in danger of being flippant and lighthearted silly girls.

Yours gratefully Nanadog.

I've reported a few!

The "watching" at the top has taken on a whole new meaning! [sh-sh-shiver)

A while ago I reported an 'unmentionable' to HQ as I was worried he/she was targeting a new member.I was told that they were 'watching' him/her and to pm the newbie myself with a warning.I did this.The newbie vanished and the hunter of ancient things continued to post

Rather than Shreks and Billy Goats wouldn't it just be simpler to report a post as a suspected troll and let GNHQ make the judgement? Remember, you don't even have to tell anyone, apart from GNHQ, that you are reporting. This all seems quite a storm in a teacup.

Great ideas, crimson and nanadog.

Except that the BBG were not word-we-cannot-post, they were innocently trying to cross the bridge to get to the good pasture on the other side. So Big Bold Green Shrek it will have to be.

Can we call them Shreks so we can have a Shrek alert?

I mentioned earlier that these Billy Goats Gruff (BGG) can become habitual visitors and he/she/they appear to be back disguised as the next door neighbour.

I'm a fairly new and infrequent poster but I did lurk last night and was surprised at the tone of one thread in particular. Both Elegran, Nanadog and crimson have raised issues which are important.

BTW this isn't a new thing. Sometimes single posts making accusations of tr*lling are deleted, occasionally a whole thread. GNHQ tell us beforehand (as they did last night) if a thread is going to be deleted.

If the powers that be at gransnet are so worried about trolls then they should moderate more efficiently. I made a point last night [which has disappeared] that I hadn't been on the site as much as usual over the past few days and despaired at what was happening to it; very much a case of lunatics taking over the asylum and dragging the tone of the site down with them. I can't believe that things have happened on here that the moderators have ignored and yet gracesmum is, as she says 'in the doghouse'. Then I guess I should be in the doghouse as well because, even though the thread has gone missing I would imagine that I agree totally with everything she has said. If one of the most eloquent and trusted members of gransnet is in trouble over something she's said, then there's something badly wrong somewhere. Some of us care very deeply about this forum and don't like to see this sort of thing happen.

Well put Elegran. While we do have to be careful of the feelings of new posters we also have to be alert to these invaders.
If it is bored school children then we have to be very careful how we engage with them and not reply in a manner that might be vaguely encouraging and slightly sexual. Child abuse is a very touchy subject at the moment, well at any time, I've put that badly but you get my drift.
If this is an older person looking for 'companionship' as Elegran so tactfully puts it, then they can become habitual visitors to our forums, when they need 'companionship' and this is not to be encouraged. Some of us have experience with callers like this when manning crisis lines and they are a constant nuisance and source of distress to some.
I don't have the same capacity with words that others have but I hope this post is helpful.

I think their reasoning is that it is better to ignore a troll than accuse a non-troll.

Several frequent and respected posters started their Gransnet career with a heated first post. That surprised some regular posters into thinking that because they had never seen the username before and the message was full of rather intemperate language it could well be a fake. They reacted accordingly, the poster got upset and there were tears before bedtime. When it all died down, everyone was friends again (and the same posters can be very alert to new trollisms)

The thread/posters who have vanished had a dodgy feel from the start. Several very similar new posters appeared at the same time, with the same preoccupations. The posts were full of designer miss-spellings, crude and unfunny humour and lurid tales of deprivation. Some of them were looking for "companionship" of the opposite sex with hints of more. I don't mean here the kind of joshing that makes Lil's Bar hilarious either.

Unless of course one is. Then it would just be annoying.

I would guess Gransnet might have been thinking of people's feelings. It must be hurtful to be accused of being a troll.