to ask why several prominent members seem to have vanished?!?

Perhaps they have all been beamed up to another planet ?

I miss Ana and Anya too.

Baggs, I'm so pleased to have made you weep with laughter . Apologies for clumsy wording but I was watching something on tv at the same time, multi taxing in that way isn't a strength of mine.

Is that a new form of tax Iam64

See - I did it again. No it isn't a new form of tax lemon, it's confirmation that I shouldn't try and join in on Gransnet at the same time as watching the news. Which, by the way was so unsettling, in relation to Syria and possible responses to the chemical weapons attacks, I confess to having switched it off. I'll read the news in the morning, I find it's just too distressing before bed.

It was very distressing, wasn't it Iam64

Am I imagining they hinted they may set up a separate discussion group because they were irritated by the repeated circular discussions here.
Ah well, que sera
Many people avoided the political threads anyway so perhaps the views became less and less varied as more and more drifted away from them.

*Username-changing

We don’t allow members to change their usernames because we want everyone to be able to trust the relationships they build up with others on Gransnet.*

A very good premise, but GNHQ very kindly went back through loads of my posts and changed my user name for me, after some "trusted member" saw fit to print off a post of mine and post it to my boss!

Anyway, it did cause a bit of confusion, in that my OP was in the new name, but responses referred to me in my "proper" name, so I thought, what the heck, I've been Phoenix since day one, and Phoenix I will remain!

Did you find out who it was and why they did it, Phoenix?
What a horrible, spiteful thing to do!

That's a horrible thing to have happened phoenix, I'm stunned that anyone would do something like that. What a massive invasion of privacy and trust. I hope things weren't too difficult for you at your place of work and that whoever it was got their come uppance. Glad you stayed, anyway!

MissAdventure yes, a very horrible and spiteful thing, especially as I had some bad experiences job hunting after redundancy, plus mortgage to pay etc.

Why they did it? Just pure spite I suppose, although why they felt such venom against someone they had never met, I really don't know.

Who? Well, a couple of GN members PM'd me with a name, but hey ho, you can't prove it!

Anyway, bottom line is, I still have my job, am still here on GN (although not as much as in the past, and to quote Elton John "I'm still standing"!

That must annoy the spiteful sod all the more!

Phoenix, what a truly awful thing to do!
Anyway, they didn't bring you down, you're still here.

Maybe!

I just find it somewhat sad that a grown woman would behave like that to someone she had never met, and who had posted on here about various awful jobs after being made redundant, then getting one that seemed to be working out well (BTW, 3 years in June, taking on more responsibility, now second in command what ever that means )

AND print it all off, and send it through the post at a cost of around £2.50 (can't remember exactly)! They must either have really hated me and wished me ill, (but again, why, as I've never met them?) or be somewhat deranged?

If it is the person that other members thought it might be, they even had the nerve to post sympathy messages on the thread about the whole thing.

Its a hell of an effort to go to, for someone you don't know from Adam, that's true.
None so queer as folk. The mind boggles!

Hell's teeth phoenix, it gets worse. I can see that some GNetters sometimes don't "hit it off", for various reasons but going to those lengths, to someone you don't actually know, is just plain barking mad. They must have put an awful lot of effort into creating their little mess and have ground their teeth ever since that their efforts were in vain. Success, as in your case, is the best sort of revenge!

Its very unsettling to think that someone would go to those lengths.
Its not even as if Phoenix is a right old cow!

Indeed MissA! Succinctly put!

Quite, MissAdventure!

As far as those 'prominent' members are concerned, the expression 'as you sow, so shall you reap' (or something like that) springs to mind.

The atmosphere on the political threads was so aggressive towards people who didn't agree that most people gave up trying to have their say. I even stopped reading them.

I don't know why other members who were there at the birth of Gransnet might have decided not to be around so much these days – or at all. My life has changed dramatically since I moved to the other side of the world. Although I am still a taxpayer in the UK, politics in the country where I live tend to occupy my attention more than those in the UK. That is true of news too. Also, I don't want to play simple minded word games of which there seem to be a plethora these days, but if other people want to that's fine with me. I look in occasionally and comment rarely. That seems to be the same with quite a few of the early Gransnetters whom I know quite well. Everything changes.

I had to change my name as I bought a new Kindle and it wouldn't accept my old name or password. I had to leave and then join again, which was a faff. The same thing happened with a couple of other sites, wouldn't accept password on the new kindle.

MissA.....that made me laugh!
Phoenix keeps us amused and anyone who did what they did must must indeed fit your description.

I would plump for the “somewhat deranged” explanation phoenix what a nasty thing to do ... and for what ? It beggars belief !

Do the 'prominent members' only like to converse with like minded people?

Just note that the 3 missing posters are no longer registered with Gnet.

If it was deliberate I'm surprised that at least one didn't PM me to warn me. I think they've been 'removed'