Why do you come to Gransnet?

Interesting, informative & you can learn quite a lot to!

I rarely post on the political threads because they move along at such a pace I don't have the time to read all the links so can't keep up. I sometimes post at the beginning then drop out because I'm nowhere near as informed as I think you need to be.

I don't have a problem with the arguments because I don't rise to the bait. Not long ago I posted a comment which somebody disagreed with so I was invited challenged to 'educate them!'

Are you kidding? Do I really come across as completely daft?

I have been on GN since the start. When my husband died suddenly during the first year I found it a life line and was so grateful for all the help, encouragement, advice and sympathy I received over the ensuing months. I have made some good friends over the years and even discovered someone I had been at school with. Lately I have been giving GN a 'body swerve' for various reasons but mainly I think, because I find it really difficult to accept that some people can hold such ingrained views and values , mostly political, seeming oblivious to others' opinions and are downright vitriolic and nasty in their comments. I just prefer to stay away. Ok I don't have to read these posts but sometimes they are hard to avoid. Perhaps I've lived a sheltered life but I've never come across this before and don't like it. It's a pity that a few make it so uncomfortable for the many. No doubt in time I'll be back putting in my two pennyworth but a break is probably a good idea occasionally. I would love to speak up, give my opinions on many topics but I ain't prepared to be criticised or humiliated on an open forum. I haven't recommended GN to any friends. I would be easily identified: I prefer to be as anonymous as possible!

I haven't been on Gransnet long either and I don't post very often but I'm shocked by how many people are saying the same things about the same issues on the N & P forums. Can't all be wrong can we? I've noticed though that the main protagonist has been noticeable by their absence since so many aired their views.

Was that really called for durham? Why would you post a comment like that? What's wrong with you?

Perhaps it was yet another negative comment about the political threads - which some people enjoy. Some people declare they don't but still spend an awful lot of time and energy on them and quite a bit complaining about them. Some people have decided not to go on them and still spend time complaining about them.

I think Soops kitchen is twee and pointless and the Argy-Bargy trivial and laughable (and not in a good way). If I - and others - keep telling those who enjoy these particular threads just what we think of them in a very negative way what good does that do? People end up taking it personally, and, if I was to say such things, I would know there are people who do enjoy them and who may, eventually, be affronted so why would I do that?

If I and others continued the criticism we would be very aware that we may provoke or annoy someone, who, at some point will react. Those who like these topics are probably even more likely to do this if I keep referring to them as 'certain people' or 'certain posters' and the fact that their comments 'leave me feeling quite sick', etc.

The likelihood is that someone will then make a fairly innocuous comment and find they are in the firing line that has been built up by others.

Obviously no one on here would do that but it is one possible explanation of how it could happen.

The political/contentious threads are very easy to avoid - I don't know why members have a particular problem with them and avoid Gransnet as a result.

I have no problem in avoiding: games, TV, knitting & crochet, soaps, cake recipes, etc.

Horses for courses ...

That puzzles me too, Riverwalk. People saying they avoid gransnet because of the vitriol on the political threads is just plain daft.

Nobody is forced to read them.

Exactly merlot it's the same as complaining about tv programme instead of turning it off, enjoy what you enjoy and avoid the rest. Btw having Merlotgran, Ilovecheese and Marmight on the same page has now led me to a favourite sat evening treat.

I think saying threads are twee and pointless or trivial and laughable (not in a good way), whilst not that kind but it is your opinion, is not at all like calling people who disagree with you imbeciles though, Gg, which one poster did and which made me feel sick.
Haven't seen that poster on here though.

We could do with more male input even so.

having Merlotgran, Ilovecheese and Marmight on the same page has now led me to a favourite sat evening treat. Well spotted, Menopaws!

Posters have explained why they are not comfortable with the political thread , is it fair they should be told not to read them when it is obvious some want to post on them but don't want to be shouted down, just be able to post their political views without being verbally squashed , just as east to type - i don't agree, as it is to say - get off the thread, there is bullying on there and so noticeable that posts which support the government are as rare as hens teeth.

Quie, Annie. I don't know how Ilovecheese has got the idea that right and left are represented equally on the political threads...

Hi marmight - nice to see you.

How on earth did this thread become so flipping nasty!!

I love cheese too but it is off the menu at the moment

I am often not comfortable with others comments on the political threads Annie. I feel some are completely outrageous and seek to silence the voices of those whose views they oppose and stop them putting their political view forward - and some are particularly nasty and vicious in my view.

Please tell me why this thread is full of people saying such things? What good does it do. One person thinks another person thinks the first person is behaving badly in a heated discussion. What do you expect to happen if each person in turn adds to the inappropriate comments or tries to railroad others or tries to derail a thread. This is not and never has been just a few specific people it is frequently those who then say 'not me gov, I'm whiter than white'. It seems they believe they have every right to criticise the poster not the view and then come on this thread and any other they can mention it on, complaining that it happens.

I can think of several who have been on here complaining about the tone of the political threads who are, in many instances, to blame for that tone. What I do not understand is why you think stirring up all this rancour on this thread will help.

How interesting to come back to this thread and see just how many people feel uncomfortable about some of the slanging matches that go on and so avoid the site or avoid posting.

It's not just the political threads though. Those are possibly the worst and people saying 'oh just avoid them' are simply condoning personal abuse. Sometimes an OP is misleading or sometimes curiosity or just wanting to know more or think about an issue leads to looking at a so-called political thread and then regretting it.

Unkind and cutting posts do turn up on other threads. One that comes to mind recently was someone who started a thread about the possibility of a link between obesity and class. I'm sure the hotheads will immediately say 'oh that's politics' and think that gives them carte blanche to wade in.

Frankly, there are half a dozen posters whose usernames immediately lead me to think 'uh-oh' when they appear on a thread and it's never long before two or more of them are 'at it' throwing nasty and very personal abuse at each other and others.

I suppose it's social media and the general tenor of the UK which seems to have got worse over the last year but I don't think it's necessary, maybe the more aggressive amongst the GN crowd could just stop and think about how they respond and whether they would do it face to face. I would hope not.

I think I remember the thread you mean Azie09 - was it was under 'Health', not Politics, but I didn't think it was unkind. I think that some posters thought it may not be genuine (it probably was) and there was some self-deprecating humour on there too.

Well I was gonna have my third go..... But after a couple of glasses bottle of wine I had better just shut up.

This fairly harmless and reasonable post requesting information as to what interests people on Gransnet seems to have presented an opportunity to some people to keep reiterating the view that there is "bullying" on the news/political threads.

There are without doubt some very forthright views expressed and a certain amount of what some people might consider intemperate language or deliberately provocative remarks. But some of the people who are complaining about this have indulged, and continue to indulge, in the very same behaviour themselves - as a few of the above comments demonstrate.

If you feel a thread is too weighted to reflect a particular political stance, then give your own opinions and be prepared to back them up if they are challenged. You are anonymous (most of you don't even have a "blued" profile giving even the most basic information about yourselves) - so, unless someone makes a particularly personal and hurtful remark, why would a poster disagreeing with your point of view be seen as trying to shut down discussion?

Some days I don't manage to get on here at all so don't read the threads with many pages unless I've been on them from early on. I've never read any of the political ones (not well enough informed about politics to be interested) so don't see the slanging matches and usually ignore some of the contentious comments I've seen on others. I just enjoy the general chat, find some posts informative and generally like feeling part of the virtual community we belong to.

It is all very well saying avoid the political threads, or " give your own opinions and be prepared to back them up if they are challenged." but many people want to talk about things in a calm (and hopefully constructive) atmosphere, not one in which confrontational dispute is the order of the day.

If I come across a group of people shouting disagreement at each other in the street, I don't step up and offer my opinion - one or more is likely to assume that I favour the other side to them, and bop me one for it. That is how it is on those threads. Half a dozen people with previous history are busy knocking ten bells out of each other, none too politely, and anyone else who joins the conversation is assumed to be there as a supporter or an irritation.

And the contests spill over readymade into any other thread that is started. The topic for the threads is "News and Politics" and under the banner that "All news is politics" every thread on anything in the news fills up with the same combat. The personal animosities can even be felt in other topics

The argument that The Kitchen is just as extreme in the other direction won't wash - firstly that is one thread, while party political warfare fills dozens of threads at a time and the antagonism leaks into other subjects, and secondly boring and twee doesn't hurt, marginalise or intimidate anyone.

Good post, Elegran.

There is a lot of intolerance around - and not just on GN.

Goiod post Elegran

Elegran I could not agree with you more. This is why I have given up entirely on the political threads and having also seen threads I have started on items in the news that are only marginally political turned into political threads. I am very selective about the threads I start.

It is not as if the usual suspects have anything interesting to say. Within a page of any political thread all the usual suspects are saying all the usual things until one political thread is indistinguishable from any of the others.