GNHQ please make it clear that these forums are public!

Back to black for me too.
This thread shows a degree of unhappiness among posters that I have never seen since day one.
Link that up to the threads where dozens of us are complaining about being ignored re site changes.
Note that many valued regular posters have stepped back or opted out.
The end of Gransnet as we knew it??

Gransnet is a business and we're just the ingredients that make up the product.

The good old days have well and truly gone. We're governed now to please the advertisers and 'grow' the membership to the effect that life bans are dished out to anybody kicking over the traces.

The political peeps will be OK because any delicate new flowers won't go there anyway. It's the everyday bish-bash-bosh threads that will be hammered.

How boring.

Whilst I understand the need for GNHQ to attract as many new members as possible in order to gain advertising there is a danger than GN is going to become a place to exchange knitting patterns and cooking recipes (nothing wrong with that!) and lose its help and support side. Would it not be possible for us to select an option in our profile that we would not want any thread we START to be shared with FB. That way we could ask for help on personal matters knowing it will not be shared.

If I understand correctly, membership of GN runs into thousands ,so what we want is members who take a full part and post regularly, not the same few of us at present.
We are not going to attract such members with the gripes and disputes going on presently.

All credit to GNHQ in this context; I wanted to remove a thread and emailed yesterday to ask them to remove it as I didn't want it linked to social media; initially they assured me that it would not be linked, and that being the case, did I still want it removed? I replied that in that case it was fine to stay, and added

"You'll be aware that there is a long thread at present on this subject. How
does the linking of threads to social media work? Is the default that threads
are linked unless we contact you to request otherwise?"

The reply was

"Not everything that is on Gransnet is posted on Facebook. It's only if we see a thread that we think will resonate with our Facebook followers we will sometimes post a link to it. Of course, we completely respect your wishes and in this instance will not put it on our social media channels at all".

Just to say I belong to another online forum and I have never seen them put any posts on FB. It is a free site, although you can make donations, and they have advertising.

If that's the case could GNHQ then not ask all OP of any threads they want to link if they are happy for that to happen?

There is no ownership of threads. Once we have posted our comments they're Gransnet property.

We can ask for posts to be deleted or maybe a whole thread but it's up to them.

Advertisers, researchers, journalists, etc. who want to know what grandparents think go to GN already. Likely viewers of the GN Facebook page will be those same people, plus grandparents who are not yet familiar with Gransnet. The risk of being identified is statistically greater, but as I have already said it is significant anyway unless we are careful.

Isn't this a bit of a storm in a teacup?

Is it worth posting on FB about the unhappiness shown in this thread? Potential GNers coming from FB would already know about the link but they might not know how much discussion it has caused unless they are pointed in this direction. Then at least new members are making an informed decision. I know, in theory, we all had that opportunity when we signed up but how many people actually read all the small print until they are actively searching for something?

No storm in a teacup grumppa a thread could be posted on facebook the content of which is recognised by family member and could cause real problems . I think we should stop posting anything new until Gransnet gives us the option to keep it within the group . I always wondered if the thread on Facebook were there because the OP allowed it now I know they had no choice in the matter.

One forum which isn't shared isn't too much to ask, surely?? I joked at the beginning of the thread about my 'incontinence' post, but really that would be the least of my problems if someone recognised me. Its not that kind of issue that bothers me. A private forum would keep me happy, when I would like to ask advice, or I wish to talk about family issues.

So Lara... Will you agree to this? In future, if I start a thread, or want to respond to someone else's thread, on a personal nature and I don't want it on social media.
Can I message you just as I post, saying I don't want it shared?
If you don't agree, and insist it goes on FB etc, can I ask you, before it's shared, to remove all my contributions to it? If I started thread, presumably I can ask you to delete the whole thing?

seacliff I don't think it's reasonable to say what you do and don't want shared on FB, now you know the situation.

Many members seemed to have been lulled into a false sense of security - also some still seem to think that you have to be a member to view, you don't anyone can, but you do have to be a member to post.

I agree that newcomers should be made aware of the potential to end up on FB and Twitter, not just hidden in the terms and conditions.

Do you not have the little symbols coming up all the time BlueBelle? Top and bottom of every page.
Just as well you started it Grannyknot.
I am very careful e.g. I hide my list of friends on FB and then if I were hacked the hacker wouldn't have access to them.
I don't know why you are all fixated on FB. Do you not realise that if you Google something like 'frustrated with my husband' the present thread on GN will be top of the list?
I am on Twitter so could tweet any thread on here- if I wished.

Thanks for raising this Grannyknot. I was not aware the posts appeared elsewhere. Is nothing sacred?

It is the simplest thing to Tweet this thread - I merely click on the Twitter symbol at the top of this thread.
I would do it just to show you but it would 'out' me- although even on Twitter I don't have my full name.
Just assume that anything on the Internet can be read by anyone and won't come off.

But why would it be Devorgilla - you don't have to log in to read any of it. Even if you did absolutely anyone can log in.
Well done for raising it Grannyknot - there is a huge need for it to be said, something that I hadn't realised.
NOTHING on the Internet is private.

annsixty I agree, there are thousands on GN but the vast majority are there for the competitions. As discussed on other forums, it is good sometimes to recognise the name of a person who posts who has won.

Many lurk and rarely if ever post but there are those of us who are quite prolific posters. Now that I have blacked my profile I do not think that I could be recognised. I will certainly forget very quickly where posters live.

Blinko I think you are right, a name change could well be the best way to go ?I will certainly be more circumspect in future.

I think most of us knew that anything on the internet can be read by anyone, Leticia.

What we didn't know was that GNHQ were feeding links to various threads to FB, which is what the current 'discussion' is about.

'Sacred' in the sense that it's manners to ask if you want your post 'lifted' from one arena to another.

"It's only if we see a thread that we think will resonate with our Facebook followers we will sometimes post a link to it." said GNHQ.

Clearly they thought a very personal thread that gave too much identifying information deserved further sharing.
So that's not very reassuring to hear.

I can't see why that matters Ana when I can lift any discussion I want and use it.
Some people seem very naive about the whole thing. If you look at NetMums they tell you how many people have viewed a thread. I just went on now (not a member) and the first thread I saw had 4 replies but had had 252 views. This will no doubt be similar - just not shown - many more lurk than post.
I can't say that I have seen anything on FB but GN are certainly on Twitter and they link things everyday. E.g The last one was 'Your first day at school' maybe, like me, you didn't intend to have your post open to their 18.3K followers and anyone who retweets it - but that is what happens!

The discussion may well be about GNHQ feeding links to FB but it needs widening - everyone needs to be aware that it isn't merely FB!

I think it's more than warning people because at the end of the day many people on here have said they are no longer confident to post anything more than the weather or news of the plants in their garden This is a huge shame because although we all knew it was a public site the chances of someone seeing our posts and recognising us was pretty slim however with fb and I m sure Twitter ( I don't tweet) its a different ball game, as anyone can see the threads and Im pretty sure the threads that are controversial or oooh ah missus of a delicate nature will be the ones HQ share

I think the damage is done now and unless the two groups are NO LONGER linked I think we will have a poorer and a diluted site