Welcome to SENIORSonly CLUB

Not really, and not at anyone here. I was a little annoyed with someone who was here for only a short time, though.

 

I try to welcome new members to the forum but when more than one person registers while I am away, I don't always notice unless they post. As I think I have mentioned elsewhere, probably in this thread, I don't use an automated welcome mod because that's just a canned welcome and one that is pretty meaningless really, unless it gives some useful information.

So I welcome people as I can, and ask for forgiveness from those who I may have missed. We have had some new members lately, and you are so very welcome. This is a small forum, as compared to some others, but there are some advantages to that and I think we're growing at a comfortable rate.

You may have noticed that there are no ads. Although contributions are always nice, as they help to pay the bills, this is not a profit-driven forum. While I do some advertising and promotions from time to time, I don't advertise the forum as a business because it's not a business.

You are perfectly free to lurk here, which is to read without participating in forum discussions, but it's really a lot more fun for all of us when you participate. Please don't be afraid to jump in on any discussion in the forum, or to start one of your own. Try to post threads in places where they are on-topic but if I think there's a better place for your thread, I'll just move it. Unless everyone started posting things in the wrong place all at once, it's not that big of a deal. Your participation is important, and if a topic is interesting to you, it will probably be interesting to someone else. If not, that's not the end of the world either. Some of my threads have never received replies and I don't stay up at night crying about it.

So please, if you are here but have not created an account, consider creating one and becoming a member of this forum if you're fifty years old or older. If you have created an account but have not posted, we'd love to hear from you. There is a place in the forum for introductions but you are not required to post an introductory thread. If you prefer, you can just jump in on a discussion anywhere in the forum.

Ken Anderson

 

It's of no importance to any of you here, at least not unless you are inviting others to join the forum, but I have changed the way in which new registrations are approved. In the past, when someone registered a new account, the forum would send an email with a link that the new member would have to click on in order to verify their email address.

However, since our email system has been shaky and I haven't figured that out yet, we were losing people. Even so, automated emails would get caught in spam filters or people wouldn't recognize it when it showed up in their box and it would be overlooked, or whatever. I would have to go through the entire member list, clicking into every new name that I didn't recognize in order to find the ones who hadn't completed their email verification. Then I would manually validate those and send them an email from an account that does work, telling them about it. I spent a couple of hours doing that yesterday, and about a quarter of the emails bounced because they weren't valid. I think I'll keep the new system.

The way that it works now is that when someone registers a new account, it is held for me to verify it manually. When I log into my Admin account, there is a tab that I can click into that will present any new members who are waiting for validation. I don't have to browse the whole member list, and I can still validate their email by sending them an email letting them know that their account has been validated. If my email bounces, I can delete the account. Otherwise, they are in. I think I'll stick with this even after system emails are working again.

There might be a delay of a day or two from time to time, but I will make a point of checking in with my Admin account at least once a day, whenever possible, and if any of you have invited someone to join, let me know and I will watch for them.

 

The Seniors Only Club forum is not a particularly political forum, although we have a political section that is sometimes active. Although I often describe myself as being conservative, the word means something different to different people, particularly as some prominent people who describe themselves as being conservative are not at all, or neoconservative at best. Not all of my views are conservative, either. I think of myself as more of a constitutionalist, but that would mean something different to those here who are from countries other than the United States.

Either way, it doesn't matter what my political views are because I am just one voice in this forum, and I value the opinions of those who disagree with me. I may not agree with your political opinions, but there's no reason why I would have to agree with your opinions. They are your opinions, and they are just as valid as my own.

Although I am a Christian, this is not a Christian forum. We have a section of the forum set aside for faith and spirituality, but this forum is probably made up of as many non-Christians as Christians, although it's not like I've done a poll or anything. For that matter, the Christians here are of several flavors, representing a wide segment of Christianity.

The political and religious sections of the forum are small parts of a much larger forum, most of which includes areas where we can discuss things from our past, present, or future, as well as education, science, ways in which we can supplement our income online, and a large number of other topics, most of which are not argumentative in nature. There is also an online games section.

Probably most of those here are from the United States, but a good number of forum members are from England, Australia, the UK, Canada, and perhaps some other countries, and I hope you feel welcome here, and if you feel outnumbered at times, you are free to invite others to join the forum.

Open to anyone 50 years old or older, we represent a wide range of ages here, as well. Although he isn't a member, my son would be eligible to join this forum and I am by no means the oldest member of the forum.

If you're new to the forum, I hope you feel welcome here, and if you've been here for a while, I hope you'll be here for a while longer. Please feel free to join in on any discussion going on here, or to start a thread of your own. For the most part, we get along fairly well here. Feel free to disagree with someone here, including myself, as we will feel free to disagree with you, but let's try to do so without being overly disagreeable. If we must disagree, let's disagree with topics and issues rather than individuals.

In other words, ...

• Try not to be overly offensive.
• Try not to be too easily offended.
• Play well with others.

 

I guess it's time to bump this one again. We have several new members, some of whom have jumped right into the discussions (thank you), but others who are being shy about it. The forum is more fun for all of us if you participate, and most of us aren't so scary. If you follow the abbreviated rules in the above post, you'll do fine. I mean that. Anyone who doesn't set out to offend other forum members, and who is not him/herself too easily offended, should do fine here. There are little squabbles every now and then, and not everyone gets along famously, but the drama is usually tolerable.

I may be the forum administrator, but I prefer to be just another member of the forum. If I should disagree with an opinion you state in the forum, that simply means that I don't agree with your opinion. You haven't violated a forum rule just because I hold a different opinion on politics, religion, or something else. When there is a disagreement, that's fine - that's known as discussion, and as long as we attack the issue rather than the person, that shouldn't be a problem, particularly in the Hot Button Issues area of the forum.

However, most of the discussion that goes on here is not so very controversial, so even those who are easily offended should be able to take part in most of our forum discussions.

Welcome to the forum. If you prefer to lurk, you're welcome to do that too, but I strongly encourage you to participate. Reply to any topics that you might have an interest in, or start a new topic.

 

No idea at all, unless he's not logging in before trying to post.

 

Not sure what happened, Holly; but he has used a different name and email and everything is working fine now. I explained how name change works, in case he wants to go back to the Monty Magoo name, but otherwise, right now, he is Robert Teale, and I can find him in the member list.

 

I actually didn’t do anything , Holly.
Something must have not worked right with the other email, maybe; because when he tried a new username and email, then it went right through with the registration for him.

Maybe , it was the waving my Magic Wand around three times and then doing a little dance , that made everything work right...... you think, maybe ?