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PINGING ALL THE REGULARS... INITIAL COMMENTS/RESPONSE TO KRUNKYGIRL BUT POSSIBLE DIVIDING OF GROUP BY AGE IDEA IS PRESENTED at bottom....

NEED YOUR FEEDBACK

whoa - I am out for evening & someone is getting chased away!!! Not good!

.. hi there.. and good morning Krunkygirl/all…

some of us here are MUCH older n you! really! and we have been there & done that etc. Just the Young's(under 30 types) don't trust us.. they will some day & they will be the ones offering suggestions to the next generation as we do now.

Not sure what exactly happened as I didn't read the thread but I would encourage you to stay as we examine “options”.

We are all ages/stages here.. various careers, dispositions, ed. levels & as you noted.. many with screen names that are quite hard. I give you credit...Two of them I cannot spell & normally don’t ping unless it is on the official list

BTW... great pix on your profile page & I commend you on your svelte look! And I lived at the beach near Jacksonville (Neptune beach) when my ex was on carrier in Mayport. I Love that area & would consider it(or where you are) to settle in near future

you are not the first to suggest possibly a second thread or somehow two singles.. one for older/been there crowd & one for younger. Maybe 40 as the break off point..maybe younger…35.. I think that is NOT a bad Idea actually. the ones in the 35-40 age group could actually swing back & forth….and be on both ping lists. I truly don’t know everyone’s age.. I know a couple that are under 25 & some in 40s & some who are well past that milestone..

At this point, I don’t have the time etc to set this up.. but think it is a great idea as others might have an interest also. It makes good sense. If the YOUNGER group wants a sep thread, that is great.. --- a wonderful idea. Sometimes life experiences & pre or no pre marriage might be the determining factor in which thread to participate in. ABSOLUTELY NO HARD FEELINGS & INSTEAD ENCOURAGEMENT. No one will check ID’s so one needs to go to the thread where they think they fit. Both groups would no doubt get more participants as the conversations would be to their liking

I have noted regularly when the younger participants are sharing on a thread, the older stay away & vice versa.. I get FReepmails regularly from folks who say the group is too young for them to feel comfortable & then I get notes from some saying the group is full of old people & they don’t feel comfortable. I guess it just depends on the thread of the time..

All up for suggestions, comments.. And the more I think of it, it might be a great idea!

Snugs is doing the scheduling now for the next few weeks.... and so this is a good time to look at options. We could schedule just this next month & go with break in Feb.

Snugs & I are BOTH in the "older" category & so I guess we could continue this as the older thread & if the younger ones one to take off with a under 40 thread, that would be great. a couple of you would have to take charge, time, responsibility to do this & we would have to work on the ping list & essentially do what I have done. Believe me, it doesn’t happen all by itself.

I DO understand the younger folks feelings. (trust me, it goes both ways) When I was your age, I didn’t normally hang with folks my parents or grandparents age & now, I DON’T hang with those who are my son’s age! Yes, for meetings, political stuff., occasional light conversation, . but – no - for regular closer friendships.

It makes sense!

Let’s use this thread for the discussion. Leaders of new group must come forth, volunteer & be ready to take charge = to do the organization & maintenance. The problem with the thread when I commandeered it, was no one was really doing it responsibly, with any planning or organizing. It was hit/miss. Sometimes not a thread posted & the ping list was not kept up well. There was arguing who was in charge. ONE OR TWO MUST BE IN CHAGRE..

So for bottom line. (I tend to ramble a lot like a good ADDH) This thread WILL continue. It will be considered the “older” group. If the younger group wants a thread, they are free, lovingly encouraged & supported in doing so.

Okay?

you have mail...

Hi Dolly!

I personally wouldn't mind if there were two singles threads or not. I don't get to participate as much as I'd like, but I find what I do read here very entertaining.

Since my son got home from Iraq, got married and is now making me a grandpa, I better be put in the "older" catagory!

Fine with me. Knowing me, I'd still stick my nose in the young whippersnapper group from time to time. But it sounds like a grand plan.

Dolly...Please put me in that older group.

I'm a happily sage 54!

Dolly and others,

While people are free to start whatever threads they wish, I hope that we won't divide the singles' thread by age. I have a couple of reasons for feeling this way.

1. The management of Free Republic has never been entirely comfortable with having a singles' thread. I think we've done a good job of making this thread into something that is a credit to the site. While I personally think that there's nothing wrong with a "hook-up thread," the management seems to have some great fear of that kind of thread developing. If we split by ages, there will be more of an appearance that we're creating "hook-up threads" either by design or by accident. Furthermore, if managment is uncomfortable with one thread for whatever reason, management will be even more uncomfortable with two threads.

2. I don't know, nor do I particularly care, how old all the members of this thread are. I think we have a good group, and I'd hate to see this group split. We have enough "dead thread alerts" as it is. I think splitting the group will just mean two dead threads instead of one.

3. Another problem with splitting is that all of us are in different situations and will have different things in common. When it comes to experience in relationships, I'm less experienced than most of the college students. If we split by ages, the "older" thread could easily become a place where people sit around and talk about their kids. That's nice for them, but that's a conversation that offers nothing to me. Without the continuity of being in a basic family unit, all singles will have a different mixture of things in common and things not in common. Any kind of division takes away from what the thread could be.

4. I don't expect to find romance on Free Republic. I don't come to this thread or any other thread trying to check out the women as possible partners. Even without that expectation, a chemistry developing from regular conversations would be nice, and I don't want to close the door entirely on that possibility. However, I'd strongly prefer to marry someone quite a bit younger than I am. If we split the thread by age, the thread is less likely to be a place where I might meet someone who would be right for me. I don't like the idea of reducing my chances by splitting the thread that way.

Bill

Hi Dolly--

Nothing happened, really.
I simply came to the realization that I was on a 'singles' thread that seemed to be populated by much younger people.
After posting for several weekends, I didn't want to just disappear without some explanation...hence, my post last night.

Since I'm not trying to fool anybody about me/my relative [don't ask for numbers... ;) ] age(part of why I posted my picture was so others can get a general feel for who they're talking to) it seemed inappropriate to continue posting.

I felt confused about other apparently regular posters, too. Some seem to be in ongoing relationships, one lucky twosome is planning a wedding and some are even married(!)

It seemed that the 'singles' thread had no clearly defined parameters...Just speaking for me, (an admitted flirt...) I certainly didn't want to offend someone with some silly thing I might say. What may be innocent fun for me may be received with less than an enthusiastic response because of a personal situtation I'm not aware of...
Then, uh oh, you've got those durned , 'unintended consequences'...

Life is complicated enough [this is starting to sound really series ;) ]...I do not want to step on toes or make enemies (I think we have all seen threads/posts where meanings can be misconstrued and, before you know it, there are hurt feelings, ruffled feathers or even real flashes of anger.) All I'm trying to do is make friends...preferably among the great, conservative, smart, funny, age-appropriate single guy population here at FR...

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

rezzy's last link is just tooo funny!

I am guessing it could be "The ***OFFICIAL*** Younger Singles Weekend Thread" and at this point, one of the younger singles and you should keep track of who wants to be on boths pings or deleted from this one and added to the new one.

I know that I would really hate to lose any of the regular posters here and have enjoyed reading much of what people have to say, regardless of age.

Since some of us have gotten married and/or just come here to visit on the weekends since ther is no official weekend BS thread, perhaps the verbiage for the title of this thread could be changed, but not necessarily call it the BS thread.

The open door policy of anyone being here and married and/or older folk managing the ping list/topics/etc. along with some of the younger folk will probably have to be the mentors to get the younger singles thing going well, while keeping what we ahve going...going.

We could even do younger singles, older singles and weekend BS. List maintenance might be a bit of a headache initially, but I am thinking that the younger singles and the older singles could then jointly do the weekend BS.

Just a thought so that the older singles can do the singles thing, too.

Man what a can of worms to maintain friendships and respect the needs of others... ;D

Dolly, I mean this with all due respect...after all, we're all trying to get input here, right?

I don't think it's a good idea, and here's why:

First off, I don't want to be confined to "hanging out" with one group or another on this thread. I have just as many, if not more friends who are in the "older" group as I do in the "younger" group. Now if I were to post on the older thread instead of the younger thread...well, that would be 2 threads to keep up with, and I'm pretty sure I"d be offending someone on the "younger" thread if I posted more on the "older" thread.

Now, another thing. If the break-off point is 35-40, then that doesn't really split us intwo. I'm thinking the "younger" thread would have only a handful of posters. Who do we have who's in their 20s? I think 4, maybe 5 people?

And another thing that's bugging me...

I can't BELIEVE people have actually complained about this. Are there actually young people on this thread who complain because they don't want to talk to "icky old people?"

And vice versa?

Hi Dolly,

I don’t think this is a good idea. This will complicate things. Two threads? We have a hard enough time trying to keep this one thread going. You can’t please all the people all the time and I think this would be the wrong way to go just to make a few people happy. No matter what you do, someone somewhere will complain. I think we should leave well enough alone and accept that there will never bee 100% satisfaction.

Take me and Phil for example. He’s 22 and I’m 38. We get along just fine. In fact, I would consider us close friends. So which thread do we go to chat? The Golden Oldies, or the Young Bucks? Personally, I like talking to everybody. I don’t care what age anyone is. If the current conversation isn’t interesting, then people need to step up to the plate and start their own. If there’s three or four separate conversations going on at one time, some young people stuff, some old…who cares?

Unless there is something going on with this thread that I am just not getting at all that would warrant this major change, I don’t see why we should break it up.

I vote no.

This thread WILL continue. It will be considered the “older” group. If the younger group wants a thread, they are free, lovingly encouraged & supported in doing so.

I will not be posting the thread next weekend with Phil as originally planned. Unless this is completely reversed, you can count me out. If we do get split up, then I will go with the younger thread, granted that it actually gets started and manages to survive.

Okay - just getting to read this and get the updates.

I'd be against splitting the group. One of the justifications for the singles thread was to offer support to each other AND offer advice, hence including all age groups and situations. I don't think either group would have enough to maintain a thread throughout the weekend, but together we can have a happy community of support.

Interestingly, I read the responses and nearly all of the "younger" crowd was against the split and nearly all of the older was for it. No comment on it, just found it interesting.