“The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence; the past is a place of learning, not a place of living.” - Roy T. Bennett
30th August 2019 / Issue #333
giffgaff Happenings
by bluemoonbaz
Welcome to our first Flarum gaff
Hooray! we’re back with you on our new Flarum community platform. We’re looking forward to using the new community platform to make The gaff even better. There have been lots of changes and sometimes it’s a little overwhelming, so giffgaff want to make sure everyone feels very confident that they know the basics. Hopefully, the following links will help you to get your bearings & make the transition go a little smoother for you. This link explains how to use the desktop version whilst this link explains how to use the mobile version. Make sure you leave some feedback and check what other members are saying about our new home here.
£10 Bonus credit ending soon don't miss out
At 23:59 on Saturday the 31st August 2019 the £10 bonus offer on referrals will end. This offer is applicable for any new activation by your friends or family (or anyone else, really) if they activate a SIM from you.
Membership news
"As a result of text to switch and the double data deals, giffgaff had some of the best couple of weeks in its history. The volume of members joining us recently is nearing record levels.” Now that's great news for the community and for giffgaff.
Payback
Payback calculations during the transition period to our new home will be handled a little differently for August and September. August's calculations will only use data from the old community. As such, it will include any new interactions on the community between August 1st and 26th (inclusive). September's calculations will use data from the new community, but will cover from August 27th through the end of September. Click here for more details.
Our Members' Discussions
Here are a few of our fellow members' recent discussion threads, head over and give your views:
Say Hello!
by kathleen414
Please welcome our new member @joewhitehall, who recently joined us and has some questions about giffgaff. Head over here and give him your help and a big welcome to the community.
Please welcome our new member @deepmind who has a question for us: "I heard you guys are having a swell party and everyone's invited?" and "Is this true?". Oh yes, giffgaff is the place to be and you will soon see why! Click here to welcome our new member.
Hello to our new giffgaff @aidenjaw10 who joined us after a spell of over 10 years on the mobile network Three and was paying a fortune for very little benefit as well as intermittent internet connections. It's lovely to have you with us on giffgaff and hopefully for the foreseeable future. Say hello here.
On This Day In History
by jammydodge
1941 Winston Churchill is the first national leader to approve a Nuclear Programme. Codenamed Tube Alloys, it began before the Manhattan Project and was so classified it had to only be referred to by its codename even in the highest circles of government.
2017 All of Sir Terry Pratchett's unfinished works are steamrollered and destroyed as per the instructions he left following his death on 12th March 2015. These are thought to have numbered up to 10 novels.
Source: BBC News
Photo Of The Week
by brulaw
This week's featured photo is Railway in your garden by @isambardo. Some of the comments included:
- “Looks great fun and a lot bigger than the normal ones. Cheers" (jsmith2009).
- “Wow that looks amazing" (tricia3006).
- "Superb! My husband wants to know where it is as he loves to play trains." (jeanlk).
- "Wow...where is it?" (rabbea).
- "Wish I could have on like that in the back garden. Looks brilliant. Cheers" (jsmith2009).
- "Oh how wonderful, such fun" (frenchielove).
- "Very impressive." (anth006).
- "Looks amazing and wonderful" (haseebhejazi).
- "Marvellous & how great to have a mini railway in your back garden." (the_bookie).
So, here we are, the first Photo Of The Week on our new Flarum platform. This week, as always, we have some fantastic images to choose from. You are all taking some great shots, please keep sharing them. Happy snapping!
Huawei Matebook D Review
by toxiic
Hi everyone. For the past 2 gaff’s (that I’m in - as I write for The gaff fortnightly) I’ve covered the pros and cons on the Huawei Matebook D (the version with: Ryzen 2500U, 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM). This week, I’m going to discuss the confusion around purchasing this laptop. If you’d like to see the pros of this laptop, click here and scroll down. Alternatively, click here for the cons.
So, with this laptop, there are different versions for different parts of the world. This seems simple enough but the issue arises when it’s difficult to work out which version you’re getting. You see, when you search for this laptop on YouTube, there are many videos covering this laptop however it’s not apparent that the laptop the YouTuber is covering is different from the one that you’re going to buy here in the UK.
The US version of this laptop, for instance, comes with a touchscreen (the UK version isn’t touchscreen). So, when people go to purchase this laptop, they often don’t realise that the laptop they see in most videos or reviews on US-based review sites aren’t available as available in the UK. So, some people assume they’re buying this laptop as it’s unique selling point over other laptops at this price-point is that it has a touch-screen when in actuality the UK version of this laptop doesn’t.
So, the moral of the story is to ensure that you know which market the Matebook and any laptop you’re buying to avoid confusion - usually if you’re buying it in the UK then it’s the UK version.
Enjoyed this? Check out my other content here.
Tech Developments
by revilo10
Inside giffgaff: A brief look
Welcome to the new platform! I hope you’re all enjoying and getting to grips with the new platform relatively easily. I personally love it, but I know some people may take longer than others to 100% get to all the ins and outs of the platform. I encourage you to take some time to have a look around, leave the community team some feedback here.
So this week I had the opportunity to visit giffgaff HQ, and I thought I’d document a few bits of my visit to the tech company we all know and love. To start with, I visited on Tuesday, which was the day when the new community platform launched. It was due to launch in the morning, however, there were some issues regarding the migration files being sent over from Lithium so all the old posts, PMs, profiles and everything on the last platform couldn’t be put on the new Flarum platform we find ourselves on now. Anyway, the first thing that amazed me was the weekly team meeting which happened on Tuesday this week due to it being a bank holiday on Monday (They usually happen every Monday morning). Now giffgaff’s team meetings are very unique (No surprise there, the entire company is unique as we all know!). Each week a different team from across the business is chosen to host and present the team meeting. To choose who does this, they spin a wheel at the end of each meeting, and whichever team it lands on hosts the next meeting!
Onto the office itself, it’s so very colourful, and I wish I took pictures, but basically imagine the giffgaff website themes, with all the patterns and vibrant images, but as a workspace! They even have a section known as “the club” which has pictures of notable members who’ve made some really great contributions to giffgaff. It has a piano, guitars, stage and some amazing furniture. It sometimes serves as a presentation space, but the rhetoric among some staff I spoke to is that its purpose is “everything, but we’re not 100% sure what everything is”. It’s a beautiful space and if you ever get the chance to visit I would recommend checking it out. Also, if you need to get from one side of the office to another quickly, there are scooters dotted about everywhere.
I spent a good amount of time during the afternoon sat down with the community team among other teams, and it was great to put faces to names who I’ve chatted with and worked with. All the staff who I talked to and shadowed were some of the nicest people ever, and I’m not just saying that for no reason, it doesn’t feel like a corporate environment. Everyone works so hard, but is genuinely approachable at the same time. It really shows. I know for some that it might feel like staff aren’t trying their best, but when I was there, I got the sense that every single individual member of staff was there to try and make mobile better for each one of giffgaff’s members. The community team is a fantastic reflection of this (Although all the staff at giffgaff are just as awesome!) they work day-in-day-out to ensure our experience here on the community is great, and that every single member has the best experience possible. Plus, on a day like that when the community is migrating (which has never happened before), things can be a bit mad. Thanks to all the staff who made me feel welcome, see you next time!
Thanks for reading!
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