The gaff - 29th July 2016

[#1]

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"It seems as if we have no voice, it's time for us to make a choice."	29th July 2016 / Issue #186
Best practise for passwords and usernames Following on from a few discussions that the Community Team had with members earlier this week regarding the potential O2 data breach, Head of Community @gregg_b wanted to drop a quick note on the best practises around passwords. The simple advice given from Gregg is to make sure you don't use the same password for every account across the different websites and platforms that you might use, as well as not using the same username on another website, with the same password as what might be elsewhere. If you re-use your username in multiple places, make sure that you don’t re-use the same password. CRM and Loyalty Manager @alex_w also left some notes and advice here.	@lumiamad says "Hi from the Highlands" Greetings from us lot! We hope you're settling in okay?  @thomas197936 says "Am Tommy from Liverpool. Just thought I'd say Hi - How are you all ?" - Hey Tommy! Welcome to the Community. @ali0611 says "Hey my name is Ali. Just thought I'd say Hi. I help people on here because of the feeling it gives me helping others". Hiya Ali! Nice feeling, eh?  @reeker1 says "I've been on quite a few networks and giffgaff is far the best". Nice one Reeker! We're glad you're a happy Gaffer.  @grumpy_grandad says "I'm 55 years old and the Grandkids have got me to join. So we can talk for free". Hello Grumpy Granadad!  That's really nice.. Happy Chatting!
iPhone 7 Pro photos, Sony Xperia X2 and Windows 10 news! It's time for the weekly tech roundup from all around the world and there's no better person to bring it to us than your host, @wsjudd! In the world of tech this week, we have even more leaks of the iPhone 7, with the iPhone 7 Pro this week! There's also news on the Sony Xperia X2 which has been leaked earlier this week, as well as some news on Windows 10 apps appearing on the Xbox One! All of this and so much more is available on this week's tech roundup! Sony Xperia XA review There's been leaks about the Sony Xperia X2, but we have something special for you with the Sony Xperia XA - @frolicols brings us a hands on unboxing and review of the Xperia X2, bringing us the good, the bad and the ugly things about the phone! If you're into the Sony Xperia range, you might want to check this review out!
New Video Mission - Voice Over and Presenter needed! Video Missions - these are super fun things which you guys can get involved with if you fancy helping out new and current members of giffgaff, from your home - oh, not to mention you can get yourself some lovely Payback too! If you want to get involved, now is the perfect time as there is a new Video Mission with an open space - @amy_b_d and the team need someone to do a voice over or present for the video, or if you fancy doing both, that's fine! If you decide you want to do the voice over, you'll receive £15 Payback while for presenting, you can receive £30 Payback! It's super fun and is really rewarding, so if you want to find out a bit more, head over and check out the details on how to get involved! Exercise - giffgaff help topics giffgaff are always trying to improve the ways that members can seek help on their website, so it's no surprise to us that there's more improvements to come and as always when it comes to improving the website and Community, giffgaff want your help! It's a nice little project which @roxy_r and the team will be looking to use to improve the Help page, and as a first, they're looking to reorganise the help topics, to make it easier for everyone to use and understand. So, how can you get involved in helping, and earn a nice little amount of Payback? Well, there's a quick exercise that you can take part in which will only take around 5 to 10 minutes and is a super easy drag-and-drop exercise, so you shouldn't have any problems completing it, helping giffgaff and the team, and also receiving a little Payback as a way of the team saying thanks! So, go and get involved, help giffgaff, the members and earn some Payback! Summer ePostcard - July '16 Design Competition 2 Last month we had an amazing competition where members had the task of designing a giffgaff Sports Day/Event poster, with all of the events and sports being made up by members and allowing them to add their own fantastic ideas and awesome designs to the power, which saw @carlryds winning £15 Payback for his amazing poster design! This month, there's a brand new design competition! This time, members of the Community have the task of designing their very own ePostcard, with the theme revolving around Summer! There's a bunch of tools and kits available for everyone to use such as the giffgaff brand pack and the giffgaff noisify app, so you can add your special giffgaff touches to it - afterall, the winning ePostcard design will be used across the forum for everyone to use, to tell their stories about what they've gotten up to this Summer! As well as it being able to be used by everyone (which is amazing, by the way!, the winner will also bag themselves a lovely £5 Payback - what's not to love? There's more details, entry requirements and information available at jammydodge's thread, so be sure to check it out before making and submitting your entries! Goodluck and happy designing! What's New? 27th July It's time for the Community  to be updated for all of the things that have been happening across the giffgaff website and Community this week, and who better to bring the news to us that Scrum Master @ggzelle! It looks like Hazel and the team have been very busy throughout the month with a bunch of updates, changes and new features coming in! One particular change and possibly one of the most important changes is the new ability to cancel a PAC code after requesting one, which was added as a feature after the amount of members who accidentally request their PAC to leave giffgaff and transfer their number to another network. This new feature should help to stop the panic members have when accidentally requesting their PAC, and the new process also gives members other options when they try to do any of the forbidden actions with an active PAC. Hazel also talks about the new goodybag offer that has been introduced recently, incase you've missed it, the new goodybag comes with 2GB data, 100 UK minutes, unlimited texts and free giffgaff-to-giffgaff, for the price of £10! The other £10 will stay in place, the new £10 is simply an offer for those who need more data and less UK minutes. More information on the goodybag and other changes can be found on Hazel's thread, so be sure to head over!	Horse rescued by community after falling in marsh and sinking We all love animals, whether it's a fluffy kitten or a huge giraffe, animals are something that pretty much everyone loves and when they get themselves in sticky situations, it's funny most of the times - cats will play and knock something over and jump 10 feet into the air in shock, or when dogs chase their tales only to realise they can't get it.. most of the times! Well, in this situation, it wasn't so funny to begin with.  Cupcake, a 13 year old horse had been for a ride with her owner at Cherry Creek State Park in America where they ventured off into a more rural area. Cupcake was already tired from the long ride and stopped for a while, which was when she fell into knee-deep water and found herself stuck there, unable to get up. Cupcake's owner refuses to leave her side and called the Park Rangers who also brought along the Technical Rescue Team within their department - they tried hard to pull Cupcake from the water but failed. That was the moment when members from the community and firefighters got involved in the rescue of Cupcake, using everything they could - firefighters used planks of wood and a pulley system to try and get her out of the water, and it finally worked, after 2 hours of hard word, Cupcake was rescued from the deep murky water and was given a series of shots and fluids, to help her recover and to make sure she would be okay afterwards. South Metro Fire Rescue Officer Eric Hurst said "It was really the first time I'd seen tears in their eyes from a rescue". It was good news in the end, Cupcake and her owner left without having any injuries! This is just one of many amazing examples of how powerful we can be when people come together to help eachother - it's not all doom and gloom in the world, special things like this make a lot of difference. Click here to read more about Cupcake's special rescue mission.
Last Week's Refurb relaunches: Samsung Galaxy S6 (32GB): £299 (£130 less than new) Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (32GB): £349 (£90 less than new) Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge (64GB): £369 (£130 less than new) (Updated: Friday 22nd July 2016 - prices are subject to change on a regular basis, typically weekly. Phones are subject to availability, especially refurbished ones.) These phones, and more, are available for purchase here.	As there is no new Featured Member this week, we have selected a Picture of the Week.  Picture of the Week Beautiful picture of a hover fly on a flower, taken in the backgarden of @snowman1888.
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[#2]

Hey guys,

We've got another semi-jampacked edition for you all this week! We have had to replace the Featured Member this week with another Picture of the Week, featuring @snowman1888's beautiful picture! Make sure you give it a look, I absolutely love it!

Vincent has now left giffgaff as Community Manager and continues his journey to chase his masters degree, which we wish him the best of luck with. It has been an amazing time with him and we will always remember the word that he has put into this Community and the fun times that we shared with him.

That's everything for this week's edition of the gaff!

Peace and love to you all - stay happy.

Thanks to everyone for reading this week's edition of the gaff, have a lovely Sunday,

Mitchell.

[#3]

Good edition of The Gaff once again

Is it me or are the returb phone condition descriptions utterly crap? "Less than new" is a terrible description!

[#4]

Nice one @mitchell98 & @mark1101b as usual another brilliant edition 

Massive welcome to all the new giffgaffers.

And also a massive congrats to @snowman1888 your photo is fantastic 

good news on the pac code front being able to cancel it rather than have to wait the 30 days (nice one @ggzelle)

[#5]

Nice read Mitch....Cheers 

Cracking photo @snowman1888

[#6]

Thanks @ray2   

[#7]

Cheers @mark1101b   

[#8]

thanks for this weeks read @mitchell98 and @mark1101b

[#9]

thanks for this

[#10]

I'm sorry to say that looks like a wall of text and I couldn't read it.

What happened to the other chap who used to do it @mitchell98 he made it more friendly and readable.