Site News

Please read this; it's important for anyone who recently replied to a message on the site or is waiting for a reply. I’m sending an extra newsletter this week to get the word out.

A member reported a bug in our messaging system yesterday. If you replied to a message someone sent you, instead of sending the reply, the site was moving the message to the trash. I found the problem and fixed it this morning. This was, of course, a huge bug, and I'm sorry for everyone's inconvenience.

If you've only sent messages to other members – new, first-time messages – this doesn't affect you. But if someone wrote you and you wrote back (even a new reply in an old ongoing conversation), you'll need to double-check whether your message went through. Unfortunately, the text of any reply you sent is gone.

What To Do:

1. Go to your trash folder
2. Look for any conversations you didn't mean to...

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I have some exciting news to share about photos on the site.

Two weeks ago, I started work on the next item on our Patreon-produced todo list, letting members upload multiple photos at once. For reasons too boring to detail (the way I’ve set up the collection, images have a lot of ancillary information connected to them and how do you process it for many pictures going up at once, yada yada), that’s still in progress. But while working on that, I worked up some ideas that are dramatically improving our pictures.

The first week, I made changes that optimized the image files without changing the images themselves. These changes have been applied to nearly the entire collection now, and while they don’t affect how the pictures look, you should find them loading more quickly.

This past week, I worked on a bigger challenge with bigger rewards. We can now replace pictures with improved versions, and all the links to the old version redirect to...

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Members can now upload photos which can only be seen by other members they choose to share with. When you upload a photo, you'll be asked whether you want it to be public or private. Once you have private images, when you visit someone's profile, you'll be asked whether you want to share your private photos with him. (You'll also be asked at the bottom of conversations.) This has been a long time coming, hope you enjoy it! Let us know if you run into any problems.

I added a news feed to our home page so you can keep abreast of what's happening on the site. It catches a few events now; I'll gradually add more.

Enjoy,
Jeff

SAGE has announced a new program to help LGBT seniors with their financial needs. They write:

In the time of COVID-19, understanding and controlling your finances is more important than ever, especially for LGBT elders. In honor of today being National Financial Awareness Day, we are launching a new financial wellness program called SAGECents. The program is designed specifically for LGBT elders in conjunction with LifeCents, leaders in the field of financial security. We welcome all members of the SAGE community to take advantage of this free personal financial health and wellness app!

You can read the full announcement on their website.

I introduced a bug last Friday which stopped some users from opening the profiles of other users. I believe I've fixed it for everyone now. Sorry for the inconvenience; let us know if you still get an error message when you try to visit someone's page.

Jeff

Ramesh compiled a list of the questions we get most often about the site, and their answers. If you've been wondering how to do something, head over to our help page and see if the answer's there. (And feel free to complete the form at the bottom of the page if it isn't.)

We just received word that the Oklahoma City Prime Timers Labor Day gathering has been canceled for this year. It's an event with many happy memories for me, and I'm sorry we won't be seeing each other there. The chapter plans to host it again in 2021. I hope everyone's keeping well and getting by with staying in touch online. Take good care of yourself, and we'll see you again on the other side.

Jeff

We just received word that The Residences will begin taking applications from June 15th to June 26th. Located in Wilton Manors (Fort Lauderdale, USA), it will be Florida's first affordable housing community with customized support services for LGBTQ+ seniors.

Wilton Manors is one of the most densely-gay-populated (and especially OlderGay-populated) towns in the world. This looks like a good opportunity for anyone hoping to retire to a gay-friendly community who’s unsure of his ability to manage such a move financially.

The management company will use a lottery to choose from the pool of applicants, not a "first-come-first-served" system. There’s no rush to be the first in line, but if you’re interested, you need to apply sometime next week. Applications and more information will be available on Monday the 15th at:

http://carrfour.org/

(Long time passing!)

If you get our newsletter, you'll see the Events section shrink dramatically this week. The Chicago Prime Timers gathering was canceled, and we finally received confirmation from cruise organizers that they're canceling all the older gay cruises until the fall. Cross your fingers with us for what's remaining, but I fear we'll be waiting to see each other again in the new year.

Those of us in the United States had even more than the pandemic on our minds last week. If you feel a need to talk to someone (respectfully), do take advantage of our discussion board. If you're having a truly hard time and think a professional trained in coping strategies could help, please reach out to one. You're worth it, and you could benefit from it, even if you've never felt the need before. Here are a couple of resources to try:

Online Counseling

• https://www.talkspace.com/
• https://www.betterhelp.com/

Stay safe, stay...

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