run by you
Category: Share the love
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Did you know?
If you missed out on the biggest and best ever run by you awards yet, you can catch all the glitz and gossip here on the hall of fame.
Leave your footprints in giffgaff’s history
Our members, the little brainboxes, are constantly thinking up new ways to make giffgaff even better. Get involved with our community to make your story a part of ours.
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Recruiting on another level
July was the biggest month for new joiners in giffgaff history. With 31% of new joiners coming from the Super Recruiter programme. ...
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Super recruiting
Super Recruiters are a great group of members who help bring new people to the gaff. ...
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Rewarding quality and support
We wouldn’t be where we are today without our members’ magnificent help and support. ...
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Coming to the UK
When giffgaff was growing, we needed to ship SIMs to our fellow friends who live abroad but we didn’t quite have the systems in place yet.
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Cutting SIMs down to size
We pride ourselves on our agility ...
March
medium
Helpers dashboard at the ready
The giffgaff community spend a lot of their free time helping other members with their phones. ...
March
medium
The clocks spring forward with a special message
We love a tradition here at giffgaff. One of our favourites is getting a member to write a creative message reminding ...
March
medium
Making gameplan the best plan
A bunch of super keen members came into the giffgaff office to give one to one feedback on the brand new giffgaff gameplan app. ...
February
February
February
February
February
February
February
February
February
medium
Trophies made by you
When we desperately needed some unique and wonderful trophies to award our hall of famers, this member rose to the woodcrafting challenge. ...
February
big
run by you awards 2017/18
This year’s run by you award winners were announced in a quirky Rube Goldberg-style video.
February
medium
His face on The Voice
We’re proud sponsors of The Voice UK. Every week a new lovely fan is spotlighted across our social channels. ...
February
February
January
medium
A 1 million minute marvel
bluemoonbaz, one of our most profilic members, hit a major milestone in 2018: 1 million minutes on the community. ...
January
medium
Some familiar faces on The Voice
We’re proud sponsors of The Voice UK. For our first sponsorship ident community members as7861 and jammydodge made their debut’s on the big screen. ...
December
medium
Paying a little back
Always the most generous bunch, our fantastic community donated £56k to British Heart Foundation and Save the Children. ...
December
medium
Running in the right direction for charity
Possibly our most fun tradition is our 5K Santa run around the centre of Uxbridge, with all the proceeds going to charity. ...
November
big
A new studio for the gaff
November 2017 was another milestone month for the run by you network and saw the launch of giffgaff studio. Studio is a space for members to create guides and snazzy artwork for the gaff.
November
medium
Another year older
In November 2017 giffgaff turned 8, so of course we shared our celebrations with our members. ...
August
August
big
Our members have the best answer
We love a bit of dedication and passion when it comes to our members, helping other members on the community.
July
medium
Recruiting on another level
July was the biggest month for new joiners in giffgaff history. With 31% of new joiners coming from the Super Recruiter programme. ...
July
medium
Magnificient members go underground
We’ve got WiFi on the London Underground since around the middle of 2017. ...
July
medium
The power to cancel
Everyone loves it when they are in control. And that’s just what we did. ...
June
medium
The knowledge base gets a makeover
The knowledge base, our member-led help section, finally got the makeover it’s been crying out for. Our editors put in hours of work making it as slick and easy to read as possilbe. You can also get involved in helping us maintain the knowledge base by visiting the community. ...
June
medium
Another Payback milestone
June 2017 saw another Payback payout and meant we’d hit £56,000 in donations to our charities of chioce ...
June
big
Roam like you're at home
Taking your mobile abroad just got a whole lot easier. This fabulous idea, suggested by deffers90 was brought to life. If you’ve got an active goodybag you can now travel anywhere in Europe and use your phone just like you would at home with no extra top ups needed. If you have a bright idea, tell us what it is over in Labs.
June
medium
An evening of TV
We all love watching a bit of TV when we get home. And with our E4 sponsorship, we were able to watch great shows with our members. ...
May
medium
Rewarding members
Whenever award season rolls around we always make sure we’ve at least one member with us to pick up the trophy, even in years, like 2017, when we didn’t actually win one. ...
April
big
Come and join us
2017 set new challenges, and we wanted our next brand campaign to reach new heights. Welcome, ‘The big swim.’ One of our members, Ben, helped us on the creative for the campaign. It was nice to see that he was a giffgaff member as it made us want to work with him even more.
March
big
New year new phones
It’s the start of a fresh year, and that can only mean one thing: Mobile World Congress (MWC) is just around the corner.
February
medium
Supernatural tweeters
We worked with the very fine folks at TV show Supernatural to identify some of their most active tweeters. These social media moguls formed a small focus group to help us decide which version of our logo we should use for the show. The result was unanimous. ...
February
February
February
February
January
big
181 idents and counting
On this day we started to create our E4 sponsorship idents, (also known as adverts). Over the year we included over 180 tweet and member comments in these idents. These are just a few members who had their 15 seconds of fame on TV.
October
September
medium
Bringing a new blogger aboard
willp789 is one of our newest bloggers. He loves all things related to tech, writing about it, trying it out and telling our readers which of it’s great and which of it is not. ...
September
medium
Super recruiting
Super Recruiters are a great group of members who help bring new people to the gaff. ...
June
medium
The best buddies
In January 2016 we launched the Joining Buddy scheme. New members were paired with a member of the community who could answer their questions about all things giffgaff, should they need it. ...
June
medium
Hot from the press
misswotsit is one of the most active community members. And, when asked to join the working from home Educator team, she jumped at the chance ...
June
big
No place like home
We wouldn’t be where we are today without our members and we really believe that, together, anything is possible.
May
medium
Who's a giffgaff member?
We always try and get our members involved in all sorts of weird and wonderful things we do. This even extends to giffgaff ads. ...
May
medium
The sky's the limit
Our members love helping us improve. Their involvement was particularly important when ...
April
February
December
December
December
December
December
December
December
December
December
December
December
November
medium
Our 600th idea
It turns out our members love a good scare. We asked them what frightens them the most and received 270 responses. ...
October
big
House of real fears
It turns out our members love a good scare. We asked them what frightens them the most and received 270 responses.
October
medium
The 1 million minute man
Helping people can give us a warm glow inside, so imagine how woodyuk felt when he hit the 1 million minute mark ...
June
medium
The network won by you
That’s right. giffgaff won the Which? award for Best Telecom Provider of the Year 2015. ...
May
medium
The network run by its members
giffgaff was being noticed for the radical way we approach mobile. With the press giving us the title: “giffgaff, the ‘bonkers’ mobile network, proves that the crowd can run your business for you.” ...
May
May
big
Cook up something good in Labs
The community are constantly coming up with creative ideas to leave their legacy and make giffgaff even greater. We launched Labs which made it easier for members to chat about existing ideas and pitch new ones.
March
November
November
November
November
November
November
November
November
November
November
October
big
giffgaff legends make a riot
We teamed up with Riot and invited a bunch of plucky members to divide into teams for a game of League of Legends (that’s the online multiplayer battle game, for you non-gamers out there). The tournament lasted six weeks and even helped a few members become professionals in the eSports industry.
June
medium
Rewarding quality and support
We wouldn’t be where we are today without our members’ magnificent help and support. ...
May
medium
Home is where the help is
Our agents help out members who are having a few problems that the community can’t solve ...
April
big
Who's the boss?
We really do like our members to be in control. In fact, in 2014 for one of our campaigns
February
February
December
medium
500 and counting
We’re all about new ideas. Like oxygen or lemon meringue, we just can’t get enough of them ...
September
September
September
September
September
September
September
September
September
September
September
big
Welcome to the gaff
In 2013, we hosted our first open house and welcomed members to the gaff for the first time.
August
June
January
December
December
big
Transferring your number
Way back in the foggy mists of time the giffgaff SIM was a little less flexible than it is today and didn’t come as a three-in-one package. This made number transfers trickier. Of course, there isn’t a problem that our members can’t solve.
October
medium
He wants to be a millionaire
Some of our members really do go the extra mile when it comes to helping others in the community. Take darrenpainter for instance, since July 2010 ...
July
June
medium
Everything is awesome
Among many other wonderful things, 2012 saw the start of video blogging at giffgaff. ...
May
April
medium
What's going on 'round the gaff'
2nd April is a glorious day in the history of giffgaff, it’s the anniversary of the day ‘The gaff’ was launched. ...
December
November
medium
A blogger became a freelance writer
zerodudex333 posted his first blog back in 2011, ‘How to build an App’ and has been blogging for us ever since ...
August
big
Coming to the UK
When giffgaff was growing, we needed to ship SIMs to our fellow friends who live abroad but we didn’t quite have the systems in place yet.
August
big
Clucking awesome
Our members’ marvellous ideas aren’t just limited to human life, occasionally we do our bit for the animal kingdom as well.
January
July
big
App-solutely app-tastic
We couldn’t be a mobile network that didn’t have an app. That’s just crazy right? But for a while we actually were app-less.
June
big
Donating to a charity of your choice
We like to thank our members for all the hard work they do. And in June we had our first ever Payback payout. Payback is how we reward our members for lending a helping hand.
May
April
big
It's in the bag
giffgaff’s first goodybag was on its way. And in true giffgaff style, we launched it with the help of our members, who gave us incredible feedback on pricing.
January
December
December
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Tools for the courageous
In the spirit of doing things differently and with giffgaff fresh on the market, we created a set of Tools for Hire allowing members to create epic videos. ...
November
big
giffgaff launched
Despite a few naysayers and people who still thought the world was flat, giffgaff was born on the 25th of November, 2009.
August
big
Community launched - woohoo
Like all good things, everything starts with a bang. And before giffgaff became the network it was today; we kicked off our journey with the launch of the community.
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March 3, 2018
Helpers dashboard at the ready
The giffgaff community spend a lot of their free time helping other members with their phones.
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March 2, 2018
The clocks spring forward with a special message
We love a tradition here at giffgaff. One of our favourites is getting a member to write a creative message reminding
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March 1, 2018
Making gameplan the best plan
A bunch of super keen members came into the giffgaff office to give one to one feedback on the brand new giffgaff gameplan app.
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February 28, 2018
Most friendly
Just joined? Say hi to Bob - who’s had two welcoming arms outstretched for, oh, around seven years. We’re amazed he’s not tired yet.
bobrobinson, to give him his full title, has his feet firmly planted in the welcome wagon. He’s someone who’s got time for every new gaffer who joins the community.
Take a look through his posts and you’ll see his kindness shines through in every conversation. Whether it’s helping people settle into life at giffgaff, or talking with an old friend he’s made through the community.
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February 28, 2018
Most Collaborative
as7861 lives and breaths the ‘run by you’ ethos. In the time he’s been part of the community he’s done his best to give back as much as he’s gotten.
Everything Amer does in the community involves working with other members to bring out their best and makes community members’ efforts and ideas a reality. He does all he can to make a difference. What a guy!
To work with as7861 is to work with everyone who’s worked with him in the past. He generously shares and spreads wisdom and knowledge around the community for the benefit of every member.
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February 28, 2018
Most helpful
If you’ve spent any time helping out members in the Help and Support forum, you’ll know harrrrrry. He’s always there to lend a hand with particularly tricky issues.
But if you leave the Help section, you’ll see harrrrrry’s brand of philanthropy elsewhere too. He knows that the best place to give help is where people are asking for it and will seek out problems to solve no matter where they are in the community.
No problem is too big or small for him. He will always think about how people might need the same help in future, and sets up ways to make sure they find the answers they need.
It doesn’t stop there. You will also find his work on the Knowledge Base, in the articles he has co-written with staff and other members.
And last but not least, the help he’s given in testing new features for the community has been invaluable to members who use it as well.
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February 28, 2018
Most creative
willp789 has been behind some of the most widely-read writing on the giffgaff site, both on the blog and on the community. He’s the driving force behind the current edition of the gaff, the weekly community-run newsletter, Will edits and oversees what gets showcased to other members as the best of the community.
His infectious enthusiasm gets carried over to each of his contributors. Not only that, but his blog posts and videos help bring giffgaff to new audiences. His positivity helps potential new members understand what giffgaff is all about.
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February 28, 2018
Most knowledgeable
Need some knowledge? The community’s own oracle, figment_uk, will almost certainly be able to help. In our nominations, members said he was their go-to-guy whenever they had a question. And what’s more, when they see a response of his in a thread, they feel relieved to know he’s around, on top of things as usual.
Thankfully, he doesn’t keep all the wisdom to himself, he’s willing to share it whenever it’s needed, no matter the topic, creating little oracles in his wake wherever he goes on the community.
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February 28, 2018
Rising Star
Every now and again, a giffgaffer steps up and out of their comfort zone, to really try and make a difference to giffgaff and other members’ lives. Enter ijustcantdoit, stage left.
They have been a giffgaffer for a few years and in recent months ijustcantdoit has, in fact, done it, taking part in focused discussion groups about specific areas of giffgaff and the community. This helps with shaping existing initiatives like giffgaff Labs, as well as forging new ground with the giffgaff gameplan team.
In the nominations, members were particularly impressed with ijustcantdoit’s eagerness to take on new challenges and their positive attitude towards collaborating with others - truly a giffgaffer to watch.
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February 28, 2018
Big thinker
blackfive460 is a rare breed: someone who sees something, and not only thinks ‘this can be better’, but actively takes part in making the change happen.
He’s someone who not only shares his opinion and expertise in a reasoned and constructive way, but also brings those traits out in others. If you see blackfive460 in a conversation, he’ll no doubt be bringing his unique perspective to the topic and helping shape its focus.
No wonder, then, that the community has awarded him the Big Thinker award, a quality the best giffgaffers possess, and blackfive460 has it in spades.
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February 28, 2018
Lifetime achievement
It’s hard to pick an area of the community that woodyuk hasn’t been involved in. Right from the word go, woody has been giving back to his fellow giffgaffers, and hasn’t let up for over seven years.
From helping individuals with an issue that needs a quick fix to systemic and wide-ranging improvements to giffgaff, woodyuk puts giffgaffers first and is there for them through thick and thin.
The Lifetime Achievement award is for people who members see as the foundation of giffgaff, people without whom our community would be very different. woodyuk is not only one of these people, he’s the person these people look up to.
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February 3, 2018
Trophies made by you
When we desperately needed some unique and wonderful trophies to award our hall of famers, this member rose to the woodcrafting challenge.
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February 2, 2018
run by you awards 2017/18
This year’s run by you award winners were announced in a quirky Rube Goldberg-style video.
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February 1, 2018
His face on The Voice
We’re proud sponsors of The Voice UK. Every week a new lovely fan is spotlighted across our social channels.
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February 1, 2018
Run By You Winners 2017/18
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February 1, 2018
Run By You Nominations 2017/18
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January 2, 2018
A 1 million minute marvel
bluemoonbaz, one of our most profilic members, hit a major milestone in 2018: 1 million minutes on the community.
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January 1, 2018
Some familiar faces on The Voice
We’re proud sponsors of The Voice UK. For our first sponsorship ident community members as7861 and jammydodge made their debut’s on the big screen.
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December 2, 2017
Paying a little back
Always the most generous bunch, our fantastic community donated £56k to British Heart Foundation and Save the Children.
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December 1, 2017
Running in the right direction for charity
Possibly our most fun tradition is our 5K Santa run around the centre of Uxbridge, with all the proceeds going to charity.
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November 2, 2017
A new studio for the gaff
November 2017 was another milestone month for the run by you network and saw the launch of giffgaff studio. Studio is a space for members to create guides and snazzy artwork for the gaff.
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November 1, 2017
Another year older
In November 2017 giffgaff turned 8, so of course we shared our celebrations with our members.
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August 2, 2017
Going above and beyond
We love it when a member goes the extra mile. And that’s just what community member, cim did. They created a microsite. It has a video, ringtones and other snazzy bits and bobs to download. We were a major fan of the video. Yes we do giffgaff.
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August 1, 2017
Our members have the best answer
We love a bit of dedication and passion when it comes to our members, helping other members on the community.
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July 3, 2017
Recruiting on another level
July was the biggest month for new joiners in giffgaff history. With 31% of new joiners coming from the Super Recruiter programme.
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July 2, 2017
Magnificient members go underground
We’ve got WiFi on the London Underground since around the middle of 2017.
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July 1, 2017
The power to cancel
Everyone loves it when they are in control. And that’s just what we did.
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June 4, 2017
The knowledge base gets a makeover
The knowledge base, our member-led help section, finally got the makeover it’s been crying out for. Our editors put in hours of work making it as slick and easy to read as possilbe. You can also get involved in helping us maintain the knowledge base by visiting the community.
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June 3, 2017
Another Payback milestone
June 2017 saw another Payback payout and meant we’d hit £56,000 in donations to our charities of chioce
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June 2, 2017
Roam like you're at home
Taking your mobile abroad just got a whole lot easier. This fabulous idea, suggested by deffers90 was brought to life. If you’ve got an active goodybag you can now travel anywhere in Europe and use your phone just like you would at home with no extra top ups needed. If you have a bright idea, tell us what it is over in Labs.
-
June 1, 2017
An evening of TV
We all love watching a bit of TV when we get home. And with our E4 sponsorship, we were able to watch great shows with our members.
-
May 1, 2017
Rewarding members
Whenever award season rolls around we always make sure we’ve at least one member with us to pick up the trophy, even in years, like 2017, when we didn’t actually win one.
-
April 1, 2017
Come and join us
2017 set new challenges, and we wanted our next brand campaign to reach new heights. Welcome, ‘The big swim.’ One of our members, Ben, helped us on the creative for the campaign. It was nice to see that he was a giffgaff member as it made us want to work with him even more.
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March 1, 2017
New year new phones
It’s the start of a fresh year, and that can only mean one thing: Mobile World Congress (MWC) is just around the corner.
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February 5, 2017
Supernatural tweeters
We worked with the very fine folks at TV show Supernatural to identify some of their most active tweeters. These social media moguls formed a small focus group to help us decide which version of our logo we should use for the show. The result was unanimous.
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February 4, 2017
Lifetime Achievement Award
“He’s the linchpin of help. He offers great personalised help. He sets the standard to what makes a brilliant helpful post and has received a lot of respect from his fellow members.” - Community Team
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February 3, 2017
The Bright Spark
“As7861 has been a true Labs Pioneer, helping us flag up duplicates, organise ideas and getting very hands on and extremely enthusiastic about wanting to make it better. He’s always up for lending me a helping hand, as well as recognising others efforts, even when the chips are down. He’s a natural problem solver and goes the extra mile each and every time.” - Community team
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February 2, 2017
The Savvy Sage
“He’s super friendly and has gone above and beyond with every task he takes on - whether it’s helping members on the community or collaborating with staff to improve the knowledge base. He is passionate about helping people and has provided some unique and practical solutions for a lot of members.” - Community team
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February 1, 2017
The Creative Genius
“Having worked with Mitchell on the gaff and on other projects this year within the community. I have been very impressed with his approach and positive attitude in which he goes about creating his content. Always looking to take it one step further in creating a better read and interesting content for members to read. Even his tutorial videos. He is a very clever young man and I think he deserves this award.” - Community member
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January 1, 2017
181 idents and counting
On this day we started to create our E4 sponsorship idents, (also known as adverts). Over the year we included over 180 tweet and member comments in these idents. These are just a few members who had their 15 seconds of fame on TV.
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October 1, 2016
Remembering the switching hour
We love our quirky little traditions. One of which is to ask our members to write a creative message, reminding the wider community that the clocks go back an hour in autumn. This message goes out in an SMS to every giffgaffer. This season’s reminder was written by the multi-talented mgkershaw and read: “It’s nearly Halloween; the witching hour. Remember, 2am on Sunday is the switching hour. The clocks go back, so enjoy an extra hour treat.”
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September 2, 2016
Bringing a new blogger aboard
willp789 is one of our newest bloggers. He loves all things related to tech, writing about it, trying it out and telling our readers which of it’s great and which of it is not.
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September 1, 2016
Super recruiting
Super Recruiters are a great group of members who help bring new people to the gaff.
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June 2, 2016
The best buddies
In January 2016 we launched the Joining Buddy scheme. New members were paired with a member of the community who could answer their questions about all things giffgaff, should they need it.
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June 1, 2016
Hot from the press
misswotsit is one of the most active community members. And, when asked to join the working from home Educator team, she jumped at the chance
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June 1, 2016
No place like home
We wouldn’t be where we are today without our members and we really believe that, together, anything is possible.
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May 2, 2016
Who's a giffgaff member?
We always try and get our members involved in all sorts of weird and wonderful things we do. This even extends to giffgaff ads.
-
May 1, 2016
The sky's the limit
Our members love helping us improve. Their involvement was particularly important when
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April 1, 2016
Helping around the clock
The flexibility of some of our members is truly a thing to witness. For instance, i_am_sy doesn’t normally help on our social channels - but when we had a website outage, Sy started answering questions and directed a few puzzled members towards a thread on the community.
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February 1, 2016
Marvellous mates
We’re always trying to make life easier for our community.This is why we implemented this wonderful idea and rounded up a collection of finest members and buddied them up with new joiners. Known as Joining Buddies, they help new members bed in.
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December 11, 2015
Lifetime Achievement Award
“Endorphin is a true ninja and seems to be involved in all parts of the forum. Sometimes thinking about Community you will automatically think of endorphin, that is a fact. He went beyond any expectations by magically juggling top help for members, welcoming newcomers, participating in discussions about how we can improve, and still finding time to have wonderful chatty conversations with all of us. Hats off to you!” - Community Team
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December 10, 2015
Notable Newbie
“Polowoman is one of the loveliest newcomers I’ve come across on the giffgaff forums in a very long time. She is very friendly, very chirpy, and a delight to chat to. She spends much of her time networking on the forum, but most notably is her contribution to the creative writing competitions (she absolutely loves to write), and her PMs to many giffgaff members with little bits and bobs from her life. She always manages to cheer you up, and her positivity is endless!” - Community member
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December 9, 2015
The Host
“Brulaw is always first on the scene to welcome new members to the community. Hes such a positive force of nature, you will always see him around, to brighten up everyone’s day with the banners he’s created which instantly puts a smile on our faces.” - Community team
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December 8, 2015
General of Discussion
“Joining in 2011 long time member Baz is seen almost everywhere, whether it’s a cheery meme to brighten peoples day or chipping in Contribute with construction comments and for also creating the Gafftas.” - Community member
“The voice of reason and harmony in some tougher conversations on the community - patient, respectful and friendly.” - Community team
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December 7, 2015
Most "Invested" Member
“She is always writing new threads in the money board keeping us all up to date with great deals. She did giffgaff money even before we had it. That says it all.” - Community member
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December 6, 2015
Professor Lightbulb
“My vote is for kathleen414 for so many great ideas especially talking on the unlimited data issue that has been changed due to her efforts.” - Community member
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December 5, 2015
Knowledge Ninja
“This member’s attention for details is amazing. He will make sure that everything is to the T specially when it comes to Service Issues. His determination to be on top of things that affect our wider member base is a real asset to giffgaff. He really is a vital part of the team and has a great sense of humour even though he does not show it all the time.” - Community team
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December 4, 2015
Social Sensei
“Pinkcalculator goes out of her way on Facebook to help people there. She is always polite, friendly and gives out good help. She does everything she can to help.” Community member
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December 3, 2015
Help Hero
“Essie112mm is the Queen of help. She’s offers the best advice and always takes the time to make the member needing help feel welcome and at home. She has the same determination to get to the root cause of a members problem. Meticulously thorough in her posting, and exceptionally diligent in her pursuit of the correct answers being set as best answers, so that search results yield the best possible information for members.” - Community member
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December 2, 2015
Creative Champion
“He gets involved in a wide range of projects, and picks up on anything happening in the community to create fun content and videos to supplement it, like his video for the geocaching competition. An absolute giffgaff legend, marvellous!” - Community Member
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December 1, 2015
Friendly Flyer
“He’s always there on the forums, putting up saving ideas for students, welcoming people, never really has a bad word against anyone, getting involved, making the forums a cheerier place, just a generally genuine nice guy always willing to help, support and make members experiences a nice one. Hats off to Mark for just being Mark!” - Community Member
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November 1, 2015
Our 600th idea
It turns out our members love a good scare. We asked them what frightens them the most and received 270 responses.
-
October 2, 2015
House of real fears
It turns out our members love a good scare. We asked them what frightens them the most and received 270 responses.
-
October 1, 2015
The 1 million minute man
Helping people can give us a warm glow inside, so imagine how woodyuk felt when he hit the 1 million minute mark
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June 1, 2015
The network won by you
That’s right. giffgaff won the Which? award for Best Telecom Provider of the Year 2015.
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May 3, 2015
The network run by its members
giffgaff was being noticed for the radical way we approach mobile. With the press giving us the title: “giffgaff, the ‘bonkers’ mobile network, proves that the crowd can run your business for you.”
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May 2, 2015
Hey you, get involved
We love a bit of collaboration, so when we launched our ‘Hey you’ campaign back in 2015, we thought to ourselves: we’ve got to get a member involved. And so we did.
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May 1, 2015
Cook up something good in Labs
The community are constantly coming up with creative ideas to leave their legacy and make giffgaff even greater. We launched Labs which made it easier for members to chat about existing ideas and pitch new ones.
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March 1, 2015
Getting a mobile take on the world
One of the most important events in the phone and tech industry: the Mobile World Congress, is an important fixture in our annual calendar. We like to send at least one of our members along to pick up on all the hot news. In 2015, it was wsjudd who wrote a brilliant blog about his experience.
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November 10, 2014
Lifetime Achievement Award
“As soon as his name came up as a nominee, practically everyone here at giffgaff HQ had a story to tell or a favourite ‘flaxvert moment’ to share. (What was mine you ask? His voice. Seriously flax, you need to work in radio and start and end every show with ‘Marvellous’.)
The list is practically endless and anyone who has been in contact with flaxvert will immediately know why he deserves it. If it comes to pouring buckets of cold water on your head at a moments notice, putting together a guide on how to cook up some gruesome grub for Halloween or just some advice on how to use the community, flax (and his ever-present sidekick miniflax) is the man for the job. Marvellous.” - Community team
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November 9, 2014
Most Welcoming
“Every time I open up a thread in the welcome and join forum, nerakb is usually the first to have welcomed new members. She helps point members in the right direction when they need help and always does that little bit extra to be friendly and extremely welcoming to those new to gg and/or new to the forums.” - Community member
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November 8, 2014
Innovator of the Year
“when it comes to idea, bertiebat is perhaps the most imaginative yet practical member to contribute to new ideas. When she posts her own new ideas you can tell she goes to great lengths to explain herself and the idea thoroughly. Not only that she also encourages other members to expand on their ideas making her a great asset to the ideas board.” Community team
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November 7, 2014
Newcomer of the Year
“I’ve voted for asciimotog because unlike most new, ascii’s been somewhat of a breath of fresh air, giving members non-generic and helpful posts, and is a member I myself look up to. Add to the fact ascii’s still a very active all-round member of the community, again, a lot of new users have a spurt of posts and then vanish, even a young blood like myself has seen names come and go, and I’m not even a year in. I can safely say I’ll be around the community for a long time to come, and I hope ascii will be too, enjoy seeing them about and reading their posts, also learn a thing or two, too.” - Community member
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November 6, 2014
Knowledge Master
“As one of the 2 Knowledge Base publishers, his role as a member within the community is vital, as a conduit between members editing the Knowledge Base and giff-staffers maintaining it. He communicates well with KB editors, and publishes edits promptly.” - Community member
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November 5, 2014
Social Rockstar
“She is the only member I’m aware of that dedicates a considerable amount of time to answering giffgaffers’ queries on Facebook, taking time away from the community forum to help those who may not (yet?) be part of the community. But she still takes time to come back and liaise with the Community Team on some of the issues and feedback she encounters on social media, so that these people’s views are also represented.” - Community member
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November 4, 2014
Helper of the Year
“Sloz is the bees knees when it comes to giving the best quality help to each individual member. The fact he returns to the thread a number of times after he has posted to make sure each member is satisfied and has had their problem solved is why he deserves this award.” - Community team
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November 3, 2014
Unite-er
“The perfect example of this would have to be the way she has brought the community together to start (or at least provide a significant contribution towards) a major consultation on the Contribute board, about the future of the Social: General Discussion board. She has tried hard to remain neutral with her questioning and her responses to the feedback she has received, despite having her own personal views (as anyone would), proving just as welcoming towards members who offer what would be opposing views to her own as she is to those who would agree with her. She took the initiative on an issue that was close to her heart and she felt needed addressing, and instead of just moaning about this, she has positively influenced the future direction of the board in a way that I can see the Community Team has greatly appreciated.” - Community member
She wrote about her award here: https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/General-Discussion/giffgaff-Visited-My-House-and-a-GAFFTA/td-p/15458524
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November 2, 2014
Most Creative
“I could have ticked a lot of the categories for this member because he’s everywhere, helping new members with their queries, contributing to new ideas, and bringing loads of topics to discuss about in Social. He’s creative whereever he goes. The one thread that stands out is his ‘Need a sim?’ thread in Welcome and join. Such a creative and useful idea, he must have also helped hundreds of members out.” - Community team
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November 1, 2014
Most Friendly
“Mark is certainly one of the most friendly members across the community, a true gent. Although he’s often over in the help section helping members solve their problems, I know him best through social general. You’ll often find him in many threads chatting away, and bringing a smile on members faces with his animated images, whether to congratulate them on a achievement within the community or a birthday wish. Mark as been arranging a trip to Blackpool open to all within the community in the hope of bringing members together and to get to know each other a little better in reality as well as online.” - Community member
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October 1, 2014
giffgaff legends make a riot
We teamed up with Riot and invited a bunch of plucky members to divide into teams for a game of League of Legends (that’s the online multiplayer battle game, for you non-gamers out there). The tournament lasted six weeks and even helped a few members become professionals in the eSports industry.
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June 1, 2014
Rewarding quality and support
We wouldn’t be where we are today without our members’ magnificent help and support.
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May 1, 2014
Home is where the help is
Our agents help out members who are having a few problems that the community can’t solve
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April 1, 2014
Who's the boss?
We really do like our members to be in control. In fact, in 2014 for one of our campaigns
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February 2, 2014
Going mobile
We’re a social bunch and love to attend events like the Mobile World Congress, which happens to be the biggest event in the phone and tech industry. In 2014, we sent along member marktiddy who gave us the inside scoop on everything phone-related in handy-to-read, text-based format.
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February 1, 2014
Gaming for charity
Our members don’t just like to help giffgaff, they’re an altruistic bunch who also love to give as well. Gameblast is a charity event where people play video games for 24 hours to raise money for Special Effect, who create phenomenal tech for disabled kids to enjoy playing the video games they love. In 2014, misswotsit and her husband - mattgregg545 - got together and helped raise £306 for the charity.
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December 1, 2013
500 and counting
We’re all about new ideas. Like oxygen or lemon meringue, we just can’t get enough of them
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September 11, 2013
Lifetime Achievement Award
“There’s only one person this award can go to really. Our 1 million minute man. He was the first member to meet 1000 accepted solutions, and he’s an outstanding role model. He’s friendly and his nature is fantastic. His posts are always very insightful and he’s just a great guy.” - Community team
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September 10, 2013
Most Recruited
“There’s a secret to recruiting the most members to giffgaff and the award can only go to one person. And that is Khairul. Congratulations.” - Community Team
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September 9, 2013
Most Creative
“Whether it’s videos, photos or knitted phone socks, zoe jumps into every challenge and every opportunity and get a little bit crafty and we absolutely love it. Thank you Zoe.” - Community team
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September 8, 2013
Most Entertaining Thread
“Since January this year, Stephen has continuously posted ‘The gaff’ which gives an interesting look into the community by members for the members. Congratulations Stephen.” - Community team.
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September 7, 2013
Most friendly
“She consistently helps on and off the forums and should be crowned our most friendly member. From teaching us how to cook to saving some money, her friendly nature makes everyone feel at home at giffgaff” - Community team
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September 6, 2013
Never Sleeps
“At 12pm, 4pm, 10pm, 1am, 5am, whatever the time, shortylumber will be around to help answer your queries and keep the boards organised no matter what time of day. He’s a great contribution to the community.” - Community team
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September 5, 2013
Tipster of the year
“Sloz is constantly being held as a role model to the community. He provides top quality help for all members who are looking for solutions.” - Community Team
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September 4, 2013
Innovator of the year
“Her permanent suggestions, comments and experimentation do a great deal to inform and encourage us all.” - Community team
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September 3, 2013
Helper of the Year
“Oldyorkie always goes out of his way to ensure his answers are helpful and understandable to the member asking. He will go back and make sure the member has received the best answer possible.” - Community Team
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September 2, 2013
Newcomer of the year
“Since she’s arrived she’s gotten stuck into every board of the forum. She’s friendly, helpful and an all round good egg.” - Community team
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September 1, 2013
Welcome to the gaff
In 2013, we hosted our first open house and welcomed members to the gaff for the first time.
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August 1, 2013
From brilliant blogger to virtuoso vlogger
With over 242 blogs under her belt, shadylady is something of a giffgaff legend. She wrote her first one back in August 2013 about ‘Top 5 iOS Puzzle Games’. Since then she’s created her own website and started a YouTube channel as well. Nice one.
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June 1, 2013
Work as an experience
Another mini-milestone was our very first work experience student, member zoeawesome, who stayed with us for two weeks and even made a little a video about her experiences too. Not only that, you’ll spot her in one of our adverts. Since stepping through the doors of our office, she has grown into quite the digital media queen.
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January 1, 2013
Unlocking our forums
WoodyUK is something of a fabled name among gaffers. His 2013 post ‘Free Blackberry codes’ became the most kudosed (our version of a ‘like’) thread in our forums ever. In the first few months, he was providing around 1,000 unlock codes a month.
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December 1, 2012
Just giving
It’s all great to give back, which is why we opened Justgiving pages for charities chosen by the generous people in our community. In the latest Payback period, £594.5 was raised by 177 members for WaterAid and GOSH.
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December 1, 2012
Transferring your number
Way back in the foggy mists of time the giffgaff SIM was a little less flexible than it is today and didn’t come as a three-in-one package. This made number transfers trickier. Of course, there isn’t a problem that our members can’t solve.
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October 1, 2012
He wants to be a millionaire
Some of our members really do go the extra mile when it comes to helping others in the community. Take darrenpainter for instance, since July 2010
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July 1, 2012
giffgaff gets Windows
From little acorns spring mighty oaks. Ian created the first Windows version of the my giffgaff app in July of 2012, which now has over 550 reviews. It is now updated regularly with Ian working full time and leading a team of members as testers.
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June 1, 2012
Everything is awesome
Among many other wonderful things, 2012 saw the start of video blogging at giffgaff.
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May 1, 2012
Micro SIMs are go
In May 2012, we implemented yet another wonderful member idea: micro SIMs. Up until then, our marvellous members had been cutting individual SIMs down to size themselves.
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April 1, 2012
What's going on 'round the gaff'
2nd April is a glorious day in the history of giffgaff, it’s the anniversary of the day ‘The gaff’ was launched.
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December 1, 2011
Express SIM delivery
Can’t wait for your SIM? Check out the group wman2 set up to hand-deliver SIMs to members who urgently need one, all over the UK
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November 1, 2011
A blogger became a freelance writer
zerodudex333 posted his first blog back in 2011, ‘How to build an App’ and has been blogging for us ever since
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August 2, 2011
Coming to the UK
When giffgaff was growing, we needed to ship SIMs to our fellow friends who live abroad but we didn’t quite have the systems in place yet.
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August 1, 2011
Clucking awesome
Our members’ marvellous ideas aren’t just limited to human life, occasionally we do our bit for the animal kingdom as well.
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March 1, 2011
Cutting SIMs down to size
We pride ourselves on our agility
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January 1, 2011
Knowledge is power
Did you know we’ve got our own version of Wikipedia? It’s known around these parts as the Knowledge Base. To kick things off, around 190 members helped us collate information on all things giffgaff. Since then it’s only grown and grown. Everything is written by our members - making it truly run by you.
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July 1, 2010
App-solutely app-tastic
We couldn’t be a mobile network that didn’t have an app. That’s just crazy right? But for a while we actually were app-less.
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June 1, 2010
Donating to a charity of your choice
We like to thank our members for all the hard work they do. And in June we had our first ever Payback payout. Payback is how we reward our members for lending a helping hand.
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May 1, 2010
Leave a message, after the beep
Ever wondered what 443 stands for? Apart from being a handy number to check your voicemail, that is? It spells out gif, which was suggested by trick202. It makes it so much easier to remember, don’t you think?
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April 1, 2010
It's in the bag
giffgaff’s first goodybag was on its way. And in true giffgaff style, we launched it with the help of our members, who gave us incredible feedback on pricing.
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January 1, 2010
Superstars in the community
Some of the community founders made a name for themselves pretty quickly. Bigfatball, for instance, read all our T&Cs until he knew them both inside and out prior to our launch - now that’s commitment. Members like this quickly got themselves a well earned VIG (Very Important giffgaffer) badge.
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December 2, 2009
The gaffer says 'Thank you'
giffgaff wouldn’t be where it is without its members. When we began our maiden voyage, our initial crew of members helped us find bugs and spread the good word that is giffgaff. Our captain, the gaffer himself, gave a special shout-out for their incredible contribution to the network.
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December 1, 2009
Tools for the courageous
In the spirit of doing things differently and with giffgaff fresh on the market, we created a set of Tools for Hire allowing members to create epic videos.
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November 1, 2009
giffgaff launched
Despite a few naysayers and people who still thought the world was flat, giffgaff was born on the 25th of November, 2009.
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August 1, 2009
Community launched - woohoo
Like all good things, everything starts with a bang. And before giffgaff became the network it was today; we kicked off our journey with the launch of the community.