GSNs, or Grumpy Sutcliff Nonnies (sometimes Gleeful Sutcliff Nonnies), were a subset of memers who — especially for a while after the release of the 2011 film The Eagle (loooosely based on the 1954 novel The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff) — popped up in almost any thread in meme, defending book canon and fandom, recommending fics, and enthusing about other Sutcliff books as well.

There was a not-so-secret handshake, which often involved mentioning “my historical fandom suffers from too many modern AUs.” Other GSNs might have swooped in to sympathize, someone might have asked “what's GSN?”, and the thread sometimes turned into a drive-by GSN love-in.

Topics that might have summoned a GSN included:

• loyalty kink
• attractive prose
• semicolons
• scenery porn
• AUs (including coffeeshop AUs, in-space AUs)
• ATG (Any Two Guys) fic
• (Charming) Potato
• canon power imbalance/slavery
• hurt/comfort (sometimes with the same character doing both the hurting and comforting)
• OT3s
• childhood favorites
• earliest slash ships

In recent years, the GSNs seem to have faded from meme.