I have read the books, my wife hasn't, when loial referred to the stedding in the last episode he was in i tried to explain it to my wife because I have only loosely paid attention to the show, and she explained it to me exactly as the other poster.

I think when you've read the books you feel like you know too much to pay attention and it's hard to factor how much goes into bridging storyline when you only have 8 hours to get roughly 30 hours of book into one place. Couple that with restrictions from actors (i.e. barney harris thing) and needing to finish filming on time for budget reasons the fact there are lots of changes and artificial bridges between them is almost mandatory.

I know nothing i'll say will change your perspective, so i wont even attempt and rather call a spade a spade as in almost every instance when I see book readers ranting about how bad the series in they haven't paid attention well (hence your not knowing the explanation of the stedding exists) and/or they're mad about some change that they've associated to some sort of political aspect (i.e. gender, homosexuality, race, etc).

Considering the scope of what they needed to do i think they've done a fine job. It's enjoyable to watch, and by and large the non book readers in my family who have watched it have enjoyed it.

Those who didn't were book readers and had significan political leanings and reasonings for liking it beyond an inability to just sit down and watch something rather than try to find what it's missing or what's different. Definitive closed mindedness. Judging by your anger, I would wager this is similar.

I can say the more often a community shreds an adaptation the more hesitant studios will be to adapt things as the PR war isn't worth it. So carry on and do your best to make sure no franchises are ever put into another medium because it might not be exact to your imagination.