Discuss your Freecycle successes

I wonder why the name has changed! Surely this will confuse a lot of people, especially if Freecycle has been mentioned to them and one day decide to join. They wouldn't find it, would they?

Dipsy81 - this may answer your question about the change of name ....


"This message is being sent to inform you about what's been happening to Freecycle in the UK.

For some time there have been mounting problems between UK Freecycle moderators and The Freecycle Network (TFN) owner in the US. This has led to inflexible rules and regulations being imposed on local Freecycle groups by a leadership based in the US and dissenters being removed from their roles and their groups without discussion or appeal. Where local owners and moderators have been removed their groups have been migrated from Yahoo Groups with local owners to the US controlled and run Freecycle.org website.

It would take all day to post all that has gone on but this piece on The Guardian website and the comments posted regarding it are mostly accurate and will help give you an overall picture of what is going on:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/sep/10/uk-freecycle-us-network

Freecycle moderators are committed to the group continuing to keep still usable items out of Landfill. We also want to keep the group owned and run locally but feel that there is a growing threat to our independence from the US.

Many groups have now been forced to leave The Freecycle Network because their mods have spoken out against the leadership. The majority of groups that are leaving TFN are joining a new network called Freegle as can be seen at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=freegle* "


JulesM - please don't let one bad experience put you off using the freegle network ....... there is a 'Fair Offer Policy' that you can add to your offer on the site - not everyone has daily access to a computer - when you offer large items you could ask that those interested give you a phone number so you can contact them.

'Fair Offer Policy: I agree to take a period of time to see what responses I get before deciding who to give item(s) to. This gives members on Daily Digest, or those who don't have continual access to the Internet a fair chance to reply. '

Hi - I loved Freecycle - have given away absolutely loads to good homes in the last few years :T . However this message in Martin's money tips today is a little outdated (unusually for MSE )

But - there have been issues with the Freecycle hierachy during the last few months. Therefore, those groups that can are now changing over to Freegle - I can't post a hyperlink to it, but go on Google and type in "freegle Uk" - it comes up with the site where you can find a local group. The group local to me changed a few weeks back - seamlessly

I suggest people find out if there is a Freegle (FREEly Given, Locally, Easily) in their locality and join that...it's based in the UK - with UK group owners.

But giving away/receiving items from these types of forums is always brilliant :j just remember to follow the rules of each group, don't be greedy in your requests (it's off-putting!) and remember to be polite, courteous and always turn up when you say you are going to - or at least politely call with plenty of notice to say you have changed your mind!

Have fun.

FYI - here is some info explaining about the change from Freecycle to Freegle from the Freegle website:

History of Freegle

Freegle is a new UK-wide umbrella organisation, formed by experienced volunteers and members of the free reuse community.
Most Freegle groups were formerly part of The Freecycle Network. However, progressively since its beginnings, it became evident that Freecycle changed radically under our feet while we were working to continue its success. This created an untenable situation for hundreds of volunteers in the UK. After patient and skilled negotiations with the founder of The Freecycle Network failed, Freegle was formed.
We are really excited to now be Freegle! All groups within Freegle belong to a truly grassroots movement that values and respects its members and volunteers. And in the process, we continue to keep usable items out of landfill. We are looking forward to welcoming new groups into the Freegle family.

I love Freecycle, and I'm sure I'll love Freegle. Totally understand why the UK groups had to seperate from the US hiarachy, but I do find it a bit stand-offish sometimes with the rules.. 'don't ask for a car/dvd player/tv/ etc' - well some people have spare / old ones, what's the big deal?

I've given away books, magazines, cameras, games, exercise equipment, clothes... I've received 2 bikes (since been passed on, now need 2 more!), an exercise bike, & a dining room table & chairs.

JulesM,
I understand where you're coming from with your disappointment. And there's nothing wrong with offering good stuff to charity shops - so why not?! Do both. But be clearer in your 'Offered' posts - after having given away 300-400 items on freecycle (and am now with Freegle) I would say you should be very specific in your posts.
Therefore when offering things, say "Please state your location and give your landline number in any response". I usually ask for a polite reply and prefer it if someone says why they want it. That way you can generally weedle out those who are time wasters (and there will ALWAYS be some of those - that's just life!)
I had 2 massive boxes of things that were too good to thrown away - 'bottom drawer' stuff - and I specified in my post that I wanted it to go to a local charity...a woman who runs a local charity answered, explaining their desperate need for things for a table-top sale - and so I gladly gave the things, which greatly enhanced their funds received on the day of their sale.
As for people not thanking you - didn't they do that at the time? I would rather think of anyone who doesn't 'bother' to thank me by email (having already thanked me in person) as being very busy and/or a problem for them having occurred, causing them to be unable to respond (fingers crossed that they are ok...). I have only had a handful of people not thank me by email. But all of them thanked me in person.