Freecycle - Please posts all freecycle stuff here (merged)

ruthiejane

looby75 wrote:

What's the etiquette for freecycle, is it first come first served or do most people leave it a few days before deciding who to give their item too?

I'm a Freecycle moderator, for Porthmadog, North Wales. The general rule is that as you are gifting an item, you choose who to give it too. Obviously that way those that are rude are doing themselves no favours. You are also welcome to reply to people and ask if they intend to resell your item, whilst it is ok to sell items received from Freecycle, all members have agreed to be honest about this. All wanted posts must say so if the items are to be resold.

I would also suggest waiting at least 24 hours so that people who get the messages on digest get a chance. There is nothing more frustrating than an offer and a taken message in the same digest!

There is no need to respond individually to each person asking about the item, just a taken message, maybe saying something like "Thanks for all the interest"

Freecycle aims to keep items out of landfill, and to build local communities, so if you are joining on behalf of a friend or relative outside your local area it is polite to let the moderators of the group know this.

bottlered

there's a few who spoil it for everyone on my local group
the front page is permanently clogged up with their "wanted" ads
they also try to include adverts & referrer links in their listings, although these do get removed

looby75

Thanks for that. I'll not pick anyone till tomorrow then, but I have just had a lovely polite email from a lady very close to where I live and so far she's the "winner"

lil_me

I have seen freecycle abused, heard of a lot of people using it to stock for car boot, some selling private, some asking for cars for family then selling them, someone asking for laptops repeatedly and then selling etc, shocking really that such a good thing is being abused.

Also I refuse to give to rude people when you get responses like, Give me it whats your address, manners don't hurt anyone.

Thankfully these are a minority.

nuttywoman

Our local freecycle only lets you have one wanted a month to cut back on people who abuse it.
val

Cat72

Can I ask is it hard to start a group ? and how on earth do you do it. I have some time on my hands and there is no group that covers my area. I think it could badly do with one, can anyone advise on the pros & cons. Thanks

looby75

Cat72 wrote:

Can I ask is it hard to start a group ? and how on earth do you do it. I have some time on my hands and there is no group that covers my area. I think it could badly do with one, can anyone advise on the pros & cons. Thanks

not sure how you would go about it but bumping in the hope someone who does will see your post.

good luck

quoia

Cat72 wrote:

Can I ask is it hard to start a group ? and how on earth do you do it. I have some time on my hands and there is no group that covers my area. I think it could badly do with one, can anyone advise on the pros & cons. Thanks

Where in "bonnie scotland" are you?

mattogier

Cat72 wrote:

Can I ask is it hard to start a group ? and how on earth do you do it. I have some time on my hands and there is no group that covers my area. I think it could badly do with one, can anyone advise on the pros & cons. Thanks

You can contact Freecycle via this page...

http://www.freecycle.org/startagroup/

This will be posted through to the UK New Group Adviser and then they will help you through the setting up protocols.

Good luck (where are you?)

Cheers

Matt
Freecycle Luton Founder.

mattogier

[quote=looby75]What's the etiquette for freecycle, is it first come first served or do most people leave it a few days before deciding who to give their item too?[/quote]

A lot of people have started using a Fair Offer Policy..

In the subject line they inclued: *FOP
then at the end of the post they include the following...

[This offer comes with a FOP* attached]

*FOP: Fair Offer Policy = I agree to take a period of time to see what responses I get before deciding on who to give item to. This gives members on Daily Digest, or those who don't have continual access to the Internet a fair chance, rather than giving to the first response.

Seems to work well.

Cheers

Matt