Freegle - New home for ex Freecycle groups

kazwookie

RacyRed wrote: »

MyFreecycle is completely controlled by The Freecycle Network in the USA, who may or may not apppoint local moderators to do the day to day work on the groups. A number of UK MyFreecycle groups are currently being run by moderators based in the USA.

The logo is the same for both.

Racyred thanks you for the explaination.

I have just become a 'mod' of a localish group, not my normal one, I sent an email to the person who asked me to be a mod, and offered to meet etc as she knows nothing about me etc, to get an email back saying she was over here doing mod training and setting groups up, and then was back to the USA in a few days!!!!

So I have 'wondered' where my training is!! in the mean time I just approve / edit as needed the posts and leave it at that, I sent her another email yesterday, as I get emails from people who want to unsubscribe from the group, but I don't have a clue what or how to deal with them, so rather than press the wrong button, I just leave them.

laurel7172

Sorry, racy-as one who has come in halfway, I'm finding this a bit hard to follow.

So there's a money stream for freecycle? How is this allocated at present and how are the US trying to change it? How are moderators rewarded at present (if at all)? I think they should be, TBH, because it's a bloomin' thankless job from what I've seen. Well, our local mod is generally so tired and grumpy that after writing him a thank you note on a particularly bad day I'd now worry about adding to his workload by doing it again...

davie24

The only reward we as Moderators/ Group Owners receive is the satisfaction of keeping items out of landfill.
When I took the role on a couple of years ago,I never realised the time it took up,but I feel it is worth it,even when dealing with abusive emails from members.

Ken68

Hi Racey, are Owners the same as moderators, or do they have separate responsibilities.

kazwookie

Ken

I am not an owner, but I am a moderator, but I am a very new one, about 1 month if that.

Ken68

So who paid your USA trainer, Kaz. and her plane fare over to here to train UK owners/mods?
If it was Freecycle.org (supposedly now My Freecycle, tho that sounds like an offshoot in itself) and it is Freecycle.org who set up groups, and hire and fire and now new servers, and have control of the money and capital reserves, then they should call the shots.
Also from what I read Yahoo might have an axe to grind.

kazwookie

Ken68 wrote: »

So who paid your USA trainer, Kaz. and her plane fare over to here to train UK owners/mods?
If it was Freecycle.org (supposedly now My Freecycle, tho that sounds like an offshoot in itself) and it is Freecycle.org who set up groups, and hire and fire and now new servers, and have control of the money and capital reserves, then they should call the shots.
Also from what I read Yahoo might have an axe to grind.

Ken

I never had any training, all I got was an email from a lady, and then found my user name on the site had had an upgrade with additional buttons, it was only when I emailed the lady and asked if she wanted to meet me, (I thought she was local to me) that she said she was back off to the USA, so I have no idea what so ever where in the UK she was or if indeed she was in the UK at all!! .

TBH it is a dangerous thing in the wrong hands, I have all sorts of delete buttons etc, so if I was minded I could do a lot of damage.

But then again I must be doing what I am doing right, as I have not had any emails off the lady, tell me off or asking me to do things differently, but then again I dare not touch some of the button headings as I am not sure what they do, and I DONT want to cause any problems.

and it does look like the group I am a mod of is 'my freecycle' as since Racyred's post, I have had a hunt about, the lay out is different to my local group, I always thought that was because it was a 'test' lay out.

Ken68

You must have an Owner, Kaz.

RacyRed

Ken68 wrote: »

You must have an Owner, Kaz.

Not if her group is on MyFreecycle, the owner of all the groups on there is the Freecycle founder, Deron.

Yahoo groups have owners and moderators. The owners have complete control over the groups. The Freecycle "powers that be" can kick those groups out of freecycle, and even ask Yahoo to delete them without warning (that has been done on more than one occasion) but they cannot take over the groups, just replace them.

In the early days you set up a group, agreed to use the Freecycle name and then were told to go out and get on with it. Things changed when the lawyers started appearing.

The money is generated by sponsorship and advertising on the MYFreecycle website and, once all the groups are under Deron's control, there is are landfill grants he could claim, which pays by tonnage saved from landfill.

UK groups and moderators receive no money at all. We do not need much. Costs for leaflets and other publicity stuff are often met by the local councils because we are saving them a lot of money by reducing the massive costs of putting things in landfill. They see it as a worthwhile investment.

UK Freecycle does not have offices and was run by volunteers who paid for their own phone calls and so on, and even paid the "official" costs for Companies House stuff and so on themselves. No-one in the UK has ever claimed expenses, as the Freecycle founder often boasts.

The only paid employee of Freecycle in the UK is the guy who develops the MyFreecle web site, and he is paid from the US. The Freecycle founder takes a salary from the organisation.

Ken, read my earlier post, it is the moderators who build the groups from nothing to thousands of members. Is it right that we get kicked out of them now because someone in the USA has realised that there is a way to make money out of them?

laurel7172, The money stream is new. At the moment it is mostly being used to pay lawyers to protect the Freecycle name. and to kick off groups whose moderators have dared to question the freecycle founder.

Kazwookie I've sent you a PM about helping you get some training. Usually moderators train each other, there are many experience people who will be happy to help you. What has happened to you is exactly the sort of thing that worries the majority of moderators in the UK about the direction things are going in., It is disgraceful to leave you on a group without giving you any help or training!

Ken68

If I had a vote and before voting, I would want more information. It's coming out in dribs and drabs, what vital stuff has been missed out. For example I like some of the Terms and Conditions in My Freecycle website, like for instance, the automatic deletion of the Offered post once a Taken post is made. Would cut out a lot of the mods work.
In pre-My Freecycle days did American groups have OWNERS.?? Is every group in the world YAHOO and have owners.
Beal has cause for concern at least.