Freegle - New home for ex Freecycle groups

RacyRed

Ken68 wrote: »

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.

So you know Deron Beal is the freecycle founder Ken? I was getting the impression you knew more about all this than you were letting on. :rolleyes:

You wont get a vote because the mods will not get the chance to offer you one. Democracy no longer has a place on Deron's Freecycle.

This blog entry from 2006 explains things far better than I could. Since 2006 things have become much worse.

Ken68

Good read, lots of new information, although some of it is conjecture and gossip.
Business don't like freecycle, takes away their trade and taking things to a local point like a charity shop is far better for the environment than is Freecycle.
Could be that Beal is going crackers, but it was his brainwave, and if he thinks others are stealing from him, fair point, take the matter to court.
And if he can get grants from local councils for reducing landfill, can't see the grant money going to Tucson.
Naughty of Yahoo though.

isabelle304

I live in Brighton/Hove and just woke up to an email from my local Freecycle group moderators announcing that (for the various reasons already mentioned on this thread), they are leaving Freecycle and have started a new group which is no longer under the Freecycle banner - they add there is no-one left to run the official Freecycle group. The new group is GreenCycle Sussex and from what I can see will function the same as the official Freecycle (ie via Yahoo groups etc). There are over 17k Brighton Freecycle members so I don't know what this means for them all - the email is not clear on that.

I also belong to the Hove Freecycle group as I live on the Brighton/Hove border - that is a much smaller, slower group - not sure what will happen with that one. At the moment I am totally confused.

Ken68

The local councils are missing a trick. They should offer to take on the Freecycle My own council have a recycling site where unwanted stuff is dumped and then sorted by the staff and sold on, often for peanuts.
Seems a fairer system than unpaid moderators.

RacyRed

The UK moderators are being removed from their groups because they dared to express an opinion on the future of the organisation. All of the official forums the moderators use to keep each other informed have been effectively gagged.

Let me make it plain, Deron Beal owns the word Freecycle, not the groups themselves, which were formed and built up by the people running them.

Yesterday the unpaid Director of Freecycle UK for the last 4 years, and once Deron's friend, was sent a standard email throwing him out of the organisation. No other explanation was given.

I don't know what you think but I'm seriously unimpressed with someone who can pull a stunt like that.

kazwookie

I never realised what behind the scenes political nonsense went on:rolleyes:…….. all most people want to do, is get rid of items they no longer want, IMO they are not bothered about the bigwigs here or in the USA…….they just want shot of items for what ever reason…………..

Ken68

Yes Racey, you done right to bring it out in the open. A real can of worms.
Does the UK Director have a contract? Can he appeal. Does he want to appeal!!!
What can ordinary members do ?? I don't drive anymore, so problem solved here, charity shops it is.

RacyRed

Countless more Moderators have been sacked, so many we are finding it easier to keep a list of who hasn't gone yet!

See this Article for more information. The sacking emails are being sent by Nan Bixby, who is mentioned in the article.

A lot, possibly hundreds, of local groups will be leaving the Freecycle network, basically because they no longer have a choice.

Dozens of mods are working flat out to build an alternative. We are trying to do this in a way that causes as little disruption to the groups as possible, but as TFN is behaving like the Borg, picking us off one, by one. We are having to move far faster than we would have liked.

Right now, we need as much support as we can get from our group members. Please help us get through the next few days.

Thanks

Racy
Sacked freecycle moderator

Cardew

Racy,
Thanks for the updates - I will watch my group with interest.

I must say I cannot understand why this conflict has occurred. 'Our' USA masters must have an ulterior motive?

Presumably there are plans in the USA to make Freecycle a commercial enterprise - gain sponsorship? - charge an annual membership fee? - sell our email addresses? etc etc???

Fortunately with the internet, it will be fairly easy to keep the same members and just change the name of the 'club'.

Any ideas of the real reason for the USA flexing their muscles?

robnye

isabelle304 wrote: »

I live in Brighton/Hove and just woke up to an email from my local Freecycle group moderators announcing that (for the various reasons already mentioned on this thread), they are leaving Freecycle and have started a new group which is no longer under the Freecycle banner - they add there is no-one left to run the official Freecycle group. The new group is GreenCycle Sussex and from what I can see will function the same as the official Freecycle (ie via Yahoo groups etc). There are over 17k Brighton Freecycle members so I don't know what this means for them all - the email is not clear on that.

I also belong to the Hove Freecycle group as I live on the Brighton/Hove border - that is a much smaller, slower group - not sure what will happen with that one. At the moment I am totally confused.

i am one of the local moderators of both the old (defunct) freecyclebrighton and its new replacement greencyclesussex

all 17k members of the old group where sent an admin detailing what was going to happen and encouraged to join the new group.

due to unusual circumstances we where unable to just rename the group (which most other groups can do), therefore a completely new group was formed - greencyclesussex

we (my fellow moderator and I) have been feverishly working in the background to get the new group up and running and approving peoples memberships as fast as we can, so the giving away of unwanted items can carry on regardless.

at the end of the day, keeping stuff out off landfill is our priority and we (me and my fellow moderator) felt we needed to move away from the dictatorial style of leadership and control that was happening under the freecycle banner..... maybe the originator of freecycle has alterior motives who knows, the problem is he doesnt seem to want to enter into any meaningful discussion with the grass roots members in the UK.

if you want any more information please email us on GreenCycleSussex-owner@yahoogroups.co.uk