Freegle - New home for ex Freecycle groups

ILoveFreegle

To contact the moderators please email northamptonUKfreegle-ownerATyahoogroups.co.uk (replace AT with @).

BBDom

I beat you by a minute !!!!

Cardew

My Freecycle group just changed to freegle.

Unless I had read this thread I might not have noticed as the format of the email is identical. No information to explain the welcome change.

BBDom

Just as a note.

Please whoever your group is with (Freecycle or Freegle) support your group. Support your Moderators and Group Owner and respect your group owners decision to either move or stay where they are.

Some groups are perfectly happy being with Freecycle. They have never got involved with the politics or agree with the way Freecycle in the USA is heading (or are oblivious to it). They might not even know whats going on (believe it or not).

Those groups that have moved to Freegle (530,000 members so far and rising) will have moved with a lot of thought and consideration and if their members support them will continue to grow.

At the end of the day the aim and ethos of both Freecycle and Freegle is to save waste from landfill and the owners of the groups have chosen what they think is the best way of doing this in their area.

Ta

angelatgraceland

purplecatlover wrote: »

i ahvent read the whole thread so sorry if im not gettign th epoint here...
things like offers being snapped up before they are ever posted /QUOTE]

This is often a misunderstanding by members of how messages are posted. Ive had many queries as to how an item has been taken before it has been on the daily digest etc. When you post an offer it goes straight onto the website if its unmoderatted. If it has to be approved it may take a couple of hours but if you are waiting to get your email on daily digest it could be many hours. In that time it could well be taken and a taken post put out. If you check the website rather than your emails you be always be uptodate. The other problem is crossposting-when someone else from another group takes the item-possibly before it even gets onto your own group. I really do not think it is the mods creaming it off-at the end of the day the member offering gives it to whoever they want to give it to and if it is an unmoderated message it gets on the website before even the moderators know about it. This is generally a lack of understanding as to how the system works.

purplecatlover

angelatgraceland wrote: »

This is often a misunderstanding by members of how messages are posted.

it was moderated messages that were coming through as taken, in quite a few cases the offer post never even appeared at all, which was what alerted some members to the problem, how could something be taken if it was never offered on the list.

very good point though about the daily emails being slower than on the group itself.

BBDom

purplecatlover wrote: »

it was moderated messages that were coming through as taken, in quite a few cases the offer post never even appeared at all, which was what alerted some members to the problem, how could something be taken if it was never offered on the list.

very good point though about the daily emails being slower than on the group itself.

Bear in mind that many members are also members of surrounding groups (and other recycle groups) and will post their items on a couple of groups (although they shouldn't really). The item gets taken on the other group so they post to all the groups that the item has been taken. If the Moderator(s) have been busy then their post is delayed.

It happens occasionally on our group and I've had someone moan about it but I'm 100% certain our group Moderators do not abuse the system :beer:

Dinklepops

I have been a moderator on Stirling City Freeycle(R) for three years.
It was therefore after much consideration and certainly not done lightly that we moved the Freecycle(R) group in Stirling City to Stirling City Freegle.
We did this to gain autonomy in the UK for our 4000 members. We do not have any problem with members joining any recycling group they wish but we did want to be able to make decisions that reflected the particular ethos and culture and ways of doing things in this country. That of openess and accountability. We will continue to grow and our members will continue to save stuff from going to landfill.

mttylad

I too am an ex Freecycle group owner and moderator. I took the groups I ran out of the Freecycle network a few months ago, I got so !!!!!! off with the way they were treating not just myself but people that have really put themselves out on behalf of Freecycle. For instance, Edward Hibbert, the creator of the Freecycle plugin, the guy who has made it possible for so many Yahoo groups moderators to do the job so well, without that I am sure many would have stopped long ago. He even went over to Yahoo in America to discuss how to make things better for Freecycle on Yahoo, yet he got snubbed by TFN in doing this and treated badly in the UK moderating groups. When they did that, with other stuff going on at the time I just had enough. Taking the groups out of Freecycle was the best thing for them, I had so many emails of support it bought a tear to my eye, and we only lost about 20 members. I for one am really glad that this final exodus has happened and I would like to see Freegle rise to be an organisation recycling in the UK bigger than Freecycle is. Hopefully before too long they will have the facilities that Freecycle offered (like a message maker) and some of the other groups can join them to bolster the membership. I hope Deron is happy now, he an have all his MF groups & stick them where the sun dont shine

greenbee

Ken68 wrote: »

No big thing surely, only being able to post on one group.

Actually... it is. I live on the boundary of two different groups, and therefore want to post on both to make sure that I maximise the possibility of my stuff finding a home. Most stuff goes via a fast-moving group (which is why stuff is often taken before it gets posted on the other group), but the slower group tends to mop up the stuff that doesn't get picked up on the first group.

I'm happy to support the move away from the freecycle network, as it has become clear that the motivation behind the network has become financial rather than ethical now that there is money in recycling. Hopefully these groups will be able to remain community-based, and each group will be able to work out what rules suit it best.

Good luck to all the hard-working and committed owners & moderators who do this for nothing more than personal satisfaction and a commitment to the ethics of reuse and recycling. (As for the rude/illiterate/misleading users that annoy everyone so much, maybe they'll be left behind, but if not, its down to the users to ignore them or help weed them out).