Freecle / freecycle and balloons on sticks

SpammyTheSpammer

I was talking about this issue of people wanting the latest stuff on FreeCycle at a Transition meeting just recently.

One of the people there told me that they take particular delight in listing this exact stuff, obviously they do not actually have the item but just enjoy the wind-up.

Examples:-

• XBox 360, unwanted present. Still boxed and unused. With controllers and some games,
• Large chest of old UK & Foreign coins, years old so probably valueless (!)
• Laptop (model picked from BEST LAPTOP 2010 GUIDE) for a good home, only used once.

They said that the replies to the laptop offer were particularly amusing. Comments like "this is a bit old now but might be usefull for parts or spares -I'll take it off your hands." Yeh, right!

They said that you get mailbombed within seconds of posting and usually by the same people but that there is the odd (1 in 100) decent person that points out:-

"That may be valuable - are you sure that you want to give it away? Perhaps get it valued first...".

chickywiggle

SpammyTheSpammer wrote: »

I was talking about this issue of people wanting the latest stuff on FreeCycle at a Transition meeting just recently.

One of the people there told me that they take particular delight in listing this exact stuff, obviously they do not actually have the item but just enjoy the wind-up.

Examples:-

• XBox 360, unwanted present. Still boxed and unused. With controllers and some games,
• Large chest of old UK & Foreign coins, years old so probably valueless (!)
• Laptop (model picked from BEST LAPTOP 2010 GUIDE) for a good home, only used once.

They said that the replies to the laptop offer were particularly amusing. Comments like "this is a bit old now but might be usefull for parts or spares -I'll take it off your hands." Yeh, right!

They said that you get mailbombed within seconds of posting and usually by the same people but that there is the odd (1 in 100) decent person that points out:-

"That may be valuable - are you sure that you want to give it away? Perhaps get it valued first...".

lolll brilliant.... so want to give that a go!

clairetelche1

On ours today:
TitleWANTED: Flat Screen TVFromTUSSFCDateFri, 11 Mar 2011 18:46:59 -0000LocationHeatonDescriptionI am sick to death of people asking for stuff like this on freecycle -
with their reason being they are unemployed, blah blah blah.

Well, I want a flat screen TV. I am EMPLOYED. I work 12 hours shifts -
day shifts and night shifts. I work my nuts off. I pay taxes, NI, pay
back my student loans, pay all my debts, spend my money on making sure
my children are sorted. This leaves me and my missus with NOTHING to
spend on ourselves, ever. So please give us a flat screen TV if you were
thinking of chucking yours in the bin (that's what freecycle is all
about after all - saving the landfills!!!).

Don't give it to the unemployed bum who wants to watch Jeremy Kyle while
looking on monster.com at jobs they will never get.

Give it to me and my kids. We've earned it.

Thanks for reading.
Reply to this online at:
http://groups.freecycle.org/toon/posts/9578873

kodabar

I run a Freecycle group in Northumberland and we get a pretty good balance of wants to offers. Sometimes people are a little bit optimistic with what they're asking for, but I'm often surprised by what people are willing to offer.

Had a guy on recently asking for a car so as he could get to work more easily; he wasn't after anything fancy, just something that would run. I didn't think he'd be lucky, but within an hour, he'd been offered one.

Equally so, I'm surprised by some of the things that people offer. Being a rural area, we get a surprising amount of chickens offered and they usually find a good home. Recently I saw someone offer an entire lounge suite because it was in "last year's colours."

Wanted ads can very helpful because often you may have things that you wouldn't think of placing an offered ad for, but it turns out that they're useful after all. When the building I live in was renovated, it was full of storage heaters. They're rather heavy so we tore them apart and ended up with a pile of the brick-things from inside them. I despaired of trying to get rid of them, but someone posted on Freecycle to say they were looking for some to build a kiln (and I note the post in this thread marvelling that someone would ask for a kiln).

Large groups are tricky to run due to the sheer volume of posts. Luckily my town only has a population of about 7,000, but over 1,000 of them are members of our Freecycle group. Each new member is moderated until they have posted a couple of ads properly (it's an option us moderators can turn on) and we have a hotwords list which automatically suspends posts containing certain words (I've got it set to hold listings mentioning iphones, xboxes, etc).

I work from home, so I can monitor every post as it is made to the group. If anything seems dubious, suspicious or just ambiguous, I'll normally get on to the person making the post to see if we can sort it out. Some days that can be a lot of work.

I appreciate that the gall of some of the wanted ads is quite amazing at times, but the moderators do try to strike a balance - time permitting. Every now and then, a spammer or an idiot gets through and it annoys everyone. But what you don't see is all the rubbish we block before it ever gets to you.

Some users just make one despair. I had one write to me to complain that a person offering them an item had asked them to collect it from their porch and put the tarpaulin covering it in a nearby cupboard. He was outraged by having to do this small thing in order to get free stuff. He then emails her to tell her he doesn't want it because it won't fit (dunno what the item actually was). He then emails someone else offering a similar item, only it isn't someone else, it's the same person and the same item. And then he complains to me again because she caught him out. Sigh.

If you want a chortle at some outrageous Freecycle ads, then have a look at Freakcycle. Just search for that term on Google (I'm new and can't post links)

whispywillow

The best thing I ever saw posted on the Liverpool Freecycle, was a man asking for night vision goggle to help him get back home from the pub 'on these dark nights'. Brilliant.

chickywiggle

lol.... freakcycle link here!

poppyjay

Seen this weekend has anyone a spare horsebox they don't want?

chickywiggle

again not on freegle but great all the same

wanted,the earth,for free.or under £10 if poss.must be able to deliver foc.thanks!!

pulliptears

Someone on ours was offering a 'Brad Maker" earlier. Tempting to message them saying if it could make 'Brad' of the 'Pitt' variety I'd take it!

whispywillow

pulliptears wrote: »

Someone on ours was offering a 'Brad Maker" earlier. Tempting to message them saying if it could make 'Brad' of the 'Pitt' variety I'd take it!

hahaha, ooooo, i'd defo have one of those bad boys!