Freecle / freecycle and balloons on sticks

pitkin2020

mttylad wrote: »

Surely "Glasgow" actually represents a large area?
Both Freegle and Freecycle are about local gifting, so saying "Glasgow" could mean that someone from the other side might think that you are
clsoe to them - when in fact they would have to cross the entire (is it a city?) to get to you.

However, using the local area name, and I am sure that most parts of most places have local names will identify it to a smaller area than the whole of Glasgow.

But he was asking for a wanted not an offered so it doesn't matter where the person thinks he is if he offering to collect from glasgow.

I see your point if he was offering something, its a large area but for wanted he is merely giving himself a wider audience.

adouglasmhor

mttylad wrote: »

Surely "Glasgow" actually represents a large area?
Both Freegle and Freecycle are about local gifting, so saying "Glasgow" could mean that someone from the other side might think that you are
clsoe to them - when in fact they would have to cross the entire (is it a city?) to get to you.

However, using the local area name, and I am sure that most parts of most places have local names will identify it to a smaller area than the whole of Glasgow.

Glasgow City is around 11 miles wide by 6 deep (67.6 square miles in total), so as I am not much more than 3 miles north from the geographic centre it's never going to be more than about 8 miles to where I am going to pick it up if it is in the city, as I also said surrounding area obviously it could be further. I have a mountain bike and a car. i don't know why you thought I wanted it delivered? i suspect you are the same sort of petty naysayer as the admin on the site.

Despite being such a small geographic area it has a relatively high population as an above average proportion of people live in flatted dwellings. (multi-story, four in a block, tenement, low-rise, conversion etc,).

Despite this people do not tend to know how small the city is and imagine vast distances between areas, people think where I live is miles out and I could miss out on an offer because someone thinks I am the other side of the country.

babyemily

This one made me chuckle;

TitleWANTED: dumbells wanted FromDateTue, 26 Jul 2011 17:25:35 -0000Locations areaDescriptiondoes anyone have some dumbells i need them as i have a mussel wasting
problem, please can you help me thankyou, i can collect to suit you
Edited to comply with group guidelines
Reply to this online at:
http://groups.freecycle.org/ _Freecycle/posts/13036481
Or by email: 13036481@posts.freecycle.org

KevInChester

Somebody on my local one has just asked for:

A PS3
A Quad Bike
Petrol Lawnmower engine
Bedroom furniture
and a Remote Controlled Car

Not asking for much then.

Cool_Mint

I hate Freecycle, the rules are too strict and there is no allowance whatsoever for common sense or discretion. Worldwide, the group itself is controlled by just one man in America who runs it like a business (some say it IS a business) and he won't allow any deviation from the standard template; any post made that contains "unnecessary" information is blocked or edited. The idea that Freecycle is a "community" is total bull***t, it's not even possible for Freecyclers to say hello to each other on Yahoo Groups because conversation is not allowed.

Freegle is slightly better but the simple fact is nobody uses it so it is slowly dying a death; my local Freegle group had about 5 new messages in two months compared to about 200 on Freecycle.

I understand that buying and selling are not allowed because of the possibility of stolen goods exchanging hands (a greasy little oik in a bike shop near my town came in and tried to sell a BMX worth about £100-£150 for £5, obviously stolen 5 minutes ago!) but that goes on in all the free newspapers anyway so should we really be quite so tight on it? Surely the mods could use their own judgment as to whether something looks suspicious.

Many people on Freecycle ask for expensive items but WOULD pay for them if there was an option to, but there isn't so they HAVE to ask for them for free; you can't go on Freecycle and say "does anyone have a car for £100 with a little bit of T&T left on it?" because it's against the rules for money to change hands.

I am somewhat against the rule of reselling being banned too; I want items I offer to go to a good home but I don't have any objection to people making money out of my old junk so long as they don't lie about it. It's not as if people on Freecycle don't already give BS sob stories in an effort to be first in the queue anyway.

I'd like to see a sub-section of Freecycle that did allow buying & selling for members who have a good reputation but there's no option for members to discuss any new possibilities within Yahoo Groups and if someone tried to set up an independent forum for Freecyclers (which I suppose has already been tried) it would be threatened with legal action by the "boss" of Freecycle.

dizziblonde

soolin wrote: »

My local freegle group have just sent out a survey about possible changes to the service. It has the usual, how do you prefer to receive your email, sort of question but it also mentions a few times posisibly charging to use freegle.

Has anyone else had that sort of email from their mods?

Why would I pay to see an endless stream of begging for luxury goods, with attached sob stories - oh and one offered for a slightly used cardboard box with a hole in both ends?

I'm registered on it to get rid of the odd bits and bobs I need but increasingly the wanteds are getting ridiculous again (iphones etc - the mods slapped things into touch once but it's bubbling outta hand again) and I keep thinking of cancelling my membership TBH.

Tigsteroonie

Cool-Mint, it must be a regional thing. Around Manchester, Freegle is very actively used.

adouglasmhor

We have a freeshare group in Glasgow as well, people who left fc set it up.

bethesda

Cool_Mint wrote: »

I'd like to see a sub-section of Freecycle that did allow buying & selling for members.

we have a cheapcycle in our area, maybe it's worth a search for one near you or you could set one up

Soubrette

Well I know I can be a bit mardy sometimes but I've been banned from both my local and the next freecycle group:o

I did not put a location on a wanted post - the first time ever because I don't see the point of them on wanted although I think they're a very good idea from an offered pov.

I asked why and was told some rubbish and so said I would put the location on all my posts in future although I didn't agree with the reasoning. The mod emailed back rather pompously and did not acknowledge what I said, I emailed back expanding why I thought it was rubbish but said that as I was going to do it anyway there was no point her responding.

I found out today I was getting no posts - which is suspicious on our two groups and couldn't post on either.

Luckily I had the email from the mod and asked her why I had been banned and who I can complain to - apparently it is the american group only - is this true? and I'm banned because I'm refusing to follow the rules of posting an area which is of course rubbish and unluckily for the mod I still have all the relevant correspondence.

Obviously I don't want to rejoin although I do want to complain about this mod who has banned me because I pee'd her off (so much for the environmental reasons of keeping things out of landfill!!) and I don't fancy freegle as ours just seem to have lifted the same look as freecycle.

What I'd ideally want is a freecycle type movement that uses vbulletin - where you can thank people and have threads that are easy to read so questions could be asked about items etc.

Is there anything like this?