Freecle / freecycle and balloons on sticks

grayme-m

Angie74 wrote: »

Does being disabled make her more deserving of somewhere to put her clothes?

So annoying when they give you a sob story. Especially when it makes no difference to her needing a wardrobe. I'd be more likely to offer it to someone else.

Whoooooooooooooooooosh? :rotfl:

Like dibuzz, I feel for this poor woman.

kathy206

Our freegle is now beyond ridiculous. The same person on ours keeps offering a load of tat such as scratched dvds carrier bags and the like and then asks for a caravan preferably with awning and please can it be delivered. Others asking for laptops games consoles and brand new games . I too get sick of the sob stories and for the love of God don't get me started on the rude requests for something I've offered. Grrrr.

montymud

Is it wrong that I get so peeved when people say 'wanted for my disabled child' It really really irks me. I am so glad I no longer moderate, it was so tedious day in day out rejecting posts for the same reason. No one is ever desperate for a fish tank or urgently in need of a fireplace. It really wound me up to the point where I didn't want to log on anymore.

Amber_Sunshine

Today´s begging/sob story post:

"I need an Android phone as mine was stolen."

No, you don´t need it, you want it. If you need a phone, anything working would do.

mttylad

Unfortunately although I agree with what has been said above about needing stuff, it really makes the moderators life hard because we have to make judgment calls like this, explain why we do not want the post on the board like that or if we do allow it explain to the people complaining why it was allowed, and in order to prevent posts like that we have to keep people moderated - this is not something we as mods want to do to all because it makes our work (as volunteers) that much harder.

Freecycle sites that use the freecycle.org site for posting are strictly controlled by TFN themselves and if they make a post that shows they are not a spammer they must become un moderated, so the mods often have little control over their posting.

So what we do, is we leave it upto the readers to make their own mind up if the poster as telling a sob story, for the reader to learn who these people are and to just ignore them.

Freegle have a good interface that allows people to post via Freegle Direct or Facebook (or via the Yahoo groups) yet posts will still go to the yahoo groups for moderating - this then takes the mods time, time that could be spent doing other things. So un moderating people when they show they are not going to cause problems then allows them to post sob stories freely. (post too many and they may be moderated again but only when the mods notice).

So I can see why the lead moderater quoted above has given up - if there was another mug to take over my groups I too would do it in a shot!

BTW, I desperately need a new car, it must be an Audi - at least an A3/1.6 or 2.0l diesel and must come with warranty, tax & MOT - delivery next Tuesday would be good. I need it to take my disabled dead goldfish to the vets 100miles away every day for a check up. I would prefer it to be red in colour and with a full tank of fuel.

Mindless_Clone

My local freecycle have implemented a rule of "no sob stories". basically they say you can only put that you want something, not why you want it. That way people are free to give without bias if they want to. It's great in some ways, but does go against genuine people in need and makes it hard to weed out the folks who are constantly on the take to sell on etc.

paddyrg

Guess what this ad is for...

my son had 4 tyres slashed last week, his girlfriends car engine blew up and then a visiting cat knocked a cup of tea over her laptop. they have just about managed to pay for the vehicles, and have none left. pretty please and thankyou for reading.

A laptop. Not sure what the cars have to do with anything?!

chickywiggle

paddyrg wrote: »

Guess what this ad is for...

A laptop. Not sure what the cars have to do with anything?!

I think I'd offer them a 4-leaf clover instead - sounds like they need some good luck.

chickywiggle

now THIS i could understand IF it wasn't Halloween next week.

Hi, We are having a halloween party. If anyone has any decorations they are not planning on using I would be more than grateful of them.

soooo tempted to send back "so am I, I found poundland, home bargains and clintons very reasonable" (esp as where they live they are at most 10 mins away from all 3.)............. you may even get a thankyou.

gayleanne

Last night I put 3 items on our local freecycle, 1} a 7 seater beige leather corner couch with matching pouffe.

2} Hotpoint washing machine still under warrenty

3} Beko Tumble dryer still under warrenty

I am having a new kitchen being fitted and all the appliances will be integrated.

I put these on the site using the Fair Offer Policy, so that everyone has a chance to apply it will not be given to the first email that I get. So far I have had over 200 emails, and everyone is a sob story, surely there cant be that many disasters, or ill luck stories, from such a small town.

I have also had the ones with the person demanding that I give them an answer straight away, and another one, who is asking for the 3 items, but she has forgotten what she has written first it was for her daughter, who is unmarried with 3 kids, then it was for her niece who has 3 children all disabled, then for her son who has just lost his job.

I think that I will just sell them next time