Freecycle is it corrupt??

brightonman123

is there a freecycle 'rule book'? - ie, are moderators themselves checked by freecycle spies?

Ken68

No doubt brightonman, and not sure if they get paid, but site owners and moderators should have some recompense, perks whatever, and 'first pick' would be a no cost way of doing this.
If I ran a site the moderators and I would have a standing wish list, and alerts given when something comes up.

robnye

yes there is a rule book, see http://www.freecycle.org/
moderator manual = http://www.freecycle.org/faq/?menu=manual
member - FAQ = http://www.freecycle.org/faq/?menu=faq

as ive said before (see reply 59 and 332),
i am one of 2 moderators for my local freecycle group.
firstly.......
we volunteer..... which means we do it out of the kindness of our hearts.... and certainly dont receive any payment for moderating.... which in a group our size 11K members, receiving over 2K emails per month..... validating them takes some considerable time.

cheery picking does not happen with me or my fellow moderator/group owner.....

chelleyb

Personally, I think that freecycle etc is open to abuse, but so is everything?

I have both given things away and received things from freecycle and I have been very happy with the service, it has saved me a lot of time and money and energy!

I think that people who request things and then sell them on should be ashamed of themselves when there are genuine needy people who are grateful of items. honestly, that is just terrible and its the few people like that who spoil things for the majority of honest, decent people out there!

angelatgraceland

brightonman123 wrote: »

i sometimes wonder what is going on, when items offered are 'taken' less than an hour later..

rather unfair on people who dont have net access during the day..

perhaps F/C owners can get together, and make ALL offerers wait a few hours, to allow people to reply?

That is technically and physically impossible.How could we do that? Once the post is approved the person wanting the item emails the offerer. We cannot be there to stop them replying. Who people give to is up to them. However-I always recommend to wait 24 hours for the very reasons others have expressed.
What happens sometimes is that the person giving posts the item on more than one group at the same time-crossposting-we don't like it either and try to stop it.

Quite the opposite of cherrypicking is the fact that a lot of people do not offer anything to the mods just because they "think" they get the pick. Any members who truly understand how its run will know this is impossible.Not all messages are moderated-trusted members get their messages straight on the site and the mods often don't see them for hours. We are now encouraging people to state the i.d.(not the email) of the person who collected the item. This shows up who the grabbers are and also shows who the givers are. No-we do not get paid-we are all unpaid volunteers who do it because we believe in it.

catman-without_wings wrote: »

Interesting thread. We are net givers and never give to the "I'll have it where are you lot" However have been very lucky to get stuff that although has little monetary value was important to us I broke the lid of our teapot(wedding pressie)and managed to get a replacement stuff like that.
However we have just spent a couple of days staying wiht some old friends and the topic got round to freecycle. I think it very much depends on the mods-ours are fine and the thing runs smoothly. Our friends freecycle however is far from fine.
The moderator(we think one in particular)has some sort of God complex. Firstly she decided only the word offer could be used. Posts containing the word offered are always changed. Then she decided to have various polls about freecycle policy
Now the best- she has posted a list of words that cannot be used. Some such as desperate well perhaps but need & ! (can't remember the entire list) now make some of the posts very funny indeed.
Our friends have now registered wiht their adjoining freecycle/realcycle and won't be bothering with Stockport any more.
Piity we don't live a little nearer as its now very very funny indeed.

Unfortunately there are some badly run groups whose mods are for some reason unable to cope or haven't got a clue what they are doing. Regarding polls asking members about policy there are reasons for this. Some group "owners" or mods believe that as the group is for the members that they should have some say over policies which affect them. Most people actually like that! I have had a couple of polls-one regarding pets and one regarding how many wanted requests should be allowed.
These are things that affect the members more than me-because I'm NOT playing God-I like to know that I am running the group that people want-not just running a group. I'm happy to say that I have some very loyal,active,happy members and a lot of very nice emails from time to time. Its not a "soft" group-its a fair group where there is respect and a lot of give and take.
We fulfill what we are supposed to-we keep items out of landfill-that is the main aim. Regarding words that are not allowed-as said earlier it may be because of the tool that some groups use but there are words which Freecycle.org do not allow. If you really want to read the manuals it will give much better understanding as to why these rules are made.

Sailor_Sam wrote: »

On my local Freecycle, St Helens. There are often reminders from the mods as to the rules, not for re-sale; be courteous and post taken etc etc.
A few weeks back the mods posted, they had been to someones house and took goods back, because he had been spotted selling items at a boot sale. They said he had been barred from all Freecycles around Merseyside.

grannybiker wrote: »

Crikey, that's a bit extreme!
Others have already pointed out, the primary purpose of Freecycle is to keep stuff out of landfill. If people are paying for the stuff, they're going to use it, job done!
Although I always prefer my items to go to a person who'll use them, I do want rid! Providing the user clearly stated their intention, or was honest when asked, I really don't have a problem with re-selling.
Unless your Freecycle group is radically different from the 3 different ones I belong to, perhaps your mods should re-read Freecycle's etiquette guides!

The very reason they were barred would be that they had not declared they intended selling the items. Not otherwise. No harm in selling if the giver knows that in advance. Many on my group ask for car boot stuff and get given loads. People do appreciate honesty!

Space_Cowby

As a previous freecycle group owner and now just a member of the same group my success rate for offers and wants has reduced by about 50%.

My experience is that owners and mods are more succesful in 'winning' items.

beetlebum_2

Well having only been using Freecycle for about 3 weeks, it has worked well for me.

My first ad was a wanted one for some pipe, and someone kindly offered me some. So I though I would repay the favour and post a couple of items on. One was a part broken 15 year old water butt and the other was a rusty old stepladder. Admittedly both worked and functioned, but I was glad to get rid of them. The people who turned up certainly done me a favour by taking them off my hands!

west_is_best

I too have been very lucky to have collected a couple of items from people wanting rid of items.
I have items needing to get rid myself, which I havent, as yet.

I have appreciated as well and being thankfull for the items I have received.

freecycle is an wonderfull site, as for abusing the site, you will find this whatever site or wherever you go.... Im afraid we are living in that sort of world now..

Cardew

west_is_best wrote: »

as for abusing the site, you will find this whatever site or wherever you go.... Im afraid we are living in that sort of world now..

Agreed, but that shouldn't stop the criticism of those abusing the site and taking whatever steps we can to stop the abuse.

If owners/mods were more proactive they could easily trace the culprits and ban them, as well as from neighbouring sites.

It is because of the apathy of people that the abuse continues.

maz1964

hiya all

well its a nice idea in principal, but ive given away a dishwasher basket to a lady cos i just had a spare one from the old dishwasher,

then i had to set up again and i got confused by it all again and got a right telling off from one of the mods that id not done something correctly - well that put me right off! okay people do get confused at times, with the logging and the saving etc, it was just the way the email info was sent to me

so now i take it all the charity shops at least i feel my conscious is clear and the charity will get some money

id rather ask my friends if they are interested in something or know someone who would appreciate what i have to give away, this way i also make it more personal

i never got my green house lol

and also i guess a lot may get sold on too

lets just use common sense and help out our friends family and their friends and family that way we know its going somewhere worthwile and makes you feel great in giving it away to somone who has a genuine need

have a fun day ciao maz