Freecycle is it corrupt??

drsue_2

http://www.goodnewsforpolarbears.org/

This is a new site recently launched -

They have written a whole piece on the differences between them and freecycle - sounds like the founders were fed up with freecycle too

Take a look
http://goodnewsforpolarbears.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/the-difference-between-freecycle-and-goodnewsforpolarbears/

Cardew

MyLastFiver wrote: »

I am convinced Freecycle has been ruined. I wanted to pass on useable stuff to people who might not be able to afford to buy it, but I listed some items last year, and all the replies I got were from "women" saying things like "ooh that will be lovely in my little girl's bedroom" but it was always blokes in transit vans who came to collect.

My stuff goes to the charity shop now.

Likewise I am convinced that Freecycle has simply become the happy hunting ground for the EBAY/Car Boot merchants.

If the mods wanted they could soon stop this practice.

RacyRed

Cardew wrote: »

Likewise I am convinced that Freecycle has simply become the happy hunting ground for the EBAY/Car Boot merchants.

If the mods wanted they could soon stop this practice.

How Cardew? Just exactly how do we stop them? Wave a magic wand?

Ebay and car booters are allowed as long as they say that is what they are doing.

FREECYCLE IS ABOUT KEEPING THINGS OUT OF LANDFILL.

It is NOT about ensuring things go only to "needy" people. Everyone and anyone is encouraged to recycle. FULLSTOP! It is every bit as important for people who might have a bit of spare cash to get into the recycling habit and stop throwing things out/buying things new as it is for those who are broke.

How many of you make a point of using the fair offer policy when offering something and waiting a couple of days before deciding who to give it to? YOU get to choose who you give things to. Check people out on the group if you want, see who is offering stuff themselves before you choose who to give your stuff to.

How many of you give items to the first person to respond, then wonder why the car booters and Ebayers are the only people you seem to get coming round?

If you don't want to be bothered selling something yourself and want someone to turn up and take it away without you having to do anything more than write a couple of emails, why do you care what that person then does with it? If you do care, ask questions, make sure you are comfortable with the person you are giving the item to.

If you get some idiot saying "I want that, deliver it" do you report that email to the moderators? They can't do anything about it if you don't tell them!

Freecycle is as good as its members and to be honest, members get the group they deserve. Look to your own actions before you start having a go at a group or its moderators.

Rant over from a damned hard working Freecycle moderator on a big London group, now wondering why the hell she bothers spending hours of her own time doing her best to look after her group if this is the attitude of so many people.

Hell, even the title of this thread is offensive to the thousands of people who try to make freecycle work.

Rant over. :mad:

niknaknoo1982

Cardew wrote: »

Likewise I am convinced that Freecycle has simply become the happy hunting ground for the EBAY/Car Boot merchants.

If the mods wanted they could soon stop this practice.

There's no way to block ebayers from using Freecycle. I battled with this as an ex freecycle group owner. If you ban a member they will only come back with another i.d! Also even if say 'frank2002' is posting wanteds for 'Maclaren Prams' on freecycle, and then you find someone called 'frank2002' (made up i.d by the way!) on ebay selling Maclaren Prams, you still cannot do anything because there is NO PROOF he got his prams on Freecycle!!

ladypinkof66

[QUOTE

How many of you make a point of using the fair offer policy when offering something and waiting a couple of days before deciding who to give it to?



Rant over. :mad:[/QUOTE]

I use freecycle to get rid of stuff that i want to dispose of in a hurry so i do not wait a few days before deciding to give it to someone as no doubt they will also want to wait a few days to collect if they collect at all then you could be stuck with something for up to a week.

I choose to give to maybe 1st or 2nd request in order to get it shifted when I have decided to get rid of something I want it out immediately.

Cardew

RacyRed wrote: »

How Cardew? Just exactly how do we stop them? Wave a magic wand?

Ebay and car booters are allowed as long as they say that is what they are doing.

FREECYCLE IS ABOUT KEEPING THINGS OUT OF LANDFILL.

It is NOT about ensuring things go only to "needy" people. Everyone and anyone is encouraged to recycle. FULLSTOP! It is every bit as important for people who might have a bit of spare cash to get into the recycling habit and stop throwing things out/buying things new as it is for those who are broke.

How many of you make a point of using the fair offer policy when offering something and waiting a couple of days before deciding who to give it to? YOU get to choose who you give things to. Check people out on the group if you want, see who is offering stuff themselves before you choose who to give your stuff to.

How many of you give items to the first person to respond, then wonder why the car booters and Ebayers are the only people you seem to get coming round?

If you don't want to be bothered selling something yourself and want someone to turn up and take it away without you having to do anything more than write a couple of emails, why do you care what that person then does with it? If you do care, ask questions, make sure you are comfortable with the person you are giving the item to.

If you get some idiot saying "I want that, deliver it" do you report that email to the moderators? They can't do anything about it if you don't tell them!

Freecycle is as good as its members and to be honest, members get the group they deserve. Look to your own actions before you start having a go at a group or its moderators.

Rant over from a damned hard working Freecycle moderator on a big London group, now wondering why the hell she bothers spending hours of her own time doing her best to look after her group if this is the attitude of so many people.

Hell, even the title of this thread is offensive to the thousands of people who try to make freecycle work.

Rant over. :mad:

Well firstly on my group it expressly forbids resale of any item.

Secondly, I agree with you that some groups allow car-booters/ebay as long as they say they want the goods for resale.

However you know, I know and everyone knows that they simply never say that they intend to resell items. If they did they would be at the bottom of most people's list for receiving.

Thirdly, I most decidedly do care "what that person does with it". I care because I absolutely hate being deceived and taken for a mug by some lying opportunist. In my book they are scum!

Some lady wrote early in this thread that she felt sick at the thought of being conned in the same manner.

You only have to read the sentiments expressed in this thread to appreciate the detrimental effect that the EBAY/Car boot merchants have on Freecycle and it probably prevents many people from offering goods.

Of course we all appreciate the good work done by the Moderators. However I am suggesting that effort put into tracing these people will pay dividends and improve Freecycle immensely.

Tell people you are trying to stop these people and seek their help. Ask people to religiously report who has received goods(in 'Taken')

Publish the names of those who take lots of items. Sure they can change names and re-register, but it isn't difficult to trace them from their IP address - plenty of websites to show you how to do this.

P.S.
The title of this thread was because the OP was musing that some moderators/owners were abusing Freecycle by having first chance at getting attractive goods(possibly for re-sale?) It has since become a general thread on Freecycle.

lightisfading

Simple solution:

1) give items worth something... ie that would not be taken to landfill ... to charity (if you do your research there are plenty of places which provide furniture, prams etc to people who need them directly, it's not just charity shops), or sell them yourself (even if you just put a local ad up for £5).
2) Put items that you actually would take to landfill on freecycle - which after all is what it's meant for.
3) Do some research yourself. Search for the username on your freecycle group - does that person offer anything? Do they post lots of wanteds? Make your own judgement.
4) Don't just offer it to the first person that replies. Wait a while, Read through all the replies and offer to the one that a) seems good from your searches (above) and b) doesn't sound like an a$$ in their email.

I set up my local freecycle group, a friend now runs it (and puts a HELL of a lot of work into it), it has more than a thousand members, and I've had loads of pleasant 'transactions' on it. In fact, I don't think I've once dealt with a re-seller - despite offering loads of items and being gifted many others (such as a glass tank for my escaped hamsters, delivered within 6 hours of my original post, a hoover, when mine broke down, and thick curtains which were desperately needed). Freecycle is a fantastic idea and saves huge amounts of stuff from landfill - who cares if they're reselling it anyway, if you're just going to throw it away? If you're that bothered wait til a #wanted' comes up from someone who really needs it. :mad:

gravitytolls

I want to swap out lovely high sleeper/futon beds for decent divans. Hardly anyone sdeems to have swapcycle, so I offered a swap on freecycle. I am a reguylar donater of very good quality items, I give far more than I receive, and totally adhere to the community spirit of sharing decent items, rather than dumping. But my post was removed, I can only put a wanted, and then add an offered after I've received. Seems silly to me, if the sole purpose is to keep stuff from landfill, as the offered divans are often only suitable for landfill, yet a swap for good quality items is likely to be more productive.

I will probably end up buying divans and giving the high beds to the local Sally Army furniture shop, so freecycle will have failed.

shiningdove

gunslinger13401 wrote: »

Seems like a lot of posts for items are not making the board but are taken.
I guess the takers are psychic.
There must be huge temptation for administrators seeing items before it reaches board.
Does this happen?

Of course they don't!
On freecycle you can sign up for the email alerts of items.
You always get an email through of what the item is before it actually gets posted onto the boards, and in the time it takes them to put it on the board that item can be taken and collected by someone whos recived the email.

hula-hoops

Our group allows the 'Argos catalogue-style wish lists' for a simple reason: so that all users know who is in it for the spirit of recycling and who is plain old greedy. So there was a family on our group who asked for everything. Absolutely everything. Not a week went by without several wanteds from them, even for food. And every offer that I posted they responded to also. But because of their continuous wanted posts I decided against giving my offereds to them. Had their wanted posts been deleted or banned I would never have known. Our group owner likes us to make our own judgement on who should get what. And that's fine by me.

Another thing I do is this. When I have placed an 'offered' and have selected the recipient, I place a 'taken' message like this: 'Taken - Lampshade. Blue lampshade taken STC by Steve/Margaret/Mickey Mouse etc'. That way people can see if Steve or Margaret are grabbing everything and also if I have to subsequently post a 're-offered due to non-collection' message then anyone who wants to know who the non-collector was can see without me actually having to name and shame. It's more subtle.