Cardiff Freecycle

CarolynH

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Is anyone else here on Cardiff Freecycle? Just wondering if anyone else is getting concerned about the seeming lack of mod. input? I've had concerns for a while about the number of repeat wanted ad, begging ads, etc, all the usual stuff. But this really seems to be taking the mick and I'm wondering why it got passed .........

Wanted - Girlfriend, 20s, not a weirdo - Cardiff
I am looking for an intelligent, funny and preferably cute girl in her 20s. I am 27, 6 feet tall and also hugely intelligent, funny and some would say handsome. If anyone has one of these to offer I would much appreciate it. Thanks.

I mean .........!

Symbeaux1

The Wirral freecycle got ridiculous and we've now opted out of it, and it's on our 'reject' list for e mail incoming. More 'wanted' than 'offered' posts going on and people employing the automated 'interested in item' software, so even the 'offered's' weren't worth trying to get. But I've not seen an advert like yours.... are there many 'weirdos' in Cardiff ?? That's a heavy specification for an item one is presuming is being 'given away ' as unwanted !!

CarolynH

Hi Symbeaux.

Think I might be following your lead and unsubscribing.

I agree with the principles of Freecycle generally, but they really don't seem to be being followed in the Cardiff group. As well as repeated begging emails from the same individuals (all wanting the world on plate btw!), there's loads of requests for 'non tangible' items (i.e. 'I want advice on this and that). Ours isn't a cafe group as far as I'm aware, and as advice doesn't go into landfill, I can't see why the posts gets passed.

Some other cardiff Freecycle classics ......

:starmod: "WANTED:the services of a brass band (cardiff / any area)"

:starmod: "Really want a psychic person to now tell me where my cordless part of my phone
is as I hid it at the weekend as I was going away and didnt want my phonebill
run up while I was away and now I can't remember where I put the bleeding thing."

:starmod: "hi,
my son bought a nintendo wii with his birthday money this week, and
his bedroom tv is to small to play it on ( need bigger screen ) so he
has been playing on my down stairs tv.

as a result i am missing all my programs eastenders etc!

does anyone have a large tv that we could have so we can set this up
in the dining room please?"

Is it just me being grumpy and unduly harsh here or are these a bit OTT and not in the original spirit of Freecycle?

alison99_2

I haven't bothered looking on Cardiff freecycle for a while, it's been going downhill for some time now.
I much prefer Bridgend freecycle, the mods do a fantastic job and limit wanted ads to wednesdays (wanted wednesdays).

CarolynH

Thanks Alison.

Glad it's not just me thinking there's a mod problem. I just unsubscribed from the Emails and joined the Vale Freecycle, my friend is on there and says it's much better moderated.

Think I might sign up to Bridgend to, I love the idea of 'Wanted Wednesday' :T

carbonmonoxide

CarolynH wrote: »

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Is anyone else here on Cardiff Freecycle? Just wondering if anyone else is getting concerned about the seeming lack of mod. input? I've had concerns for a while about the number of repeat wanted ad, begging ads, etc, all the usual stuff. But this really seems to be taking the mick and I'm wondering why it got passed .........

Wanted - Girlfriend, 20s, not a weirdo - Cardiff
I am looking for an intelligent, funny and preferably cute girl in her 20s. I am 27, 6 feet tall and also hugely intelligent, funny and some would say handsome. If anyone has one of these to offer I would much appreciate it. Thanks.

I mean .........!

I saw thast post - I really hope for his sake that guy isn't serious!!!
I've used Cardiff freecycle a couple of times and had mixed experiences. I was giving away a sofa bed once, someone got in touch with me and I gave them some more details and told them to get back in touch if they were still interested. In the meantime someone else then contacted me and said they could pick it up there and then as their daughter was moving out and needed a sofa bed. I hadn't heard back off the first person and having already been let down by the Salvation Army I wanted rid of it that dsay. They turned out to be some of the most genuine and nice people I have met and I was glad the sofa bed went to such a good home.
Then I saw the other side of freecycle - I e-mailed the first person back to say sorry but actually the sofa bed had now gone. He e-mailed me back a ton of abuse saying I had "promised" it to him and he had even hired out a van to pick it up tomorrow (despite the fact we hadn't agreed anything). He had obviously made that up to try and makle me feel bad, what a t**t.
So, I think this freecycle thing is a good idea but you just have to be careful about who you are dealing with.

lisagav69

This thread has come to the attention of the moderators of Cardiff Freecycle and I would like to go through some of the points raised on here.

Firstly we currently have just over 12,000 members at present compared to a very much smaller number than those on the other Freecycle groups in the area so that firstly makes it harder to moderate.

I am also a moderator on the Caerphilly group where the rules there are a lot more stricter and I would so love to implement some of them in the Cardiff Group. My main complaint about the Cardiff group is the level of Wanted ads. At the moment the rule is one unique request per month per member but unlimited on how many different wanted requests a member can send in whereas on Caerphilly it is only 5 wanted requests in total from each member allowed per month but then it is much easier to track these ones as it's a lot smaller group and no where near as much traffic goes through as on the Cardiff group. If I was to sit down and look into detail on every wanted ad that came in I'd never be off the laptop. By 8am there can be over 30 messages waiting to go through



With the volume of traffic that comes through the Cardiff group it would be very hard to set such a high ruling and I've tried raising the subject (along with others) to the other mods on the group.



As for the info requests, we've discussed it and don't see that there is a problem at all. Yes it's not the whole point of Freecycle and yes, I know a lot of other groups do not allow them but we allow them through and a lot of people get a lot of help and we have never (up until reading this forum) recieved any complaint from the asking for info.

I also disagree with the begging emails and to be honest, I've edited quite a few messages and got rid of all the 'desperatly' 'have to have now' 'urgently' referances but sometimes it's just not possible to edit and go through every message that comes in. If you think the ones that get through are bad, you should see some of the ones we reject!

I also think that the whole idea of Freecycle doesn't exsist in a lot of groups, not just Cardiff. It's all about getting stuff for free, not keeping stuff out of landfills with only a small percentage being genuine. There's a lot of gready people out there and I've my fair share of unpleasent experiences, and I'm sure every group in the country will have some undesired members. Once the ad has gone up it's up to individuals then to conduct the exchange. Of course if there is a problem then it can be reported to the moderators and I always try and help if I can. Being a mod aswell, we get personal attacks when we reject messages. I had one about 2 weeks ago as I kept on rejecting one guys post as he constantly asked for the same thing for 5 days which led to him personally insulting me in the end and telling me how I wasn't a nice person!

And esp today as it is Earth Day so even more of a reason to push across the whole meaning of the group.

I'm personally doing my best & don't like being told that I'm not. I have a 3yr daughter to look after and reply to queries and moderate as much as I can, sometimes having to go through 20 emails and 60+ messages at one time.

If you have any ideas on how we can improve the group then please let us know. But please remember that with over 12,000 members, we simply cannot keep track of every member.

For example: The Vale group has just over 1000 members so they can easily keep track of every message that comes through and are able to have stricter rules as they have the resources to do that whereas we have 12,000 members, 9 mods with only 2 being active at present.

I could actually go on and on baout this but I think I'm lucky if anyones read this far down already!

carbonmonoxide

Hi Lisagav,

persoanally I don't have a problem with the site. I mean that girlfriend ad was just plain funny. considering there are so many posts and so many members i think you are doing the best you can. keep up the good work!

CarolynH

lisagav69 wrote: »

I could actually go on and on baout this but I think I'm lucky if anyones read this far down already!

I read that far and I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

It sounds like you need more mods? That's an awful lot for two people to be doing. Are they looking for more - with 12,000 members to choose from it should be possible to find a few more? Possibly part of the problem may be that no-one knows who, where or how to offer? I never did.

When I mentioned 'concerns about the lack of mod input', I meant just that. It sounds like you have some of the same concerns (you mention wanting to implement some stricter rules). I don't think that mods should have to be glued to their pcs, nor should they stop having a life. But after reading your post, I do think the group should have enough mods to allow you to moderate consistantly and to the groups own rules whilst still having a life.

lisagav69 wrote: »

As for the info requests, we've discussed it and don't see that there is a problem at all. Yes it's not the whole point of Freecycle and yes, I know a lot of other groups do not allow them but we allow them through and a lot of people get a lot of help and we have never (up until reading this forum) recieved any complaint from the asking for info

I know what you mean, what concerned me recently was what I took to be a very thinly disguised sales ad for nealy new pram. (Phrased as looking for advice on where/how to sell). Perhaps it's just me being harsh and the mods are more qualified than me to judge, it was just my opinion.

lisagav69 wrote: »

It's all about getting stuff for free, not keeping stuff out of landfills with only a small percentage being genuine

Guess this was my mis-interpretation, I'm a recycling type of girl so focused on the landfill element, the fact that 'free' is in the name should probably have given this away. My bad :doh:

Cybernite

Hi,

I read this far down Lisa/Gav very well said and eloquently put.

I am mod on Cardiff freecycle so we have @least 3 Mod`s :rotfl:and we all pull our weight when real life lets us.

We have many members 12,000 + so all mods have a lot of work to do to keep it clean and tight.

So before you complain about the way things are done, walk a mile in our shoes if you Think you could do better? Prove it..

Join up for a MOD job and do a weeks work here with us and then you will see for yourself.
What are you waiting for get hands on and help us to help our world.:EasterBunnot just eat it roflol:D

All the best :T

Cyber:beer: cardiff freecycle Mod

brightonman123

i heard there's a new website, called www.chavcycle.com
wher people can get rid of unwanted hoodies, baseball caps, prams etc..