senseless freecycle rant

[myntik1]

I don't know if any of you guys are freecyclers. I used to be a big proponent of it, but now I've grown to detest my local group.  The basic premise is you have an item you no longer need.  Instead of throwing it away you give it to someone who needs it.  I've given away old vacuums, computers, an old working dishwasher, etc.  I always felt like I was helping the next guy along because he wouldn't have to purchase something I no longer need.  I used to live in a progressive city, now I don't (and I'll leave it at that).  Instead of children's snowboats, old toaster ovens and curtains the new group (determined by my city) I'm in has posters looking for xbox 360s, working vehicles, and video ipods.  To me that violates the community that it was supposed to foster.  Also, there have been several posters concerning replies they've received before their ad was posted.  Usually the forum moderators have to review a post before it can be seen.  Some days they rubber stamp them all and other days it takes a couple of hours before your post is live.  This is when I started to sour on the concept.

I posted an ad yesterday and received an angry response from the moderator and now I need to vent.  Over the summer I loaned a guy on freecycle my lawn roller.  He offered to leave me something for collateral for the roller, I declined.  He used it for a few hours and then brought it back to me.  He told me he was going to borrow a tiller off another member. I thought what a great concept. Obviously I'm not going to lend someone my car, but I wouldn't mind if someone needed to borrow that weedwacker I got at a tag sale for $5.  So I posted an ad looking for a framing gun to borrow.  I offered to put something up for collateral if I damaged the gun or failed to return it.  About an hour later I got myself a new arsehole courtesy of one of the mods. Somehow it's better for me to ask for something valued at 3-4 hundred from someone in my community then to ask to borrow it and put something up as security. It makes no sense to me.

[ChadTower]

Some of us own Freecycle groups.  Lots of us are Freecycle members.

Depending on the group's individual rules, loaning/borrowing is usually against the rules and written clearly in the group policies.  If it's not in the individual group policy file (which is supposed to be mailed to every member once a month) it should be.  Looks like someone was asleep at the mod wheel last year and wasn't this time.

[DrewKaree]

I can't believe they let the "wanted: 360's" posts through though (and their equivalents).  As far as the moderated posts issues, I keep everyone in my group moderated until they've shown 2-3 posts that conform to Freecycle's simple rules and anything additional my group adds, such as no live pets.  One member in our group will NEVER be taken off moderation, and IMO, for good reason.  She ALWAYS posts wanteds, never ONCE since joining has offered anything, and in EVERY post, gives some long sob story about how she and her 2 kids are barely making ends meet and it would mean so much to them to blah blah blah.  Each and every time, I tell her to edit her posts without the sympathy plea/guilt trip additions, and every time, I end up editing her follow-up revision to actually DO what I told her to. 

As I said though, folks DO get removed from moderation after demonstrating they "get" how to post. 

As far as "collateral", technically, it DOES violate the "free" part of Freecycle   I'm thinking that they're figuring that there's other sites out there for swaps such as that, but there's nice ways to let someone know that.

[ChadTower]

My group is full moderation.  It just works better that way in this instance.  If I'm going to be away for a while I will turn moderation off and just not tell anyone until I get back.

[shardian]

This was posted on the local Freecycle yesterday:

  WANTED: Corvette (Charleston)
Posted by: "king_midas21" king_midas21@yahoo.com   king_midas21
Tue Feb 5, 2008 9:35 am (PST)
I am looking for a Corvette would like to find a 1963 Corvette Stingray
but any year would be fine even a new Z06 would be Great.



Okay, why the hell would a mod approve this! I am officially deleting my freecycle account. It is ridiculous!

[ChadTower]

That's probably not a moderated list.  That is exactly why my list is moderated.  Crap like that.

There are no freecycle accounts.  They are Yahoo groups.

[shardian]

That's probably not a moderated list.  That is exactly why my list is moderated.  Crap like that.

There are no freecycle accounts.  They are Yahoo groups.

It is most definitely moderated, and at least one is a real picky ass. They harassed me royal over a simple error in the Title of one of my posts.

okay Mr. Stickler, I am unsubscribing from the group then.

[ChadTower]

It is most definitely moderated, and at least one is a real picky ass. They harassed me royal over a simple error in the Title of one of my posts.

I've seen that in other local lists with multiple moderators.  The neighboring one has one mod that will pick the crap out of users and one that is very friendly and helpful.

okay Mr. Stickler, I am unsubscribing from the group then.

Sorry, sore spot.  I deal all the time with users harrassing me to "delete my freecycle account".  I send a note explaning the concept to them and they don't get it.  Then I unsubscribe them myself and I continue to get harrassed because they are still receiving mail from other Freecycle lists that are beyond my control.

[DrewKaree]

This was posted on the local Freecycle yesterday:

  WANTED: Corvette (Charleston)
Posted by: "king_midas21" king_midas21@yahoo.com   king_midas21
Tue Feb 5, 2008 9:35 am (PST)
I am looking for a Corvette would like to find a 1963 Corvette Stingray
but any year would be fine even a new Z06 would be Great.



Okay, why the hell would a mod approve this! I am officially deleting my freecycle account. It is ridiculous!

Is that group a busy one?  Mine doesn't have many postings, but the next closest "community" is QUITE busy (about 3 dozen+ postings per day).  If the list is moderated, you might get someone wanting to just quickly approve ALL messages without actually moderating them.  Remember, the mods are volunteer positions.  The group owner might just be a bad assessor of people and have a "whatever, dude" kind of mod they shouldn't have asked to mod.  My other two mods are both personal friends of mine, and one specifically doesn't do anything other than call me if I missed a message and it's been out there for a day.  The other one is a stay-at-home mom who's a member of a group in her area, but mod's my group because she's quite familiar with how it's supposed to run (and mod's things almost exactly as I would)

[ahofle]

I only recently found out about freecycle around here.   How does freecycle compare to giving your stuff away at say Goodwill or the Salvation Army?  It just seems like your donated items would be more likely to end up with someone who really needs them rather than some ---meecrob--- bag on the internet looking for free corvettes.

[ChadTower]

The Salvation Army takes pretty much clothes and cash here.  No goods.

[SithMaster]

I only recently found out about freecycle around here.   How does freecycle compare to giving your stuff away at say Goodwill or the Salvation Army?  It just seems like your donated items would be more likely to end up with someone who really needs them rather than some ---meecrob--- bag on the internet looking for free corvettes.

most of the time (at least around here) someone posts something reasonable.  Maybe a request for a pc monitor or for a book or something.  Depends on the area and who knows about it.  Ive told two of my friends and one doesnt check it and the other well i dont know what hes up to but i dont think hes asked for 360s.  If someone who wants to abuse the group finds out about it they will ask for 360s or cars and check every minute for something they just want to sell.

[DrewKaree]

I only recently found out about freecycle around here.   How does freecycle compare to giving your stuff away at say Goodwill or the Salvation Army?  It just seems like your donated items would be more likely to end up with someone who really needs them rather than some ---meecrob--- bag on the internet looking for free corvettes.

You have to take your stuff to those places.

They may not accept what you're wanting to donate (I had an O-L-D Nordic Track they wouldn't accept, for instance). 

You will be giving your stuff to someone who WANTS it, instead of just giving it to an organization, which may or may not throw it away (I have to deal with a Goodwill twice a week, and I've been in "the back".  They DO throw stuff away, no matter what they may tell you)

You are giving your old stuff to someone free of charge.  Goodwill/Salvation Army is essentially a middleman who charge for the ability to shop a store if you so feel like it.

Some things, such as what Chad has picked up (was it an oscilloscope?), would sit, taking up space at a Goodwill because they might not be recognized for what they are, requiring either more shelf space or tossing something else that might need that shelf space.

Finally, if Freecycle DOESN'T help you get rid of your stuff, you can always fall back on Goodwill/Salvation Army.

 

My local Goodwill no longer accepts computer monitors, but whenever I am given one, I can easily Freecycle it.  My local Goodwill DOES accept printers, and therefore has eleventy brazillion of them crapping up their shelves.  NOBODY has ever taken the 3 printers I put up on Freecycle (I took 'em to Goodwill).  I found out about Goodwill tossing stuff in the trash when I told the folks sorting donations, and they told me "If you ever NEED one, just ask.  We throw away about 4-5 a week because we have too many.  We try to take the oldest ones and pitch 'em, kinda sorting 'em"

[ahofle]

Thx for the explanation.  Can freecycle "donations" be used as a tax deduction like Goodwill?

[ChadTower]

Thx for the explanation.  Can freecycle "donations" be used as a tax deduction like Goodwill?

You can only deduct your Freecycled items that go to an actual charity.

I've given away hundreds of things, literally, over the last few years.  I have also received some awesome stuff - 27" RGB monitor, a vid and two pins, a whole testbench full of nice electronic diagnostic equipment, countless game consoles...  I actually don't respond to much of the stuff that gets offered.  Sometimes I wonder if when I do I get chosen more often than others because I run the list.

One slight drawback is that my town is so small that much of the membership knows where I live now.  Last year I made a request for a 17" monitor and two people dropped them off on my porch without even contacting me.

[CCM]

I just throw everything away.. much easier...   

[ChadTower]

Not here. I originally started my list because I was sick of jumping through a billion hoops to throw stuff out. We can't just put big things on the curb.  That may be the biggest benefit in our town - the ability to easily give away stuff too big or heavy to put in a trash bag.  If it still has use, that's a much easier way to dispose of it here.

[zaphod]

The extremely high number of no-shows (one or two per item I'd list and noone was anywhere near being on time), and all the gimmee-gimmee-gimmees turned me off on my local group.  A great program when it works, though.