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View Full Version : Looks familiar!



The Hornet
22nd September 2009, 03:35 PM
I've been a Freecycle user for some time and have disposed of many useful items as well as receiving some good stuff. Unfortunately there seems to be a bit of trouble there now (see here (http://www.letsrecycle.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=37&listcatid=217&listitemid=53459&section=local_authority)) and I thought it all sounded horribly familiar :(.

Why do certain "groups" seek to impose their will in this way?

The Other Stu
24th September 2009, 01:00 PM
As a relatively eager Freecycle user (giving mostly) something needs to give with those lot.

If you are offering something of modest value (for instance, I had a fairly good condition DVD player) I had 150 replies.

The first one came 3 seconds (yes!) after it was posted to the group. It appeared (so I believe) at a car boot sale. The person who eventually took it hadn't actually offered anything but a set of buttons. I have since found out they have received somewhere in the region of 200 items and run a regular car boot.

So whilst I sympathise (and agree btw) with the issues, the lunatics have taken over the asylum in this case - it would have been the equivalent of people placing caches without actually involving the reviewers, charging to visit them and generally making the rules themselves.

Most of the moderators of the freecycle groups have little or no control over what is actually going on in the group. From the few years I have been doing this I truly believe that all the UK geocaching reviewers know what's going on better than most users. And that's why they are (and of course, were) reviewers - because they know the game, understand the game and have earned that right.

The Freecycle moderators are self-appointed (more or less)

EDIT: A slightly different view and evidence of the actual issues are here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/sep/10/uk-freecycle-us-network) and I think Peter's right: It does seem to be similar reasoning - the lack of change