4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Guest]

I sent an ad to several freecycles in my area offering chicken poo for fertiliser and one of admin blokes from one of the groups has declined to post my ad on the grounds I don't actually live in that town. we live right on the border and it's not like I'm asking for something, I'm offering it!

 

I've tried to reason with him but he's having none of it, isn't it ridiculous? So much for trying to save things from going to landfill. I feel like finding his address and dumping it all in his garden!

 

On a more positive note, I picked up 6 demi johns from freecycle today and we've been offered a black plastic bin so we can grow some more spuds in it

[Tessa the Duchess]

Sorry to hear this Poet I am a mod on our Freecycle group and the powers that be are really against cross posting and only posting to the area you live in. Their rationale is that if you post out of your area then people are going to drive, use petrol etc., in order to pick stuff up. I think it's ridiculous especially as you say some people live on the very edge of two areas. Also I personally think that chucking something in landfill is far more serious than using a litre or so of petrol

 

Tessa

[Snowy]

That's crazy Poet, especially if yuor particular spot isn't covered by freecycle. Our village falls smack bang between three groups, but none of them mention our village. I hope the mods don't try that with us!

[Paola]

I feel like finding his address and dumping it all in his garden!

 

 

Need a hand

[Guest]

I feel like finding his address and dumping it all in his garden!

 

 

Need a hand

 

bring some horse manure with you!

[Paola]

I feel like finding his address and dumping it all in his garden!

 

 

Need a hand

 

bring some horse manure with you!

 

Will do, am never short of that

[Guest]

Crumbs seems harsh!

 

I'm in the Chelmsford group - covers about a 50 mile radius!!!

[Lesley]

I feel like finding his address and dumping it all in his garden!

 

 

Need a hand

 

bring some horse manure with you!

 

Would you like some pig poo? - lovely and smelly!

[Laura & CTB]

I feel like finding his address and dumping it all in his garden!

 

 

Need a hand

 

bring some horse manure with you!

 

Would you like some pig poo? - lovely and smelly!

 

Flipping 'eck - doesn't do to cross an Omleteer does it???

[missuscluck]

Beware the omlet mafia. Cross us at your peril

Thats a really daft decision if you are not covered by a freecycle area. I hope you find a good home for your chicken poo.

[Guest]

I complained to the group owner who has sent a very nice mail explaining that if I post it to my group first and then if there are no takers, I can post it to their group. She said they always allow posts from nearby groups providing you've tried your own group first and had no response.

 

If jobsworth had explained that in the first place then there wouldn't have been a problem!

 

Anyway, someone's taken it all this morning

[Willow]

<>

Apologies in advance to the reasonable freecycle mods on here but I find some of the mods unreasonable. The list for the nearest large town is very picky if you try and post two offers in close succession (the way you will if you're doing a clear out and come across something else later that you think is worth offering as well). Their reasoning is the collated offers are much better for people who get every offer instead of the daily digest.

 

Now having offered a lot of good items that I wanted to go to a good home rather than sell I have realised the people who reply to the daily digests are much more likely to be genuine and the people who reply to the individual offers turn up in very expensive cars and grab everything they can - my suspicion is they are reselling.

 

So I raised this to the mod team and got no answer. Since I had the email address of the mod who complains about too many offers I forwarded to him. Bit of email back and forth he insisted the email (sent from my email acc for freecycle) was getting bounced. He refused to forward the mail to the other mods and insisted I had to send it from an account that wouldn't be bounced - no idea how I determine what email account wouldn't be bounced as it works ok for everything else. so we've reached an impass as I really don't want to set up a load of new email accounts in the hopes of finding one that will get through. Frustrating when it has got through to one mod who won't 'officially' acknowledge it.

 

So I've now resolved to only use the freecycle list for the nearest small town instead and if things don't go there they go to landfill as I've had enough.

< freecycle rant off>>

[Tessa the Duchess]

I think Freecycle has grown out of control Moderating used to be the simple task of keepiing spammers off the list. Now we have a freecycle moderators group, which you HAVE to join, and apart from warnings about spammers you get loads of e.mails about cross posting and other boring issues On my list the rule used to be that a separate post had to be used for each item you offered, then because of the sheer volume of posts,this was changed to "stick as many things as you like on one posting" very confusing Patricia, the list owner's e.mail address should be on the list's front page on Yahoo, contact them if you are having probs with a mod.

 

Tessa

[The Dogmother]

They all seem to have their own rules; a friend in one of the surrounding villages tried unsuccesssfully to join the Banbury Freecycle board, but I see posts from people much further away than her.

[stoobie]

I spent ages trying to post a message on my local freecycle as we had over-ordered on our kitchen and as the shop wouldnt refund us we decided to give it away to someone who might be able to use it.

 

I kept getting messages back saying the format was wrong even though I followed to the letter what they had asked. In the end I got broed of it all and ended up taking ti all to the tip.

 

For some people a little power goes straight to their head

[Willow]

Thanks Tessa

I've tried but my emails are ignored/don't get through. But it's the same email address I use for the freecycle group.

 

I just got fed-up with the whole idea as it seems like it's car booters grabbing everything. I know it isn't completely as once I worked out how to detect the car booters I've given away things to some lovely people but I get tired of being told off like a child if I transgress and realise I have something else spare when I've recently made an offer. Seems to me they are targetting the wrong person.

 

BTW For anyone who may find it useful if I am offering anything with measurements eg a curtain pole I never put them on the offer email but ask those interested to tell me what size they need. It's more hassle but the car booters tend to just ask for it anyway so can be filtered out.

[Tessa the Duchess]

Sorry Patricia that you just feel fed up with the whole freecycle thing The whole point of Freecycle is to keep 'stuff' out of landfill. I personally don't care if a boot saler gets any stuff that I offer, so, they may make a few quid selling it on, I feel much better about this than I would taking it to the dump,

but just my humble opinion.

 

Tessa

[Willow]

I still use the smaller group and try and avoid landfill but I mind that car booters grab things when there are other more needy causes. I have given away things that I could otherwise have sold so for me the good home was important otherwise I'd have sold them and still avoided landfill.

 

Actually if the mods fro the main group had come back with even a basic response I would have felt better it was the pettyness of the rules for people offering things with no rules fro those taking and the insistence that unless my email got through to a specific address they wouldn't even consider answering when I had proof it had got through to at least one of the mod team that got me riled. I used to develop email systems and know how message tracing works but even I couldn't prove 100% that it got through to the specific email address for emails to the mods so they had me really. They can ignore any email they want to by insisting it didn't get through...

 

I have a climbing frame that my boys have grown out of and I'm giving it to a friend who could afford new but I would have preferred it went to a family in more need, I remember what it was like not to have much money.

[Guest]

I think that comment about "a little power..." is bang on. If they don't ease up, people will stop using it and that would be a huge shame because the ethos of freecycle is brilliant!