Selfsufficientish.com

I have been thinking about that... The system is, of course, open to abuse. Has anybody heard that people pick up stuff for free and then sell it on?

You are bound to get a few rotten eggs.
The thing is it is a much better thing to do than just to throw useful things away.

Our local group has a request facility which is meant to be for sensible and reasonable requests but about 25% of the requests are for ridiculous things like cam corders and caravans.

Yes, it has crossed my mind that there are a few unscrupulous folks out there willing to take stuff away and flog it.

Undoubtedly there are a few, but let that not detract from the majority who give things away & receive them in the same generous spirit.

The moderators (including my boyfriend) do try to clamp down on the ludricous wants & many are rejected, never making onto the site or into people's inboxes.

For an inveterate hoarder with a small house, like me, Freecycle is an excellent way of avoiding binning things that I know could be useful, but don't have the space to keep...

Glad to hear the Leicester group got reinstated, and it was all an error, but I am a little puzzled why there is any sort of 'Head Office' control in the first place. I would have thought this idea was eminently suited to being a kind of 'open source' freeware project to be freely ditributed without restriction, and for people to make of it what they feel is most suitable. I mean it's just an idea isn't it - why all this registered trade mark business?

Anyways, personally I don't have a problem with people wanting to sell stuff I give away. The deal is that I'm handing over ownership, along with any moral responsibility that goes with re-disposing of the item. After all, they might be poor and struggling to make ends meet, and if my giving them stuff helps them, that that must be good, too. I've also collected stuff specifically for the purpose of putting into a charity jumble sale.

Muddypause wrote:Anyways, personally I don't have a problem with people wanting to sell stuff I give away. The deal is that I'm handing over ownership, along with any moral responsibility that goes with re-disposing of the item. After all, they might be poor and struggling to make ends meet, and if my giving them stuff helps them, that that must be good, too. I've also collected stuff specifically for the purpose of putting into a charity jumble sale.

have to agree with you on this. - i guess it depends on what you want out of freecycle - personally i see it as a means to allow people to have stuff i don't want, kind of a more personal version of leaving something like an old tv, chair etc on the street so that people can come and pick it up.

once its no longer mine, whom ever has may do with it as they wish.

A difficult moral question, I think. I certainly wouldn't mind anybody selling it if it's somebody who's struggling to make ends meet - but I would resent it if somebody with more money than is good for them, but with a good eye for a bargain and loads of spare time, snatches up free items to sell on before those who work hard and don't have that much time to spend on the PC get a chance...

But it's impossible to rule that out. So let's just hope that the majority of the freecycle members are as decent as we can wish for!

I'm doing it here in Canada, I've given and got a lot of great stuff, but my best score was a 2nd freezer!

Lois

We are members of several Freecycle groups in this area and have found them to be fantastic - we've even acquired friends through it!! lol. I was however rather alarmed recently when a scrap man requested copper and brass - which he would without doubt be selling on for a profit. I pointed this out to the moderator and was told that it was an ok thing to do!! Surely the principle of freecycle isn't to dupe people into parting with stuff, so that business people can make a profit out of them, because they don't know the real value. I know that people often offer stuff for car boot sales, and I have replied to offers for stuff that would be great for my Mums white elephant stall that she runs in aid of her local church - and told the offerers so - but thats not making a business profit.

Its ok now - rant over!!!

He, he - was reading this, not realising how old the original posts were... made me think about who has been missing lately - Ina? Albert Onglebod? Ranter? Just from the last page...

Hi
I got involved in the Swindon Freecycle group as a result of this site but I do find it very confusing and complicated. There are over 70 messages posted every day and there's no way of filtering the topics so you have to scan through every single one. Then it's really difficult to remember if somethings been taken or not. I've kind of given up looking for stuff on there because it takes so long to fight your way through it all. I just use it to get rid of stuff I don't want.

I'm sure there must be a much better way of running it. It would really help it if was organised by category - a bit like a forum - so that you could ignore categories that are of no interest.

Most of the stuff I have given away has been things that I have tried to sell via Ebay/car boots etc but can't so I don't really care if the recipient is going to sell it or not. If they can then good on them.

I have occasionally had to get rid of scrap metal. Big radiators or boilers. If I had to take it to the tip myself it would be a nightmare - far too heavy, long queues at the tip, etc etc. If a scrap metal merchant is willing to come and collect it for free then I think that's great.

Zoe

I'm back. Have been experiencing a worsening of my CFS recently, but making the effort to back on top of all things SSFish.

On the subject of Freecycle: tonight I've given away 3 clothes cover things I found in a cupboard & am arranging for someone else to collect a roller-blind. We got the slabs, to lay a path to our lottie, from freecycle. I think it's a fantastic thing. You can always switch to daily or weekly digests if you find the number of postings a nuiscance.

I must admit, you don't always get what you post for, but its a good system-yes there will be a few rotters out there who take your goodies and sell them, but thats their loss of something good is my opinion.

I've been posting every few months for wire and building materials, ZILCH, no replies at all.

And I'm getting tired of that. I'm going to look in the Buy,Sell & Trade paper-as long as I don't have to travel far, I'll go get what I need.

Lois

The problem with getting less frequent updates is that the chances are that anything you are interested in will be long gone by the time you reply (plus more chance of being lost in the sheer volume).

I have found Googlemail to be invaluable in keeping on top of postings, not least because it is easy to sort, filter and label them. It also helps that I am often near a computer where I can monitor the emails so I only have to scan a few new postings at a time.

Wulf

My local freecycle seems to be full of people WANTING washing machines, TVs, video recorders etc. Bit of a cheek I think.

The only stuff that gets given is books (in French of course!) or baby things.