Comments brensullivan has made

Freecycle - such fashionable cynicism

I thought this kind of juvenile behavior went out with the 80s... I am talking about the Freecycle bashing going on here. I joined Freecycle about two years ago. I started up two groups, gave one away, and still moderate the other. I am not crazy about rules, rules, rules but generally they are just common sense.

There are people who do and say thoughtless things, or take advantage of other people's trust, or the like, and that's generally what the "rules" are about. But even the rules aren't carved in stone. One rule is that Deron should be listed as an owner of your group. This is just so that when a moderator abandons a group -- which does happen -- or runs amuk and starts insulting members and acting like a little Hitler -- which does happen -- someone from Freecycle can step in and salvage things. Of course, the conspiracy-theory junkies think otherwise.

The main rule of Freecycle is that everything on Freecycle is free -- period -- and common sense, yes? Yet you do get people posting their tag sales, or just outright trying to sell something. Let them do that on some other site.

Another rule, or really guideline, is to do as little moderating as possible, so that the groups pretty much run themselves. That's hardly a dictatorial rule.

In fact, Deron mostly leaves it up to the moderator to set "rules" for his/her group. In my case, when an issue comes up, I create a poll and ask the group members what they think.

Right now, we have a poll about tag sales. It seems some of our members are trying to get around the no-tag-sale posting rule by saying there will be some free stuff at the sale, or that there will be stuff at the end of the sale. I have suggested to the group that members only post AFTER the tag sale, letting us know there is free stuff... BUT I am going to go with what the majority of the group decides.

As for the trademark business, shame on you for being so ignorant. The reason they are being sticklers about how Freecycle (TM) is used is because you can (1) lose your bid for a trademark or (2) lose your trademark if it becomes common usage. Maybe we should all start talking about Gristing, and being a Grister, etc. Someone had to go through some legal mumbojumbo to get your registration, yes?

AND the reason for getting a Freecycle trademark is so that you don't have a bunch of people calling themselves Freecycle and maybe trying to sell memberships to Freecycle for example, or otherwise bastardizing the way the thing works.

And by the way, it is my understanding that Freecycle pre-dates all these Other-cycle groups jumping on the bandwagon. So where do these unimaginative people get off bashing someone whose idea they stole?

Also, I don't know who these corporate sponsors are that Deron is "courting" -- but Freecycle is large enough now (more than 2 million members) that yes, it does take money to keep the whole thing from crashing and burning from lack of leadership. You will notice that people on this blog complain that "they" didn't fix this or that, as if they are dealing with Wal-Mart or the local bank -- when in fact it's a handful of volunteers... so, sh*t is going to happen now and then.

And finally, Deron is trying to move Freecycle out of the Yahoo groups, so that we have more control over the features (such as searching.

 You know, I really like Grist magazine and I even get the digest in my email, but I am amazed at just how ignorant you folks have been on this subject. I would think you'd support something that has done nothing but good for its members... even the digruntled ones who are unhappy because they cannot do anything and everything they please with no regard to how it affects the rest of the group.

Let's see how long these other disgruntled, copycats and wannabes last without making any rules. -- BrendaOn freecycle: TM, and R.I.P. posted 3 years, 4 months ago 31 Responses