Well crafted, Dave. The housemates want to know what's so darn funny.

How f*ing ridiculous! The idea behind freecycling (oo, I'm such the rebel, not capitalizing or TM'ing) is great, redistribution of gently used items, to decrease clutter, overbuying in our communities, and assisting those in need, has apparently been left behind in the race for touting one's own importance. Media relations indeed!

When I first read about the idea in a local newspaper, I thought it was great that local chapters were popping up across the country. It makes no sense, however, to micromanage these chapters, nor to irritate those trying to do good, so that they leave, and perhaps worse, stop their charitable acts.

Kristin from sw Indiana

until they want to start charging for memberships or some other thing.  What a bunch of leeches.  A good idea, but they just want to create a bureacracy and make a couple of cushy jobs for themselves.  WMI must be laughing like hell.  

I use craigslist.  Less structure, works great.

When was the last time Mr. B did a count on his membership. Many of the 1.5 million members he is claiming to have are members/owners/mods etc on many groups and are counted on each one. Not to mention the thousands that have left the FCN and are still being counted in his house of falling cards.
Mary

If you ask me, despite their millions of members, they didn't get it quite right. The system is based on several thousand local groups, all exchanging free stuff -within their locale-. Did I miss something here? I thought that the internet was a network without boundaries, a way to reach out beyond your little enclave and get your message (or that used toaster) out to millions. But no, they have a group for Denver, Boulder, Arvada, North Denver...what the h*!! were they thinking? Why limit the system geographically?? I put a toilet on eBay for free and had people asking about shipping across the country. If I wanted to list an item locally - I could quite easily post it on a slip of paper at the library, or local coffee shop. So great idea, but zero points on execution. They've done a great job of removing most of the advantage that the internet has.

And the media relations?  Now they've pushed the bounds of ridiculous. Why do you think google is the number one search engine these days? simple interface, sure (you don't have to join a local google group to search for webpages, that's for sure) but no! "Google" has become slang - ever hear of anyone "yahooing" or "lycosing" or "altavistaing" anything? Of course not! But we google everything, and we google all the time. In my not so humble opinion, the makers of Freecycle could hope for nothing less from their concept...if everyone in the country thought, "hmm, why don't I freecycle that old bike rather than trashing it," we would be a bunch of serious freecyclers. All I have left to say about that is "freecycle on, my friends!"

So in light of all that, for now, I think I'll stick to craigslist (obviously geographic limits make sense for apartments - "and how would you like that 1BR 1BA for $450/mo to be shipped? UPS?") and eBay.

Freecycle has local groups because it makes absolutely no sense, environmental or otherwise, to ship a free toilet across the country.  The point is to exchange items with ease and relatively little environmental impact, and the best way to do that is to give them to people who live close to you.

Freecycle in Western Suffolk NY

Hi, I hate to start with a negative post, but what we have been through with this group has been nothing short of a nightmare.
The moderator bounces you on or off at her will.
If someone wants to know more, I will gladly answer all questions, but just a sample of why I was on a Hit List.....
Dogs and cats do need homes.  Often people cannot keep them for whatever reason.  But sadly, good hearted people are giving their dogs or cats away on Freecycle.  After being in animal rescue for many years, more than I care to say, I wrote the moderator and cautioned her on this practice.  The problem is that many bad people like to make an equally bad buck.  They come posing as a nice home for the pet (they make a second income scanning sites such as Freecycle.....) adopt it, and head for the nearest lab.  They get about 75 dollars per dog, and somewhat less for cats.  These people are pros at what they do.  They come posing as happy families (I have no idea how the kids cope) and do this bogus "adoption".  The family giving the pet away never knows what really happened.
Also, there are unscrupulous posters who want to dump an aggressive pet on the site as well.  I work in a pet boutique, and a child came in with 17 stitches from a dog posted on Freecycle!  It had to be put to sleep and now the child is traumatized for life.  
Well, this is my first post, and don't want to press it unless anyone wants to hear more horror stories, and thank you.
My name is Kathy Baca and it's a pleasure to meet you.