"free" stuff in the offered section

[SteveT]

Perhaps rather than giving it for free place the item as 'best offer' by Friday etc.

Not by private message so the offers can be seen.

[ImpetuousVrouw]

I get stuff for myself or my large, mostly broke family for free or low cost on here and Freecycle quite often and when I do have something to get rid of myself, I wouldn't dream of asking for money for it, unless it was something worth a lot, like a car or something or I was really skint.

I think it's a really good way of recycling and goes some way to decreasing our ecological footprint.

Knowing that someone was trying to sell my donations wouldn't stop me wanting to give and I think it's an issue for their own conscience. Maybe they have no other way of making a living at the moment and as someone said above, at least the item hasn't ended up in landfill.

But if thier possibly selfish actions affected other people's willingness to participate, I think that would be a real shame.

[louisiana]

I've decided that with stuff I offer for free, I will only follow up responses from people who are active forum participants. I'm going to exclude anyone who just seems to be running a business and takes no part in EDF community.

[Sue]

I've just seen this interesting thread.

I think I agree with Louisiana.

I recently offered a couple of small items free. I only had one reply, but I didn't recognise the name, so I looked up their previous posts.

I found that the only times they had ever posted was to say that they wanted free stuff which was on offer.

I too wondered how many PMs they had sent for the same reason which wouldn't show up on the forum.

I am torn between thinking that if I can't make use of something does it really matter who it goes to, and feeling a bit miffed that some people are apparently only using this forum for what they can get out of it.

I did ask this person if he was a dealer, and he denied it, but it all seemed a bit odd to me. I still have the stuff though so I probably just shot myself in the foot :))

[HAL9000]

I still can't understand why some posters are so concerned that someone might make a few pounds recycling used items that they no longer need and can't be bothered with the hassle of selling them themselves.

What is the problem?

[Sue]

Because other things being equal, I'd rather my things went to someone who genuinely wanted them, rather than someone who was going to sell them on.

In the case above, there were no pleasantries in any of the posts this person had responded to, just something along the lines of "I'll have this, phone me on *******

And as someone else has pointed out above, some of these people seem to be waiting to pounce immediately a "free" thread starts, so that they get in before anybody else has had a chance to see it.

I think the problem to me is, as I think for Louisiana, that this is a local community forum, not an offshoot of eBay, and this kind of behaviour just doesn't seem to me to be consistent with the spirit of that.

[HAL9000]

I see what you mean - your free offers are aimed at the genuinely poor or disadvantaged?

Short of a means test, I'm not sure how one would effectively vet the intended recipients, though. Nonetheless, a commendable ambition: good luck.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I tend to ask for things and offer things, by PM - so I'm not sure you can judge people by their public posts.

[Sue]

Well exactly - PMs can cover a multitude of sins (not including you of course PGC :)) )

[Sue]

HAL9000 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I see what you mean - your free offers are aimed

> at the genuinely poor or disadvantaged?

>

xxxxxxx

No - I have been grateful to take advantage of free things offered on the forum, and I wouldn't call myself poor or disadvantaged, though probably more than a lot of people in ED :))

As I said, I would rather they went to people who were going to make use of them personally, and also preferably to people who use the forum for more than just snapping up freebies.

But this all seems like a bit of a re-run of the Kimzy (?) thread ....

[Jeremy]

IMO it is abuse of a gesture of good will. People don't necessarily give things away because they can't be bothered to sell them.

It's still going on, especially with TVs - so if this kind of thing bothers you, keep your eyes peeled.

[Sue]

I gave away three books recently, had a few people interested and gave them to the first person to reply.

When she arrived to collect them, she looked in the bag and said "Oh, I thought there were more than that, I thought you said five to ten"!! That was it - not even a thank you.

I had clearly listed the titles, authors and publishers in my post, so there were clearly only three books.

I was well pissed off, wished I had given them to somebody else as I could probably have sold them online and got twenty quid or so and now suspect she is going to do the same as she only seemed interested in quantity rather than content and clearly hadn't read my post properly, just saw "free books" :-S

[louisiana]

I've had some of those too, Sue, from some EDF rogue names.

Now: I'd be perfectly happy to send them away with nothing. And I now don't give away to those who are not EDF proper participants. Period.

[Sue]

I did think it was a bit odd that she PMed me within about a minute of my posting, because the books were quite specialised diversity titles and I didn't think there would be much interest.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I'll repeat what I do - I just check the posting history. If they are genuine forumites they get first dibs

[DJKillaQueen]

I think Seans advice is good advice. I'm having a clearout at the moment and will certainly do that when I start giving stuff away.

[Andicam]

I've read quite a few of these threads concerning the giving away of free stuff and I think it's a load of nonsense. Why sit lording it over an old TV or some saucepans you're never going to use? How many posts do you need before you're worthy of receiving someone else's junk? I've noticed in the past the same names asking for Tvs and other things, but who's to know they received them?

Also the idea of checking previous posts is a stupid one. If you were to check mine it would tell you next to nothing, so how would you rate me? I've requested free items, bought many more and helped out via the wanted section, but most of this is done by PM.

Some of you seem to have a need to gripe when there are obvious ways around this. If you've got something to give away and you expect a bottle of wine or something else in return, don't head your post free, use swap instead. If you suspect the person collectimg an item is wanting to sell it on, either do as Louisiana does and send them away empty-handed or if you don't have the heart to do that, name the person the item went to at the end of your thread. Otherwise sell at a nominal price, but keep the price out of the header. Simple.

[aspidistra]

Andicam, I think anyone seeing your past posts would see you are a regular forum participant (rather than just of seller of goods).

[skyblue]

Would it be an idea for the forum to raise money for local charities by those who are wanting to recycle their stuff for free to have the option to ask the receiver to make a donation of a certain amount to a bank account set up for this purpose?

The forum set could set up an account and divide the funds raised between two local charities, perhaps the Dulwich Help Line and Kids Company, both of which do a lot of extremely worthwhile work locally. The amount raised could be shown on the forum and passed on to the charities periodically.

[Sue]

Great idea skyblue, but sounds like it could be a logistical/administrative nightmare ......

[Huguenot]

It's a great idea skyblue.

As it happens, there's already a site set up to do exactly this - it's called www.justgiving.com

If you go on there and set up your charity account, it actually lists people who donate, and the amount they donate.

All a poster needs to do is specify that the freecycler gaining the goods must have posted a donation of a certain amount on the site AFTER the date of the offer post. The poster can even specify the charity.

Really, really simple to do, and totally in your hands. All that Admin would need to do is post the policy as a sticky on the top of the section.

[Huguenot]

In fact, Kid's Company seem to be here, but I can't find the helpline.

If that is the correct Kid's Company, you can check out their revenue and spending here. They seem to be run very tidily by that data :)

Dulwich Helpine acccounts can be seen here.

[Sue]

Yes that's the correct Kids Company.

My partner is about to start doing some voluntary work with them.

[skyblue]

Thanks Sue and Huguenot that is a great way of doing it. Would be good if it could happen.

[Huguenot]

Well you can do it yourself skyblue. Next time you offer something say 'free to someone who makes a ?10 donation to xxx on just giving.com. Please remember to check the box saying 'make donation visible'.