In order to provide information to the people who freecycle items, this is the freecycle member review. It is for all the good people who freecycle so that they can be aware of the few people involved in freecycle who are not so good and abuse the rest of the members. This web page is like a newspaper article which is to inform people. Also along the lines of the media people who help others deal with problems. Most auction sites have the ability to give feedback regarding those who you have dealt with and there are many consumer sites which allow you to give feedback regarding businesses, this is basically the same, just for the freecycle lists.

It is important to remember that the truth is an absolute defense to a claim of libel or slander. Something which many people don't seem to understand.

After one too many problems with a freecycler, I decide to create and maintain this web page so that there is a place to let others know about problem freecyclers. If the person were to do the right thing, such as informing others what they intend to do in advance, then there would be nothing to say here. Some people who give items away may not care if the person sells the item(s) they are giving away, but others might instead to give the item(s) to others who don't intend to profit from the free gifts. It is the lack of disclosure which presents a problem. There are also other issues, such as requesting an item and never getting it and never communicating that there was a change of mind regarding the item. Again, it is the lack of communication which creates the problem. It seems to me that most, if not all of the problems occur due to a lack of communication. My hope is that with this web page people will think twice before failing to do the right thing and that those who do it on an ongoing basis will be documented so that others will not waste their time with them. It would be best is nothing is ever documented here, but sadly that is not the case.

A recent example of this is a person who posted that someone was asking for coupons in order to sell them on ebay. Further back I heard about a person who wanted computer equipment so that they could sell it. My personal opinion is that if the person is going to sell an item, it should be disclosed, upfront and my personal view is that anything I get from freecycle can only be given away and never sold, once free, always free.

So, if you have a story about a fellow freecycler that you would like to share in a more permanent sense, please send the story to me. Also include the email address of the person (since that is how people are tracked), but be warned I will attempt to contact that person to allow them to defend themselves and they will be allowed, as is only fair, to have a reply on the web page. I also reserve the right to not post anything I choose to not post, especially if there is any question about it (no revenge, for example). The statements must be clear and explain what occurred and without name calling and other such stuff.

It seems that some of the Freecycle list maintainers don't like the concept of documenting abuses of freecycle and seem to think that everything is perfect. While this is an interesting concept, it does not hold to reality. I was also told that there are regional moderators who deal with abuse, but they seem to operate in secret, even to the abusers, so that does not seem to be an effective way to deal with problems.

Also, if you have an example of very positive experiences I would also like to hear about them too. The problem with this is that most of the interactions are positive, so this needs to be something which really stands out and makes the person well above average, otherwise everyone will be listed (which is a good thing, but a bit pointless).

Please send entries to: review_freecycle at kemasa.com (spam eliminator) and/or include "shame" in the subject line.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Re: Rules
Date: Thursday 09:04:47 pm
From: info@freecycle.org

... We do have a rule that any items that will be re-sold need to be acknowledged to the offerer. This still acheives the original purpose - to keep the items out of the landfill. If the offerer would rather give them to someone and not sell themselves; and not throw them in the garbage, that is a plus for the environment.