FreeRRRs

Freecycling, freeregiving freereusing

An fcnext explosion fallout?

A new free recycling moderator group has sprung onto the scene called fcnow. This group is interesting, in that its creators are staying totally anonymous and that, by the nature of its name it is trying to ride on the coat-tails of the gargantuan fcnext increase in activity and membership. As I have posted on here before anyone who comes into this game and stays anonymous worries me. Anonymity smacks of hidden agendas. So what could they be for fcnow?

Could the group be actually created and managed by Deron Beal. Certainly the group forbids any TFN bashing. Also all members start on moderation. Also anyone posting anything inflammatory can expect to be treated in the same way that OIDG members are treated. Also a principle of TFN management is anonymity. Also any questioning of the group’s aims is to be suppressed and considered off-topic. And certainly an astroturf group for fcnext might not do TFN any harm. Finally fcnow actually compares itself to the renowned fcnext.

If the above assertion is true then what a compliment to the owners and members of fcnext!

Let me ride this by saying there is always room for a new group. The whole free recycling industry is in turmoil, well at least TFN is. So any forum that looks at what is going to follow TFN has to be a good thing for free recycling, and I, for one, welcome that.

But any group that starts out life anonymously is in for a perilous attack of criticism, by definition. If anyone thinks that this blog is just about stinging TFN, then that is a total lie. This blog is about what is good for the industry and TFN is, right now the flagship of what is wrong in the industry. But the rest of the industry is not perfect.

Recently the reuseit network website launched. In doing so it started out life anonymously. By the heck was it castigated dramatically for doing so. The only way forward was for the website owners and proponents to come out the closet, and fast. Fcnow - you have been warned.

Finally may I add that I have left the fcnow group as soon as I joined it. If the group serves a useful purpose in the industry - good luck. But for me it is riding perilously close to the fluff line, and so is not anything I can support. As I have posted on the group, if that stance changes then let me know and I may consider rejoining.

August 19, 2007 - Posted by andyswarbs | OIDG, fcnext, fcnow | | 5 Comments

5 Comments »

  1. I agree Andy, we are both there asking questions that don’t seem to be answered at all. I have already given notice that I will leave in 24hrs if the questions are not answered reasonably. I also **HATE** the fact that the mod’s edit your post - that means that you don’t actually get notification that they have replied.

    VERY poor form, and a VERY quick way to go from a 2day old, 125+ member site to nothing in a week.

    Comment by Chris M | August 20, 2007

  2. There is also an existing Free Recycling moderator support group at:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ifrmsg/
    The rules are clearly spelled out in the file you receive upon joining. Membership is approved but messages are not.

    eb
    http://FreeSharing.org

    Comment by Eric Burke | August 20, 2007

  3. I joined to see who was behind it. I don’t plan to post because of the policy of editing posts, which is outrageous. The harvesting of email addresses, alone, violates Yahoo!’s TOS and should be enough to get them shut down. I detest spammers, and they have acknowledge being such (nobody else harvests email addresses and uses them en masse).

    I would suggest that anyone who does stay on FCNow start using PGP or a similar method of digitally signing her posts immediately. Every time an FCNow moderator edits one of your posts, the signature will be rendered invalid, making the meddling obvious - I certainly wouldn’t trust them to always MAKE the edits clear to all, and neither should you. The fact that they make them at all ruins any chance of them ever building any credibility.

    Comment by Cynthia Armistead | August 20, 2007

  4. I don’t think it’s so much about secrecy as it is about helping each other as mods/owners no matter what group they are affiliated with. Many of us having a very bad taste in our mouth from TFN (or maybe other groups) may want to have a dialog much like the TFN MOD group was “supposed” to be done. Only thing is, it’s doing exactly like TFN but including other directories. Maybe it will work, maybe not. Time will tell.

    Comment by Alexa | August 20, 2007

  5. [...] An fcnext explosion fallout? A new free recycling moderator group has sprung onto the scene called fcnow. This group is interesting, in that its […] [...]

    Pingback by Top English WP Blogs « Hành trang 8X | August 21, 2007

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