Good moderators do not grow on trees

It takes a certain person to become a moderator, never mind a good one.  It takes someone with some free time.  It takes someone with the zest to do something more than “take”: it takes someone who wants to give something back.  Add to that the mix of freecycling and you then find that a good moderator is someone who SIMPLY wants to run their group well.

Unfortunately on top of all that goodness comes a load of crap.  Sorry for putting this so bluntly but that is what it is.  FC.ORG thinks it “owns” some kind of concept and that moderators owe them something.  Well such bullshit only goes so far.  Eventually good moderators question the ground around their feet and see that they can get by quite well without the bullshit.  Not only that they simply do not have time for being talked down to.

If you want to know what I am talking about, then don’t take it from me but instead take it from others who have woken up to the fact that they only have so many hours in the day to give to freecycling, and that has to be focused on running their groups well rather than dealing with some hierarchy that has grandiose ideas of dominating the planet.

To read more take this open letter.

Named… and praised

It has taken a number of years, but the stalwarts who largely created and defined and shaped what freecycling is today have been given due honour.  On Tim Oey’s blog entry doing what is right rather than what is easy he lists those people to whom all who freecycle owe a very significant debt.

If you look at what makes us all exciting about freecycling it is the usual saving items from landfill, sharing community, and for most of us the initial “getting something for free”, never mind exotic concepts such as decluttering.  But these people are different.

These people have risen to the higher call of shaping the future of freecycling.  They have given up hours and days at a time, writing manuals, building community, testing ideas - and most of all doing it right.

Doing it right is a question of deciding whether what you are doing is legal, whether it is true to your values, whether it is true to those you serve.

And that last point is where their biggest challenge came.  For me, as an owner and moderator of freecycling groups I serve my group members.  That is who I serve, and I serve no-one else.

This is where The Freecycle Network has gone very badly wrong.  If you look at almost 100% of the press releases of TFN what do you find?  Praise and adulation for one person, one almost…  god.  One person who holds himself above normal moral standards.  He has used, and continues to use significant  public money on a personal vendetta against Tim Oey, wrapped up in a failed SLAPP suit.  He does not justify this, he does not have to justify his actions.  The TFN organisation always has been wholly controlled by him.  Despite non-profit rules in the USA he has held control in himself.

If all these are true then how does he continue?  The answer is with persuasive charm.

But at some point you can find that persuasive charm are shallow when not backed by substance.  What these people saw was that lack of substance.  The lack of substance was embodied in abusing organisational power to backstab people.  I myself have been attacked in this way, so I know from personal experience - and have the evidence to support it.

The result is that the originators of the freecycling world left in their droves.  Each of them has their own evidence of corruption that forced their departure from a world with which they no longer wished to be associated.

Out of context

One thing that defines the genericism of the word freecycle is its use wholly outside TFN groups.  That could be people who wish to spread the good word, or it could mean people who wish to reuse it in their own context.  Take some atari stuff which is on offer.  Is this anything to do with a TFN group.  Or indeed is it anything to do with a non-TFN group?

I think not.  What it is is someone who is just using an online forum which is not even on Yahoo Groups or anything related to TFN to advertise an item.  This person uses the word freecycle intentionally since they know that in their own mind, and the mind of readers the concept of giving for reuse of this item is perfectly understandable.

You cannot be serious!

Rule no one, if you are going to try to fool people with money come up with a project title with words that mean nothing and a project that requires no work, oh and then put a big pricetag on it.  Take for instance (you knew this was coming) Freecycle Cellular Osmosis on NetSquared.

In a nutshell the project is about enabling someone to look at a map and their freecycling exchanges on a mobile phone. The main question why this deserves a project at all.  Why is this?  Because you can do this today.  The functionality already exists.

Already many people can access their freecycle advert information by going to their email client on their phone, whether that is stored in webmail or as “desktop” client. I surf the web daily on my Nokia 6120 and check my email in a snip.   For me that is my Gmail account, and my phone has a shortcut to go straight there.  So that deals with bringing up the advert.

What about mapping?  Oh, let me see, oh yes GoogleMaps on a mobile phone is available today and as a very mature product has been around for a couple of years.   It is one that I use, and nearly everyone I know uses.  Further than that not only does Google have its mapping tool, but also Yahoo has its own solution, though I have not yet used that.

So, am I missing something?  I will leave you, dear reader to decide what freecycling has to do with chemistry and osmosis. I will however just ask you to see if you can spot the gambit that owes more to moving NetSquared money from the gullible rich into someone’s backpocket.

In the meantime, if someone has a truly innovative project to suggest to Mr Beal and Mr Wallman, you may post them here and I will do my best to pass them on.

Goodbyee, goodbyee, wipe a tear from your eye, dont you cryee

It is with great pleasure I have the most important announcement to make to this freecycling globe.

Following this post on fcnext, a certain company, hmm let’s see what was there name again… Oh yes that’s right. Yahoo. Oh, and what is that that is worth knowing… Oh, yes, that’s right.

YAHOO WILL NO LONGER DELETE YAHOO GROUPS BASED ON SPURIOUS TRADEMARK CLAIMS BY TFN.

What does this mean for The Freecycle Network (TFN)?

So mister DB, is’t it time to tell your trademark team they are REDUNDANT. They now have no nasty jobs of sending out C&D emails to hard working group owners whose only goal in life was removing items from landfill the good ol’ freecyclin’ way.

Oops, they do have one last job.  To write an official TFN news article apologising wholeheartedy for any hurt so caused.  And don’t get me wrong, you caused some very serious hurt.  Actually Mr Deron Beal, surely that should come from you.

The trademark team can rewrite the TFN manual and remove all trademark claims forthwith.

What does this mean for TFN group owners?

So TFN groups across the word isn’t it time to take that spurious and embarrassing (TM) epithet out of your group home pages. It never was appropriate for all ages and showed you up to be an embarrassment to society. Join the real world - now.  Don’t wait for the laggardly TFN powers that be to shamefacedly do the “right thing”.  Take action now.

What does this mean for non-TFN group owners?

This means anyone receiving a Cease and Desist letter should bin it instantly. Isn’t it time to change your group’s name to freecycle?

What does this mean for people writing blog entries?

Drop the (TM) before you get sued. Drop the capitalisation before you get sued. Sorry, only joking, no one would be so small and petty minded. Those days are gone. Hallel… Oops I’m not religious.

Yahoo Group Recommendations

I have to empathize with Kathleen Gayton, a TFN moderator who is concerned about the new Yahoo Group cross-promotion feature where groups with similar memberships are listed in emails so that people can join related groups easily. You can read all about the feature on the official Yahoo Groups blog. Kathleen’s comment is here.

When is a trademark not a trademark

When DB says it is.  TFN has lost its trademark infringement claim against FreecycleSunnyvale.  This news is hot off the press.  See this post on fcnext for more info.

Get this Deron Beal, your trademark claims were bad for this freecycling industry.  They were divisive and control freakery of the worst dimensions.  And you have spent corporate donations unwisely chasing a stupid dream. You have forced the closure of groups whose only goal was to remove items from landfill.  You have denigrated people who worked so hard for a dream that they initially thought they shared with you.

You have lost.  Time to be graceful in defeat.

Top Posts 19: Why, the $64,000 question

Every now and again I come across a real gem.   Something posted by someone who has experienced deep hurt at the hands of Deron Beal.  Read the freecycle controversy written by someone who so obviously knows from the inside exactly how things happened.  Thank you.

3 more groups leave

I know I have been largely silent, but other projects have distracted me.  Or perhaps I have just broadened my outlook.  Anyway the head honchos at TFN who send out C&D emails have been fired and new ones put in their place.  The new ones are getting busy now checking on groups and playing the same old nasty game.  I wonder how long they will last in the nasty chair?

Half a sixpence

A few TFN groups are banning people who use Grouply.  This could be considered an opportunity for organisations such as Reuseit to capitalise and create new groups for these people.  If TFN does not want these members then perhaps they can freecycle elsewhere.  What a different place the world would be if TFN membership halved?  Now there’s a thought.