Freecycle in trouble – Entire UK Management team resigns

a314

Having built a successful Freecycle (TM) group myself and volunteered as an IMod (a sort of Freecycle International Rescue bod) for a short time, the only thing about the current furore is that it took so long in coming.

Back in 2006, some of us could see it looming over the horizon. At that time a few intrepid owners took our groups and ran, setting up RealcycleUK. Realcycle was totally modeled on the successful Freecycle set-up, using Yahoo Groups! as a means of gifting items that might otherwise end up in landfill sooner than they ought. The main difference between Freecycle and Realcycle, other than size and media attention, is that we encourage our moderators/group owners to do their own thing. If they have been running a good group for a while then they are welcome to shelter beneath the Realcycle umbrella but will receive no interference from us (‘us’ being myself and the founder of Realcycle). In this way we make a positive input into our various communities and provide a means to help preserve the environment.

Soooo, to all you disenfranchised Freecycle group owners out there – do come and join us at RealcycleUK

The entire FreeCycle UK lead admin team: Neil Morris, Susan Anderson, Jacqui Houlding & Jacky Barrett have all resigned.

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Reposted with permission.

“This is just to inform you all that I have resigned my position as Lead NGA and
as Membership Moderator of the UK MS.

The reasons I have cited relate to the forcing of new groups onto My
Freecycle, the increasingly autocratic behaviour of TFN management and
their disregard for the wishes of local groups operating in local
communities, the use of confidentiality clauses which are not binding as they
need the agreement of people to respect them rather than trying to impose them
as an afterthought, and their increased use of moderation on UK MS prior to
anyone doing anything wrong.

Having been fighting behind the scenes on many of these issues for some time,
I’ve now lost the will to continue. Freecycle now is not the organisation I
joined and there are no signs that it is going to change anytime soon. If
anything, things are getting worse.

If Freecycle ever returns to what it started out as, that is a grass
roots movement under an umbrella name with the sole aim of saving the
planet’s resources through the delaying of items ending up in landfill, then I
will be more than happy to step forward again and help with the aims.

Until then, I shall concentrate on moderating my own group for my own
local community.