Freebie forum? Need your thoughts

[WSB]

It was suggested that there be a section here for freebies, maybe more in the spirit of Freecycle. I am not familiar with that site but in thinking about how a “West Seattle freebies” section might work, a number of questions come up … What are your thoughts about whether that would be a good section to add here and what are the “best practices” that might make it work – time limit for posts, what kind of items/services can be posted, what sort of information should be required in the offers that are posted, etc.? Thanks! – TR

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[ellenater]

Hi TR. I’ve used Freecycle a lot and can tell you how they do it:

You have to post the location and item in your post subject line (ie: Admiral, non-working toaster). People then email you if they want it and you decide who to give it to, and arrange a time for them to pick-up. When the item has been picked up, you post that it’s taken. I think the system works fairly well but do know that the moderators are frustrated by members forgetting to put the proper info. in subject lines.

The only problems I could foresee would be if people dump things on a corner and then post a free listing. For some reason people assume that is acceptable. I don’t think giving away pets is such a good idea, either.

It’s a good idea for this blog. You could do a test run?

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[RonM]

I just recently got rid of a console 32″ Zenith TV on Freecycle. The post was up for about an hour before the e-mails started streaming in. A retiree picked it up the next day and was very appreciative. Can’t say whether WS having it’s own Freecycle would work as well, but I have no problems with the one that services Seattle (it has a huge audience).

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[JimmyG]

I vote no.

Freecycle and CL already exist, why duplicate it? And if you do go ahead with it I think you’ll be forced to do a lot more policing of the forums since the peeps trying to get rid of their stuff won’t care that this is limited to WS only.

If you feel you must add such a section to the forum area can it be kept completely separate from the rest of the posts on the front page of the forum? I can foresee having to wade through all the “free crap” posts to get to the posts I’m interested in.

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[inactive]

My thoughts exactly JimmyG.

Even though I’ve remarked about freebies here and how great and fun they can be to come across, I think it would be a major headache for you to administer and also clog up regular posts.

If you feel like you want to try it, maybe it should have it’s own tab?

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[charlabob]

I have to agree that CL and, especially, Freecycle have that covered well. (I’m only a little biased because I’ve managed to unload a bunch of stuff on FS lately!)

If you want to try something “extra” and free and, a possible headache to administer :-) I vote for “work wanted” or “gigs wanted”. As far as I can tell, it isn’t being done locally and I suspect there would be interest. It would require a lot more administration and some people might use it instead of placing legit ads. But we’re pretty self policing when someone posts “an ad” now so a pilot program might be reasonable.

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[WSB]

I did “work wanted” and nobody wanted to play by the rules, so I killed it. Re: duplicating, I’m only asking because a couple people suggested it. Last thing we need is to make more work for ourselves in an area where people feel they’re already being adequately served — there are not enough hours in the day for us to do everything we want to do in the areas where people were NOT being adequately served (mostly, up-to-the-minute WS news) — so at this point I guess the case is closed, we’ll bag the idea. — TR

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