West SEattle Buy Nothing Contorversy

[karen]

I know a lot of people use the Buy Nothing site. I also know that not everyone checks in daily, so if you are a user, there are changes being made that will affect you. Check in now because the site is due to split into two different sites this weekend, a northWS and southWS. I don’t know if voicing an opinion will make a difference. Just letting y’all know!

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[4th of Eight]

Thanks for the update, but why a split? I can’t figure out a good reason, except pitting north against south dwellers. Seems like ISO – folks and ‘offering’ folks should be able to communely partake from both ends of WS. How are able to tell the difference if we are on one end or the other if it’s only one FB site now?

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[Cait]

Aaaand they just shut down the post with the discussion.

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[karen]

Seriously?? why?

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[Cait]

Because roughly 100% of people there were barraging them with criticism of their terrible decision. LOL.

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[Willie Murderface]

thebuynothingproject@gmail.com

email em and ask for new mods.

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[chan7878]

This story is soo much bigger than bnp had “promoted” for the “split” it has become quite a controversy how the community had been treated by their “admin” and two separate groups were created in place of bnp due to their threats and bullying. Those groups had over 130 people total join within 30minutes. If someone wants to make this a bigger story and how west seattle community has shut them down after trying to split us and knock us down id be happy to discuss in further detail! The group to join with no bullying or splitting but same concept is called west Seattle giving tree! Thank you west Seattle for rockin like always! –Chandra

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[ellenater]

That whole thing was done in a really lousy way. Several people were blocked and booted just for voicing their concern over the split. Many comments were deleted before the group was frozen completely. Before the post was deleted and the page froze, I personally saw at LEAST 50 people who were posting about being unhappy. Many people felt the split was done intentionally and it was truly bizarre how the censorship went down. People got deleted also for posting links to new groups. There are two new groups, with no boundary exclusions. They are:

West Seattle Shares

West Seattle Giving Tree

The two groups might merge at some point but are separate for now.

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[shannonkt]

Here are the links for the two groups

https://www.facebook.com/groups/376311032520320/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/282793661923805/

I got kicked out of the BNP just for voicing that we should start a separate group.

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[Cait]

The way it was handled was so incredibly bizarre and it made no sense what so ever. There were some rumblings of some really nasty messages sent by the admins to various members over the past few days too… I’m guessing they are going to lose most people.

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[JanS]

it’s a shame…I really liked it being local much better than freecycle. Some posters, however (devils advocate here) sort of went off course, actually being snarky to admin after some long forum-like threads were cut off. One poster (and pardon the language), called one admin a ‘dick”, a bitch, and other stuff. That’s so childish. I felt that that wasn’t needed either. Just use the site to share things, gift things. How hard is that. Use your snark between yourselves on your own time, on regular facebook.

I’ve been away from my computer, so had no idea things had changed :( I’ve really enjoyed meeting some of the people from there who have picked up stuff from me.

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[ellenater]

I didn’t see that post, Jan, but I know the admins butted heads with a lot of people. They definitely don’t deserve to be called names!! I wish they had handled the whole situation better though. I saw many instances where posters were nothing but respectful and within the posted rules, and were openly berated on the page. It was kinda awful. And then when they decided to do the whole boundary thing, and weren’t listening at all, that was just handled really poorly. The two new groups are flourishing, with a lot of the same people. Really nice (and damn funny!) people. You should check those out. I know somebody mentioned your name as someone they wanted to join on one of them. And agreed, there are some really nice people on there!

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[JanS]

ellenator, I’m sure it was removed

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[JanS]

I go to that roup every day, and I guess I missed that head butting. I’ve seen nothing but the admins stating to please stick to the rules…oh, well…

they also intervened when people started the long discussion about pot…and then some decided to egg them on. That’s childish. They stated that they would go by federal laws, and the local law that pot cannot be given to someone else on a group like that, and people got all pissy. Maybe I just wanted to se what they had to offer. That’s why I was there.

If I want controversial threads, I can come here – lol…we certainly get them.

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[Cait]

There was definitely some shenanigans on the part of the moderators in the past few weeks. Things really started to take a turn when they were cracking done on every-little-thing.

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[JanS]

did they make some sort of announcement on the group site? I’m not finding anything?

Nevermind…hadn’t checked my email…sigh

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[Cait]

Yeah they made an announcement that they were going to split into north and south sections of West Seattle… they were met with uhhh… opposition lol. Definitely well-mannered but overwhelmingly not in agreement that it was a good idea.

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[ellenater]

JanS, It’s easy to miss, the posts go by so fast on there. I just happened to see them. I really didn’t like the way the admin was handled but I also tried to be supportive and respectful. However, it was pretty ugly, especially tonight. I’m actually really glad the new groups are there. I feel much more comfortable. You will probably see the new boundary options in BNWS. I think they already are having members join those groups so you could just search them out.

Also, some of the admins on BNWS were nice. It was only a few that I saw doing the nasty. Unfortunately, one of them banned me, simply for respectfully posting my opinion about the boundaries. I can’t be in a group that is Communist. No-sirreee-Bob!

Cheers.

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[JanS]

I way away from my computer, so missed the nastiness tonight. That sucks, period.There were almost 1300 people in the group, and they do say in the files that if they feel it’s getting too big, they will split it. I looked at the membership in the Burien one, and they only have a handful of people. This one was very popular. Guess I can’t post anything until Monday now, it seems.

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[shannonkt]

Jan you can post on Share or the giving tree. The links are above

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[Bonnie]

I didn’t notice anything about the moderators but I just didn’t like how they thought that they can split up West Seattle. I was surprised they didn’t split it by that imaginary line of 35th ave sw. But to tell us we can’t share/trade/etc. with people from the north side of WS with people from the south side of WS is not right. I live by Fauntleroy but am near Alki/Admiral/the Junction, etc. all the time. Almost every single day.

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[shannonkt]

I stayed out of the controversy until yesterday. I asked about admins being allowed to be in both groups and they are for now. My question was ignored initially until I asked it repeatedly. I then started the West Seattle Shares group and was kicked out of the BNWS. I was in no way disrespectful to anyone, so I don’t understand why I was removed and blocked. As far as the moderators go one of them called some of the members crazy.

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[chan7878]

JanS trust me this wasn’t just about discussing pot. Yes there was threads and discussions about it, but I was one “scolded” about saying “word” meaning I liked someone ISO and then after she PMd me I asked…nicely as to why it was deleted…8 hours later I was deleted and blocked from the group. I then went to the “higher” admin to ask for an explanation I did not break rules, discuss, pot or promote any stores. She couldn’t prove I did anything yet she gave me generic link to BNP rules, I said so I cannot ask questions and defend me getting attacked my admin but your admin can bully us and delete posts so there is not our side? …I am still waiting for a reply 3 days later. I know there was another girl who got deleted cause she had too much interest in too many posts! Isnt that the point of the group?! And the same girl who deleted me had posted in BNP she wrangled up all the crazies!!! Yeah wow what a positive group. So before you just assume everyone in the group egged admin on cause a discussion of pot was removed…think again. Cause that is def not the cause. The admin are on power trips.

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[ellenater]

At this point, things are still settling. Waiting for things to settle and then might merge to make one group or take over the name of “Buy Nothing” if they are willing. Not sure yet.

And just to clarify, not ALL of the moderators were being nasty. Just a few. And the people they were being nasty to were not being disrespectful or inflammatory at all. That’s why a lot of people are really pissed. It was totally uncalled for!

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[Sue]

Thanks for posting about this. I’m a member, but had the posts turned off since it was starting to get overwhelming. So I had no idea this was happening. I agree that it’s all rather silly.

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