Freecycle is going downhill in a big way

[cjsmith]

I just got an "admin" post from our local list admin. He's laying down a big pile of rules about how not to use the word "freecycle" in a sentence.

Apparently, despite the fact that it seems to have been chosen for the closest possible resemblance to the word "recycle", it is *against the rules* to use it as a verb. Not only do they think they can enforce this, they think it's a good idea to try.

The last example indicates they don't want it to be a noun, either.

This is one of the strongest examples of "rules for the sake of rules, and for no other good reason" I've seen in a long time. All together now: SHEESH.

Let's just say if the Freecycle folks start kicking people out for recognizing the cleverness that THEY THEMSELVES STARTED with the choice of word, I'm going to start giving things away for free in a far less organized manner.

Comments

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

I believe that some of the local list admins get some sort of ridiculous superiority complex. I had that problem with one of the local list mods in Illinois, and I let her know about it. Of course, since she's Ms. High and Mighty, she ignored me and changed my posting status to moderated. Yeah, real mature there. :P

I wonder if the list mods can be reported on a state level? I know that there was a list in Illinois for moderating the list mods, and designating which areas could participate in Freecycle.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

So far this guy has seemed pretty good. I'm disappointed in this new development. It's sad that some areas get an uglier view of Freecycle because of a pissy local mod.

Speaking of areas, designating which areas could participate in Freecycle sounds pretty awful. That right there says we (national "we") need a whole new organization. If this organization believed in the usefulness of the idea rather than in power, there'd be no reason any region shouldn't be able to opt in.