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

[melanie.livejournal.com]

you going to email something along these lines to teh list in response?

SHEESH.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of sending mail to the administrator, but I suspect this wasn't his idea and there's not much he can do about it. The legal folks are saying "to protect your trademark, tell everyone these things, even though they fly in the face of common sense." So he told us. :-/