UK Moderators Manual

Freecycle.org

Members FAQ
Moderators Manual
Freecycle - UK Faq

UK Manual - Updates

Freecycle® U.K. Frequently Asked Questions - Admin

Contents

2. ADMIN

2. ADMIN

2.1 As a moderator can I also make use of Freecycle®?

Yes, you can make use of Freecycle yourself. You can save from landfill just as much as any 'ordinary' member.

For members who are still moderated, make sure that you put their posts through to the list and wait several hours before responding to it yourself so that all members have a fair chance of receiving the item. You have the advantage of seeing moderated posts first; don't abuse it.

Some groups have a rule that the moderator who approves an item cannot ask for the item. It's good to have several moderators in a group so that the group moves rapidly and that no one moderator gets to see all the offers first.

Some group owners create a second ID on their group so that they make Offers/Wanted posts from an address that is not associated with the group owner so that the member does not feel 'obliged' to deal with the owner.

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2.2 Attribution statement - what is that?

For the bottom or within the body of all official Freecycle® web sites, articles, press releases, automatic notices, emails and group home pages:

Copyright © 2003-2007 The Freecycle Network
http://www.freecycle.org All rights reserved.
Freecycle is a registered trademark of The Freecycle Network, CTM Reg No 4287553
Freecycle UK is a Registered Charity (No: 1118148) and is a Company Limited by Guarantee (No: 05945013)

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2.3 Automated Admins to the list - when are these advised?

There are three required files used in Freecycle which are automated. These are:

The Welcome/Etiquette file which goes out to new members and at least monthly.
The Disclaimer file which goes out to new members and at least monthly.
The Farewell file which goes out when members leave your group.

Other automated messages are useful for passing on information that changes infrequently. For example, you may have an automated message on how to change message delivery type, or local pet/animal sanctuaries. As the owner, you decide what additional automated files you want over and above the three required files.

They have to be relevant to Freecycle and/or to the running of the group itself.

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2.4 Changing mail settings by e-mail? How is this done?

subscribe to list: GROUPNAMEHERE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

unsubscribe from list: GROUPNAMEHERE-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

switch to normal (individual messages) mode: GROUPNAMEHERE-normal@yahoogroups.com

switch to digest mode: GROUPNAMEHERE-digest@yahoogroups.com

switch to momail mode: GROUPNAMEHERE-nomail@yahoogroups.com

At the base of your emails from the group is a "Yahoo! Groups" section where you are given the chance to change your settings. There is a choice of changing the settings via the web OR via email (see above).

You just have to click on the method you wish to subscribe to.

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2.5 Filtering messages - how can I advise my members

If you have to refer to this FAQ, the answer, probably, is "don't". As a Freecycle Moderator, you are not required to provide technical support for your members, except in the very limited sense of holding their hands through the complexities of membership of a Yahoo! Group.

If, on the other hand, you are knowledgeable about and experienced in providing remote assistance for a variety of e-mail clients, and you wish to help, then by all means feel free to do so. It is your choice.

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2.6 Full moderation: what, when & how?

From the Mod Manual:

*** DON'T FULLY MODERATE YOUR GROUP. Full moderation of all posts is not allowed. Moderation of new member posts is fine - just remember to take the folks off moderation once they post correctly. Important: The moderation of troublemakers is highly advised.

Freecycle works best without full moderation. Empower your members to give directly to another biped without moderator intervention, quickly, easily and enjoyably. Trust and empower the members directly as much as humanly possible and it'll pay out (forgive the metaphor) in spades when your group gets really big.

Why? Because when that time comes, all members will know how to use the rules correctly. You have taught them how to fish rather than giving them fish for a day, right? This is why we don't allow FULL moderation. It's like "Freecycle Lite." It tastes kind of like The Freecycle Network™, but doesn't pack that caffeinated punch, is slower, and more controlled. Be bold, trust, and educate members unless individuals give you a reason not to and moderate those individuals.

Moderating new members' first post or two gives you a chance to:

Weed out spammers.
Share a pointer or two about how to post, extravagant WANTEDs, etc.
Tell folks that there's a Freecycle group closer to where they live.

If choosing the New Member moderation, remember that when removing the 'moderated' status from your members to check 'Use Group Settings' This allows you to still resort to Full Moderation in case of an extreme situation. If you have checked 'unmoderated', then those members will still be able to post to the group even in the case of a required Full Moderation.

In extreme cases where you need to place the whole membership on Full Moderation, (maybe to remove a spammer or to allow for emotions to die down), please restore the group to New Member Moderation as quickly as possible. Then check each new member who joined the short phase of Full Moderation and set them onto moderated, as due to a Yahoo! peculiarity, they will have slipped through the net and be 'unmoderated'.

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2.7 Group Settings - what is correct?

Management/Web Tools

These are the parts of the group that can only be accessed by members who have a Yahoo! ID. There is no fixed Freecycle® policy for these. They are:

Files/Photos
Links
Database
Polls
Members
Calendar
Promote

There are various settings for these which, when you look at them are self-explanatory. You may want to limit access to the features to ensure that you don't get inappropriate links/ photos/polls being set by your members.

One warning though: The Calendar feature should be limited to moderators. All entries on the calendar get sent to all members; and it has been known for members to receive notifications of 'Dinner with the Smith's' or 'Gynae Appt' as members think it's there just for them.

Management/ Group Settings/Messages:

These are the settings that the New Group Approver will have gone through with you. The settings should be:

Posting Options
Who can post: Members
Reply-to: Sender
Moderation: New members
Attachments: Remove

Archive options

Access: Members

It is set to members only posting so that you don't get non-members and spammers posting to your list.
Reply to Sender so that all of the responses to Offers/Wanteds are not cluttering up your list.
Set to moderate new members. This ensures that you can be sure they are genuine posters who format emails correctly.
Remove attachments to ensure that no viruses get posted through to the list.
Archives are set to members only so that the privacy of members is maintained.

Freecycle Group Check - from Start to Finish:
http://www.freecycle.org/faq/?menu=manual&view=mod_group_check

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2.8 How can I email from `admin' rather than my personal e-mail address?

There are several ways.

You could create a separate email account for Freecycle with an email address suitable for your group.

However, if you set up a Google mail account you can choose which email address is shown as a from/reply to address, so you can add your group's owner address.

Alternatively:

Set up a Yahoo! ID such as "groupname_mod", then you will have the email address groupname_mod@whatever.co.uk.

Make that ID a group member & moderator. Then you'll need to log in to your group with that ID. All emails will then look to come from the mod not your personal email.

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2.9 How do I keep a copy of a letter sent via the web?

It is not possible to send to the list and to another email address when posting from the web. If you wish to retain a copy for yourself, there are two ways you can do it.

- After writing your email, copy and paste it into a document for yourself, then click Send

Or

- Wait for the message to appear on the group, and then go in to the message and click on Forward, and send it to yourself or another email address.

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2.10 Message archiving - how can I do this?

Yahoo! groups automatically archives all messages sent to a group. It is not a good idea to delete messages from this simply because they are old or the items have been taken. The archive serves as a valuable and unique record of what your group has achieved. In addition, in order to win the support of your local council you may need to provide evidence of the effectiveness of your group. Having the archive available is a great way of doing that.

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2.11 Legal liability - is there an official disclaimer?

This Disclaimer is a REQUIREMENT to be sent out to new members and as a monthly reminder.

"FREECYCLE® NETWORK MEMBERS USE THE LIST AT THEIR OWN RISK. Please take reasonable measures to protect your safety and privacy when posting to the list or participating in an exchange. By joining the list, you agree to hold neither the list owners, moderators nor anyone affiliated with Freecycle.org responsible or liable for any circumstance resulting from a Freecycle-related exchange or communication.

SAFETY. Be aware! It is up to each individual member of Freecycle when arranging for pickup of the item being given away to be appropriately aware of the potential risk of having "a stranger" come to your home to pick something up. Freecycle as an organization assumes no responsibility for this risk. If you, for example, are a single woman living alone, you may want to say that you'll leave the item on the front porch while you are not home or arrange for a drop-off in a public place etc."
=================================================
Copyright © 2003-2007 The Freecycle Network
http://www.freecycle.org All rights reserved.
Freecycle is a registered trademark of The Freecycle Network, CTM Reg No 4287553
Freecycle UK is a Registered Charity (No: 1118148) and is a Company Limited by Guarantee (No: 05945013)

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2.12 Moderation - when & how do we take a member off moderation?

When someone posts something that is correct it means they should be taken off moderation (commonly when they have posted a correctly worded offer).

Then follow these instructions BEFORE approving the post as it's easier than trying to find them again after approving the message.

Click on message, check it has all the correct features.
Before you approve the message, click on `New messages posted by this member are moderated (Edit)' (top right of pending message);
In `Message Posting Privileges', change to `Use current group message posting setting' (**Never** change to `Messages posted by this member are not moderated');
Click on the `Save Changes' button
- Finally click on pending messages again and approve the message.
They can be set back to the option `Messages posted by this member are moderated' (or to group settings) as necessary by:

Clicking on the edit membership icon under their name in the members section;
- In `membership privileges' click on the "edit' button beside their `posting messages' setting;
- Change to the required setting;
- Click on the `Save Changes' button

We should always put people on group settings rather than unmoderated then we can easily change the whole groups setting if we need to, this should be done only in an emergency but say we need to moderate everyone for a day or two because of a flame war that got out of hand.

The standard criteria for taking a member off moderation is they have posted a correctly worded Offer message including the correct header (and location if you insist on it). The standard 'offer item' or 'wanted item' header is a universal rule of Freecycle where as location is optional but many groups find it very useful to insist on both for member's information and to spot people posting from some distance away. As long as your rules for when someone comes off moderation are reasonable and result in regular, responsible members being unmoderated you are free to decide exactly how you do it.

Please note full moderation (ie everyone on moderation) is against Freecycle rules.

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2.13 Moderators - how many is the ideal number?

There is no ideal member:mod ratio – it depends how much time your mods have to spare. However, even if the modding only takes a few minutes a day, it is really good to get as many volunteers on board as you can to share the growing load and cover for each other for holidays or for any other time off. This is particularly so if anyone has any unexpected time off, it is not a time when you want to be finding and training new mods. Having more moderators helps to get the group better known as they will each inform their own networks about the group.

Sole owner-mods are not encouraged for these reasons.

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2.14 Recruiting new mods - how do I go about it?

You can either approach members that you have seen using your group effectively, politely and within the rules of your group, or you can post an Admin asking for volunteers.

Ideas and letters for recruiting new Mods from the Mod Manual http://www.freecycle.org/faq/?menu=manual&view=pass_recruiting_mods

Great advice in the UK MS here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UKmodsquad/message/18739

If you are still unsure about how to recruit mods, what to say, how to spot the right applicant etc the Mentor Mod Team are there to help. Contact them at: ukmentor@freecycle.org

Remember that you needn't make a new co-mod a group owner. Start them off with a small task and limited privileges and increase their tasks and privileges as their role and your trust increases.

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2.15 Rejecting a message - when & how?

We are not the police, but we are moderators upholding the guidelines set forth by Freecycle®.

We enforce our group only so far as to make sure the items changing hands are legal and age appropriate. You can have your personal feelings on whether or not things ought to be allowed to be posted - just don't be driven by them. Follow the Freecycle (International) guidelines and you can't go wrong - that's really the simple way to do it, as it takes out the need to judge items. Then you can get back to just keeping things out of the landfills.

Examples of when a message needs to be rejected:

Item/service etc saves nothing from landfill
Subject line not correct with local policy and cannot be edited by mod
Body of message not appropriate posting (guns, alcohol)
Member attempting to place an Admin
Taken message placed by recipient as well as offerer
Message sent to group instead of an individual in reply to a post
SPAM (reject and BAN)
Messages offering items for money, swaps or other 'strings'
Number of wanted messages exceeds local policy
Chit chat
A post which is antagonistic or inflammatory to other members, or those that may start a debate such as religious or political statements.

How to reject a message:

Click on the pending message
If the message cannot be satisfactorily edited and needs to be reposted,
send a message to the member by clicking "Reject" and typing a short message to the sender.(This is made considerably easier with the Firefox Moderator Plug-in - see Firefox Moderation Plug-in). Where appropriate, redirect the poster to an appropriate forum, such as a cafe group (for items such as vouchers, tickets or information for example)
Use the drop down menu to show "delete" and delete the message
Don't forget to Save Changes

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2.16 Special notices - what are these used for?

Special Notices are used to attract the message receiver to a notice or ADMIN that needs to be brought to their notice.

From the Mod Manual:

At a minimum, you MUST have Special Notices set to your account. This ensures that any ADMIN announcements are sent to you. Sometimes we have the need to make important announcements regarding the group so we have set this rule as a requirement. The XXX Freecycle Moderators reserve the right to make changes as necessary to enforce this rule.

Or:

As a minimum, we request that you at least keep the Special Notices option. This will give you no mail except for Special Notices initiated by the Owners and Mods. It's mostly to keep in touch about special issues. To get a condensed version of all daily posts, click on Daily Digest. As always, don't forget to click SAVE CHANGES at the bottom of the page. That does it!

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2.17 Splitting groups - what, why, when and how?

What:

A split is when another official Freecycle® group is formed within the boundaries of an existing group with the agreement of the Group Outreach and Assistance volunteer for the area.

Why:

If split would benefit present group members, perhaps when members begin to leave the group because of too many daily messages to read, or they are travelling large distances to collect items;
If group owners or moderators ask for a split, perhaps when a moderator becomes sufficiently versed in modding to desire their own group;
If the growth of the original group is stagnant and will benefit from a split to rejuvenate membership;
The group has grown to be a large group and there are opportunities to cover the area on a more local basis.

When:

The existing group owner or regional GOA contact each other regarding the possibility of a group split and an agreement is made on if and/or how the split is to be made.
How;

The GOA, the existing owner and often a New Group Approver will work together to implement the group split. Ultimately, the original group owner makes the final call on a split . They are the owner of both (or all new) local groups during the transition until the original owner feels comfortable with the new local owner(s) of each new group. At this point, the original owner then steps down as the temporary owner of the new group(s). The GOA though is always responsible for the implementation of a group split.

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2.18 Unsubscribed member still getting messages - why?

It takes Yahoo! up to 3-4 days to change settings.

If it carries on after 4 days (maybe with an extra day for time differences) ask the member to check they have unsubscribed the correct ID? Understand that each additional tweak adds on an additional 3-4 days of lag, so resist temptatation as much as possible.

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