Safety and General Rules

SAFETY ADVICE:

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 the middle of town.

USING THE FREECYCLE LIST To post a message, simply send an email to freecycle-bideford@groups.freecycle.org or click on "messages" at the Bideford Freecycle group web site (see link below).

To post, read or reply to messages or to manage your membership settings (including email delivery options), visit the group site (aka main page): http://www.freecycle.org//group/United%20Kingdom/South%20West/Bideford

For more information on Freecycle in general and a list of other approved Freecycle groups, visit http://www.freecycle.org/ (Highly recommended!) You can also find freecycle.org along with other related recycling-related sites by visiting the North Devon main page and clicking on "links" on the left.

The following list rules have been adapted from the original Freecycle etiquette sheet; For a refresher, read on. A certain structure definitely makes the group run smoothly and effectively for everyone's benefit. Remember, the success of this group depends on all of us, and that means each of us need to do our best to keep on task and, well, be nice and patient. Good Luck, Have Fun & Dive on In!

MESSAGE FILTERING: A SURVIVAL GUIDE

There have been a number of complaints about extravagant WANTEDs and people who aren't following through with arrangements after responding to a advert. Unfortunately, there is not a lot that the moderation team in regards to policy, especially with people who ask for too much or who don't follow through, however we can offer this bit of advice: most email programmes (like Outlook Express or Thunderbird) have a means to filter message, automatically discarding ones you aren't interested in. A message filter allows you decide what messages gets to your inbox and what messages gets automatically discarded. So, for example, if Jonny Asktoomuch has posted their 9,000 WANTED for a vaccinated and microchipped pure bred cocker spaniel bitch complete with grooming kit and create, you can go into your message message filters and set to it automatically discard any message Jonny Asktoomuch has sent you. Similarly, if Bobby Comelately fails to show up to pick the widget up on time and never calls or writes again, you can simply add his email to your filter list and next time you have something on offer you won't even know he asked for it. Some people are much more interested in the getting rather that the giving, and other in giving more than getting, and for these people you can simply automatically discard OFFEREDs or WANTEDs.

Message filtering can be very useful tool against some of the more frustrating aspect of Freecycle and I would recommend exploring your message filters options!

In Thunderbird (at least the version I have): you can access you message filters at: Tools --> Filter Messages and the version of Outlook Express I have they are accessible at Tools --> Message Rules --> Mail

Its also worth noting that there is nothing in the Freecycle rules that says the first person to ask for it gets it, so feel free to look through any response to an advert you get and decide based on the tone of their email whether or not you want to invite them into your home to pick something up!

FREECYCLE RULES & ETIQUETTE

1) KEEP IT FREE, LEGAL & APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AGES. This means, for example, no Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms or Drugs, legal or otherwise. Two strikes and you're outta the group. This is our main Freecycle rule to live by and it's a pretty easy one at that. No advertising your yard sale, though, as you're looking for money and that isn't free...

2) SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR POSTS. Use these phrases to make it easy for others to delete or view:

OFFER: jumper, Bideford. [Offering more than 1 thing? Still keep it in 1 e-mail, please] TAKEN: jumper WANTED: jumper, any condition. [Please use this sparingly and don't offer money. And above all else, don't ask for an extravagant item like a plasma TV which we'd all like to have or the strike rule will kick in - see #1 above. ]

3) PLEASE DO NOT POST THE SAME "WANTED" POSTING MORE THAN ONCE A MONTH.

4) NO POLITICS, NO SPAM, NO MONEY, NO PERSONAL ATTACKS/RUDENESS, NO PROSELYTIZING/RELIGION. It's all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Two strikes & you're out, i.e. you will be unsubscribed by the moderator after two inappropriate postings.

5) YOUR APPROXIMATE LOCATION: Try to list this in the body of your e-mail as well as in the subject line. I've got a couch and live downtown. Nearest intersection: Speedway and Stone.

6) KEEP IT ALL IN ONE E-MAIL. Got more than one thing to give away? Keep it all in one e-mail please and just number the items for your own clarity. This reduces the overall number of e-mails we all have to receive.

7) CAN WE USE FREECYCLE TO FIND NEW HOMES FOR PETS? Yes, keep it legal & be lovingly careful. If you are unsure about receiving or offering your dogs or cats on Freecycle, we recommend contacting the The Dogs Trust (http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/our_centres/ilfracombe/) or the Holsworthy Cats Protection (http://www.holsworthycats.org/).

8) NO TRADING PLEASE. Go to your local trading organization for this. It can be quite fun.

9) RESPONSES GO ONLY TO OFFERER. It keeps down the sheer number of e-mails.

10) PICK UP. Arrange as you like. Generally, you'll wait until you get a handful of responses or maybe overnite, and then you can pick whomever you like! That's half the fun. I always ask that people consider giving your starving local charity preference if one should respond. Arrange pickup with one person only, rather than "it's on the porch, whoever gets here first gets it." Otherwise you'll become the boo man pretty fast with your fellow Freecycle Group Members... Also: only give your phone number to one person at a time or ask for the recipient's phone no. Otherwise you'll get swamped with phone calls.

11) DISCLAIMER: 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 and 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 a listserv 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.

12) NO OFFERING/POSTING YOURSELF OR YOUR CHILDREN. Posting oneself (or one's shy friends) is, I'm afraid, not allowed. There are many fine Internet dating sites better suited to this purpose. Posting your kids is not on the menu either, no matter how crazy they make you sometimes. Try getting them involved in after-school band practice.

13) A BRIEF NOTE ON FREECYCLE ETIQUETTE: "Be nice." We've got a great little community here so when you arrange to pick up an item from another Freecycle Member, it is basic good manners to accommodate them as much as possible in terms of scheduling, and then be punctual; they are, after all, giving you something you need and asking nothing in return except that you will show up when you say you will. (Leaving someone hanging is never a nice thing.) Also, unless the giver tells you otherwise, assume that they would like you to come by as soon as you can to take away the item; no more than three days after the offer is made is usual. (Think of it as The Three-Day Rule.)

TIPS TO ORGANIZE ALL OF THE NEW E-MAILS YOU ARE GETTING:

a) CREATE A SEPARATE E-MAIL FOLDER & AUTOMATICALLY HAVE FREECYCLE STUFF GO TO IT. Create a separate folder in your e-mail client & have Freecycle stuff sent to it automatically. e-mail a moderator if you need help with setting this up.

b) SET TO "DAILY DIGEST" (contact us on freecycle-bideford@mods.freecycle.org to arrange this) OR "NO E-MAILS" IF YOU DON'T WANT SEPERATE MAILS. (which means you'll just browse the messages online). Realize that you can set your personal preferences on the main page (under "Edit My Membership" in the top right corner).

IMPORTANT: THERE IS A TIME LAG FOR CHANGES: Whenever a user changes settings, there is an overlap from the time it takes for Yahoo to process the change, until emails in the queue waiting to go out to the users are delivered. In other words, in the six hours it takes for Yahoo to permanently stop the emails from coming, there are emails already set up to go out, and will continue to go out until the queue is emptied. (Some people have reported this taking up to three days.) So please don't email the moderators with comments like, 'I changed my settings/unsubscribed yesterday, why am I still getting emails?' Just be patient, and all should be well. Don't make more than one change at a time (each additional change adds on another day of wait).