Stroud

Friendly reminder

With 15000 and more members your moderators' workload gets ever heavier. In large part this is because many members do not read the files available on the site to know what is and what is not acceptable. We all give a great deal of our time to running Stroud Freecycle(r) and you have to play your part by adhering to a few simple ground rules. Remember that Freecycle(r) exists to keep usable, tangible items out of the local landfill. THIS IS ALL THAT FREECYCLE DOES. All decisions about postings are based on that simple idea. Most offer posts are acceptable. Wanted postings cause us most problems. So here is a brief version of some of the Freecycle don'ts. Please read on.... Please do not include personal information, such as email or home addresses, in your post. The email address you use when signing up is the one replies go to so there is no need to repeat it in your post. The display of posts shows only the member's username. This prevents harvesting of those other pieces of useful information by machine or human. With almost 10 million members Freecycle would be a prime target for this sort of unpleasantness if we did not take simple steps to make it difficult. Please do not submit the same wanted post to more than one Freecycle group at a time. Post to your home group first, then leave a decent interval, at least 24 hours, before posting to another adjacent group. Cross-posting has a number of undesirable effects. Please do not submit a wanted post requesting lots of items, for example, 'everything for a new house'. Please do not delete a wanted post just to repost it at the top of the list. Please do not offer or ask for knives.  Please do not ask for the same item more than once per month or for more than four items per week or for expensive brand-name items. Please do not pad out a wanted posting with personal information about why you want the item; often the words in the 'short description' box are enough. Please do not use emotive language in a wanted posting; we do not have the time to remove the words 'desperate' or 'urgent' or 'please help', for example, from the high percentage of wanted postings in which they appear. Please do not post in capital letters. THIS IS CONSIDERED RUDE SHOUTING. Please do not ask to borrow items, swap items or ask/offer money for an item. Please do not ask for or offer any live creature. Offer posts containing such material will, where possible, be edited; wanted posts will just be deleted. Read the etiquette file (under Group Info, Files on the home page) for more information. Your Stroud Freecycle(r) Moderators