Saturday, March 15, 2008

PAI on Freecycle

I hit the delete key viciously yet again today, and decided to share with you why I did.

I belong to a wonderful organization called Freecycle. You may have recently seen a blurb on CNN about it. Freecycle offers its members in dozens of countries the opportunity to pass on things that one no longer needs, but that might have useful life left in them. This saves a lot of space in landfills, and goes along well with my feeling of self-satisfaction in my half-assed attempt to green up my life. The premise is that you join your local county's Yahoo group, and post things you no longer need, known as offers, where your general location is, and people respond directly to you to say they would like this, and can pick it up at XXX time and day. You then indicated the item is PPU...Pending Pick Up, so that others realize that it's gone. Seems pretty simple, no?

But trust the general public, with its incredible sense of entitlement, to torque things up. When WILL you people realize that I'm the only one who is entitled to anything?!? The Freecycle national rules very clearly state that if you need something, you may post a "Wanted" but only in very limited numbers, and not for high-ticket items like DVD players or diamond rings. The local list also has a rule that your first post must be an offer. Unfortunately, the list mom is apparently both incapable of monitoring the list, or turning it over to people willing to actually run it. It finally got to the point where several of us had tried to reach her for weeks, no new members had been approved, and finally the state level stepped in and created some new moderators. Then :::POOF::: the list owner reappears, removes all the moderators, and immediately vanishes again. Everytime this occurs her husband has some life-threatening situation - she says. Maybe, maybe not, but if you have that much on your plate, let someone who can do so run things.

The upshot of this is the Wanteds are insanely out of control. I have, and I kid you not, seen people posting to have entire apartments furnished...and specifying oak entertainment units with glass doors, if you please!..., riding lawn mowers, large TV sets, and oh, yes, please throw in the aforementioned DVD player for their pre-teen who needs it. I gnash my teeth every time I read one of these, and a few of us malcontents on the list, known as the Coven (DH is an honorary wizard), share snarky off-list comments about the idiots and their unstinting greed.

Why do I stay? I can get rid of things I no longer need to people who are grateful for them. Your Goddess basks in gratitude, of course. Also I occasionally score something good, like a lovely Lladro I got because I realized what the Spanish Nun statue probably was, and yes, I'm still patting my own back, wazzittoyou?

I hit the delete button so hard today because some buffoon with her hand always out had the nerve to ask for deck furniture and a charcoal grill. I swear on my mother's grave. Okay, she isn't dead, but you get the idea.

So my email to the Coven? "Gee, do you think we can throw in a package of Tbones and a sun awning for her?" Amazing how being utterly catty helps my temper. :-)

4 comments:

Dayna said...

Now do you feel better?
There are a lot of people out there in the world that only know how to take and think that it is their right. Don't break any nails hitting the delete key over it.

Kat said...

I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only one that is totally pissed off about these freeloaders who abuse the whole idea of Freecycle.

It's only slightly better here in Tulsa, and I CANNOT imagine bragging that my entire domain had been furnished via Freecycle! Call me a snob but I just have way too much pride/self worth to beg for things like that.

I have been known to post an occasional want for spinning materials though, after hearing stories of people putting spinning wheels out on the curb for trash pickup!!!

Karen said...

I think I must be on a freecycle list with a relative of your moderator! However my list isn't to that point yet, but I swear I want to just show up and stalk all the people that post thier addresses or prank call the people that say, "Don't know when I'll check email again, just call me"... ARRRGGGGHHHH!

I feel better, thanks! Hope you do too!

(I'm here from a link in an email from a knitting list... I think... LOL!)

Rosemarie Buchanan said...

Dahling ... it's been a while since I dropped in, and oh man, do I have to agree with you about the freeloaders ...errr ... freecyclers. I belong to two groups here on Vancouver Island, and the "want want want" thing is over the top! However, we have GREAT moderators, three tough women (you'd love 'em) who share the burden are are right on top of anyone who strays from the righteous path.

We've given a lot, and received a lot (my fave is the built-in Maytag dishwasher that was so bunged up with doggie hair that the previous owner replaced it ... we gave it three treatments with CLR and VOOM! works like a charm and hasn't clogged up once!), and a good freecycler is worth her/his weight in gold.

Don't let the bastards get you down! (my mother said that as I was being wheeled into the OR for an emergency c-section in 1979 ... somehow, I don't think the docs or nurses were all that impressed ...)

As for the bride, I'd be turnin' the woman over my knee. How RUDE (and how well you handled it). Gotta watch Father of the Bride again with Steve Martin; that movie alone made me decide that spoiled, obnoxious brides are a curse!

Keep on keepin' on!

Rosemarie, on Vancouver Island, where spring has not yet fully sprung; it's late and I'm PISSED!!