Prove to me you're human...

[ffutures]

I put a couple of things on Freecycle, and as is my custom ended the item descriptions with:

Free to a good home. Please make it clear that you are human and genuinely interested in this item when you reply - if all I get is a message saying something like "I want this" or "plz call my cellphone" I'm not going to bother replying.

So far I've had two "I want this" messages, once cellphone number, and one person who posted "Hi. I am interested. Thanks." six times to the same item. I might actually reply to him, since this does seem to be an attempt to comply after a fashion.

Count me less than impressed.

Comments

[jeymien.livejournal.com]

I guess the trolls are out today :(

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

We should only patronise Freecycle for nice people. Its odd that people should use the anonymity of the internet to be so rude, when it the transaction will come down to personal contact, and you are choosing who to bestow your largesse on.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I've said before that Freecycle/Freegle is a last resort for me -- not because I'm averse to giving things away or desperate for the odd pounds that selling groups provide, but because people who pay even small amounts of money for things are overwhelmingly polite and pleasant, and people who get things for nothing? Well, not so much. Perhaps 50% polite instead of 99% polite. On the local selling group I often swap things for bananas, and everyone who's prepared to bring bananas is lovely. Every single one.

The social reformer in me thinks that part of this is that the poor and downtrodden lead lives of such mayhem that normal social manners are beyond them. I'm trying to sell an old phone at the moment, to a mum who clearly has no cash. I'd really like to sell it to her, because I think she's likely to appreciate it a lot more than some other people -- but after three weeks of 'I'll have the money next week' and never getting in touch until *I* chase her, I'm about to give up. And honestly, I'm very soft on pickups; even a single message saying 'can you keep it till the end of the month' would have done.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Yes, my Freecycle list is similar. A lot of people have stopped offering things on it because they frequently have 3 or 4 no-showers in a row. And who has the time/patience to schedule multiple pick up times iwth multiple people for something that you were just going to dump in the bin anyway?