|
|
History of Freecycle/Freegle
What follows is a Special ADMIN message sent to members of Redditch Freecycle on 20th April 2010.
Dear Redditch Freecycle members,
You might have read in the UK press in September 2009 that many Freecycle groups in
the UK left The Freecycle Network to form an alternative network called
"Freegle":
www.ilovefreegle.org
After much consideration, we have decided that Redditch Freecycle will now
become Redditch Freegle. This decision to leave Freecycle has not been taken
lightly. We feel that we have been left with no choice, as I will attempt to
explain.
In the early years, Freecycle was very much an organisation run by the volunteer
moderators of local groups, a true grassroots organisation, which appealed to me
and was one of the key reasons why I decided to set up Redditch Freecycle.
Deron Beal who founded Freecycle (and his team in America) started to take more
and more control and set more and more rules, with less and less discussion with
the people running things on the ground. The word Freecycle was trademarked and
very stringent rules were imposed on its usage. For example, using the words
"freecycler" and "freecycling" were not allowed and anyone using these words
would be guilty of trademark infringement (although in Redditch Freecycle we
have never enforced these rules). Groups using the word Freecycle in their title
without official authorisation were ordered to close down and lawsuits were
filed against them when they refused. At one stage, we were asked to close down
the Redditch Freecycle website but we stood our ground and they backed down.
While all this was happening, moderators who contacted the American network to
question decisions or make suggestions for improving Freecycle in the UK - such
as allowing a neighbouring moderator to look after a group whilst the usual mods
are on holiday or implementing a Freecycle area at local council waste sites -
were ordered to step down from their positions as group owners/moderators. These
people started groups out of the goodness of their hearts and devoted thousands
of hours of time. All of a sudden they were told to go, just for expressing an
opinion.
Here at Redditch Freecycle, we had been very unhappy with the way things had
been running for a long time. The way Deron and his team insisted on doing
things was dictatorial and totally unreasonable but we hoped the UK leadership
team would be able to resolve the problems. Last July, several key leadership
figures in the UK resigned in protest. These people were hugely respected by
moderators across the country and had worked tirelessly to find a way forward as
a united network.
I knew at that point there was very little chance of a resolution but even then
UK moderators didn't give up hope. Moderators across the country formed an
Independent Association of Freecycle Moderators and voted in a committee to talk
to Deron and his team. As was feared, this didn't work, Freecycle would not talk
to them so in the end after several other things happened the only sensible
option left was to form a new UK based network.
I know to many of you this will sound very political and unnecessary. But all UK
moderators wanted was to be able to run our local groups under rules that worked
best for us as Brits, taking into account our culture and laws, not under rules
designed for America and influenced by what is legal and 'normal' there. We also
wanted to be treated like humans who have a right to their own view point and
not to be worried that if we expressed a view that didn't agree with Deron we
would be told to leave Freecycle as was happening more and more.
So Freegle was born last September and since then, nearly 50% of Freecycle
groups across the UK have switched networks. Redditch Freecycle's moderating
team chose not to take any decision in haste. We have monitored developments
closely in both organisations and considered the likely future of The Freecycle
Network. Initially, we were concerned that Freegle would be slow to take off,
but groups which have switched now seem to be growing at a healthy rate. We
believe that in due course all Freecycle groups will be asked to move to a
non-Yahoo-based "platform" (called "MyFreecycle") which is effectively run and
controlled entirely from the US with minimal input from local moderators. We
feel that this is not in the best interest of our members or recycling, so we've
decided to leave Freecycle and join Freegle, as most groups in the West Midlands
region have already done.
You can read more about the history of the split in these articles.
The Ecologist: http://tinyurl.com/theEcologist
The Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/Guardianweb
Regards,
Kevin White
Redditch Freecycle Founder
|
|
|
