Freecycle: More pleas for basics

Perhaps this trend is quite predictable during sagging economic times!

clipped from www.journalgazette.net Freecycle site seeing more pleas for basics In the past few months, though, as the economy has waned, things have started to boom on the local Freecycle site. Users put up a record number of posts in August, then broke that record in September, and set yet another record in November. As the economy has sagged, and as the number of posts has increased, people on the lookout for freebies have started asking for more and more, and the sob stories from people wanting things have become more and more elaborate. It’s keeping the moderators – as they are called, people who work for nothing monitoring the various posts, enforcing the local rules – plenty busy. Moderators have had to start sending out periodic messages to registered users, reiterating the local rules: no offers to give away pets, no asking for pets, don’t post Christmas wish lists and eliminate the sob stories. So the sad tales have been banned, along with the offers of pet kittens and requests for gift cards.