Freecycle moderator problems

UK and USA - There are 300,000 UK members of Freecycle groups, including me and many people I know, but I have just been alerted to moderator problems of which I was hitherto unaware. SalvoWEB also has moderators, mainly me and Ruby, and we have problems from time to time, as one imagines would any moderator who is trying to keep sites free from troublesome posters, spammers, fraudsters, chancers and the like.

The main rule on Freecycle is that items must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages. Wanted items must be reasonable. UK moderators will ban anyone asking for expensive items like a Ferrari or plasma TV, but not for asking for a working washing machine which may be languishing in a garage. Some things are not suitable for charity shops such as building materials and some electrical items for health and safety reasons. Freecycle is not meant to be a replacement for charity shops.

Freecycle started in Tucson, Arizona, three years ago, to save the desert landscape from turning into a landfill. Perfectly good items were offered to charities rather than being thrown away, and fairly soon an e-mail group became a global network, now based at Yahoo. The founders now estimate it keeps 50 tonnes of rubbish a day out of landfills.

SalvoWEB also runs two free systems for low value goods: the construction trade's Salvo MIE Materials Information Exchange or DIYer's Wants & Offers.com or our more specialist brick site Reclaimed Bricks.net.

All is not well in the land of Freecycle. There is a major set of postings on the US Business Week web site here
http://www.businessweek.com/whats_up_at_freecycle?
and more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freecycle_Network#Controversies

The nub if the complaints is that the founder of freecycle is a despot who has upset a lot of volunteers who helped create the network many of whom have now left and set up alternative free web sites, some of which I am listing below:

http://FreeSharing.org
http://www.freesharing.org
http://www.recyclecentral.org
http://groups.msn.com/T-R-U-E
http://www.sharingisgiving.org/
http://www.freeXchange.org
http://www.FreeCycleAmerica.org
http://www.FreeCycleEarth.org
http://www.freedomcycle.org
http://www.twincitiesfreemarket.org

and here are tips on how to set up a non-profit free recycling group

http://www.managementhelp.org/boards/boards.htm
http://www.managementhelp.org/org___eval/uw_brd.htm
http://nonprofit.about.com/od/managinganonprofitorg/a/board_basics.htm
http://fdncenter.org/learn/faqs/html/nonprofit_boards.html

and set up your own waste exchange at
http://www.i-wastenot.com
http://www.reuses.com
http://www.recyclopedia.com (in development)
http://www.freecyclopedia.com (in development)
http://www.text4sale.org

or try asking Salvo as we could let anyone set up a waste exchange using our software and data engines.