Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 1374
| and Noah.... my name is Earl, and Karma?
I really, really got some big laughs from that....
I dl...I mean borrowed a copy of the season from a friend of mine...
you don't know the half of it.. glad we're back on speaking terms..
some of you may know, that my wife and I run several freecycling/freesharing forums and communities, as well as a couple of commercial websites... total memberships and subscriptions in our groups and to our e-zines are now well over 20,000 members.
unfortunately and recently we have had a problem of abuse of memberships and theft of items from members, by members, among other disturbing things, some with many aliases, personas, and multiple ids so that they may glean all they can from the groups generosity.
here's what I had to post today..
12/15/2006
ALL MEMBERS PLEASE READ
this does not apply to current and active members of the groups here, and ONLY
applies to new and pending memberships from this point forward..
so if you are already a member... nothing changes. All is well with you and us.
unfortunately starting today and now.
free e-mail ids/addresses are no longer accepted for registration or membership approval due to illegal activities by anonymous members, you may use a free id after registration and associate it with your freecycling account.
please reply from your isp/internet provider e-mail account, it
doesn't have to be the primary account but it must be from a provider
such as bellsouth, aol, roadrunner, earthlink, etc...
unfortunately due to illegal, unethical, and immoral activities by some members...
yahoo, msn, hotmail, g-mail, and other free-type anonymous or newly
created accounts will no-longer be accepted on our groups for sign-up or registration purposes.
sorry about this, but we're just protecting the group from fraud,
misuse, and abuse by those who choose not to follow the guidelines.
this does not affect current memberships in our groups in any way as long as you're following the rules and guidelines as sent to you when you joined,
and will only apply to new, or currently pending memberships in our groups.
sorry it's come to this, but we cannot tolerate fraud, deception, and theft in our groups.
if you know of anyone abusing the privileges of being a member here in any way.....,
and it IS a privilege to be here... not a right...
we as moderators and owners can choose who may or may not join this group.
this was started to benefit YOU.. and YOUR community, we don't make a dime off this group and we do it for the love of our towns and planet.
Remember... we are volunteers... no-one gets paid for promoting managing our groups here, and there are over 5,000 people who are members in our freecycling/freesharing groups here alone.
some days... like yesterday... we just want to pull the plug on the whole thing... and it's as simple as me clicking on DELETE GROUP, and then ARE YOU SURE... and all 5000 members just go away.... along with this great thing we've all built, and love.
we try to only keep out the spammers/porn but sometimes situations such as this arise and other steps including banning ips/e-mail and calling law-enforcement... and yes it's happened several times now over the almost 3 years we've been here...
or if you know of someone who is not being honest in their dealings with us...collecting items for re-sale without letting the people know, or bogus stories of High-Drama to make them seem more deserving of your gifts and items.
multiple ids/phony names, or theft or abuse of any kind of any other member.
please e-mail us privately with your concerns and it will be investigated and if found to be a valid abuse or our trust and community.
they will be removed from the group. and if necessary prosecuted for their actions.
Glenn
again to Miles, AL and Bruce and Tony,
and any other's here I may have offended in the past. my apologies..
I do realize it's an honor and a privilege to be a member and participant here.
and see...
God DOES have a sense of humor.
Glenn |
OT, but AL and Miles, Thanks, I feel your pain