Dear Fellow Freecyclers,

This is a special letter for moderators on how not to annoy the piss out of the entire group.

Be consistent. Consistency with your own rules and those suggested by the Freecycle Network help keep your yahoo-based list going strong. People know what is expected of them and others.

Keep regular hours. If you choose to moderate your list, keep daytime hours, at least for approving posts. While there are many ways that members can silence devices and not be bothered while sleeping at night, it's annoying to have 30+ emails from a single list awaiting in the morning. A solution to that may be switching to Digest, however, since some posts were time-sensitive to the previous day, it just seems like a better solution is not to live nocturnally if you're going to manage a list of people who don't.

Remove psychos. I don't care how much crap someone gives away, if they disturb others with unsettling behavior, get rid if them!

Do not allow 10+ posts from the same person OFFERing or WANTing items. They can condense in consideration of their fellow Freecyclers and, as moderator, it's your job to make sure that they do.

Refrain from editing posts when the post does not contain restricted information. Definitely remove phone numbers and addresses, but leave the cross-street information and item descriptions. These are standard in Freecycle posts and people look to them to know important information before responding.

Now, this is in no way a complete list of tips on how not to annoy the piss out of your Freecycle list. There are special kinds of moderators who find new and unusual ways every day. I hope this is a good start.

As Always,
Me.