To expand on the person in my group who keeps FB only for the purpose of Buy Nothing... she is someone who joined right when the group started and has offered up lots of good stuff over that last several months. Let’s call her Pat. I think I mentioned above that I’d been a bit too hands-off with the group for a while, naively assuming that everyone would just automatically read the guidelines and follow them. Newsflash: hardly anybody does this. Drives me a bit bonkers, to be honest.
Anyway, sometime in March I decided I should start giving more guidance about how things should best be done to align with the Project rules and guidelines, both by making polite comments and modelling the desired behaviour. One of the biggest things is that people are strongly encouraged to not use “first come first served” as the standard way to give items. It’s best to allow some time for more than just the people who have ready access to their phones and notifications at all times to express interest in an item, and then choose a recipient based on whatever method the giver chooses (random draw, whoever asks the most politely, best haiku, etc.). It’s as much about building community as keeping things out of landfills.
So, right around this time, Pat posts an item to give away, and tells the first person who said they wanted it that she could have it. Several more people comment “interested” or “next please” and someone else commented “hey, there are rules here, it’s not first come first serve, right Step37!?” The comment came off a bit snippy (although I don’t think that was the intention) so I was pretty worried it was about to get ugly. I politely explained that it was a guideline that was encouraged, not a rule, and that each person can gift items as they see fit. Pat replied “that’s good, because it’s a lot more convenient to just take everything to Goodwill if selecting someone becomes a pain.” Again, not the most positive exchange.
I moved to private messaging with her and apologized for the post hijack, but explained that I was just trying to provide the feedback in the place it came up. I further explained the rationale behind allowing some time, offered suggestions on how to decide (she’d replied that she wasn’t comfortable about how to choose), thanked her for being a part of the group, and she thanked me for being the admin and was totally gracious about receiving the feedback. She said she only keeps FB for the group and was thinking of ditching it, and that I’d made her see things differently and reconsider. She made a big gratitude post the next day about something she had received in the group/the group itself. It was SUCH A POSITIVE interaction, and I’d felt so nervous writing to her in the first place. I was all warm and fuzzy and teary-eyed at how it turned out.
Much to my surprise, I have had very positive experiences when giving feedback in the group. This is good, because I’m not
overly at all comfortable doing it. I think it says a lot about the types of people who join the groups: mostly kind, open-minded and community-minded.
So,
@Dicey, this is my VERY long way of saying that you’d fit in so well in such a group. :)