Welcome Freecyclers? Or, er, not.

I was hoping we might be welcoming a few London Freecyclers to this site, as I posted a comment on the London Freecycle group this evening offering Swopaplot’s services. I’d been thinking the motives of Swopaplot and Freecycle were mutually compatible, and that Freecyclers might welcome the invitation to come and participate in Swopaplot…

But it seems that an overzealous moderator has immediately banned me from Freecycle without explanation, despite Freecycle’s stated “two strikes and you’re out” policy. I had hoped I wasn’t too badly in breach of the Freecycle house rules, but they don’t appear to have seen it that way. My wife just told me I should probably have posted it in the Freecycle Cafe, not the main posting list, as it was a bit off topic. They may have objected to the post as Swopaplot might count as “trading”, which isn’t allowed within the bounds of Freecycle. On reflection perhaps that is the case, although what was being offered was the opportunity to get involved in setting up a free service, not any specific trade.

Oops. It seems I’ve upset somebody. Sorry folks. Maybe I’m just being soft, but perhaps rejecting the propsed post with a short but polite email and a referral back to the terms of Freecycle might have seemed a more civilised thing to do, rather than a summary total ban after one attempted, enthusiastic if possibly ill-judged post; after all, wasn’t it enthusiasm that got Freecycle started in the first place? And there I was thinking people were allowed to make mistakes occasionally.

As Jack Nicholson once said just before the Martians got him, why can’t we all just get along?

In spite of this little disagreement, I would heartily recommend Freecycle to anyone who wants to get rid of any physical stuff that might otherwise end up in landfill. Anyone with any old gardening equipment that’s no longer needed, Freecycle’s your place. (And if you’re after any old used tools etc you might be able to help somebody out and pick some up there too – but be sure to offer something to the community first – otherwise you might just get yourself banned…)

Schools vs allotments

OK, I’m delighted that Sutton Council are prioritising giving local kids the best educational facilities they can, but should this be at the expense of greatly-valued allotments? Or a popular ecological community project?

Now I’m not always one to jump on local paper nimby bandwagons, but on this occasion I’m right behind the Sutton Guardian’s Save Our Lavendar campaign.

New LONG strapline

I’ve had some feedback that people were getting a bit confused about the purpose of this site – and thinking about it the tagline “Helping London grow a little greener” wasn’t hugely specific was it? – so now we’ve got this instead:

a blog about building a website to help Londoners with underused gardens and Londoners who’d love to dig them to get together to share their time and space to help London grow a little bit greener

Phew. Can you say that without taking a breath? Hmm. Just about. I think it sums things up in 40 words or less. Doesn’t it? Maybe. If you think you can do any better please let me know!

(I quite like “Really digging other people’s gardens” as a short version though.)

Style update

I’ve made some further changes to the blog stylesheet to incorporate the new logo colours. Plenty more tweaking where that came from of course, but another little step in the right direction. (Or did you prefer the “Lloyds TSB” look?)

The logo develops

Latest version of the logo! arrived from Nicky!:

Oo I do like the colours and the rounder O in SWOP. Just need to tidy up the O in PLOT and I think we’re sorted. But feel free to disagree!

Expressions of interest

Great news! We’re already receiving expressions of interest from people interested in doing the swopaplot thing. A consequence of sticking this blog up I expect. The big “Aarrgghh!” is that we’re by no means ready yet technically – and barely ready legally – to facilitate a major swopping operation. So we’re going to start small and gentle and see how it goes. Please be nice!

I’ve put up some new pages:
WANTA PLOT?
Leave a comment here if you’re interested in doing some gardening in someone else’s garden*.

GOTTA PLOT?
Leave a comment here if you’re interested in letting somebody use your garden*.

* but please do first read our:
Swopping guidelines
which are a starting point – if only that – for things to think about when setting up a swop. Swopaplot cannot be held responsible for agreements entered into between individuals – your safety and protection is your own responsibility, so please do take care!

Design a society

This looks cool: www.designingasociety.org/ A bit crazy, but cool. Hmm. I’ve always wanted to be a bit crazy but cool.

Come to think of it, I can take or leave the crazy bit. Maybe.

Big thanks to Swapaskill!

Nicole from Swapaskill has very kindly provided some feedback on their experience with getting their site up and running. Cheers 🙂

New links page

I’ve added a links page for sites you might find interesting. Like swopaplot.com I expect it’ll be growing a lot during the coming months…

Trashing allotments for the Olympics?

James posted a comment here pointing out that Manor Garden Allotments is to be swallowed up by the 2012 Olympics site. Crazy!

There’s a petition you can sign at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/manorgardens/
and more about the allotments here: http://www.lifeisland.org/

Surely there should be a way to incorporate the allotments into the site as an example of best practice in the development of urban green spaces?

Thanks for the links James. I think there’s a hell of a lot the Olympics can do for raising awareness of environmental issues. But they’re clearly not doing enough!