Nice telly people

Well that was interesting. I just had a meeting with the nice telly people. I can’t tell you what they’re up to, but it all could be happening rather soon, and it’s all pretty exciting stuff. Watch this space… there’s more to come…

Swopaplot – or swapaplot – in G2

Oh, blimey, we’ve been namechecked in today’s Guardian, and I’ve not posted anything here for NEARLY A YEAR. Help!

And I only found out because someone who’s developing a TV project about garden sharing and read the Guardian piece just emailed me about it.

I still think this is a great idea, but I’ve been into other things. Does anyone fancy getting involved? This might suddenly become popular… (I knew I was onto something…)

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…)

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.)

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!

First bash at the logo

Nicky’s had a first go at the logo. What a star!

I reckon it might be nice to have a bit of green in it too, and maybe tweak the font a bit so that the O looks a bit less like an A (yes, yes, I know, “swap” is usually spelled* with an A!)

What do you think?

* Ooh, that’s interesting. I first spelled “spelled” as “spelt”. And it turns out that spelt is actually a Bronze Age wheat variety. Fascinating, Captain!

Nice idea – but what’s in it for Chris?

Thought you’d never ask.

Well, aside from the vast satisfaction of turning London into a (put on best Pearly King accent) bloomin’ paradise, I’m hoping I might make a few quid out of selling some advertising space around the edges of the site. Useful links for gardeners – that sort of thing. So if you’d be interested in advertising on swopaplot.com let me know! There won’t be any advertising on this blog though (in its current form at any rate). The idea is to cover the running costs of the site as it develops, and to maybe have a bit left over for me to plant somewhere else.

The core service of matching up gardens and gardeners, and the related core community features – whatever they turn out to be – will be free of course! Although I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of charging a modest amount for optional extras at some point in the future – especially if they were things that were going to cost to set up.

Sound fair?