Currently within the Freecycle Network, a massive campagin is being implemented at Deron Beal. the director's orders:

Censorship is the name of the game. They cannot allow to happen what happened last August when he lost so many groups. Most of our posts have been deleted of course. We are what as known as the 'disappeared'

I'm one of those bad apples you hear so much about ;)

Again I just had a Yahoo ID delete another ID, on the orders of Freecycle.org aka Deron Beal.

I'm afraid there is no changing what Deron is up to.

My history with Freecycle is

Datbase Manager/ Admin for one year
Fund Raising Team Manager
NGA for Florida and Idaho
Jack of all trades.

Perhaps you might wish to visit Grist, Biz Week, Greenribbon.us for a
few choice posts by current and former mods of Freecycle.

My group was started May of 2004, we're the busiest group for our size
of 4,000 in Southeastern US.

You can find all my groups by googling Brevard Freecycle, and my web
domain is here

https://brevardfreecycle.org

or here:

https://www.melbournefreecycle.org

at this time redirects to our main site above, but will enventually be our recycling forum site and our links section to green sites, local recycling and freecycler sites that wish to be listed. We'll also provide a directory for other states at a later date.

I am currently dealing with a Cease and Desist for my 2 groups, and
expect to see both of them deleted shortly at Deron's order to yahoo.
I hope you'll read this and see it for what it is, an attempt to let
Mods see the truth who are being shielded from that truth.

Look forward to seeing more posts from you on OIDG, and hoping you too
do not get moderated and silenced.

Best regards
Char Hess



https://groups.yahoo.com/group/fcnext/

https://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/7/26/111526/801.


https://www.businessweek.com/the_thr...up_at_fre.html

https://www.grist.org/news/maindish/...cle/index.html

https://www.volokh.com/posts/chain_1152914614.shtml

https://www.volokh.com/posts/1153781932.shtml

https://letters.salon.com/tech/htww/...view/?show=all

https://lists.powerblogs.com/piperma...ly/006783.html

One post which was great from a Freecycle Mod that was sent in
anonymously as many are:

It's long but also on the group for you to read, posted by our dear
Nancy Castleman who was the Mod Squad 'Mother Hen' and Deron's right
hand till she also left last August due to the way Deron was turning
thigns.

BTW we all tried very hard to stop what you see today, but it's clear
Deron has dollar signs now, and he's on a one way track.

I'm so sorry to see you great Mods having to deal with this, and hope
you do not get moderated for speaking so plainly, and I do love your
posts.

Many, many Mods are fully moderated on Mod Squad, and OIDG for
speaking out. Such as Rob of Abiline TX, Jackie of Anderson, SC, and
most anyone who has posted something contrary to what Deron says.

Many of us exited stage left after trying hard last August to put a
stop to the current things you see.

With a Board of Directors consisting of Deron, his wife, and their
pal, it's no wonder that one person controls it all. We tried very har
to get a BOD of others in place. For that many of us were removed, or
left after being sickened by what we saw.

Ever see the infamous chat where Deron planned the demise of a valued,
long term GOA for bringing up the BOD ?

I have it

You can find my groups at my .org site, and you'll see me on some of
the posts on above blogs as well as other former Freecycle leaders.

Regards
Char


fcnext] A response to Martin from an anon tfn mod


"I post anonymously, because I have seen what happens to so many who
have spoken up in disagreement with Deron Beal.

In answer to Martin, YES, there are MANY in this group who are still
with TFN, myself included. For many of us, we started our groups a
very long time ago, and followed ALL of the agreements which were in
place when we started our groups.

Interesting, that when I started my group, the ONLY rule was that
everything be free, legal, and appropriate for all ages. It was
CLEARLY stated that this was the ONLY rule.

When many of us started our groups with freecycle, there was never any
promise or agreement that we would adhere to further rules, made as
time went on. There was certainly no trademark on ANYTHING.

The fact that Deron made it clear on the internet: "start your own
freecycle network", showing us how easy it was, just starting a
Yahoogroup, and bringing in local members. Then bringing it to our
local media to advertise for membership of our local groups.

That very ACT of saying this publicly on the internet, TELLING people
to use the freecycle name, and even offering (at the time with no
strings attached) that we could use the freecycle LOGO, which at the
time had NO trademark even applied for. The only rules were being
"free, legal, and appropriate for all ages." That act by Deron, of
saying it publicly on the internet, actually PUT freecycle, both the
name and the logo, INTO the public domain!!!!

After putting somthing clearly into the public domain, free for
everyone to use, it is a little too late to claim trademark. Trademark
wasn't claimed, or applied for, til AFTER Deron put the name and logo
legally into the public domain -- and even then, that trademark
application was JUST FOR THE LOGO, NOT THE WORD.

If TFN continued on it's present path, even claiming trademark, and
going on to be the biggest freecyclin' entity on the internet, that
would all be fine and dandy. Nobody is trying to take any of this away
from Deron, or TFN.

But the reverse is NOT true. It is Deron who has been taking freecycle
groups away from people. AFTER so many moderators put THOUSANDS of
hours, collectively MILLIONS of hours of work into building their
local groups, Deron decided that this was all HIS, and he could profit
from OUR work.

OK, he made a healthy salary from our work, that is one thing. The
fact that he did it by taking money from one of the worst polluters in
the world, which had paid over $100 million in fines and penalties for
such crimes as toxic waste dumping, THAT rubbed a lot of people the
wrong way.

Some people who were once the biggest freecycle supporters, no longer
wanted to be associated with this organization. Some people left
freecycle when that happened. Deron insisted that these people change
the name of their freecycle groups. Some changed the name, others
continued using the name freecycle. Freecycle was, after all, legally
a public domain name to use.

In fact, freecycle was just a generic WORD. MILLIONS of people were
saying it, the word had actual meaning. "To freecycle" is a verb. To
freecycle is the act of giving somthing to somebody else, that might
otherwise have been thrown in the garbage. Nobody has a right to tell
people they are not allowed to use a normal word. We have many groups
of local people, all freecycling, and using the word as such. PLEASE
don't tell the good freecyclers that they are not allowed to use the
word. How else would they say what they are doing?

MANY people quit their association with the TFN corporation at the
time Deron took on Waste Management Inc. as his sponsor. They were
disgusted with the profits being made by Deron, and the horrendous
anti-envoirnment corporation which these profits came from. Do a
Google search on Waste management Inc, and see what you come up with.

Over time, these mods and others who had become disguntled before,
opened several yahoogroups, using the name "darkside of freecycle" in
many variations and "ModSquad Revealed." These were places where the
stories first came out, about what happened behind the scenes at
freecycle, as told by the people who experienced them first hand.

These freecycle moderators weren't quitting their local groups, which
they worked so hard to build. They were just refusing to be associated
with Deron Beal, who found a free meal ticket from the work of so
many others, and quit he his day job.

He was very proud to quit his day job, he talked about it all the
time, touting it to the mod squad. By this time, there was a LARGE
staff at freecycle.org of VOLLUNTEER workers, some putting WELL over
40 hours a week into actually running this organization. Vollunteers
were doing all the work, while Deron was taking home $45,000 a year.

PLUS of course all of the expenses of anything he paid for in his home
which could be written off on the "business expense" portion of the
corporation. Of course the new computer, and a portion of his bills at
home I would think, travel, and anything he could write off. That is
certainly common practice for such corporations, non-profit or
otherwise, in addition to his salary.

Then some people started speaking out from within the crew of
volunteers. The big issue became about the board of directors. Deron
had PROMISED that ALL major decisions, and ALL new rules, would be
voted on by the moderators in a poll on the mod squad. He was
blatantly lying. He was making MANY new rules, single handedly making
the laws, that others MUST live by in freecycle.

There was certainly no vote in the mod squad about taking on a
corporate sponsor, which was actively practicing toxic waste dumping
on a monumentally large scale. Especially for the purpose of Deron
quitting his day job, and taking on a salary far greater than the
income of most of the volunteers, who were doing all the work. Many of
us could think of MUCH better things for that money to be spent on,
within Freecycle.

That was when it became apparent that the board of directors, which
was able to unilaterally MAKE these decisions, consisted of Deron, his
wife, and one of their close local friends. Many people thought that
it would be best for freecycle, if there were to be a REAL board of
directors, perhaps one which was ELECTED. Some discussion about this
took place on the mod squad.

It became crystal clear that anybody who said anything on the mod
squad, which Deron didn't want made public, got moderated on the mod
squad, and their posts were deleted. Here was a "grassroots"
organization, being blatantly muzzled from speaking about the
organization. Especially what was thought by many to be very
constructive input about how things could be run.

It was CONSTRUCTIVE criticism which was being made, to further the
organization in healthy ways. These were very dedicated volunteers,
who really CARED about Freecycle. They only wanted to fix what they
saw as problems, to make the organizarion better.

The muzzling continued, and as we see, it is still the practice today.
People were being moderated left and right on the mod squad. Messages
were disappearing from the mod squad on a daily basis, as fast as they
could be written.

Then it became clear to some of these volunteer "office" workers, that
things were REALLY getting dirty in the "back office." Some of the
people who were the most trusted of Deron's volunteers, were being let
into a secret inner circle, and Deron shared with them, the way he did
"business." He was getting them to carry out horrible acts against
others, who had spoken out. Some of those people feel horrible about
what they had done at that time, under the direction and orders of
Deron Beal.

Ersatzfriend was supposed to be a co-owner for every group at the
time, one of the few votes on the mod squad. It was to protect groups
from accidentally ending up with nobody who could control the
moderation of a group, if the owner abandoned the group, or was lost
somehow. It became a horrid truth that this ersatzfriend, though
PROMISED by Deron never to be misused, was in fact used to do things
which were NOT kosher. Soon after that fact came out, ersatzfriend was
voted out by the moderators. Nobody wanted to have a mandatory owner
of their group who couldn't be trusted, even if that owner was Deron
Beal himself.

This was the time of the infamous private "chat" being posted on the
mod squad. We all saw, in Deron's OWN WORDS (which he thought to be in
private chat), the kinds of evil things he took such pleasure in.
Doing horrible things to other people, and gleefully taking JOY in
doing it. Conspiring with a few trusted individuals, about "taking
down" others who had been working so hard on the freecycle staff. The
"crime" of these people, was that they openly disagreed with Deron,
about somthing.

Groups were "stolen." Mods were being cast out in the middle of the
night, passwords changed, and people removed without notice from
positions which they had put a lot of work into. Deron was playing
"hardball" against the people who were Freecycle's biggest
supporters.Meanwhile, he was keeping the masses ignorant of the dirty
dealings in the "back room."

But he couldn't shut EVERYONE up !!! Occasionally, snippets of
information were leaked out by the volunteer staff. Things that really
horrified moderators when they came out. Deron spoke of "damage
control" and how to appease the masses, while dealing with the people
who spoke out. People were kicked OUT of freecycle !!!! Groups
delisted, not because they had done ANYTHING wrong, but because the
moderators spoke out, saying what they believed, for the best of
freecycle.

Almost all of the most avid supporters of freecycle were leaving the
organization. Some were kicked out, and many left, because they
couldn't bear it any more. To work for such a corrupt organization,
run by one lying man, who ran what he called a "grassroots"
organization as a dictatorship.

So many people left the organization about a year ago. In fact, almost
ALL of the major staff of the organization left, as well as MANY who
were not staff, but "just" moderators. Many of them had once been the
BIGGEST supporters of Deron, and freecycle.

Separate discussion groups were made, to discuss what was going on,
and how to continue freecycling. People wanted to freecycle without
working under Deron Beal, who had betrayed the organization so badly.
These were the people who had been Deron's biggest supporters. Yes,
people were angry. Yes, people were hurt very badly from all of this.

Deron spoke to the mod squad, about a "few disgruntled moderators". He
told the mod squad that it was "a few people who didn't want to follow
the rules." (These people who spoke "against freecycle" were seen as
joining "the darkside" long before this.)

In fact, these people weren't "against freecycle", as they had been
made out to be. They were VERY much FOR freecycle. They were just
against the CORRUPTION which had taken hold at the top level of this
corporation. It wasn't even suppose to BE a corporation. It was
suppose to be a "Grassroots" movement!!!!

Though Deron tried to make it sound like a "few disgruntled
moderators," in truth, it was the entire staff of people who had
worked with him, as well as HUNDREDS of others who couldn't help but
see what was really happenning behind the scenes at freecycle.

So people CONTINUED freecycling, but many did it WITHOUT Deron, or
this "corporation," which had grown into a twisted empire around this
beautiful grassroots organization. The people who had local groups and
were leaving TFN, they took their groups WITH them. These groups did
not belong to Deron. They were locally owned groups, in a grassroots
organization. These groups had NO contractual agreement to become any
part of any corporate enterprise. There was no legal binding to these
freecycle groups, which tied them to Deron, or his corporation.

Since Freecycle was a word in the public domain, there was really no
legal reason that anybody had to change the name of their freecycle
groups. In fact, freecycle had become, through regular usage, a real
word in the english language. Freecycle was a generic word, as proven
by Deron himself, when he said "keep on freecyclin'." There is no way
anyone can copyright or trademark a generic word.

So came the legal battle with Tim Oey, and TFN. But that legal battle
is just such a small part of the real battle. The REAL battle isn't
about a word. The REAL battle is about a person. A person who, after
bringing to public attention a concept in giving, decided that this
was somthing he could OWN, through a phony board of directors, in a
phony non-profit corporation. A person who has blatantly LIED to the
masses of THOUSANDS of people who have grasped the real concept, and
put in thousands and millions of hours of hard work, to make that
concept of giving grow, in their local communities.

So what if Deron makes money off of this? THAT isn't what the battle
is about. The battle is about the tactics that have been used against
the innocent moderators, who did exactly what Deron told them to do,
several years ago.

What tactics? Particularly, the tactics of STOPPING thousands and
thousands of people from freecycling, under the word "freecycle",
using a false trademark claim. Some of you may not be aware, but
HUNDREDS, (nobody knows exactly how many) but it has been estimated
over one thousand freecycle groups have been shut down by Deron and
TFN.

These groups were CLOSED by Deron beal and TFN, using the Yahoo TOS
(terms of service) agreement, with a false trademark claim on the WORD
freecycle !!!

It has been said that Deron has a backdoor "inner person" working at
Yahoo, who will close groups for Deron. There is no proof of this
inner person working at Yahoo, this is really heresay. But it is
strange that Yahoo has closed probably about 1000 or more active and
working freecycle groups, because TFN and Deron Beal told Yahoo to do
so, based on his claim of trademark on this generic word. It seems
when other groups and other people use the word, NOT within Yahoo,
they don't get shut down.

Regardless whether Deron has an inside person with Yahoo cooperating
with him, freecycle groups have been closed by the hundreds, for no
other reason than using the word "freecycle." THAT is not a grassroots
organization !!!!! In fact, it may not be legal. In any case, it
CERTAINLY shows us all, that spreading this wonderful concept of
giving, and saving the landfills, has absolutely NO place in Deron's
world.

Saving the landfills was his claim. I wonder how the landfills are
saved by closing down hundreds of groups, and stopping what is
certainy many many thousands of members of those groups from
freecycling. These people were guilty of no other crime, but to give
away the things that they didn't want to end up in the landfills.
Deron SAID that this was what this grassroots organization was about.
Evidently, that was just another of his lies.

If he had just left these freecycle groups alone. If he had just
allowed people to do as he claimed was the purpose of freecycle, as
they legally have a right to do. There would BE no problem, and no
legal issues being fought in courts. Why does Deron feel the need to
STOP these people from freecycling? THAT is what the battle is about.

He claims that he must stop them because they might make MONEY from
freecycle. But as we have seen, the only person looking at freecycle
for profit, is Deron Beal. THAT is why he must stop the others, so he
can make his profits. The profits are in the name freecycle, which
would recieve much in future grants and sponsorships to his
corporation, if he has his way. If it weren't for his eye on the
profit, he would have absolutely no reason to care that others are
also freecycling, or using the name freecycle.

While he makes such an issue of his corporate empire being
"non-profit," he neglects to mention that while doing so, he is
actually making real money, and paving the way to make MUCH more money
for HIMSELF. Besides, it is only a legal non- profit in Arizona. The
federal nonprofit has been sitting in pending for two years, and will
probably NEVER get approved, regardless of his claims and his plans.

As a worldwide organization, Arizona does not have the authority to
regulate profits or non-profits. Arizona can only make the regulations
for Arizona.

In the words of Deron Beal: KEEP ON FREECYCLIN' !!!! It IS a generic
word, so feel free to SAY it too !!!"



**

To: [email protected]
From: xxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 06:30:07 -0000
Subject:[freecyclemodsquad] DONE BEING FRUSTRATED OVER TM HASSLES!

Are you frustrated over the TM hassles when all you want to do is
offer freecycling to your community? Then know that there is an easier
way to continue free recycling without constantly looking over your
shoulder for GOAs and TM compliance teams. I've finally
figured out how to resolve my own TM hassles and that's by leaving tfn
and being listed on FreeSharing.org (which now lists over 550 groups).
Did we want to leave? No, we were forced out by Deron for ignoring his
recently required TM. When our group joined tfn in
early 2004 we never agreed to more then keeping it free, legal, and
appropriate for all ages. I certainly never signed anything saying I'd
do all the work and Deron could constantly make new demands of me. As
far as all those TM stamped files he claims are "his", well,
they were put together by mods like you and me. And most of those same
good people that wrote those helpful words have now been tossed aside
like yesterdays trash.

There is a help file at:
https://greenribbon.us/files/How_To_...le_Network.txt
that may assist folks in making the change.

Deron's decisions and behavior continue to force one great person
after another to leave tfn, essentially all saying the same thing.
Silencing folks who disagree and then getting rid of their groups is
Deron's modus operandi. First you get silenced, then your group is
delisted, and if you don't watch out, tfn gets Yahoo to take it down.
In the meantime, thriving grassroots groups are replaced on tfn by
IMOD-run clones from corporate headquarters that more often than not
wind up being want fests. These parallel groups are Deron's orders as
"pay-back" for not being a good little soldier and also serve to scare
other mods still within tfn .

Great mods from all over the tfn universe joined together just a
little over a year ago to discuss the formation of a real tfn board of
directors ... because Deron wouldn't allow it to be discussed on the
MS. He wants to keep the BOD limited to him, his wife, and their
close friend & neighbor. Deron says he doesn't mind letting the mods
vote on the little issues but the big ones are off limits to all but
the BOD. He says this is because it's his behind on the line which is
another way to say it's his paycheck at risk. This year, it seems
that his inconsistent, over-zealous tm enforcement is the last straw
for many more great people. Deron should see if Tim is still willing
to compromise with him, before the whole network falls apart.

To learn more, see this recent Grist article and the comments that
follow it ... https://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/7/26/111526/801.
Read the blog on BusinessWeek's site ... https://tinyurl.com/ad2lc .
Join https://groups.yahoo.com/group/fcnext/ -- or read the archives,
which are open to the public, unlike tfn archives. If you decide to
stay within tfn be sure to sign up for daily digest for the MS and
OIDG ... that way, when Deron removes posts because folks tell the
truth (like I am), you'll still be able to read them. He just doesn't
get the importance of the first amendment and basic human relations!

Keep on freecyclin' ……