Should I have been booted off a Freecycle group?

Question

I am on several Yahoo Freecycle groups(which I recommend to everyone). I was booted off one group for criticising someone who offered free cigarettes(I guess they had quit and couldn't bring themselves to flushing them down the toilet). Do you think I was fairly treated?

Answer 1

They allowed someone to offer cigarettes?

I'm a bit surprised that anyone who has just quit (most likely due to knowing how unhealthy smoking is) would be willing to offer their leftovers to someone else to 'enable' them to continue in their bad habits.

That would be like an alcoholic attending AA meetings offering the rest of his 40 ouncer to another alcoholic down the street.

No, you weren't fairly treated.

Answer 2

I am surprised that they allowed the member to offer the cigarettes.

Answer 3

As a freecycle moderator, I would have given you a warning if you posted that to the group. We do not allow those sort of off topic posts - it adds to the # of emails the group gets, and it creates problems.

As a member you should have emailed the moderators to complain. That post should not have been allowed - and if the poster was on moderation, they should have rejected it. If they weren't on moderation, it should have been deleted.

With my group, We tend to handle these things behind the scenes, so it's possible that you wouldn't have seen them 'reprimand' the offending poster.