[HN Gopher] The Buy Nothing Project
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The Buy Nothing Project
Author : simonebrunozzi
Score : 68 points
Date : 2021-01-17 21:23 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (buynothingproject.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (buynothingproject.org)
| paulcole wrote:
| I'm not a fan of this. To me, there's very little point to life
| besides buying things. It passes the time and sometimes makes me
| happy-ish.
|
| I mean why else do I work and make money? Ultimately my answer is
| to spend it on things. I hate traveling so the idea of buying
| "experiences" has never appealed to me.
|
| Environmental benefits don't matter to me either. I have never
| driven a car, don't fly, eat a plant-based diet, live in a tiny
| apartment, and will never have kids. My impact is low enough as
| it is.
| talentedcoin wrote:
| Our family participates all the time in our local Buy Nothing. So
| far, we've obtained: baby toys, instruments, baby clothes,
| tchotkes for the house, kitchen utensils, and even a hunk of elk
| meat. And anything we post seems to disappear within moments.
| It's saved us literally hundreds of dollars and I can't recommend
| it more. I tell my wife all the time that it is maybe the only
| nice thing I have ever gotten out of Facebook!!
| conqrr wrote:
| Have been with one of the very active communities in Seattle.
| Very happy with it. Really amazing to reuse products and not let
| them go to the trash.
| paxys wrote:
| I'd say the project/moment actually started way back in the
| Craigslist free sections. I know many people who furnished entire
| houses with nothing but great quality stuff that people wanted to
| get rid of. A large van or pickup truck and a reliable buddy is
| probably the best investment you can make. Heck people will pay
| you to take away furniture that they spent thousands on a few
| years ago.
| marcinzm wrote:
| In the past I always just used the "free stuff" section on
| Craigslist both to give things away and to pick up some great
| things.
| behnamoh wrote:
| Lots of typos and grammatical problems in the text make it
| untrustworthy for me. Plus, using "FB Groups" does not seem like
| a good idea as it alienates people who don't have a FB account or
| those who don't want to join groups out of privacy concerns.
| kartoshechka wrote:
| They made youtube video "trade paperclip for an iphone" a reality
| jdlshore wrote:
| It's not trading. It's gifting.
| tim_sw wrote:
| This is working well in parts of Manhattan - with group members
| in the thousands.. I've been able to give and get various things
| over the past 2 years.
| 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
| I'm confused. Are they subtly suggesting readers buy their book
| (by linking to the publisher's site instead of a site to locate
| the book in local libraries). Would a publisher like Simon and
| Schuster agree to publish a book that would only be sold to
| libraries. Aren't there ways they could communicate whatever
| information is in the book without having to sell something
| (thereby encouraging people to buy something, violating the
| project's prime directive of "Buy Nothing").
| ta988 wrote:
| they dont give it as a pdf?
| bombcar wrote:
| It's explicitly not trading - and they recommend a library or a
| group to find the book.
|
| (The reality is it's likely not their book to give away - it's
| the publisher's.)
| softwaredoug wrote:
| My wife and I love to get rid of stuff. However one challenge
| using free cycle or free Craigslist is it seems to attract people
| with a hoarding problem. People that jump on any free thing
| without a sense for how they would use it. So I feel better
| giving things away for free when they say how they'll use it or
| show specific gratitude for the item. Or give them to a thrift
| store where they enable a charity.
|
| Does anyone else notice this or have this issue?
| prawn wrote:
| Beyond enabling a hoarder, it can also attract more hassle than
| giving away a free item is worth. People who won't keep an
| appointment, people who ask you to deliver a large item across
| town for free, who show up with a trailer but no ropes and want
| to take yours, etc. An alternative is listing very cheap and
| then declining their money and giving the item away.
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _Does anyone else notice this or have this issue?_
|
| Personally, it hadn't even occurred to me that this is any of
| my business.
| softwaredoug wrote:
| I don't feel good enabling another persons problem. Just like
| I wouldn't feel great inviting a person with an alcohol
| problem to join me at an open bar
| kortilla wrote:
| Depends really on if you are patting yourself on the back for
| helping folks out when you give it away.
|
| If you're just giving it away as a free disposal service,
| then sure it doesn't matter.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| My mom is one of these, can confirm.
| ridaj wrote:
| Yes and for this reason I now only sell on Craigslist even just
| for nominal amounts. The point of separating from stuff is for
| it to be more useful to other people, it's not great if it's
| just going to sit in a hoarder's house instead of my storage.
| ta988 wrote:
| How different is it from Freecycle?
| patja wrote:
| Just speaking for how it works in Seattle, buy nothing groups
| are often more about making hyper local connections with
| neighbors and not quite so focused on the efficient transfer of
| goods. For example as soon as one gets too big, they split it
| up into smaller groups. It diminishes the audience for your
| post. I've also observed some odd behaviors in the buy nothing
| groups on Facebook I've been on where it seems like people are
| putting way too much effort into a posting for one single
| t-shirt or dress with elaborate descriptions. It seems like
| there's something going on that's not just about getting rid of
| stuff.
|
| Freecycle on the other hand has broader distribution in one
| sense in that they don't force you to limit your audience. And
| no reliance on Facebook.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| Same thing basically. Both groups exist here and plenty of
| people belong to both.
| Ancalagon wrote:
| I love this idea. I just watched the movie on minimalism on
| Netflix as well. It really brought to the fore of my mind how
| much stuff I have that I do not use, and reminded me why moving
| apartments was so difficult.
| LVB wrote:
| Buynothing is the only reason I have a token FB account. It works
| extremely well. We probably gift something for porch pickup at
| least once a week. It's really efficient.
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(page generated 2021-01-17 23:00 UTC)