Freebie Bin Discussion Board!

@animecafe102 Sorry if I misunderstood why you were upset in the first place.

@goldenretriever ah no no it's ok 

@animecafe102 Ah... now I see what you mean. (Read other post like a stalker, haha.)

First, I didn't feel it was right to be told, "I can't give you this character because you have too many". I'd feel bad myself.

Then, I will have to admit the way this topic was brought up sounded more like a complaint than anything else, but what can you do about that? It's just how the forums work and one has no choice but to deal with it. But hey, it certainly has sparked up a unique conversation point that should've been tackled a while ago.

^{Drop the "e" in "golden" and the ping works, haha. You're definitely not the first to have this happen as that is one of the reasons my username is spelled that way. ^^}

rule A would help defiantly, but i think it's more up the the person to restrict themselves. just be nice and do try to limit claiming free characters. but it's usely about 3 specific users always taking them more or less. so if one of them happens not to have self restraint than rule A would be very good. and if they break it they should be banned for a week or something.

@goldnretriever oh I didn't even notice I spelled it wrong haha, and yeah 

First off, I'd love to thank all of you who have provided their positive thoughts on this and the Bin itself! You're all stellar and users like you are why the Bin has gone on as long as it has!

Alright, so far the general consensus is that Option A, where we only allow a certain number of characters to pass in a certain timeframe, is the best idea!  My thoughts are echoed most by those like @Goldnretriever - The Bin has operated on trust and goodwill very well and by and large should remain as it is. So, I still want to leave as much freedom as possible to the participants.

To that end, I think that the '1 Freebie a day' rule should take effect. But this should be an overall rule- if the poster specifically states that they would like to give out as many as possible to whoever asks (or something to that effect), then they should be free to do this.

This is NOT a solidified rule yet- I still want to hear opinions.

As far as writing being a threadwide requirement- I am hearing from a fair number of you that this is potentially very restrictive on both the givers and the possible receivers of freebies. My goal is to allow everyone the highest chances to both give and get the freebies they like. Not every giver wants to evaluate an essay- some just want the space in their TH. Writing is not going to be a threadwide requirement, but telling someone in brief what you'll be using the Freebie for is a good idea, rules or no!

@Animecafe102 WinterNe
I apologize deeply for this behavior. Calling out in even small varieties can be very detrimental to an individual. (And I'd like to hear the thoughts of the threadgoers as to how this behavior should be treated too.) Animecafe102, I can say with absolute confidence that the group of people who have taken a great deal of freebies is in fact a group, not a singular person, and that's why this issue is addressed to the community as a whole. I would be sad to see someone leave the Bin, but if you need a break or find it's what you'd like most, I support that decision.

As far as Winterne's suggestion towards a politeness rule, overall I find it difficult to believe we need one. Within the context of the thread, any conflict of interest has largely resolved without becoming an issue. It is only with this mention of long-standing developments that upsetting behaviors have happened. We've all been super pleasant folks to be around in general- there's always been so much gratefulness and politeness in the thread and I don't believe that we need policing. If a particular user is causing another issues within the thread, the offended party may contact me and I'll do whatever I can to resolve those issues civilly. I don't believe it will, but if a case ever escalates it can still be taken to the TH staff.

I would like to suggest a few things?

Firstly, I feel like any rules that are put into place will do two things. One, they will make a lot more work for someone who has to moderate the thread. Sometimes it's pretty slow, but sometimes a folder gets posted and six pages go flying by, and it's really hard to keep track. Two, I feel like the rules in place will dampen the fun atmosphere of the freebie bin. 

Secondly, I think that everyone currently in the group (because it seems to be mostly regulars) are all good people with good intentions. I think if, rather than rules, there is just a blanket announcement that says "Hey guys, some users are getting bummed out because they're missing adopts and others are claiming too many. Please be courteous with your freeb claiming!" that people would respect it. Perhaps it would have to be repeated occasionally when new regulars appear and time passes, but I think that, at this point in the thread, we are all civil and friendly enough that this would be enough.

Thirdly, I don't think "Take backs" should be a thing at all, because that does nothing but hurt feelings. If you gave an adopt to somebody and changed your mind, you should take it as a lesson learned for next time and keep quiet. 

Fourth(ly?), I think there should be a polite request that any freebies not used within a certain time frame (one month?) should be returned to the bin. Whenever I get a freebie and don't end up using them, I always make sure to put them back up in the bin for free, because I know that the person that gave them to me wanted them to be loved and used, and if I can't give them that, then somebody else should have the chance.

And Lastly, I think that everyone putting up freebies should be told that they are under no obligation to make it a first come, first serve. Some people request a short blurb of what they will be used for, and that's great, but like somebody said in this discussion, not everybody is great at writing up stories. So when freebies are posted, perhaps there should be a 24 hour wait so a few people can ask for it, and then the giver can choose somebody however they please, whether it be first come, random number, or by seeing who claims the most or who has a lot of characters.

So that's my two cents, and I hope it helps. 
More than anything, I want the freebie bin to stay a nice place where everyone can rehome characters and have fun <3

@animecafe102 I hope you don't stress too hard about this. honestly I think you just happened to be the regular on the page that the complaining started, and it unintentionally felt directed at you because you do adopt frequently. But a lot of us adopt frequently, and as far as I can tell, we all do it with good intentions to use and love the characters. I do hope you won't take it so hard, becuase you've done nothing wrong and shouldn't feel guilty. //hugs

@GoldnRetriever Thank you pinging me, love. ^^ Or if it was edited, I still got the notification.

Anywhoo.

I do agree that some are going much to quickly. There are many times when people are away or asleep and they miss out on getting anything at all. 

I think that in ways of trying to help with this, it should be a mandatory rule that if you would like one, you must give at least two sentances saying why you want it, or giving some sort of bio, and there should be a main limit of one at a time. The rule of initially needing a description may help to slow down the adoption process and make people think 'hey, will I actually use this or is it just by impulse?', while the initial limit of one per person will make you think 'which do I want more?'. 

Now, I am a person who would REALLY like to clear out all that I have, especially since more are being added each day(I have ALOT of characters I got but ended up having no use for). Being someone who adopts from thinking of bios THEN getting the character is I'll use it or if it will play a role in one of my many universes, I personally find it easy to give bios that are at least a paragraph long. But I do understand that there are some people who have a hard time coming up with something immediately. So I thought of a way to help. It will be mandatory to give reasoning or a bio to adopt the character, HOWEVER the one who is giving them away may choose to say if they want it  done or not, as well as choosing the limit that they themselves will give.

For example, I have a butt ton of characters I need gone. But I don't think I would have people give descriptions because of it. There are to many characters there, so I would opt into people taking however many they like, as well as make it optional if they can give a description.

Goodness, I ramble... I really hope that was the least bit understandable, and I hope that my input has helped a bit... ^^

I don't quite have anything to add to the discussion really, but I would just like to say I am really appreciating how civil everyone is being about this, and that I know I was one of the people who mentioned the topic, so I just want to say that I in no way want to make any of the regulars who adopt a lot feel like they're being put on the spot or anything like that. I just wanted to point out that that was something going on in the thread, and the fact that so many of you are willing to discuss it rather than ignoring or bashing the person who brought it up really means a lot.

on another note, I really do love the idea of keeping the bin fairly open but having the character owners specify if how they'd like to give away the characters in question.

Also this just occurred to me, but the "only one a day" rule only helps in the cases where people post several characters at once. Often, people will just toss out one freebie here and there, which especially seems to be the case with higher quality characters that people are tentative about giving away. Even with the one a day rule, the same person could snatch up all of these characters, simply because they are posted once every few days.

I really like the idea of having a baseline rule as a guide that can be followed since some people prefer to have an example of what's preferred [and clearly option 'A' is what most are wanting] but allows for individuals to deviate from that if they've got their own ideas about what they want to ask for rather than the standard baseline.  I will say a threadwide thing would be a LOT harder to manage unless you've got time to keep track of such things, though it would be an effective way to make sure things are a little more balanced. 

I think it's awesome that everyone's been willing to discuss things, tbh. It's refreshing to see that rather than things devolve into bash fests. =)

I will agree that if the rule is decided against, that perhaps a note emphasizing the need to give others a chance would be a good idea. While it's been generally polite and a good discussion, the fact that there's a discussion at all and frustration tells me there probably is a bit of a problem with people feeling angry and resentful when the same bunch of users constantly grabs a lot of the designs. I think of it like this - it'd be the same as someone buying up a lot of adopts in a batch at once. /2 cents

@araneko your english is fiiinee! I never would have guessed it wasn't your first language.