Nexteritis – Opposition to FcNext

Quoting from the home page of the FcNext Yahoo! Group:

“This is a place where freecycling friends can discuss the future of freecycling — where freecycling should go and how. [...] IMPORTANT: Intelligent, thoughtful, and positive discussion is encouraged.”

          Someone should check the FcNext activity log to see what happened to message #24528, posted by Eric Burke on 3/13/08, subject line, “Re: Personal Attacks – Get Real.”  We have reason to believe that it may have been deleted by Yahoo! pursuant to a TOS violation report for content unsuitable for a public, non-age-restricted group, because of its harassing nature and the use of language the same as just used today by FcNext Moderator Karen Welliver in her message #24824.

          One would think moderators would know better.  The use of the expletive, TOS violation or not, may be the lesser of any problem with her post, the rest being what it says about its author as a moderator encouraging that kind of senseless posting activity, setting that kind of example for other members, and for the reputation of the group in the public eye.

          This is the future of freecycling, FcNext-style: when you have nothing else to talk about, talk trash.

          We suggest that every time an FcNext member gets ready to post anything, they first review the content of the group home page, refreshing their memory of these phrases written there:

“freecycling friends”
“the future of freecycling”
“honest discussion”
“experiences and insights”
“all are welcome to join in our discussions”
“intelligent, thoughtful, and positive discussion.”
“stay on topic”
“no personal attacks” 

          They might even make that list a biweekly auto-send file, to keep everyone focused on it.

          We take no exception to whether a post like Karen’s latest fits the characterization described on the home page as “members regularly sharing their experiences and insights,” as such posts do tend to reflect the quality of their experience and degree of insight.

          We wonder if FcNexters let their children read their work as “freecycling friends” in their publicly accessible message archive, and how those children fare in vocabulary, netiquette, and writing style.

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Copyright 2008 by Nexteritis.  All rights reserved.  For permission to use, write to: nexteritis-owner@yahoogroups.com

Our text below is too long to post as a comment on the blog post titled “The freecycle controversy” at:
http://sunnydale47.livejournal.com/880220.html
… so instead we will only post there a link to THIS blog entry.

FcNext is not the answer to TFN trouble.

In it’s group home page description, FcNext (formerly FreecycleNext) calls itself “the next generation of freecycling” and says that they are about “the future of freecycling.”  Anyone examining their activity (they have a publicly accessible message archive) will find that it’s more about the past, about their hatred of The Freecycle Network, Inc. (TFN) and its founder and chief, Deron Beal, and about sniping and cultish rage against anyone who speaks seriously against FcNext hate-baiting practices, including slanderous character assassinations and other kinds of violations of the Yahoo! Groups Guidelines and Terms of Service (TOS).  Recently about half a dozen FcNexters were slapped with TOS violation notices by Yahoo! and Yahoo deleted a bunch of their posts because of it … most notably recent three-time-TOS-violator foul-mouthed money-grubbing ”Deacon of the Erisian Way“ Eric Burke, who can’t keep a civil tongue in his head.  (For a good laugh, take a look at his razmear.us Erisian Deacon web site, where, like other places you find him on the web, he’s begging for personal financial support, this time in, “Buy some cool Erisian Stuff and help me pay my bills, take a look at my shop for an assortment of Sacred Chao merchandise.”  There IS no such thing as cool Erisian stuff, because it’s an idiotic pseudo-philosophy.  But it’s not surprising that Deacon Burke, like other FcNexters, goes by a self-ordained spiritual title, such things being common among cultists.)

There is nothing new in the behavior of FcNext.  They’ve been doing it in multiple online venues for about four years, coalesced into FcNext as their favorite cult cave.

Exploring FcNext one will also find that it’s only a dozen or so vocal snipers doing most of the trash-talking in FcNext, sometimes up to about two dozen, yet they deign to represent themselves as speaking for the truth held by a majority that does not exist.  FcNext membership is a miniscule minority of worldwide (or even just U.S.) freecycling group moderators.  And it’s always the same intent and tone: taking down TFN  (as if there will ever be any chance of their ever accomplishing any bit of that).  If they were honest, they’d rename their group “Death to TFN,” which is all they are really about, under the cloaks and masks they put over that mission.

Realistically, FcNext has accomplished nothing to stop the hegemony of TFN in the freecycling world it created.  Now, FcNexters face Yahoo!’s active promotion of TFN’s freecycle groups, even to the extent of Yahoo!’s seeding free gifts into TFN groups for the purpose of recruiting new members … talk about consumerism … freecycling for dollars, really, in that Yahoo! is taking commercialization of freecycling to a new level it never knew before.  FcNext is absolutely helpless and hopeless in fighting that.  Not that they shouldn’t.  They simply cannot, because they don’t have the means or the minds for such an undertaking.  They have not a gram of the wherewithal needed to begin such a campaign.  All they can do is rant about it, and Yahoo! and TFN will laugh at them all the way to the bank.

I call FcNext the “Lost Generation of Freecycling.”  They are TFN rejects who can’t get over it and move on, like some of the best of former TFN activists did in the creation of ReUseItNetwork.org, the best real alternative to TFN in the U.S., aside from some completely independent groups and maybe RealCycle.co.uk in the U.K. , possibly FullCircles.org in Canada.

FcNext brags about being big on free speech and welcoming cogent expression of dissent, in response to their experience of being censored and squelched in the Freecycle ModSquad and OIDG groups when they objected to certain things about TFN corporate behavior.  But when someone comes along and offers any serious dissent to FcNext ways, or seriously opposes the behavior of a core FcNext insider or cult leader, after allowing their cult followers to harass and attack the dissenter on a personal level (blatantly ignoring the FcNext home page policy statement, “No personal attacks,” in lip-servicing hypocrisy to the extent of being slapped with Yahoo! TOS violations for it) with no cogent response to the actual content of the opposition’s writings, they then invoke censorship just like OIDG and MS, preventing the dissenter from answering the FcNext rabid wolf pack postings, and worse, with the hypocrisy of saying that they stand for freedom to speak in dissent.  So they have become the thing they hate in TFN’s OIDG and MS groups: using censorship (and worse, personal attacks) to shut down posting by people who raise objections to the group’s behavior, even from non-TFN-affiliated people who don’t like TFN any better than FcNexters do.

This is not a defense of TFN’s policies, practices or behaviors.  However, one must consider that as a corporate entity TFN has a duty to protect its proprietary interests and reputation from attacks from its own insiders.  What they are protecting may be corrupt in some ways (and, in at least the constitution of its “not-for-profit” board of directors built on cronyism and nepotism, it is corrupt), but no corporation is going to sit still for its own staff, volunteers, and members ripping it apart from the inside, corrupt or not.

FcNext, on the other hand, has no such proprietary duty.  On the contrary, they claim (deceptively and hypocritically) to be all about free speech and the right to dissent.  They lie in that.  I’ve caught Deron Beal in lies, too (most notably about the former freecyclefinder.org activity shut down indirectly because of Yahoo! declaring its behavior a TOS violation), but that does not justify or warrant deception, rampant hypocrisy, and cultic hate-baiting among Beal’s opponents.

Lately, FcNext moderators (chieftains among the hate-baiting cult) have gone so far as to squelch even their own loyal cultists from posting about writings of people taking a stand against FcNext outside of FcNext.  No surprise there, really.  This is the only answer they can offer to dissent against their ways; hiding from it like children holding hands over ears and yelling “La la la la la la la la la – I can’t hear you! – La la la la la la la!”  But they had not ears, hearts or minds to hear cogent criticism against their own corruption and moral hazard anyway.

In addition to this kind of folly, they actively support and praise the perpetuation of so-called alternative networks or directories of supposed freecycling groups.  The two most popular ones among FcNexters are Eric Burke’s freesharing.org and FcNext moderator “Pastor” (a.k.a.: PK) Ken Hedden’s SharingIsGiving.org (SIG).  BOTH are loaded with garbage “freecycling group” links (and they don’t even bother to try to deny it, knowing they have no defense to offer for it).  Freesharing.org directory links are at least 60% garbage, proved through documented research published at:
http://nexteritis.wordpress.com/freesharing-survey-march-2008/

Pastor, indeed; cult-style, that is.

Hedden fattens the SIG directory by going around the country via cyberspace from his desk in Schroon Lake, NY, creating zombie groups — groups that are dead or inactive and never were and never will be active (proved by the fact that many of them are now dead two and three years since he created them) — “groups” that he puts up apparently only to fatten his directory and increase his silly empire of links — all in the hypocritical and deceptive name of providing an alternative to TFN.  Three quarters of Hedden’s SIG-brand-name groups are zombies, never truly operational freecycling groups.  The rest are largely just duplicates of links from Burke’s
directory, proved 60% junk.  The true nature of the SIG “network” has been carefully researched and documented at:
http://nexteritis.wordpress.com/sig-survey-overview/

Freesharing and SIG are no alternative at all to TFN except in a deceptive, illegitimate, corrupt way.  This is “the future of freecycling” by FcNext standards.

If any person stumbling upon freesharing or SIG uses them to look for a local group to join, more likely than not they will not find a legitimate, viable, real freecycling group there, but they can find groups that promote buying and selling, the antithesis of freecycling, and they can find Eric Burke’s personal profit generating ads.

For several months, Burke used freesharing.org to promote his favorite partisan political campaign (Ron Paul) in addition to always using the site to raise a personal profit for himself (and for his partisan political cause during the also-ran campaign of Ron Paul).  I call freesharing.org “Freecycling for Dollars.”  He also refused to remove groups that asked to be removed from his directory of links for sites that his FAQ says is for “sites that wish to be listed,” a statement we expect him to eventually remove so that he can no longer be held accountable for it, just as he recently removed his “No Politics” rule for groups listed in his “directory.”

After being publicly exposed and condemned for using freesharing.org for partisan political activism on the backs of apolitical freecycling groups, he removed the freesharing FAQ policy statement about “no politics,” a policy almost universally accepted as standard throughout the freecycling world, but no longer in freesharing.org or in the conscience of vocal FcNexters who praise, support and defend Burke (thus we say “almost” universally accepted).  FcNextercultists will never stand on principle against one of their own core cult insiders.  The few wimpy mentions among them about defects in Burke’s behavior amount to nothing more than feigned shots at empty self-righteousness, painting pictures on their own mirrors to hide what they would otherwise see if viewed with open and honest eyes.

If they had any guts at all, those Nexters who recognize the errors in Burke’s ways would firmly and resolutely take a stand against them, and publicly divest themselves of involvement and support of freesharing.org unless and until he makes amends.  But in a cultish environment like FcNext, that would only earn them the ire of the dominant FcNextercult rabid wolf pack, where all thrive on mindless fear, not just of outsiders, but of themselves, having become what they most hate as a group and unable to see it, much less admit it or do anything about it.   Even the smarter ones among them like moderator (and former Deron Beal right-hand-woman) Nancy Castleman and FcNext founder Tim Oey won’t do it, probably because they know it would be the end of their idiot brainchild FcNext.

After waiting three and half months for Burke to live up to his promises to accommodate their requests to be removed from his directory, when a group undertook a membership letter-writing civil campaign to him about it, he responded to some of them with foul-mouthed (including the usual proverbial drunken sailor type expletives) abusive emails, and undertook a raging personal attack (calling it a declaration of “war”) on the group’s owner in FcNext posts (posts that were subsequently deleted by Yahoo! for TOS violations).  He accused the group’s members of sending him abusive emails, but when challenged on that lie, he never produced a copy of a single one.

Burke was also caught red-handed adding groups to his directory that never asked to be there, despite his site’s FAQ stated policy that the directory is for “sites that wish to be listed.”  Freesharing.org (not an org at all, but just the personal profiteering activity of Eric Burke) is more corrupt than the TFN he hates.

What did FcNexters have to say about this?  Most of them who said anything, especially the usually most vocal ones, defended Burke, and even praised his corrupt
behaviors.  They joined in the personal attacks against Burke’s opponents, without any cogent defense offering any reasoning for their hateful behavior.  They cheered him on and encouraged him to continue his foul-mouthed personal attacks and abuses, adding their own slanderous rhetoric to the fray, and rallied for Burke to continue his corrupt activity at freesharing.org.

FcNext, if it had any conscience as a group, or even if just one of its leading members had an active conscience, would take a stand against the kind of “future of freecycling” represented by Burke’s and Hedden’s garbage directories.  Instead, FcNexters defend their right to practice deception in the creation and publicizing of junk directory entries, politicizing of the freecycling movement, and profiteering on it.  This is the future of freecycling in the hands and small minds of leading, core FcNext cultists and their most vocal trash-talking blindly brainwashed minions energized by hatred.

For more about this, including carefully documented research into the true nature of freesharing.org and sharingisgiving.org (which always was a silly name), and for a cogently expressed dissenting perspective (something not allowed in FcNext) on the cultic mindset of FcNext, see the Nexteritis blog at:
http://nexteritis.wordpress.com

Nexteritis is NOT associated, affiliated, or allied with The Freecycle Network or any other freecycling network or directory service in any manner whatsoever.  The purpose of Nexteritis is to expose the corrupt nature of FcNext and its minions.

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Copyright 2008 by Nexteritis.  All rights reserved.  For permission to use, write to:

nexteritis-owner@yahoogroups.com

Copyright 2008 by Nexteritis.  All rights reserved.  For permission to use, write to:
Nexteritis-owner@yahoogroups.com

——————————

Why We Call FcNext a Cult

Paul Hurteau, operator of FreeCycleEarth.org (FCE) and one of the longtime leading Nextercultists, says about us, “And to call fcnexters a ‘CULT’ just goes to show they have no idea what constitues [sic] a cult!”

This deserves some explanation, and we’ll enjoy adding some commentary.

First, a note of appreciation to Paul for using his unmoderated status to post in FcNext a link to our Nexteritis blog, especially given that FcNext moderators normally censor out any strong, genuine, consistently cogent opposition to their cultic mindset.

Quoting with gratitude from our favorite dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s:

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CULT

Etymology: French & Latin; French culte, from Latin cultus care, adoration, from colere to cultivate

5  – a: great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially: such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad  – b: the object of such devotion  – c: a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion
————————————–

We note with interest that the other definitions of “cult” typically involve religion or religious-type behavior and thought.  Some of the leading core Nexters have distinctly religious mindsets, even calling themselves “of the cloth,” (Paul Hurteau, for example) “pastor” (Ken Hedden, for example), “evangelist” (Andy Swarbrick, for example, in this case in his activism for Grouply.com throughout the freecycling group world), etc., or have otherwise demonstrated that they are adherents (or at least lip-servants) of religious convictions of types whose best founders, avatars and inspired writings have always opposed the general trend of FcNext-type cultish behavior and attitude.  The hypocrisy typical of a radically religious mindset is a common type of human stupidity.  It has a strong hold on multiple leading, core Nextercultists.

It is typical of radically religious-minded people to be virtually incompetent of anything but cultic thinking, especially those who glorify themselves for their self-appointed roles in religious activism outside the mainstream of responsible spiritual institutions having internal systems of holding their activists and adherents accountable for their behaviors.  Irresponsible, hypocritical, radical religious fervency is a common type of human stupidity having a grip on the mindset of some leading core Nextercultists.

(It is easy to sympathize somewhat with atheism activist Sam Harris, who said that if he could magically rid the world of either religion or rape, he would eliminate religion because it does more damage to civilization.)

FcNext is not by design or definition a religious cult, but it has a cultic mindset similar to radical religion in some ways.  In the hypocrisy typical of religious fanatics, they violate the principles of their own personal religions (and pseudo-religions) in their aberrant and deviant behaviors, and abrogate the purported principles and policies of their own FcNext group, not just now in recent FcNext activity, but consistently for years in a variety of online venues that have fed into establishment and cultivation of the FcNext cult, like tributaries into a river.

In the case of FcNext, the cultic trend is grounded not only in devotion to their pseudo-intellectual (harebrained) hypocrisy in lip-service to themes such as free speech, respect for cogent dissent, and lightly moderated discussion and debate, but more significantly, their cultism derives from, focuses upon, and actively cultivates abject hatred of Deron Beal, The Freecycle Network, Inc. (TFN), and anyone who resists the FcNext cultish group-think, calling them “deronites,” servants or aspirants of favor with the “emperor,” etc. , even when such FcNext resisters have no relationship or connection with Beal or TFN, and do not participate in TFN or support it.

Basically, if it does not support hatred of TFN, core Nexters despise it and attack it, reflexively, reactively, irrationally, like mad dogs.  The devotional aspect of their cult is less a matter of devotion to a movement of their own (a deceptive shell masking corruption; something like what Jesus called a “whited sepulchre”), more a devotion to hatred and condemnation of anyone who does not agree with or opposes their style, beliefs, tactics, and hate-based dogma.  This is typical of a cult that has nothing to offer but opposition to something else, and cultivation of hatred as its primary strategy.  Devoid of substance of its own, it derives its being from the labor of demonizing others.  It is part of the same kind of human stupidity typical of radical religion.

We note with care that this is not likely true of everyone holding membership in the FcNext group.  Their membership count varies between about 450 and 500, but only a few dozen of them actively advocate the cultish mentality of the much smaller cadre of highly vocal cult leaders and advocates.

It is hard to estimate accurately how many freecycling-type groups there are in the world.  This is partly because so many “groups” listed in directories like Freesharing.org (Eric Burke) and SharingIsGiving.org (Ken Hedden) are not really viable or active groups at all, or are not true freecycling groups, along with dead/inactive links, etc.  Many listed there never were real groups of real people in local communities joining the freecycling movement.  They were just empire-building zombie groups created by Ken Hedden to fatten his directory, like others pursuing that kind of decptive activity to perpetuate a false notion that there are many groups offering an alternative to TFN, making SIG just another pretty and petty shell devoid of substance (or honesty).

By educated guess, there could be as many as five thousand legitimate freecycling groups worldwide, with millions of members.  Many of the groups have multiple moderators.  There may be ten thousand or more moderators in freecycling groups.  Among them, less than five hundred hold membership in FcNext.  Among those five hundred, not more than a few dozen are active FcNext cultists.  Among those, only about a dozen or so are highly vocal in their cultic behaviors and attitudes.

Yet this tiny sick band of cultish miscreants make more noise about their hate-filled agenda than all the other freecycling moderators combined, and attack like rabid wolves anyone who takes a position contrary to their warped cultic hypocritical notions of truth, decency, civility, honesty and honor.  Their tactics are akin to terrorists, having no other means to impose and perpetuate their cultic will.

They have become worse than the worst characterizations they issue about TFN.  They are the things they hate.  It is inevitable that if you immerse yourself in such cultic devotion to a hate-based agenda long enough, you become blind to your own image, which is nothing more than a dark and dismal reflection of your own hatred and the character sustaining it.

Does Nexteritis hate FcNext?  Yes, in the way that one hates violence, corruption, hypocrisy, slanderous rhetoric, unconscionable behavior, and cultic blindness to realities beyond a cult’s closed worldview and narcissistic self-view, and the damage these things do to a positive civic movement like freecycling.

Unlike FcNext, the Nexteritis group has no need to stay active indefinitely.  We seek to expose FcNext hypocrisy, corruption, and cultism, propagate the information widely to the public, and let it serve as a red flag to anyone inclined to fall into the style of the FcNext cult.  We also hold some small hope that some current cult members or fringe members will see that there is more to reality and available perspective than the FcNext hate-based agenda, propaganda and tactics.  Still, there is only so much one needs to prove about what FcNext really is before the job is done.

We are not done.

We appreciate the support and assistance coming in quietly from people who have dealt with FcNexters (in the FcNext group and elsewhere since 2004) and have shared information and insights.  Thank you.

There was a time when leading Nexter-types embarked on a movement for “truth and reconciliation” regarding their troubled past with TFN and even with each other as individuals.  That has been drowned out, dismissed, and driven into extinction by the current cultic way of FcNext.

There may be room still for certain kinds of reconciliation effort.  We may propose a safe ground for such an opportunity soon, but not before we finish documenting some things that need to be known by interested parties, and need to be exposed for the sake of uprooting trends antithetical to civility, decency and honesty in the freecycling movement.

Nexteritis is not affiliated or associated in any manner with The Freecycle Network, Inc. or any of its leaders, servants, activists, moderators or members, but we welcome their involvement in our mission to cogently answer the cultic stupidity of FcNext.

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Copyright 2008 by Nexteritis.  All rights reserved.  For permission to use, write to:
Nexteritis-owner@yahoogroups.com

From our Yahoo Group, with our permission of course:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nexteritis/message/7

— In nexteritis@yahoogroups.com, nexteritis <no_reply@…> wrote:

Yahoo again responds to a TOS violation complaint against Eric Burke,
in the deletion of yet another one of his FcNext posts, this time
message number 24528.

So much for all these people who say that Yahoo does not act on such
things.  They DO, but only when it’s a real and true, verifiable,
proven violation reported properly.

— End forwarded message —

Burke is the owner of freesharing.org, that junk directory half-filled with bogus groups, dead links, and directory-padding “Sharing Is Giving” dead groups, which Burke uses to raise money for himself on the freecycling movement, in addition to his having used it for several months to promote the Ron Paul presidential campaign.

——————–
Copyright 2008 by Nexteritis.  All rights reserved.  For permission to use, contact:
nexteritis-owner@yahoogroups.com
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From:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nexteritis/message/6

— In nexteritis@yahoogroups.com, nexteritis <no_reply@…> wrote:

Posted by permission from:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dkchat/message/10

— In dkchat@yahoogroups.com, nexteritis <no_reply@> wrote:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fcnext/message/24668

Judy thinks there’s something to report to Yahoo, but forgets the
snot standing in front of her mirror needs wiping.

Of course they will reject this post I just made in reply to her
idiocy …

— In fcnext@yahoogroups.com, Shadow Grafix <ruzich2@> wrote:
>
> You might try responding to him at Meg’s address as I’m pretty sure
> he’d get the message.

WHAT KIND OF CRAP IS THAT?

No, you’re not using me to harass someone else.  You won’t allow him
to post in his own defense when others lie about him, and falsely
accuse him.  You won’t allow others to post in his defense, either. 
Your OIDG censorship tactics are not going unnoticed, and are being
publicized worldwide.  Y’all learned well from your former TFN
masters.

Your favorite insiders are allowed to say whatever they want about
someone you’ve declared an enemy, but he’s not allowed to answer?

You’ve become worse than the things you hate in TFN.

Meg

— End forwarded message —

— End forwarded message —

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Copyright 2008 by Nexteritis.  All rights reserved.  For permission to use, contact:
nexteritis-owner@yahoogroups.com
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