Friendly or not so friendly? (freebievillage.co.uk)

Member Name: sirg0508

Product:	freebievillage.co.uk
Date:	25/01/07 (323 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extra money for Cashbag members. Charity donations.

Disadvantages: Popularity contests, Clique, Out of date posts

FreebieVillage.co.uk (FV) is the forum belonging to Cashbag.co.uk, one of the many cashback sites around. Registration is separate and really the forum is also stand alone with the possibility for members of Cashbag to earn extra money in their accounts (UK only). The forum is free to join, hosts quizzes and other free ways to earn money, support for members of Cashbag, general chat and numerous types of freebies and bargains found on the net.

I joined in August 2005 and chose the same username I use on Cashbag although any name can be chosen. Like many other forums it asks for similar details although all that needs to be entered is a username, e-mail address and password to gain access. At first I found it a hard place to feel welcome in as there were a couple of active members and they always seemed to have conversations with each other that I’m sure a lot of people would feel unwelcome to join in on. After a long absence however I did return and put more effort in but I see the same situation even as a regular member a year on.

It seems the forum has its own little group and no one else can join in and I’ll be the first to admit that I am a regular user and do post quite frequently. And with over 5,000 users it is surprising that there aren’t more posting. My advice is: join in! There is an introduction section but usually I never seem to see anyone posting elsewhere after their intro. Exploring the forum there is the Chatterbox Lounge where there are normally daily conversations about what people are doing that day and people do post about all sorts of situations whether happy or sad. Fun House contains a lot of jokes and funny items but also a few word games so anyone can join in if they feel like they don’t wish to join in other areas. I’ve posted a few items in there but mainly it’s used as an area to post in during the quizzes which require to post elsewhere before guessing again.

The Random Quiz Room used to hold 2 quizzes a day held by admin or a moderator but some complained that they were rather boring e.g. guessing how much they spent while shopping. Each quiz question is worth 25p and can be won a maximum 3 times a week or 50p, once a weekend. Now members get a chance to host quizzes through the week (only once a fortnight) and the host will receive 25p and another member can win the other 25p. It means there is less money to be won if not hosting a quiz but gives a little variation in the quizzes being held. I remember when I joined I didn’t really understand what they were about but keep browsing and read the rules and they are easy enough to join in. The Bonus Ball Game is based on the National Lottery and members both on Wednesdays and Saturdays can pick 2 (or if there are a lot of people wanting to join in, 1) numbers. When the lotto is drawn, whatever the bonus ball comes out someone can win 50p in their Cashbag account but if no one wins that week, it rolls over to the next week so sometimes there can be a couple of quid to be won. Members have to be active for the chance to win - if they are not they money rolls over. I just pick the unluckiest numbers – I’ve only ever won twice but I did get £1 and 50p.

As the site is primarily a freebie site ‘It’s Arrived’ is an area which again contains a daily post which everyone can reply to but we want to know what freebies have been received. Sometimes people miss out on some and if they see someone received X item, can ask where they got it and order themselves if still available. I always like to see what people have received to see what I could be missing out on. Plus I also use it as a gauge for knowing what I’ll be receiving and look forward to as everyone else seems to get their freebies before me - even if I’m the one who originally posted it.

The site is not as active as a lot of other freebie forums which is disappointing and I know I’ve probably missed out on a lot of freebies because of this. The freebie section is divided up into different areas such as Pamper Yourself for beauty items (which contains items for men too), Books, Stationery and Pets to name a few which do help to find specific items quicker. Members who see any freebies will normally post them on FV but with so few who choose to take the time to do this it does mean that unless using several similar sites, freebies can be missed out on. There isn’t really much benefit to posting freebies other than letting others know about them so they can order and I have received some pretty amazing stuff but for those members of Cashbag, members can vote for a Weekly Star Member and freebies are what we want so gives you a chance of being nominated for that reason and winning £1 if you receive the most votes. There is also a competition section and people do post what they have won which does give people encouragement as it shows people do win but again, few are posted.

Personally I despise the Weekly Star Member area because it’s a popularity contest and the worst thing is people are nominated because they’re having a bad time or they live with another member and feel they deserve a nomination and just generally items that don’t have anything to do with being a member of the forum (which includes the reason ‘just cos’). It even says just under the title “Each week Freebie Village rewards 1 member just for being active, helpful or even outrageously wacky” which are forum related. I’ve never met anyone on FV and as someone who found it hard to join in at the start feel this is something that needs to be addressed. I’d rather nominate people because they posted a lot of good freebies or were particularly helpful. I’m probably being rather harsh as the non-forum related nominations are not too frequent but they do crop up time and time again and it means other people miss out. The same people also win time and time again because there are few who post but as a regular member it means more chance to win £1 in my Cashbag account… I’ve still only won 3 times.

The Cashbag section isn’t really touched that much so either people don’t know about the forum or don’t need help. Cashbag will not deal with account specific queries e.g. if I want to know when I’ll be paid cashback for buying something – this should be done through Cashbag itself but if any help is needed there are always people there to help out. Cashbag staff are active on the forum but those who have been members usually try and help out too if they are not around. There is a lot of useful advice about clearing cookies so things are tracked and it explains what some of the terms mean. I have found this area useful if e.g. I wanted to join a casino site but it didn’t state how much had to be deposited I could ask. There is negativity around that area as some state they haven’t received payments or have problems and blame Cashbag but these are normally worked out in good time and both staff and members try and help as much as possible. Requests are welcome but to be honest of those that have made requests I’ve only seen a couple put in place – one of the best was the addition of dates to the paid cashback and speeding Cashbag up so it didn’t take so long to load. The updates section just posts new retailers and how much these pay but I always find visiting Cashbag better because that section is not updated at the same time Cashbag is.

At the time of writing this, there are over 91,000 items posted on the site and I have no doubt that ¾ of that will be out of date but very little gets removed. This makes the site harder to navigate because especially in the freebie areas and competitions the links will have expired or are duplicated and with page after page means a lot of wasted time searching for the ones that do work and are still active. I think this is more down to lack of moderators or admin with time to remove them. It makes the site look busy but is not an advantage for either members or non members who have full access to these areas. There are also quite a few different areas on the forum – 27 of them including the new addition of the 18+ section and another for 18+ competitions and freebies but it isn’t too hard to find things as each area is clearly labelled and there is a good search facility provided on the site.

Like lots of other forums, FreebieVillage is plagued with spammers and advertisers of adult material. There are a couple of moderators although only one is active, and one member of admin who visit regularly to remove these posts so some can be on the site for a bit until they come online and remove them. As I help run a another forum I know that once these spammers start they are hard to stop as they are all coming from different IPs, countries and e-mail addresses and banning them makes little difference.

One very positive aspect of FV is although there is the area for members to win money, if there doesn’t happen to be a winner the money is not just forgotten about but put into a charity account and it really does all add up. From the 25p’s on quizzes that haven’t been won to the bonus balls that come out as a charity number have done rather well. It’s collected from the start of the year and members are given the chance to vote for who they’d like to see it go to in time for Christmas.

The site is quite plain and boring but does have the Private Message facility for members to send messages to each other. I don’t find I use mine that often other than to send messages to friends. Apart from the hard navigation with so many different categories and out of date posts the site is still quite quick to use and posting is also made easier with the quick reply function which rather than taking me to a new page to write a message, just click the quick reply button which adds a box on the bottom of the conversation to enter before clicking submit. The site has been the same way though for so long and although nothing really needs to be done cosmetically to make it look pretty it just needs cleaned up.

FV has its good and its bad points, some of which have tempted me to leave but I have stuck with it mainly because it boosts my Cashbag balance from winning the quizzes etc. Sometimes though that isn’t enough and it’s time to take a break from the place. The members are usually friendly and helpful but with some negativity around can make the place very unwelcoming but surprising that so few are active after joining. It’s a good place to get advice on Cashbag related matters as there are people active who work for the site and also there have been some decent freebies around but unless being active and finding them yourself on other sites won’t be as rewarding as other sites. I used to enjoy FV as there are normally people online to talk to and FV are quite generous giving the collected money to a charity and they do involve members quite a lot in activities. Hopefully things will improve in the future.

Summary: A freebie forum with not many freebies