Check into the Buy Nothing Café

Read before consuming
The Front Door
Public Library
Links & Media
Coming Events
Message Center
Sign In Here

Welcome to the attractive, smoke free and economically competitive Buy Nothing Café -- with its fully tailored, real-time Public Library, Filing Cabinet, and Communications Center in support of our cooperative group effort. It offers a number of useful capabilities which are introduced and explained briefly below. (This portion of our distributed problem solving process is currently handled through a free subscription arrangement with YahooGroups (check out the YahooGroups factor).

Signing In:

The Café offers advantages, but does require care of use and in setting up the first time. In any case if you wish to use it, including gaining access to the Library and the excellent Links & Media sections, you must first sign in. To join all you have to do is fill in the following, which will automatically activate your application. Once your application has been processed here, you will within minutes receive an email with the information you need to enter the private parts of the supporting communications and information site. That's all there is to it.

Subscribe to the Buy Nothing Café
Enter your email address here:
Café message archive available here

And if you can think of others who can join in to the mutual benefit of all concerned, please use the form to initiate their application. They will be contacted shortly thereafter with clear instructions as to how to join.

To read messages thus far received
To see documents in the Café Library
To inspect Links and Media thus far organized

Active Participation?

If you intend to participate in the discussions, we beg you to read the Welcoming Note carefully. This is a moderated, low volume forum which is kept down to no more tha none outgoing email per day and we do take care to ensure that all communications are directly relevant to the group. In addition we suggest you scan the World Forum Toolkit which provides further background and use hints for the many functions and utilities offered here.

Email Frequency/Fast Track

When you have signed up you can elect to receive feedback from this site in any of three forms:

    (a) Individual emails. To receive all individual email messages.
    (b) Daily digest: To receive all emails for the day in one message.
    (c) Special notices*. Only send important update emails from group moderator (rarely used).

* Fast Track options Many of you may find one of the latter more convenient. The Fast Track -- the best way to fit the Commons and its many parts into a crowded schedule.

Note: If you wish to leave the list at any time, just send a blank email to

Back to top

Are we happy with YahooGroups?

Not particularly. While the service is and has been a useful one for the last five years or so -- and right in line with our financial possibilities -- Yahoo is becoming more intrusive and aggressive by the month. But it's free. And it works. So stay tuned. We plan to do something about it.

Last updated 12 August 2000. © 1994-2005 The Commons , Paris.
Best viewed with Internet Explorer 4.0 or better.
Site Map    What's New    Search