TOLI addresses itself to all people who hate it when by throwing away things, that are not needed anymore, unnecessary waste is created and by the same token very little respect is shown for the work (in the widest sense) and the material that had entered those things. As most of the time someone can be found who can still use what the other one wants to discard. So, next to those who want to get rid of something we have those who are looking for something. To bring the two together, hopefully in each case, is the aim of this email network.

TOLI is mainly for giving away things, thus for free (making gifts and receiving gifts), but you may also swap something for something else, and you certainly may also, in some cases, ask for a small price (in the amount of a token fee) or even a much higher price. That's entirely at the discretion of the one who is offering.

TOLI to that extent is a pleasant change from other, similar groups of common interest, where a bias against money, trade, the market etc. seems to be part of the mission. Such a restriction does not exist with TOLI. Here we are freedom oriented, tolerant individualists, pluralistic, even panarchists. Simply cooler. To each his own. Laissez faire! At TOLI giving away and selling stand peacefully side by side.

I wish that well-to-do people who own everything they need twice or thrice use this network rather to make gifts while those financially less lucky ought to ask at least a little bit of money for what they do not need anymore, in order to use it towards the acquisition of what they still urgently need.

TOLI is primarily intended for the metropolitan area of Hamburg (Germany), but doesn't want to exclude anyone from its use, far from it, and this is valid worldwide, if conforming to the rules set by Yahoo! and the moderator. German and English are the preferred languages here, but also French and Italian are perfectly welcome.

TOLI is a mailing list which uses the technical infrastructure of Yahoo! Groups that Yahoo! offers free of charge, but sponsored by ads, in order to bring together people who share interests as described above.

Christian Butterbach