the free shirt archive FAQ
"in case you care to ask..."
If you have to ask, you'll never know. Yet, if you have to know then you have to ask. I am not about to solve that one, but I can answer other questions you may have about the free shirt archive.
General Questions
Donation Questions
Freedom Quotient Questions
Why the Free Shirt archive?
In case you care.
How many free shirts do you have?
Do you really wear all of these shirts?
Yes.
Do you ever wear anything other than the shirts in the free shirt archive?
Yes, but not often. I've been told that I am sexy enough to get away with it.
To set the record straight, I also always wear pants.
I do wear shoes, but as little as possible. Bare feet are good feet.
Does the free shirt archive give out free shirts?
Not now. The future will see about the future.
Where do you keep all of your free shirts?
In Ohio, I used to keep them all in my wardrobe in my room since my closet is blocked by other furniture because there is a bookcase with encyclopedia sets in there. The wardrobe was fine for about 50 shirts, but I since had to expand to hooks on doors. Currently, there is a hook on the bedroom door and on a door in the hallway.
In Pennsylvania, I have a full closet and some coat hooks on the wall next to the back door.
I donated a bunch of shirts to the free shirt archive. How come I'm not in the free help archive?
The free shirt archive free help archive is not a hall of fame of shirt donation. It is more a way of saying thank you to the people who have helped out the production of the website itself in some manner. One need not be a shirt donor to get into the free help archive.
Why the free shirt archive FAQ?
Me too.
Why should I also wear free shirts?
The seasonal disposal of clothing to keep up with the latest trends is dehumanizing. Doing so will save you money. Doing so will also help keep clothing that can be used by other people out of the landfills which already have too much of our garbage in them. I could go on, but I feel that I have already made a compelling case.
How do I donate to the free shirt archive?
You may either donate in person, or through the mail.
If you meet me in person, I will give you an immediate appraisal. Most likely, it will be accepted and I will thank you profusely.
You can mail me your free shirt to Arcania Dot Net free shirt archive P.O. Box 10129 Pittsburgh, PA 15232. Please use 5" x 7" containers for shipping. I have limited space in the P.O. Box after letters and bills. Technically, you could get away with having a bigger package. Still, the size of packaging materials that is most commonly sold that can still fit in the box is 5" x 7".
The free shirt archive exists because of private donations. I would also greatly appreciate a first name to associate with the shirt. Do keep in mind that the free shirt archive will not automatically accept your donation into the archive.
May I donate?
Yes.
If you need my permission, I allow you to give me free shirts. If you have to ask other peope for permission, I advise that you do so before you send me a free shirt.
If I donate, will I be mentioned?
Think of the mentioning as definite if your shirt is accepted, and not very likely at all if your donation is unsatisfactory. Please give me a name when you donate if I do not know who you are.
What size do you prefer?
XL or L. Anything smaller will probably not make the free shirt archive for the time being.
Do you accept any free shirt?
No.
I accept only the shirts that I will really wear all the time, or sometimes shirts that I like for other reasons. I do not intend on ever again taking anything as bad as the Camelbak shirt.
There are a couple of reasons why I chose to be particular. First, accepting shirts that I will never use is wasteful. Thanks to the many private donations made to the free shirt archive, I now have a wonderful wardrobe for the top part of my body. Many women have been shocked that I have more shirts than they have. In short, I have too many shirts to justify taking any old shirt someone would give me out of pity. I mean, most of the shirts in the archive are shirts that the donors do not wear anymore and I am willing to give some of them a new home in my wardrobe and on my chest, but there are other people out there who do need clothes.
Second, if I accepted any shirt, than I would be overloaded with shirts that I do not like and I would have a massive backlog of people who donate only to get on the internet. I want to keep this whole enterprise as earnest as possible.
What do you do with the free shirts that you do not put in the archive?
I return them. If the donor does not want them back, I will donate them to a local charity.
What is the freedom quotient?
The freedom quotient is a measurement of the freeness of the donation of a free shirt. It is NOT a ranking of how much I personally enjoy or how often I wear a particular shirt.
What is the formula of freedom quotient?
The freedom quotient can derived from averaging a number of things. What those things are is a secret.
Why is the formula of the freedom quotient a secret?
I do not want people to game the system. I want honesty in donation. I also do not want to start a stupid competition over who can donate the most freely. I want everyone to donate what they want without trying to outdo any other donor.
Why institute the Freedom Quotient at all?
I wanted to display how freely each shirt was donated. Before the quotient, the issue did come up, but I had no way to express the freedom of any particular shirt. The Freedom Quotient was the method that I came up with. If you have a better idea, please contact me with your idea.
I do realize that if people knew the formula, then the chance that I would get more freely donated shirts than usual goes up. However, there are parts of the formula that can not automatically be calculated. So it would still be a crapshoot if one knew how to most freely donate.
