Talk:Free Hugs Campaign

Who is Juan Mann?
The article makes several mentions of him, but it never says who he is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.118.89.72 (talk) 11:06, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
 * I just came here to say the same thing! PLease explain.--65.92.124.188 (talk) 15:21, 4 August 2008 (UTC)


 * This page is about the Free Hugs Campaign. Juan chooses to not speak of himself directly and therefore embodies this page as the campaign founder. The idea is more important than the person. That is how I interpret him. He lives in Sydney, Australia. Miroj (talk) 12:04, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

South Korea
I was doing a google search for Free Hugs and came across a lot of stuff from South Korea. Does anyone know if it's particularly big over there?

I did come across a youtube video from Korea with over 1 million views. IT was identical to Mann's video, except of course in Korea. Similiar sign, same song, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)


 * I watched a South Korean film last month on a Korean Airlines flight that had a free hugs scene in it, so I guess so. Sorry, can't remember the name of the film.  It wasn't very good. 86.143.70.75 (talk) 11:45, 28 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Just googled it: My Love. Bit like a Richard Curtis schmaltz fest, but even more rubbish. 86.143.70.75 (talk) 11:48, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Random vs. Free
Even if just for completeness sake, didn't this page ought to mention the Random Huggers campaign? Either that or Random Huggers ought to have their own separate page on Wikipedia. The Random Huggers campaign has been going for several years now and has attracted a significant level of media attention.  Notreallyrelevant 17:38, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone mind if I just go ahead an add a reference to Random Huggers? RandomHuggers.com - probably to the external links list. Notreallyrelevant 06:48, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I think Random is good too..but what do you base it upon? every 3rd person you see you see you hug? or use a random number generator from 1-10.. I will hug the 7th person, the the 2nd, then the 4th after that? What if someone doesn't want a hug? I think Free is better in most cases. 13:24, 20 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.49.190.38 (talk)

post-speedy-recovery commentary
Interesting phenomenon here; you've got a YouTube video with something like 400k Ghits (350 unique), but they're mostly blogs and journals and the like. No official website for the "campaign" that I can see, but there's a lot of Signal-to-noise ratio problems in Googling the term. And Juan Mann is obviously a pseudonym, which makes sourcing even harder. -- nae'blis 16:10, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Juan used to have an official site, but it's been defunct for about two years now. There is no official page for the Free Hugs campaign, but I've added the Free Help page founded by Juan Mann and Shimon Moore (along with the related video in the External Links section). -Kermitron, 6th Nov., 20'''06.
 * There is now a Free Hugs Campaign website and the mention of him in several Media outlets including the BBC. Mkdw talk 04:09, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

more data
But where does it come from? http://www.see.com.au/blog/archives/2006/09/free_hugs.html has an extensive background interview with both Juan Mann and Shimon Moore, but doesn't attribute it to anyplace I can cite, so I can't include it right now. -- nae'blis 18:30, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Some of it is very closely repeated in this video, but I don't know which news station that is to try to track it down. White "news" on blue background, with two sets of six white lines swooping in from left to right. May be Ten News, based on similarities of logos from this video, and [. -- nae'blis 18:37, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * That video was originally hosted on the Sydney Morning Herald website, and possibly not affiliated with an actual commercial network news station (aside from SMH being owned by Fairfax media which also controls a lot of the news). I believe Ten news simply used the available footage later to put together their own news story - of course, I have nothing to back this up. -Kermitron

Also, what station is the woman in the red suit (probably a reporter) from in the main video? -- nae'blis 18:37, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

photo requested
According to the above blog post, JM is still doing this "every Thursday". Can someone from Sydney get a picture for the article? -- nae'blis 18:30, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Should we link to this?
free hugs have a strong conceptual link with the Transactional Analysis concept of inconditional postive strokes. I suggest to put a link to : http://www.claudesteiner.com/fuzzy.htm  Any significant objection to this ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.166.19.234 (talk) 13:51, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Should we link to http://free-hugs.com ? An anon IP editor added it today. It doesn't seem to be affiliated with the original campaign and sells a bunch of merchandise. This looks like an opportunistic commercialisation effort rather than something that's actually relevant. I'd say we shouldn't link it. What do others think? (Until we come to a collective decision everyone likes, I've removed it from the article.) — Saxifrage ✎ 00:12, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

I just removed http://freehugs.com.cn (that's the China TLD). This discussion should probably cover all links to domains that aim to be "official sounding", not just free-hugs.com. — Saxifrage ✎ 19:11, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I took out the entire "networking hub" section. I agree that merchandising links don't have any place unless/until they start getting traction on their own (i.e. an interview says "and now "Free Hugs" merchandise is available online at XXXXXX.com"). Just my opinion. -- nae'blis 18:24, 31 October 2006 (UTC)


 * So the other link to the Free Hugs Campaign isn't opportunistic? They are selling stuff.  To be fair you should include the http://free-hugs.com link because it's a community service group that's been around for 5 years. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kp&envy (talk • contribs)
 * Did I say that we should favour one over the other? No. Just because I haven't gotten around to removing all examples of spam from the article doesn't mean I endorse any of it. We're not about being fair, we're about being accurate. Do you have a reason for including any of these at all? There is no evidence offered that any of them are official in the least. — Saxifrage ✎ 19:05, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

For accuracy, you should note that Free Hugs started in 2001, long before Juan Mann made the video. Guess what? It started with a guy and a sign. It's all on the free-hugs.com website which has the video to prove it.
 * Self-report sources are not considered reliable sources for Wikipedia articles. If I told you "I am the King of Spain", you would have no reason to believe it either. Unless you can come up with something independent of your site, the article will remain as it is.
 * Incidentally, removing the link to the Sidney Morning Herald article is inappropriate. We do not remove article sources when they're acceptable under our policies. — Saxifrage ✎ 23:19, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

I was including myspace, tribe, and youtube links - which I believe are relevant - for one: they document the various discussions going on. Two: they are legitimate networking hubs, and Three: Just so long as you have the main active sites for promoting freehugs, there is nothing wrong with it. I would like to hear from the person who keeps deleting them. I would like to hear why these 3 points arent relevant to have on this wiki - Eric


 * Wikipedia is not for promotion. We're not concerned with being fair to each of the "hubs", we are trying to build an encyclopedia free of spam and promotional material. — Saxifrage ✎ 16:18, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I've just removed http://www.abrazosgratis.org from the page. Everyone and their dog seems to want to be the "official" site of Free Hugs. — Saxifrage ✎ 06:48, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Perhaps it'd be worthwhile creating an International Free Hugs Campaign page or somesuch to keep them separate from the Juan Mann campaign. -Kermitron. 6th Nov., 2006
 * No, that wouldn't work because it's against policy. See Wikipedia is not a links directory. Besides, that's what the Open Directory Project is for. You might consider requesting that they create a Free Hugs category. — Saxifrage ✎ 03:50, 7 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I know the original video was on YouTube and directly led to the phenomenon gaining popularity in the first place. I'm not sure we should be linking to other documentation on YouTube of Free Hugs events, because that could spiral out of control very quickly, given the 345 current results for a search for free hugs. How do other people feel? -- nae'blis 20:33, 9 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I'd say that Wikipedia isn't for tracking emerging trends and we should delete them all. — Saxifrage ✎ 20:56, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Saxifrage, freehugscampaign.org and freehelpcampaign.org are official sites for the Free Hugs Campaign founded by the original "Juan Mann". They were mentioned specifically in his second video on YouTube and I can verify it is indeed the original "Juan Mann" who founded them. -Kermitron 18:56, 12 November 2006 (AEST)
 * Interesting. How can you verify, is it mentioned in an independent news coverage, etc? That would change my opinion on those links somewhat - I still think the Italian regional videos need to go, they're currently stuffed under "References". -- nae'blis 19:11, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

External_links says: "An article about any organization, person, web site, or other entity should link to that entity's official site, if there is one." What about a movement which, as in this case, has no (and perhaps can have no) "official" organization? If we provide no links to relevant websites of informal movements, then aren't we introducing a bias in favor of formal, organized activities? Movements with official organizations regularly get dozens of links, it seems to me like we could allow a few here. --John_Abbe 06:14, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, "if there is one." Things that don't have official sites don't need a link to an "official" site because... there's no official site. Listing all, or even just a selection of, fansites and so-called "official" sites is against our rules about not being a links directory. Google doesn't magically stop working on people's computers when they read Wikipedia, and our job is not to replace Google. — Saxifrage ✎ 20:11, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm not talking about Wikipedia-as-links-directory (yet, but if you want to trim links directories, see Democratic Party (United States) or Republican Party (United States)). What i am pointing out is an apparent flaw in the guidelines: a bias toward organized, formalized activities. Why should we allow movements with formal organizations to get (even short) link lists, and not allow the same for movements without formal organizations?. Does anyone share this concern, or have an explanation about it from some perspective i'm missing? Note that since i am questioning the guidelines themselves, simply quoting them back is tautological. We do not serve the guidelines, we make the guidelines to serve us. --John_Abbe 06:32, 27 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, there's a bias to organised activity. This isn't by design however, it's just a side-effect of the not being able to put material into the encyclopedia based on guesses. That's a desirable ground rule and the consequences of it are acceptable in order to maintain the integrity of the information. — Saxifrage ✎ 17:49, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I've seen that http://abrazosgratis.org was deleted by Saxifrage. I think it should be added in the section "Other countries", since in that page are beeing organisated the most free hugs in Spain. It doesn't pretend to be the official free-hugs page. Is the proposition alright for you? --83.40.237.10 17:13, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

New Campaigns to be added ? Juan Mann has started the "Free Kidney campaign". He plans to give his kidney away to someone who neds it more than he does. Miroj (talk) 12:14, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Intentions section
I tagged this section with not because I think it necessarily is and should be removed, but because it really does need references to be in the article. Normally this kind of thing would just be removed on-sight as original research, but Free Hugs has gotten enough attention that something like this might be documented somewhere. — Saxifrage ✎ 23:57, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I've axed the entire section; feel free to bring it here. If we can find interviews that explicitly back some of that up, great, but for right now it's just OR. -- nae'blis 18:16, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm the one who put in the intentions. The reason is, is that there will be a lot of people reading the site wishing to do it themselves in their own city. Without some grand...ideas on how to conduct yourselves, this anarchistic-freehugging can be taken advantage of for own means ie groping people. To me, that cheapens the movement, and leads towards people not touching others as much. Why have opportunists ruin what is a great energy? So I would request we have an intention list up. Edit it for sure, add ideas, but taking it down? Hmmmm But hey, I'm not hooked to this. Things will happen anyway...sigh... Eric yay4things@mac.com


 * The trouble is that Wikipedia is not a cookbook, guide, or repository for how-tos. We don't teach people how, we teach them what. We also have a rule against publishing original research here. The "Intentions" section could still fit into the article, but only if we have a verifiable source for the material that we can quote when we say that these are the intentions. — Saxifrage ✎ 16:16, 2 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Hi Eric, there is a free book on hugs, supported by this campaign. It includes good hugs and bad hugs. Miroj (talk) 12:12, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

I'm a big meanie
I cut several references from the Publicity section that were not backed up by citations. I left a few others that were at least specific enough to be tracked down easily, but the following need more detail/references. Remember that YouTube is not generally a reliable source, although the original video is a bit of an exception. -- nae'blis 18:22, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Excised material

 * The movement also inspired a Korean man to give out free hugs on the streets of Seoul, South Korea, to passersby. video from YouTube video
 * On October 26, 2006 A small group of students were observed to be conducting Free Hugs at the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier in Hong Kong.

Additional cut entry

 * On October 7, 2006 A free hugs in Tel-Aviv Israel video was uploaded to YouTube.Free Hugs Campaign in Tel-Aviv, Israel

I'm a big meanie followup
Is it REALLY necessary to include EVERY event that is cited by a local paper? I understand the inclusion of international spots, but every mall event seems a bit overdone. I would like to clean up the article and expand the international section, but I wanted some feedback before I aggressively started to cut and paste.--TravelinSista (talk) 02:05, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Picture added
I have added a snapshot I took in august 2004 in Sydney's CBD. BTW, written sources (i.e., the Morning Herald articles) only prove free hugs were happening aroung november, so mentioning "august" looks like "an original research"; yet it is quite reliable because I only had one honeymoon insofar :-). Of course, if you want to get rid of the "august" indication as "unreliable", I won't take it personally. In any case, notice that the sign in the pic looks like exatly the same as that in the video. At the time, there was a small bunch of youngsters taking turns in holding the sign and hugging people, they were wearing school uniforms. I'm not sure what street was that, I only know it was in Sydney's CBD (might actually be Peet Street Mall). Perhaps a Sydney inhabitant might tell for sure based on the pavement and the shop signs behind the girl. Moongateclimber 04:23, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Juan Mann is still giving out Free Huggs, usually in in Pitt Street Mall in the CBD, most Thursdays (except if it's raining). I got my Free Hug last Thursday! Yes that pic appears to be Pitt Street Mall. He chalked up his fourth anniversary this month. Therin of Andor (talk) 07:47, 14 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I found sources pin-pointing the start date to Jun 30, 2004. The mall is Pitt St Mall, not Peet st. (I eat my lunch there every day) :) Manning (talk) 12:20, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

free-hugs.com
I've removed the following from the article:
 * The concept was first introduced in 2001 by American Jason G. Hunter who was inspired by his mother's death and "her mission to let every single person she met feel significant and loved." (ref) Free-hugs.com Homepage Letter(/ref).


 * It involves individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public settings. The campaign is an example of a random act of kindness, a selfless act performed by someone for the sole reason of making others feel better. The original organizer has stated in interviews that the purpose is not to get names, phone numbers, or dates.(ref name="smh")Sydney Morning Herald article, September 28, 2006(/ref)

The guy at free-hugs.com has been trying to change this article to say that he started it all for a while. Since there is no reference for this except his own website (which is therefore not a reliable source) this can't go in the article. Can anyone dig up an independent source that can confirm this claim to fame?

Apart from the lack of source to the claim, this article is about the current phenomenon which was kicked off by "Juan Mann", so just because someone else had the idea first doesn't mean it deserves primary mention in the article. If we find a source that confirms that Hunter thought of it first, then we should mention that this isn't the first time the idea has come up. However, this article should still be primarily about documenting the current phenomenon and its beginning. Putting the Hunter information first or representing it as the origin without talking about the origin of the current phenomenon would be misleading and disinformative for our readers. — Saxifrage ✎ 20:06, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Probably archive.org is reliable? http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.free-hugs.com Shows that free-hugs.com was up at least in May 2004. If you browse archived pages, you can see it was the same idea. At least it should be mentioned. 83.237.166.193 05:27, 22 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Actually, using archive.org is probably considered original research on our part, which is prohibited by the no original research policy. Unless it's got press or someone reports about the fact that it came first, we have no reliable source from which to write about free-hugs.com, so we can't mention it. For the same reason, we're not even mentioning any of the many so-called "official" sites, because we don't do original research and nobody else has done any reporting/research on them in connection to this phenomenon. — Saxifrage ✎ 07:59, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Well I guess http://freehugscampaign.org/ is the official home page, dont you think so?
 * Looks like! — Saxifrage ✎ 17:49, 28 November 2006 (UTC)


 * FreeHugs.com predates FreeHugsCampaign.org. Freehugs.com is a registered business in the USA. As a business it did not initially interact with the public directly. Jason Hunter has no business relationship or commercial agreement with Juan Mann. Because of trademark law, Free Hugs Campaign now depicts Juan Mann in websites holding up his own name and not a Free Hugs sign as he does in real life. This is to comply with the legal rights of Jason Hunter. However, it is clear that the YouTube video and the public activity was invented by Juan Mann and his close friendsMiroj (talk) 12:23, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Free Help Campaign
I was looking through the external links for this article and I have noticed that the Free Help Campaign link does not appear to be working anymore. I wanted to bring this up before I removed it from the page because maybe it is just a problem on my end or a temporary problem. Reazonozaer 14:31, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Chile
There's a similar campaign in Chile visit [] and add it to the links

Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_Hugs

i corrected the "international free hugs day" part
as you can see from the history. why? because the international free hugs day is not on a determined day of the year (07/07), but on a recurrence (first weekend after 30th june). My proof is let's make International Free Hugs Day the first weekend after the 30th of June, every year. a quote from a thread made by the original juan mann on the official forum of the campaign. Hope i explained correctly and completely what i've done and why. cheers --81.208.74.182 22:27, 5 July 2007 (UTC)


 * As far as I know, a date has been set for international hugs day / World Appreciation Day. Miroj (talk) 12:07, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Links toward Youtube video
Hello, This campaign being a video campaign I think it may be good to put links toward the Youtube's videos. I propose the following format since it's really consise (use one line), link toward videos of the campaign (the core of the article), links are not promoting any local website, they simply use youtube, the place where all started (-> neutral). I think we need one from each major country and if possible one from each continent (so about 5 to 10), no more.



Videos by country : Sydney ; New-York ; Korea ; Peru ; etc.

Yug (talk)  13:23, 19 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Votes
 * 1)  Yug  (talk)  13:23, 19 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I believe that there are at least 30 or 40 videos from around the world. You can search by city and as far as I know, it covers every capital in Europe, some in Asia and several cities in the USA. Miroj (talk) 12:26, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Dave Matthews Band video
There's no mention in the article of the |music video for the Dave Matthews Band song "Everyday," but it came out in 2002, which means it predates Juan Mann's campaign by two years, and is clearly the same idea. Worth including? Charolastra charolo (talk) 18:37, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Official Website offline???
I have changed the article to reflect the fact that the freehugscampaign.org website is currently offline! Does anyone know why this site is offline or if it will ever be coming back??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.73.76.48 (talk) 21:06, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Site is back up, updated article accordingly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.73.76.48 (talk) 20:04, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Huh?
Who is Juan Mann and what is his importance? This article is frequently incomprehensible. --S.dedalus (talk) 02:09, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
 * His value is that he created a global movement without leaving his home town or self-promoting his idea. IT spread by the power of goodwill. I think his appearance on Oprah may have helped. He is also one of the few Australians who made a really big impression on YouTube with his original video. Miroj (talk) 12:09, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

First attempt at a clean-up, article still has weaknesses
I've just completed a solid attempt at a clean-up. Nothing unreferenced was kept (the article was littered with a lot of "we had a free hugs day and we hugged 200 people" nonsense) and I've tried to create a meaningful narrative of how the campaign came about. I've greatly improved the article's explanation of who Juan Mann is.

However the article is still weak at explaining how the movement spread to other countries and what level of organisation exists around it. I'll come back to it when I have time, or someone else can research and improve the article. Manning (talk) 13:11, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Encyclopedic how?
For all the crap that Wikipedia minions delete for not being noteworthy or encyclopedic, this tripe merits inclusion? Are you friggin' kidding? 98.232.219.86 (talk) 13:25, 30 April 2009 (UTC)


 * It is not for us to determine what should be newsworthy, merely to acknowledge it. This campaign has made an impact on the social consciousness, as indicated by wide-ranging media coverage. This is why Susan Boyle also has an article. Manning (talk) 06:14, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * So, explain why Steak and a BJ day is refused acknowledgement? 98.232.219.86 (talk) 23:05, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Mumbai
Edit made at end of June added "in Mumbai started by Vinit Mehta" shortly before lifeisdelightful.com ref, but Vinit is not mentioned in the ref. Remove that addition? There a ref saying the song was inspired by Free Hugs in Mumbai? --EarthFurst (talk) 04:54, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

"In its present form"
I could swear I had seen some people doing this with 'Free Hugs' signs well before 2004. Is there any earlier information on where this may have initially started?

- 203.131.210.82 (talk) 05:46, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Juan Mann's retirement
I'm kind of a wikipedia noob, anyone want to tell me how to add this link to the references? http://juanmann.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/now-hiring-the-next-juan/ Kermitron

History
I watched Rude Tube on channel 4 and they said that free hugs started when the founder got back from somewhere (forgot) and had no one to greet him in the airport.

Which version is corrct? --Sghfdhdfghdfgfd (talk) 13:26, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

So some perv wanted some groping action, and others did too. Big deal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.243.1.25 (talk) 00:20, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Juan Mann's website
http://www.juanmann.com

It looks like the original Juan Mann is back, this site should be included as it seems a relevant resource.

Maerstk74 (talk) 02:53, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

duration of hug
No mention is made of the duration of the average "official" hug in seconds. Three seconds might not feel meaningful, and in fact perhaps leave the person being hugged feeling worse than before -- "they've even depersonalized hugging. What will they depersonalize next?" One would think there might be interest in an alternative "minimum 5 minute hug" movement. Jidanni (talk) 01:27, 15 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi, Jidanni
 * Because hugging is a very personal thing, and individuals have different preferences and needs, (including, sometimes, not being hugged at all,) it doesn't follow that placing a "minimum" time on a hug would benefit anyone.
 * On my Meetup group site Meetup.com/Embrace-the-world which I started in 2013, I advise my volunteer huggers to basically allow the person to hug THEM until THEY let go. (I also advise them that they can also initiate the end of the hug, or choose not to hug at all, based upon their own feelings and intuition in the moment. Neither party should hug IF THEY DON'T WANT TO, and neither should hug LONGER than they want to.) But sometimes, a hug will stir a lot of repressed emotion from stress and sadness, and it's not unheard of for people ("strangers") who are offered a hug to "hang on" for 5 minutes. Holding space for someone to cry or just enjoy the acceptance and love of a hug is a powerful healing capability that we all have at our disposal, to use or not as we choose. Consent is always key. Not everyone would consent to a 5 minute hug. Many won't consent to a 1 second hug. And that's perfectly fine. Respect for other and for ourselves is the foundation of consent. I don't know if it's appropriate to leave this response here, but I saw a "reply" opportunity, so I took it. I trust the mods at WIKI to do with it what they like. --Donna Pirnat, founder, Embrace the World Meetup Group, Fredericksburg, VA, USA 216.10.184.118 (talk) 23:33, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

Australian Jamboree 2004
I was at AJ2004, which was several months before Juann's campaign started, and there were free huggers there. I think the random who hugged him probably knew someone at Jamboree or went themself; unfortunately, I can't find any sources to prove this. If anyone has any issues of 'K.E.V.I.N', the newspaper published for the Jamboree, could they write it into the article and reference it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.38.209.13 (talk) 10:55, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

Benilde High School Bansktown in Sydney
Juan Mann is Peter Goodeman, a graduate of Benilde Bankstown in Sydney Australia year 2000. The school was amalgamated with Bankstown De La Salle in 2001. Pete was a known rebel in his time at that school but always pranked in good spirit.

He is currently living in Newcastle NSW. A seaside area 2 hours drive north of Sydney.

Offshoots and hijackings
Wherever there is a popular movement that is not allied to one of the powers-that-be, there are those who would hijack its energy for their own purposes. I just walked in from the UCSB commons where a religious campaign was holding a sign "free hugs", offering to pray for the person as soon as they were within their arms, and then handing them religious literature.

The hijacking may be a result of the institutions of oppression which cause our initial separation identifying themselves with the movement: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=D6G7PNNX Here this link suggests that the free-hugs campaign is a Christian movement. Which it wasn't, isn't, and never will be. 128.111.95.39 (talk) 20:17, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Is this appropriate to add at the end of the listing for Publicity and Expansion
Good Afternoon :-) This is my first contribution to Wikipedia, so I'm a little wet behind the ears.

I would like to add the following information to the Publicity and Expansion section of the Free Hugs Campaign entry. I saw that you need to clear this kind of entry with a concensus, so let me know what you think. Thank you. Please let me know if you intend to add this yourself, or if I am expected to do it. :-) Have a great day, and get 12 hugs for good health today. --Donna Pirnat
 * In June 2013 Donna Pirnat founded Embrace the World! Meetup Group in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Meetup.com/Embrace-the-World is a group of volunteer huggers that assembles to offer free hugs to the general public. It was formed to provide a resource for touch-deprived people to access safe, free hugs, to raise awareness of the significant role of nurturing touch in mental and physical health, and to encourage people to be more open to and accepting of platonic affection from others. --Dpirnat (talk) 18:08, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi Donna, . Welcome to Wikipedia! There are a couple of problems with this proposed edit. One is 'due weight', described in WP:DUE. There are probably thousands (tens of thousands? Who knows) of Free Hugs events and groups around the world. It is unlikely that Wikipedia could list them all and give each one even a short paragraph or a bullet point. Another is that verification (WP:V) of the existence of this one seems to be dependent on the meetup link you give. This is written by the group themselves, and so is a primary source. We really would need a secondary source, for example mainstream media coverage of the group, or a mention in a book. This relates back to WP:DUE - if no media or books have mentioned this group, it probably isn't notable enough for mention here. Thirdly, we don't like linking to external sites inline in article text like this. It's much better if we can mention the thing, then add a reference WP:CITE at the end of a sentence - a third-party, secondary source reference, of course, not a self-made meetup page. Fourthly, it looks very much like you have a WP:COI conflict of interest here. You were right to seek consensus here on talk because you would not have been allowed to add that information yourself due to the WP:COI: someone else would have (or should have) reverted it straight away if you had tried, on that basis alone. Mentioning here would be OK if the info was OK and someone else could have added it. Unfortunately the other three 'fails' are pretty substantial, so I don't think it'll be going in.
 * No worries! My first edit or two to Wikipedia were far more inappropriate than this, and I'm still here more than ten years later. as you can see we have a pile of policies and guidelines here. I linked a few above, like WP:V. Don't worry, you don't have to read them all at once, and become an instant expert. We also have a guideline 'Don't bite the noobs', so everyone you meet in the next few months should be happy and able to help you get the hang of things. There are a few you should read - the 'five pillars' - and I'll put a piece of templated text on your User Talk page now that links those properly. Happy future editing! --Nigelj (talk) 21:25, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Free Hugs Vienna in the External References
I wonder whether other editors would like to add the following website to the EXTERNAL REFERENCES page of FREE HUGS CAMPAIGN. The FREE HUGS VIENNA website is an organized group carrying the FREE HUGS message in VIENNA, AUSTRIA and even ABROAD. The official page is: FREE HUGS VIENNA Avohana (talk) 09:56, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Free Hugs Campaign. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20061201025749/http://www2.oprah.com:80/tows/slide/200610/20061030/slide_20061030_284_101.jhtml to http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200610/20061030/slide_20061030_284_101.jhtml

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 23:34, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 one external links on Free Hugs Campaign. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20061112172806/http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_314222201.html to http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_314222201.html
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20070314183820/http://www.news.com.au:80/story/0,23599,21366606-401,00.html to http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21366606-401,00.html

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 14:45, 4 April 2016 (UTC)