Kudo’s to Jim for a job well done. GAO is supposed to vet all facts and to provide balanced reporting, which Jim mentions was done to some extent, but many people who are not active on Craigslist do not understand how Craigslist works, that the ads are for the local area only, and only discussion forums are worldwide.

I am one of many people who has volunteered hundreds of hours in the past voluntarily and independently answering thousands of questions, flagging ads that violate Craigslist TOU including ads for weapons though I do not recall if any of these were military weapons.

I did this even though I am an individual who supports citizens rights to own and bear arms. I did this because Craigslist Terms of Use (TOU) does not allow the sale of guns/rifles so selling these items online violates Craig’s Terms of Use.

I don’t agree with all Craigs stances on sales, another area I don’t agree is with the selling of dogs for example, but I flag items that violate Craigslist terms of agreement.

I also flagged perhaps thousands of out of area ads that are posted in violation of Craigslist TOU. Each Craigslist Community Website is ONLY FOR local advertising, with the idea that the individuals wanting to sell items to other local individuals will be handled face to face, and person to person, sort of a replacement of the days of old when people had time to meet at a local gathering spot such as the Post Office. Anyone posting ads that are National Adverting in nature are flagged by people like myself.

I used to be extremely active answering queries in CL Feedback, providing advice on how to get Craigslist websites, and flagging spam ads, nonlocal ads, illegal ads, and ads that violate Craigslist TOU. I have been much less active over the last two or so years due to illnesses in the family and due to the realization that local officials appear to be spending our money with wild abandon with not a care that the debt they are building will sink us in the future.

I will say with hunderds of hours I spent on Craigslist were spent largely in relatively few of the discussion forums, where I was familiar with other “handles” or individuals who regularly volunteered answering questions and flagging, whom I personally saw working day in and out at all hours. And all those I saw were primarily in say a few forums, Feedback, Help, Cities/Site issues, etc. and visiting ad categories to help “tend” community gardens, and “weed out” ads that violate CL TOU. I am saying this to point out that in those areas there were likely hundreds of individuals providing help and flagging. There are similar people in other forums such as the Automotive forum etc that work to answer, and to help tend the garden.

Craigslist has on and ongoing basis over the years taken steps to educate newbies to Craigslist about fraud, scams, Terms of Use, that illegal items are not allowed, to the point of having links to Police Agencies on line so that the public may click to report suspicions of certain types of illegal activity on the website.

Craigslist websites each have their own uniqueness, as they are like gardens Craig has given local areas, to tend (pulling weeds or spam, flagging ads that violate terms of use or out of area, etc). Thereby local Craigslist website may reflect the the beliefs of the local populations, once well established in the area. The local populations that tend their Craigslist garden, by pulling the weeds, will have a website that will be a help to citizens in the local area by providing a place for the community to list groups, events, classes, need for volunteers, a place for the grass roots to fight the entrenched political system, and much more.

If the government has an issue with Craigslist, I feel it would be a fear that citizens have a way, via the World Wide discussion forums and the local political ads to discuss all types of issues.

As far as Ebay, it is an example of what is wrong with AMERICA, emphasis on GREED, MATERIALISM, without a care for the negative impacts on the lives of people, and ARROGANCE such as some government entities have that THEY SHOULD DECIDE FOR US ALL HOW WE SHOULD LIVE. Their frivolous lawsuits are evidence of of all of these, and those in power at Ebay should sit back and think of what they do, as they are on the wrong path in life, and are providing a BAD example for future generations.

Well, thanks for letting me stop by and . . .

PS

And to the person complaining about the phrase “Congressmen”, get over it, or at least first review your facts prior to arbitrarily complaining. In my writing (and hey yes I am not a wordsmith and will never be) I try to match the phrase used to the person or persons involved and may use words ending in man, woman, or person. But folks are going overboard in complaining about such things, particularly such as in this case where it was not merited, at least in my humble opinion.

Ebay sueing Craig’s List is like Hershey sueing Nestle because Nestle also makes candy bars, that some people like better!

Really?

The world: filled with much, many. YOU may be busy, oblivious –”longing” for the “good old days” or plain old misogynistic, but SURELY you CAN step into the 20Th –21St century. –NOTICE there are WOMEN IN CONGRESS? SHEESH! How dated/old man can you be.

Jim Buckmaster must have almost broken his arm patting himself on the back so much in this blog post.

He talks about how great craigslist was when it came to sensitive military items being sold on it.

What caught my eye was his opening quote to …