CL users in the US were up 76% from last June, to nearly 40 million.
Thats a lot of peeps. Welcome newcomers!
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That’s interesting. With all of the howling I’ve been reading about the horrible changes that Craigslist has been implementing, regarding phone authentication, increase in flagged ads, and the whole Ebay fiasco, that’s some pretty surprising news
they will not be up with all the flagging going on. almost every post gets flagged in Atlanta M4M. require log-in for flagging and monitor for excessive flagging. otherwise CL will become just another dormant website.
Yes, Jim, you are a lamer.
As you always suspected, but secretly hoped would somehow change.
Hyping meaningless numbers (and “handling” unfavorable comments) must surely do it — it works well for politicians.
And it partly worked; it turned a lowly coder into a manager and a blogger.
A moral pymgy on a high perch.
I have been an apostle for craigslist for years now and have been happy selling, buying, giving stuff for free and tithing some to the Foundation. I even post for my retired neighbor who fixes up bikes and sells them through craigslist. But my boyfriend and I had a conversation just yesterday that craigslist is going the way of eBay - first it was the individuals that were selling their stuff. Now is it all stores and businesses. Where’s the community?
I don’t want to see rugs offered by someone in LA if I’m in Denver - I want local and I want to see ads by individuals! I would love it if you added a search checkbox for excluding businesses from the search results. Then it would be my choice to include the on-line or brick/mortar business selling its wares…
Being VERY new to CL, I love the concept but I see signs of trouble in paradise. I just posted my very first ad on CL to sell two electric scooters for a single mom friend of my wife’s and including a link to an eval website, BOTH appearing to be within the TOU (I’m not a PAID agent and the site isn’t an auction site), I was flagged off in 10 minutes.
Unless CL gets control of the whiny flaggers, I can see lots of folks being turned off. If the content of an ad helps the prospective buyers evaluate it AND it violates no laws SO WHAT? Lighten up and quit throwing all the rocks.
If you really want to see much ado about nothing, go look at the flag help forum at the guys who tried to sell event tickets for what they paid (Face+ticket master fee). Seems only fair but the flaggers go berzerk.
Flagging is a game. Scammers use flagging to keep others from competing with them or just to cause trouble. It rather surprises me that CL allows the flagging to continue especially without any type of recourse. Most customers that use CL, read the rules and follow them. This could be the downfall of a great operation. My suggestion, the flagger needs to be revealed to the customers that they are flagging, along with a reason for flagging. CL should be determining if the flag is actually following their rules, instead of giving several check boxes with choices so the flaggers can validate their reasoning. In the beginning, it was a great concept, but….times have changed and there are a few flaggers out to cause trouble. This makes it bad for the rest of the community.
I agree with the commenters that flagging can be a vindictive tactic of scammers and whiny harpies. However, as a poster in multiple categories for items for sale, personals, and an answerer of ads in those categories too, there are many, many scammers out there attempting to game the unsuspecting CL newbies. An example in the cars for sale category–posters advertising a 3 to 5 year old car for a fraction of its resale value. THe catch is, the cars are allegedly in Florida, California, or other distant locations, and the seller just happens to be a GI stationed in Germany or other offshore place. Scam, through & through. An even cursory examination of the cars for sale category in Denver shows numerous instances of the same ads, with the same scripting, the same style personal email address, i.e. “JenSmith1234@yahoo.com.” Apparently the scammers are now employing mass production tactics to produce the scam ads. While I don’t reflexively flag these ads, I do respond and wait for the bait to come in the form of an email asking me to wire funds abroad. Presto, a flag is produced. And because CL’s flagging system requires multiple flags to get it off the site, and others are experiencing the same scams, these transparent scams are flagged right away. So this is an example of the flagging system doing its job.
The other side of the coin can be seen in rants & raves. I’ve made a few factually-based posts about the oil-based economy, oil prices, et cetera. These were reasonable posts, but were flagged off the forum. It’s strange how the most foul, debased ad hominem attacks can remain on the site, but more moderated, intelligent posts will be flagged by the less articulate readers.
Bottom line, whether you are out to pick up a vehicle, a date, or some food for though: buyer beware.
Advice to CL staff & programmers: keep the flagging post removal numbers low and accessible where matters of the pocketbook are concerned, but for intellectual capital and exchange of ideas where no money changes hands, it should be very tough to remove legitimate posts.
Another piece of advice–keep flagging priviledges reserved for logged-in users only. Then track the users and take action, legal if necessary, against abusers. This will protect the integrity of the community and the rights of the legitimate users while punishing abusers and scammers.
Well, with all that success, I have to brag that I met my wife on Craigslist! Even better still, we just had a baby! She was advertising for “friends” on Craigslist, and I just happened to be scanning that day… we became friends, and then more.
I write a column for ComputorEdge on-line magazine, and I submitted my story (because Craigslist is still technology related!), and to my credit, they published it!
I like CL, but it is very frustrating when the scammers respond to something you have for sale and refer to it as “your item”. Last time I put something up for sale, I got about 10 emails wanting to overpay me with a cashiers check, pay for shipping and then have a shipping agent contact me to arrange shipping of my ‘item’.
Oh, and congrats to D Fischer who found his wife on CL. Just goes to show, there’s a lot to be found on CL.
~Jennifer
July 12th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
That’s interesting. With all of the howling I’ve been reading about the horrible changes that Craigslist has been implementing, regarding phone authentication, increase in flagged ads, and the whole Ebay fiasco, that’s some pretty surprising news
July 12th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
keep up the good work
July 18th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
they will not be up with all the flagging going on. almost every post gets flagged in Atlanta M4M. require log-in for flagging and monitor for excessive flagging. otherwise CL will become just another dormant website.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Yes, Jim, you are a lamer.
As you always suspected, but secretly hoped would somehow change.
Hyping meaningless numbers (and “handling” unfavorable comments) must surely do it — it works well for politicians.
And it partly worked; it turned a lowly coder into a manager and a blogger.
A moral pymgy on a high perch.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:40 am
It is a mixed congrats to you and the crew!
I have been an apostle for craigslist for years now and have been happy selling, buying, giving stuff for free and tithing some to the Foundation. I even post for my retired neighbor who fixes up bikes and sells them through craigslist. But my boyfriend and I had a conversation just yesterday that craigslist is going the way of eBay - first it was the individuals that were selling their stuff. Now is it all stores and businesses. Where’s the community?
I don’t want to see rugs offered by someone in LA if I’m in Denver - I want local and I want to see ads by individuals! I would love it if you added a search checkbox for excluding businesses from the search results. Then it would be my choice to include the on-line or brick/mortar business selling its wares…
Congrats again. Anne in Denver, Co area
July 26th, 2008 at 1:01 am
Craigslist is always the first one suggested if a friend, co-worker, or family member wants to buy or sell an item. “You’ve come a long way, baby.”
Thanks for welcoming me into the CL family.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
wow
August 4th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Being VERY new to CL, I love the concept but I see signs of trouble in paradise. I just posted my very first ad on CL to sell two electric scooters for a single mom friend of my wife’s and including a link to an eval website, BOTH appearing to be within the TOU (I’m not a PAID agent and the site isn’t an auction site), I was flagged off in 10 minutes.
Unless CL gets control of the whiny flaggers, I can see lots of folks being turned off. If the content of an ad helps the prospective buyers evaluate it AND it violates no laws SO WHAT? Lighten up and quit throwing all the rocks.
If you really want to see much ado about nothing, go look at the flag help forum at the guys who tried to sell event tickets for what they paid (Face+ticket master fee). Seems only fair but the flaggers go berzerk.
Get a life!
August 10th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Flagging is a game. Scammers use flagging to keep others from competing with them or just to cause trouble. It rather surprises me that CL allows the flagging to continue especially without any type of recourse. Most customers that use CL, read the rules and follow them. This could be the downfall of a great operation. My suggestion, the flagger needs to be revealed to the customers that they are flagging, along with a reason for flagging. CL should be determining if the flag is actually following their rules, instead of giving several check boxes with choices so the flaggers can validate their reasoning. In the beginning, it was a great concept, but….times have changed and there are a few flaggers out to cause trouble. This makes it bad for the rest of the community.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I agree with the commenters that flagging can be a vindictive tactic of scammers and whiny harpies. However, as a poster in multiple categories for items for sale, personals, and an answerer of ads in those categories too, there are many, many scammers out there attempting to game the unsuspecting CL newbies. An example in the cars for sale category–posters advertising a 3 to 5 year old car for a fraction of its resale value. THe catch is, the cars are allegedly in Florida, California, or other distant locations, and the seller just happens to be a GI stationed in Germany or other offshore place. Scam, through & through. An even cursory examination of the cars for sale category in Denver shows numerous instances of the same ads, with the same scripting, the same style personal email address, i.e. “JenSmith1234@yahoo.com.” Apparently the scammers are now employing mass production tactics to produce the scam ads. While I don’t reflexively flag these ads, I do respond and wait for the bait to come in the form of an email asking me to wire funds abroad. Presto, a flag is produced. And because CL’s flagging system requires multiple flags to get it off the site, and others are experiencing the same scams, these transparent scams are flagged right away. So this is an example of the flagging system doing its job.
The other side of the coin can be seen in rants & raves. I’ve made a few factually-based posts about the oil-based economy, oil prices, et cetera. These were reasonable posts, but were flagged off the forum. It’s strange how the most foul, debased ad hominem attacks can remain on the site, but more moderated, intelligent posts will be flagged by the less articulate readers.
Bottom line, whether you are out to pick up a vehicle, a date, or some food for though: buyer beware.
Advice to CL staff & programmers: keep the flagging post removal numbers low and accessible where matters of the pocketbook are concerned, but for intellectual capital and exchange of ideas where no money changes hands, it should be very tough to remove legitimate posts.
Another piece of advice–keep flagging priviledges reserved for logged-in users only. Then track the users and take action, legal if necessary, against abusers. This will protect the integrity of the community and the rights of the legitimate users while punishing abusers and scammers.
September 5th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Well, with all that success, I have to brag that I met my wife on Craigslist! Even better still, we just had a baby! She was advertising for “friends” on Craigslist, and I just happened to be scanning that day… we became friends, and then more.
I write a column for ComputorEdge on-line magazine, and I submitted my story (because Craigslist is still technology related!), and to my credit, they published it!
If you’d like to read the story, here it is…
http://webserver.computoredge.com/online.mvc?zone=NA&issue=2607&article=techtlk&src=linkref
-D
October 19th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
I like CL, but it is very frustrating when the scammers respond to something you have for sale and refer to it as “your item”. Last time I put something up for sale, I got about 10 emails wanting to overpay me with a cashiers check, pay for shipping and then have a shipping agent contact me to arrange shipping of my ‘item’.
Oh, and congrats to D Fischer who found his wife on CL. Just goes to show, there’s a lot to be found on CL.
~Jennifer