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Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

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Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#141

Post by RunSet »

frankharv wrote: post #17
BitwiseFool wrote: post #7

My problem with Craigslist isn't that it looks old, the problem is that they seemingly refuse to modernize anything else about the site. Craigslist is chock full of spam and people abusing the search feature. I'm no anti-spam guru, but surely there is a way to cut down on people submitting the same thumbnail dozens of times using as many keywords as they can so their cellphone screen repair service shows up when look…

I love it and I despise the fact that they pulled down personal ads. It was like a virtual clipboard in the laundromat. Then the feds came and kicked in the doors.

I'm on a mission to keep encounters casual.

https://lokilist.com/about.php

It's slow going but fortunately text is cheap to host so I can keep this up indefinitely.

Edit: If you like it make a post. Even better share the link to the post. Network effect is real.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#142

Post by don-code »

meragrin_ wrote: post #139
don-code wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found it pretty rare to _not_ find something I'm looking for on Boston Craigslist. As something of an "out there" example, I found ten old tube TVs for my Halloween decorations just a few weeks ago. Also: I got an absolutely great deal on a car through Craigslist about five years ago. That said, I've definitely had less success on the sales side than I did in years prior, but I can't tell if that's what I'm sell…

Are the TVs going to be a functional part of the display or just decorative?

Functional - I'm leaning into the "analog horror" genre with some fake newsreels of things like the COVID-23 pandemic, $6 per gallon gasoline, and (of course - I live in Boston) the Red Sox losing the World Series to the Yankees.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#143

Post by behnamoh »

adolph wrote: post #116

In an alternative universe Yahoo! also kept a 1997 interface and the world was a bit nicer than it really turned out.

But then how could they justify hiring an inexperienced ex-google woman? (nothing wrong with being a woman, but she tried to make a celebrity out of herself, look at her cover magazine photoshoot).

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#144

Post by jeffbee »

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #24

I rent a couple of properties out in the bay area and up until this year I've always relied on craigslist to get new tenants, but this year we tried out Zillow and we got tons of applicants, and the whole application process including vetting and setting up a lease and everything was done through Zillow. On the other hand someone noticed our Zillow listing and created a fraudulent listing of my property on Craigslist…

As far as I have been able to determine, literally 100% of the rental listings in Berkeley, CA on Craigslist are fake. They take MLS descriptions and photos of properties and repost those on CL as rentals with unrealistically low prices. The postings are identity theft scams. They want you to "apply" to rent these properties that don't exist.

The real problem for me is that the elected officials and even sometimes professional staff of the city will point to Craigslist as inventory of low-priced housing, but it's totally fake so their impression is inaccurate.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#145

Post by reaperducer »

throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #140
hedora wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, the only valid complaint I've heard about Craigslist is that it diverted classified ad revenue away from reporters, destroying local newspapers, and then local elections. With Craigslist, this always felt like an unintended consequence. With facebook, it seems like one of their top ten strategies for getting us to devolve into mineshaft dwelling mole people that live in the metaverse.

>elections what?

"Democracy dies in darkness."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Dies_in_Darkness

It's sixth-grade Civics class: Without strong local and national press to hold politicians and public figures accountable, the country crumbles.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#146

Post by s1artibartfast »

debaserab2 wrote: post #69
NikolaNovak wrote: post #3

* I far, far, far prefer Craigslist interface to anything else in that space. It's clear and focused Its search engine too - I get things I search for in the area I search for. For me, Kijiji and Facebook marketplace are awful UI, awful distractions, and give me 10,000 "suggested" or "fuzzy searched" things in random order, suppressing things I'm actually looking for. And I've completely given up on eBay over last de…

The killer feature that Facebook marketplace has is the fact that you can do some basic verification of the person you are selling or buying an item from.

Interesting. My impression has always been Facebook is somehow more riddled with scammers than CL despite the associated accounts. It seems like it has more to do with the transaction.

It is hard to scam someone with an in person exchange of cash for goods.

Annecdotally, many CL sellers have told me to just get the item from their yard and put the cash under their doormat

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#147

Post by snowwrestler »

CharlesW wrote: post #54
defterGoose wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide a concrete example? IME any online platform is going to be a staircase into the bowels of human nature. It's all about being aware you need to protect yourself online. If you're encountering things like child porn or prostitution, or anything illegal really, it's your responsibility to at least report it.

> Can you provide a concrete example? Sure. I spent a few weeks looking for an Xbox Series X, and I don't believe that I'm exaggerating when I say that 90%+ of the listings were scams. For about half of those, the scammers just weren't very good, and automated or semi-automated checks should've flagged those listings before anyone saw them. The other half were various scams documented in thousands of articles by a co…

My experience with Craigslist has been that there are a lot of keyword-stuffed scam listings in search results, but they are generally sorted below more useful results, and generally easy to spot and ignore.

It makes sense to me as a strategy for leveraging fuzzy automation. Sorting is less risky than hiding or deleting. If the system gets it wrong, there is a still an opportunity for motivated users to dig down and find incorrectly down-sorted items.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#148

Post by chiefalchemist »

reaperducer wrote: post #145
throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>elections what?

"Democracy dies in darkness." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Dies_in_Darkness It's sixth-grade Civics class: Without strong local and national press to hold politicians and public figures accountable, the country crumbles.

The Fourth Estate is probably a better place to start.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate

Sadly, it seems even the Fourth Estate doesn't know its name and/or role. Being a parrot and/or sock puppet doesn't qualify (as journalism).

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#149

Post by tomcam »

jstarfish wrote: post #137
tomcam wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that’s just evil. I never gave that possibility a thought.

I tried to find a succinct name for this scheme but failed. I did find a blog where a retired attorney discusses this and some variations on it (and learned something new in the process: pulling this stunt on multiple prospective tenants at the same time makes this a hell of a lot more lucrative): https://livingstingy.blogspot.com/2017/07/house-rental-scams...

Excellent article, thank you. And you're right, this scam needs a name.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#150

Post by iudqnolq »

defterGoose wrote: post #36
CharlesW wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recent experience trying to find something on Craigslist was shocking. As much as its UI is frozen in time, so are its anti-abuse measures. I have no doubt that lots of people are getting hurt using Craigslist. I would never recommend it to friends or family.

Can you provide a concrete example? IME any online platform is going to be a staircase into the bowels of human nature. It's all about being aware you need to protect yourself online. If you're encountering things like child porn or prostitution, or anything illegal really, it's your responsibility to at least report it.

An obvious example is zero-dollar listings with a different dollar amount in the title.
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