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Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

pcmag.com

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Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#181

Post by shabbatt »

inanutshellus wrote: post #106

I hate FB Marketplace. It's actively hostile to buyers. Like, try to find a "kinda nice" bicycle. You can't find the bicycle category (though it does exist as a sub-group of Sporting Goods), you can't just say "show me bikes" unless you hack the URL, you can search for the word "bicycle" but for some reason people selling a "Specialized Rockhopper" think you know it's a bicycle so don't use that word. Oh, and when se…

Sellers too. Not to mention harassment/racism/phobia when the price isnt "right".

Facebook usage seems to be correlated with reduced cognition, it invites the bottom rung of society

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#182

Post by JohnFen »

aerovistae wrote: post #14
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…

Weird. On the east coast it's still as populated and reliable as it ever was. Although I don't typically buy consumer goods on it.

In my stretch of the west coast, it's still as good as it always was, too.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#183

Post by bombcar »

z9znz wrote: post #167
bombcar wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Oasis of Empty"

... which would work if the stuff outside the oasis was cluttered with something. But the stuff outside the oasis is also approximately empty. So where does the desert of empty end and the oasis of empty begin?

The desert has nothing; the oasis lacks even that.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#184

Post by JohnFen »

scelerat wrote: post #155

Craigslist to me, beyond something I still use regularly to hunt for musical instruments, electronics, bikes, furniture, garage sales, etc, is an enduring shibboleth when it comes to "design." When someone says "Craigslist design sucks," I can probably guess how that person thinks about design and what it means to them. IMO Craigslist has survived as long as it has, in spite of no promotion, no advertising, no partne…

Agreed.

> I would never claim that CL is the most aesthetically pleasing site to look at

Which, I think, is a good thing. Experience has taught me that if a web site obviously put a lot of effort into being aesthetically appealing, it's probably not a great website.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#185

Post by nostromo »

jstarfish wrote: post #79
tomcam wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing. I’m about to rent out a house so this helps a lot. One thing I don’t get is why someone else would copy your listing? Do they somehow get a slice of the pie if a respondent rents?

> One thing I don’t get is why someone else would copy your listing? Do they somehow get a slice of the pie if a respondent rents? Usually this is a scam. You advertise someone else's vacant property, break in to conduct tenant tours, collect fees/deposits/first month's rent, then bail.

It's also common for them to say that this apartment has "just been rented," and then show them a completely different apartment for their clients. Usually these apartments are both worse and more expensive.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#186

Post by rcpt »

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…

Used to feel this way but I really like OfferUps built in chat. With Craigslist you end up with people who expect phone calls or emails or texts and it's never clear which is which

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#187

Post by jaredhallen »

sleepybrett wrote: post #46
TheRealPomax wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although unfortunately, it doesn't understand the fairly typical non-urban "yes, you found something that's less than 10 miles from me as the crow flies, but is about 80 miles away if I need to actually drive there because of the fact that my car can't cross a river/strait/lake on its own". Even after 25 years, that part can still do with improvement.

They wouldn't have to update the interface to do that, but they could give you 'crow-flies' and 'driving' distances for sure.

Well since Facebook seems to update the user interface about every 15 seconds anyway, that shouldn't be a major roadblock. I swear if I'm on marketplace and I take a sip of coffee, the UX has changed somehow. Seems like they just have a pool of different interface designs and they just serve them up at random.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#188

Post by JohnFen »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #56
moolcool wrote: post #30

Craigslist is one of my favorite tech companies. They have a fantastic product which they don't sabotage in the interest of growth. Huge respect to them for quietly being the best.

I feel like there is a risk of sabotage through complacency and a refusal to adapt to competition. People looking for rentals and homes to buy don't go to craigslist first, they do to sites like Zillow and Redfin. As I've mentioned in a different response, the spam and junk listings are a persistent problem and none of the spam seems particularly sophisticated or hard to stop - most are literally the same image and c…

To be honest, I've never even thought about going to Craigslist for rentals in the decades I've been using it.

But I use it a lot for other things.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#190

Post by scarface74 »

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 local newspapers were horrible about keeping anyone involved in the justice system accountable. They always took the words of the police and it wasn’t until everyone had a camera that police mistreatment of minorities became exposed.

On the other hand, national newspapers completely ignored the needs and concerns of “rural White America” and that’s why they were caught flat footed and couldn’t understand the rise of Trump.

The press has never been concerned about anyone outside of Middle class White America it needed to die or evolve.

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