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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

#191

Post by chiefalchemist »

egberts1 wrote: post #164
chiefalchemist wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Just so you know, fourth estate was originally by lawyers, and not printers.

Originally? Good to know. Thanks. But also not relevant in the context of the now.

"The term Fourth Estate or fourth power refers to the press and news media both in explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues.[1]"

My point is, we have "journalists" whining about "the democracy" and those same "journalists" aren't aware how badly their profession has already failed said institution / ideal.

Imagine pulling up to a fire. Tossing on buckets of flammable liquids. And then with a straight face claim to be a firefighter. It's Orwellian. The lack of self-awareness is not only embarrassing, but it's become down right dangerous.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#192

Post by JohnFen »

adolph wrote: post #129
thfuran wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A billion split ten ways is still a decent chunk of pocket change. Clearly there's money in Craigslist, regardless of how it has been apportioned.

has != earns Makes me wonder: if people were offered a lump sum up front which represented their lifetime take-home pay + fringe for the job they will do for the rest of their life, what would people's number be? Or another way, a choice of a 10 year contract to do X worth 100k/annual take-home with 1m delivered at start, or an unchanging biweekly paycheck. Would the biweekly need to be higher to make it more attract…

> if people were offered a lump sum up front which represented their lifetime take-home pay + fringe for the job they will do for the rest of their life, what would people's number be?

You literally couldn't pay me enough to be locked into the same job for the rest of my life.

I also wouldn't want to be locked into a 10 year contract.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#193

Post by jaredhallen »

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 FB algorithms drive me bonkers. I can be looking at a listing on one computer, and then search using the exact same terms and filters on another computer moments later, and be completely unable to get the search to deliver the same listing. Absolutely infuriating.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#194

Post by kepler1 »

snowwrestler wrote: post #59

Not to be “that guy,” but Craigslist has changed a lot over the years. They’ve kept the same coat of paint on it (visual design) but the way it works evolves continuously. For one obvious example, search results come up in cards now by default and you can use hover arrows to go through the photos on each one. It is far more visual experience today than it was when search results were a compact list of text titles. An…

What does the expression "not to be that guy" mean?

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#195

Post by Maursault »

acchow wrote: post #151
defterGoose wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CL is still alive and well here in LA. It's possible it's just in the markets I'm looking in (tools, machinery, cars, etc), but I've always preferred it over things like FB, OfferUp etc. I feel like the people I meet from CL are generally much more knowledgeable about what they have and its value. Other platforms often feel like a relative selling grandpa's stuff and have done the bare minimum of research to find a p…

Try to find a used computer or phone or really any other electronic. FB Marketplace has 5x the inventory.

Facebook's interface is heavily burdened with ugly templates, is needlessly complex and clunky. Page crashes! Facebook is also draconian about logging in, can't see much if you're not logged in, thus FB is elitist. You're required to you hand over your identity and submit to forced content and advertising. I personally fully retreated from Facebook permanently by 2009. Good for you, if you don't mind giving up privacy and being a product, but it is not for me.

Craigslist's interface isn't sexy, but it is impressively fast and stable. No page crashes, ever. No forced content. No login necessary to search, often no account necessary to contact sellers. If an account is required to contact a seller, it is anonymous and disposable. Craigslist works the way the Internet used to work before it was taken over by advertisers, tracking and javascript. I hope it never changes, and I wish more web developers would take their cues from its simplicity and potency, because the more complex and tricky a website gets, the worse it is, unilaterally.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#196

Post by elcritch »

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…

It surprises me how much companies fail at the basics of online shopping.. FB market is a garbage fire. They’re more interested in selling ads than making a market place.

For new stuff Amazon is huge and cluttered yet still manages to run circles around almost every other online store for similar reasons to what you listed. The only exception I’ve found is BH Photo and Video. But all the others like Walmart/Jet, Home Depot, Newegg (now) etc all just “don’t get it”.

Craig’s list really nails the simplicity and usefulness of online used markets. It still amazes me.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#197

Post by ravenstine »

ddejohn wrote: post #152
ravenstine wrote: post #132

People use (or at least used ) Craigslist because they like it when websites and apps actually work. I never encountered bugs or bizarre UI problems when using Craigslist. It turns out the only people who care about flashy animations, fancy drop shadows, "native" looking UI elements, Material/Human design principles, etc., are developers and designers. Normal people only care about those things when functionality is…

Not disagreeing at all. I get irrationally angry when a website shits the bed because of flashy UI BS. One thing I will say is that I personally appreciate "modern" UIs (when they work) because I have ADHD and the visual clutter of "old fashioned" websites is a serious problem for me. I have old reddit set to 200% magnification just to keep the amount of content on the screen to a minimum, and to minimize the width o…

I also have ADHD and have an adoration for old-style website design. Not necessarily the 2008 - 2013 era (which I like to call the 1970's of the web), but websites before that which were more cluttered and unrefined.

Websites from the old days surface far more relevant information on the first fold than do contemporary sites, which I believe have gone overboard with Swiss Style design inspiration such that they think empty space is always preferable. The fact that many websites today use extremely large fonts in order to pass accessibility tests also doesn't help, but this is partly subjective because I personally hate reading text greater than 16px.

Maybe I would think differently if I did lots of heavy reading, but that's hard to do these days because most prose on the internet is filler and total rubbish. If I want to just find something, a website being designed like a magazine cover really doesn't help.

Allow me to illustrate my perspective.

This website, which has been online since 1994, would today be considered one of the most poorly designed sites of all time.

http://amasci.com/

Bask in the dark repeating background, the neon colors, and the quirky use of font size.

And yet, unlike 95% of sites online today, it loads instantly, and is organized such that I can find what I might be looking for without distraction. The author provides a header guiding new users to categories, and underneath is a list of links to pages the author thinks I might be interested in. And that's it. No Fontawesome, no TypeKit, no box shadows, no hover animations, no hover dropdowns, no sticky headers, no scroll jacking, no transparencies, no accordions, no hamburger menus, no bullshit.

A "modern" website would make the first fold into a glorified billboard, hide anything interesting in horizontal navigation of categories that have to be expanded out, use 19px font for prose because The Google, a masonry type layout because CSS grid bro, a sticky header that annoyingly animates in/out, and one to three popup modals asking me to give them my email.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#198

Post by wkjagt »

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…

What I do like on Facebook Marketplace is that it seems to understand what I’m looking for. On Kijiji I have to do try all the different ways someone might have written something, including common spelling mistakes. And since I live in Quebec, I have to do this in two languages. On FB Marketplace it seems to find all variations in one search.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#199

Post by cyanydeez »

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…

Network effects+ Astroturf

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#200

Post by paxys »

I have no problem with Craigslist's interface, but the site is pretty much Scamlist at this point.

I often simultaneously list stuff on Craigslist, FB Marketplace and Nextdoor. The latter two have a near perfect success rate. Craiglist replies are all the most obvious scams in the world.

This is becoming more and more the case for apartments as well. The majority of listings in my area are scams with pictures stolen from Redfin or elsewhere. Reporting will remove them but five more will show up the next day. Zillow Rentals, Strerteasy, Hotpads are a lot more reputable.

Craigslist needs to take all the money they have saved in design and put it towards anti spam and fraud detection tools.

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