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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

#201

Post by rosywoozlechan »

exhilaration wrote: post #120
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…

Did Zillow charge for this service? You mentioned "vetting" - does that include background and credit checks?

Yes, I think the prospective applicants pay for the background checks and then they are submitted for all the places they apply on Zillow. We can pay for them also. It includes a criminal check and a credit score check.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#202

Post by adolph »

thfuran wrote: post #134
adolph wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>has != earns Yes, and? >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 attractive than the one-time payment or could it be lower yet still be the favored choice. You can only make the up front payment so large before employees start quitting early and moving to Montenegro.

>>> Craig Newmark has roughly $1B.

>> I doubt if he’s typical of people working at Craigslist.

> A billion split ten ways is still a decent chunk of pocket change.

The difference being that Newmark has an equity stake of some hypothetical value and the people working there would receive some fixed value per unit of time. If Newmark were to pay each of 10 workers $1B/10 then:

  * their paychecks afterward would be much smaller 
  * their next tax period would be much larger
  * someone else would control Craigslist since the equity stake would have been liquidated (probably causing it to be worth less than $1B)
Thus `has != earns`

> quitting early and moving to Montenegro

I'm of the thought that there is only so much leisure a person can take before there is a drive to contribute toward the betterment of humanity. If someone trusted you and you were trustable, would you take a large lump sum and work for work's sake? Would it make a difference if the sum was an equity stake in the work's environment?

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1501096-let-s-suppose-that-...

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#204

Post by c4Km7V3D »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #86
sc00ty wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and actively goes after any competition to his site What do you mean by this? Is he acquiring the competition or is there another way he's going after them?

https://archive.ph/YbZbA "Craigslist has sued or issued cease-and-desist letters to dozens of startups in recent years. A New York Times technology blog last year complained that the site "has dug an effective moat by cultivating an exaggerated image of 'doing good' that keeps its customers loyal, while behind the scenes, it bullies any rivals that come near and it stifles innovation." The article itself is a little…

Re-read the article, the author does not give a primary source and cites a different article. The subjects of the lawsuits (from many years ago) seem to be sites that are scraping ads/listings on craigslist and mass populating their own site to make it seem as if they have users OR they are sites that are aggregating the information on craigslist and trying to pass themselves off as affiliated with craigslist by using their trademarks.

If you've ever searched for an apartment or a car for sale you'll find that many of the new and popular sites are literally just posting ads scraped from craigslist.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#205

Post by 1970-01-01 »

A:

     Because that serves people better. I've learned that people want stuff that is simple and fast and gets the job done. People don't need fancy stuff. Sometimes you just want to get through the day.
That mindset is worth more than anything else Web 3.0 can throw-up. (pun intended)

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#206

Post by martyvis »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #27
xahrepap wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A local media company runs a "classifieds" on their online site. It dominates locally. Craigslist has been worthless for ages here because of it. However, Facebook Marketplace seems to be slowly gaining traction. Which I hate for all the reasons you mention. I dread the day it takes over :(

I'm curious where you live. After all, craigslist famously decimated classified advertising in the US, primarily because classified ads in newspapers are hella expensive, and craigslist is usually free.

Interesting. In the late 1960s in Australia a classifieds-only paper called the Trading Post grew and absolutely dominated this space by the 1990s. My Dad would buy it every week to look for bargain junk, cars, etc. I'm sure the main newspapers took a hit because of it. They had local versions for each region. It was eventually bought in 2004 by Sensis (they were part of the main telco Telstra) for $636M which also owned the Yellow Pages with the intent of going online. It totally bombed and is surplanted here by Gumtree (now owned by eBay) and FB marketplace. https://www.theage.com.au/business/sensis-confident-of-onlin...

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#207

Post by MatthewORyan »

JJMcJ wrote: post #87

Another site that has changed little is the Drudge Report. I don't agree with the somewhat right-wing political bias of the site, but it's clear and easy to use.

There is little if anything that is still "right-wing" about Drudge today. If you doubt me, load it a few times every week and see what is featured. It's not the Drudge of 5 or 10 or 15 years ago.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#208

Post by jstarfish »

O__________O wrote: post #166
jstarfish wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Basically financial identity theft and fraud combined with breaking and entering — there’s no need to makeup new names for simple combinations of crimes. Long list for crimes people commit using Craigslist. Another similar one is for an attacker to post saying your moving of the country, out of town, already removed everything you’re not taking, but asked neighbor to leave the door open and anything in house is free…

Interesting. Haven't seen that one, but it's reminiscent of the "revenge" personals where you solicit randos to randomly drop in on your [ex] to fulfill their supposed rape fantasy.

> no need to makeup new names for simple combinations of crimes

Fraud schemes are sophisticated and the better ones are not easily understood (by victims, investigators and jurors alike). It may be unnecessary/unconventional but I find it useful to reduce the complexity of schemes to a buzzword with a common meaning that anybody can reference without ambiguity. Gets it into the popular vernacular-- everybody knows to be wary of "catfishing" without having to explain it.

From the crimes they comprise to their implementation, it's function definitions all the way down: a concise, reusable reference that avoids repeat articulation of a more-complex set of behaviors :)

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#209

Post by bombcar »

ghaff wrote: post #55
mikestew wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much like 25 years ago when I said to myself, "there's nothing on the internet that I need to see so badly that I'll install RealNetworks", I'll put stuff on the curb with a "free" sign before I'll reactivate my long-deactivated FB account (or buy new, depending on the direction of the transaction).

Honestly, especially for bulky stuff, I’ve had great luck leaving things at the end of my driveway with a free sign. I wouldn’t get much money for them and they’re out of my house with almost zero effort.

And if it doesn’t move with “free” put a $5 sign on it and it’ll be gone in the morning.
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