Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#281

Post by s1artibartfast » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 4:22 AM UTC

snek_case wrote: post #173

s1artibartfast wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> It is hard to scam someone with an in person exchange of cash for goods. You would think so, but some asshole tried to do this to me. We had agreed on a price ahead of time, and when he showed up, he tried to low ball me with a 50% lower offer. I refused to sell the item to him, and then he became aggressive and I had to call the cops to get him to leave. I won't get into the details, but based on what I saw, I thi…

That's a shitty situation, but I don't really think it is a scam or trick.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#282

Post by nocman » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 4:58 AM UTC

qDnbBcCnsZneEJg wrote: post #236

nocman wrote: post #232

If only retail stores had websites like Craigslist! Just last night I was in one trying to do a simple search for a fairly common item (on my phone). After waiting between 20 seconds to a minute for search results to return, then trying to click the "search in store inventory" checkbox 12 times (sometimes because I wasn't sure the tap had registered, sometimes because I thought the page hadn't finished loading before…

There are examples in retail: https://www.mcmaster.com/

Yeah, that's nice. Too bad the examples are so few and far between (especially among national chains). I've seen one or two good examples before I'm sure, just none that I can think of that I shop at now.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#283

Post by jdwithit » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 5:06 AM UTC

SL61 wrote: post #94

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…

Craigslist is basically unusable in my area if you're selling something. 90%+ of the people who respond to you will express interest, chat about the item, set up a time to meet, and then no-show and ghost you. I don't know what they're getting out of it. It's not worth the time for me to go through 5-6 of those people for everything I want to sell. Maybe Facebook, etc., have this problem too, but I gave up on selling…

We recently moved cross country and my wife tried to sell a lot of our stuff on Facebook marketplace so we didn't have to ship it. She dealt with an INSANE amount of bullshit. A lot of it was exactly as you said, they express interest and set up a specific time to come buy the item. Then just... don't, and we never hear from them again. Like 5-10 of these for the same piece of furniture or whatever.

Then there were the obvious scams (I don't understand how they work, but they were clearly not legit buyers). Where someone's first message is a demand for your Venmo or Zelle account name, and when you respond with anything but what they asked for they just disappear.

And finally there's the perverts who see a woman posting online and use it as an avenue to sexually harass her. Aggressive demands for address and phone number right off the bat, unsolicited nude photos, it's extremely gross.

So, yeah, I would say the experience of posting on Facebook Marketplace is as bad or worse than anything else. Especially if you're a woman.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#284

Post by ouid » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 5:08 AM UTC

retcore wrote: post #269

porknubbins wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My theory about CL is that between the minimalist UI and bad press it discouraged “normies” (for lack of a better word) who were afraid to get scammed so it was mostly serious sellers, plus occasional scammers who were not hard to spot. I met many delightful people over the years dealing with vintage audio, motorcycles, midcentury furniture. Facebook marketplce sellers are much flakier in my experience.

Echoing my thoughts down the page, the problems that you mention, from a "normies" perspective, make a interesting thought exercise in wondering how you could attach suitable features to satisfy these needs. It's easy to mumble "open the API", but first one may have to consider how a API can handle the continuation of crucial revenue generation native site features such as advertising and data analysis reuse. Somethi…

the suitable features are customers that aren't normies.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#285

Post by jdwithit » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 5:14 AM UTC

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…

It seems regional. In my community in Colorado, there's an extremely active Craigslist market. Where I used to live in New England, it was dead and Facebook ruled the scene.

I really love Craigslist's search, minimalist UI, lack of arbitrary moderators approving (or ignoring) your membership to local selling groups, and so on. It has its own problems of course, but I'm happy to live in an area where it's still a viable alternative.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#286

Post by mgalgs » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 5:25 AM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #107

soperj wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know why anyone would want to attach their name and everything to stuff they are selling.

It helps buyers to know who the seller is. FB suffers from bot sellers and scams. I check the person’s profile before proceeding and it gives me a sense of confidence in my purchase/sale.

A bunch of people are making this point, and it implies that Facebook is highly reliable as an identity verification authority. I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s interesting whether it’s right or wrong.

That said, my personal experience with Facebook has been the same. It’s trivial to spot bot/spam accounts, and I typically end up with a high degree of confidence that the identity is real.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#287

Post by kd0amg » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 5:32 AM UTC

TheRealPomax wrote: post #169

philovivero wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. Dealers know to check the owner button. Whenever I'm buying something on CL, like say a car, I always ask the person who answers the phone: "I'm calling about the car. Tell me X about it." If they reply "Which car?" then you've reached a dealer, not an owner.

And then, of course, you go back to CL and flag their post, right? ...You do report abuse on this free platform so that everyone's experience can be improved, right?

Does that button... do anything?

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#288

Post by inamberclad » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 5:55 AM UTC

I've been scoring amazing antique furniture here in SF for much less than a half decent thing from IKEA costs.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#289

Post by bufferoverflow » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 6:48 AM UTC

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…

Forget specialized bicycles. FB marketplace sucks at finding even the most popular items. Try searching for "MacBook air M1" or "MacBook air 2021" (without quotes) . It will show you all kinds of macbooks, including old garbage from 2013. I just want the most basic search feature - return results that include all my search terms.

That's too hard apparently.

Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years

#290

Post by zelphirkalt » Sat, Sep 17, 2022, 8:04 AM UTC

shabbatt wrote: post #181

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

It is like a bad magazine, which only has content about B celebs and other trash, some people being fully aware of it being trash, but aside from those, no one but the bottom rung would stick around to be there.