In Canada a lot of people use Kijiji instead of Craigslist. It's a bit better, and there are mobile apps as well.
Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
41–50 of 51 posts
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
"(I understand it's better outside of NYC, but since NYC is the largest city in the US, that doesn't really matter.)" I always think it's funny that the most cosmopolitan cities can breed the most parochial attitudes.
Maybe I worded it badly -- there's no attitude, I'm just saying that if a site has something broken for its largest domestic group of customers, but it works for everyone else, it doesn't matter -- it's broken period, and not an edge case.
If the largest group is less than 3% of the total then it could very well be an edge case.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#43It has.
But prettier full-featured CLs exist in specific verticals (e.g. AirBNB), so we don't compare them to CL.
To do what CL aims to do, the simple directory style is necessary, I think.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#44tl;dr
Don't know. It really was to long and I didn't finish reading it.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Craigslist masquerades as some kind of pseudo non-profit (".org") like it's doing the world a favor being a barebones piece of crap. But the reality is that it's an entrenched monopoly squatting on a huge piece of economic land and letting it languish. There are so many features and services that could be useful in this space that just aren't getting created. I sincerely hope that the courts demolish craigsli…
"More features" is not the answer. I know you think it's the answer, but me and a billion other satisfied CL users are here to insist that it's not.
I appreciate a minimalist UI design. I really do. But I don't see it as mutually exclusive to providing genuinely useful features. IMO craigslist could add a number of features w/o sacrificing its core minimalism. Case in point: would you prefer Craigslist to drop the new maps feature?
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#46I think this article miss an important point, Craiglist does the job. It's not fancy and the content is poorly written and it's the reason why people want to post to it. They don't want to understand a new system with reputation or painful other features, you just take your add, throw 2/3 lines, a dirty picture and it's done. There is scam but in the other it's easy to post or to reply, it's about free market and res…
Here's one example: If I'm looking for an apartment close to work, I'd much rather pull up a map centered on my workplace and see the listings on the map. That's what padmapper ( https://www.padmapper.com/ ) was allowing me to do. With the unchanging Craigslist, I choose a neighborhood (which could be huge and I could be on the border of) and hunt through a long list, clicking on every post to check where it really i…
Craigslist has a map feature now.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
In your opinion, what job is it that CL fails to address adequately in a consistent fashion? Ignore the real identity / account reputation issue, which nobody has managed to solve in an adequate fashion. What is it that CL promises, that it fails to follow through on?
Two issues. The first is the most important to me: I simply can't trust the other party a priori. I've had so many poor experiences on craigslist, including scams, clearly stolen items for sale, misleading descriptions, no-shows. This is why I think the identity/reputation issue is so important. If ebay needs a reputation system, craigslist needs it even more (CL is inherently more dangerous because you meet in-perso…
I don't want to divulge my identity to the creeper that buys my old TV.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
"(I understand it's better outside of NYC, but since NYC is the largest city in the US, that doesn't really matter.)" I always think it's funny that the most cosmopolitan cities can breed the most parochial attitudes.
Maybe I worded it badly -- there's no attitude, I'm just saying that if a site has something broken for its largest domestic group of customers, but it works for everyone else, it doesn't matter -- it's broken period, and not an edge case.
I've always thought of CL as a community/local site, meaning it is up to the community to really shape it. CL can provide guidance and tools, but it is still up to the community; for example, if your community actively uses the flagging feature to cut down on posts that make the site worse, those posts will decrease in occurrence. NYC has ~14M people, so it is just harder to create a community that agrees on what is and isn't appropriate.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#49One nice thing about CL: They get out of the way. I haven't sold anything on eBay in probably two years because they are (or can be and have been) down-right horrible to sellers. Imagine having your entire Paypal account embargoed for a month because some guy complained about shipping costs. And this after having fifteen opportunities to NOT bid, each of which --and the listing-- clearly disclosed shipping costs. On…
I hate selling things on craigslist. When I tried to sell a comforter, I had to correspond via email with 9 different people before someone would actually come and pick up the damn thing. They kept dropping out silently. When I would ping them, they'd say, "Oh, I bought a different one." or "I decided to buy it from ."
The problem is there is no reputation on craigslist, so people can be as bad as they want.
I can't compare that to ebay, tho. Maybe ebay is worse for a seller.
Re: Why the Web Hasn't Birthed a Prettier Craigslist
#50I found all my jobs on Craigslist . I love it just the way it is.
If those people are so frustrated with CL design they should make their own and build their own community.