And none of those ad-filled crapola too!
Craigslist. Short and simple.
Find all my spare parts to most anything there
Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
161–170 of 335 posts
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
A recent experience trying to find something on Craigslist was shocking. As much as its UI is frozen in time, so are its anti-abuse measures. I have no doubt that lots of people are getting hurt using Craigslist. I would never recommend it to friends or family.
Can you provide a concrete example? IME any online platform is going to be a staircase into the bowels of human nature. It's all about being aware you need to protect yourself online. If you're encountering things like child porn or prostitution, or anything illegal really, it's your responsibility to at least report it.
Housing is terrible on CL. Bot farms take past listings from sites like Zillow and apartments.com, cut the rent to a deal that seems too good to be true, then when you are interested you get connected to a "missionary traveling abroad who just wants their place taken care of." They will even be happy to rent to someone who is not yet in the area, which is otherwise really hard and expensive to do. All they need is you to wire a deposit and they'll have a friend deliver the keys......
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#163I gave up on CL years ago when the apartment rental lists for Amsteram became overrun with obvious scams. I would flag them, but it never seemed to matter.
Then also because of the Backpage disaster they stopped all the person to person (dating or hookup) groups. It's a shame too, because I actually met some good people in the past on those groups.
So on one hand, they over-moderated by eliminating whole segments of their site while apparently ignoring other segments which became rife with garbage ads or outright scams. And once the real audience finds wading through garbage to be too much effort, we leave and the site becomes irrelevant.
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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 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.
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#165Craigslist is proof that you do not need to occasionally “refresh the look and feel” of your website or app.
I have a real chip on my shoulder for the occasional design team that seems intent on justifying their own existence and nothing more.
I’d love to learn about big user studies that concluded with, “don’t change a thing. It’s good as is.” Surely that case must be appropriate some % of the time. But I think when you’ve got a hammer you just see nails and work for you.
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well that’s just evil. I never gave that possibility a thought.
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 to take; then they simply know when you’re away, pick the lock, leave the door open, and post the listing. Unknowing strangers rob you OR have a plausible explanation of why they are robbing you.
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Craigslist is a desert, a void, an oasis of empty search results. it's a desert and an oasis at the same time?
"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?
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#168Craigslist has an awesome UI. But I really wish they'd switch out their clunky JS-based gallery component for pure CSS scroll snapping!
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always wondered: what is the mechanism keeping people honest about being owner vs dealer?
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?
Re: Why Craigslist still looks the same after 25 years
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, which is great: because CL forces folks to say whether they're a private owner or a dealer you can filter for those properties . And not hidden and tucked away either: it's the absolutely very first top-most set of options on the search results page. See those three [all] [owner] [dealer] buttons? Click "owner". You're welcome.
I've always wondered: what is the mechanism keeping people honest about being owner vs dealer?
Other than "getting your account banned for multiple reports on multiple postings"? Nothing. If you see someone abusing CL, you report it. If you don't, you're just helping make sure people can keep being dishonest on the platform.