What is Craigslist?
For those of you who find posting on Craigslist interesting, important or profitable, I have created this website to keep everyone informed about all the things that happen behind the scenes at Craigslist that they don’t want you to know about. Yes, All the Dirty Little Secrets of Craigslist. For those of you who may not know, let’s start off with what is Craigslist?
Craigslist is an online, (so called) free internet advertising site ( or online free classifieds, if you will ) that was started a little over a decade ago by a geeky nerd who couldn’t get a date and hung around his mother’s house too much. The site itself (Craigslist) languished for a few years and really went no where until a few years ago some savvy investors decided to plug some money into it. Some people actually thought it had potential. It is actually a reasonably good idea, unfortunately it is poorly run and managed. So anyway, like I was saying a few investors plugged some money into the Craigslist website and through some clever marketing they made Craigslist more popular.
The entire marketing scheme behind Craigslist dates back to the old hippie days of the 1960’s. They even utilize the old PEACE symbol as their logo. Craigslist likes to propagate this idea that they are here for the people and by the people. That’s where the whole community thing comes from. The whole thing about Craigslist just being there for the people and by the people is a total load anyway. Craigslist is there to make money for the corporate managers. The staff at Craigslist likes to push the community idea because it makes their users do the work of the staffers for free. Free labor, you gotta love it! You’ll learn more about that later.
Yes, they advertise Craigslist, and the whole buzz around Craigslist, is that it’s free, but it actually isn’t, not completely. For some types of ads you have to pay. So this whole free notion is more or less a marketing ploy. Even though the company bears the name of Craig, Craig Newmark has taken a lesser role in the company over the years. Maybe top management thinks geeks just aren’t good at marketing.
So you go on Craigslist and post your products or services for sale, you find someone interested in what you have to offer and everyone ends up happy right? Well, maybe in theory but not in practice. There are so many things wrong with Craigslist itself and the entire concept, that it will take many posts to dissect the problems and elucidate on them properly. I am writing this blog to enlighten people about the problems and dangers of Craigslist so they can better understand and work with it as opposed to many people who are being hurt by it. You are welcome to post your comments in response to any of my postings, just keep it clean. Unlike Craigslist, I promise I will post each and every comment you make.
Craigslist's Dirty Little Secrets Revealed 
Do you have any info on how ads get removed exactly? Is it from other users flagging them, or CL removing them, or both? My company uses CL posts to advertise local apartment rentals, and sometimes the ads will be deleted IMMEDIATELY upon publishing. Yet we’ve seen ads for illegal items like free animals- stay up forever. With no help from CL, it’s become a crazy guessing game as to why our ads are sometimes deleted right away. Does flagging from 1 user get it deleted? (Could be a competitor maybe?) Or do a certain number of users hv to flag it before it gets deleted? Is it possible that a competitor has written code to flag & delete our ads immediately?
That is a question that is too broad and would take too much time to answer. The short answer is YES, I do know why ads get removed and why they don’t and I explain it thoroughly throughout my posts. If you want to take the time to read my posts you will get a very concise answer as to how to deal with the issues.
Hi there
I’ve been a reader of your blog for some time now. It’s obvious that you’re extremely knowledgeable with regards to Craigslist and the internet generally.
Do you think there is room in the market for another Craigslist replacement?
Is it nearly impossible to compete with the larger more established classified adverts?
Yes, it is possible to create a Craigslist replacement and No it is not impossible to go against the big guys. There are a few obstacles but a determined and smart person could do it. I wont go into a long story about how the internet works but all things have a beginning, middle and end. Craigslist, same as Google and Facebook are in the middle stages now. They could easily be replaced by the right organization. The only reason people are using these sites is familiarity, and there is nothing better out there. But what is better? What does being better mean? Do you need to reinvent the mouse trap? No, not really. The internet is a funny thing because it takes all the vanity and craziness of people and amplifies it. All you need to create a replacement is an idea, a little bit of money for marketing and design of the software (that was the easy part) and to get people to get around your new site and think it is the hottest thing since sliced bread (that is the hard part). You don’t need to be a genius or have a lot of money but you do either need a lot of luck or that spark (which is hard to get) where word of mouth takes off and labels your site the hottest thing around that everybody needs to use or they will die or worse, be unhip or uncool! I have been around since the beginning of the internet (Yes, I’m old, let’s not go there) and have seen all the sites that are hot now when they were just a small inkling. I used Youtube before Google bought it. I used Facebook to advertise sites before they even created sites pages, when it was all personal. I had to work around that limitation. I used Craigslist when it was still local, and look just as unprofessional as it does now. In fact I thought it was so sloppy looking I never thought anyone would take it seriously. Yeah, I look at things from a different perspective. So in answer to your question, it can be done, but just finding that spark to get it going is the real hard part.
I’m based in the UK and when using Craigslist UK adverts for “meeting people” I’ve noticed the adverts seem to continually get flagged
I use prepaid throwaway sim cards with a bit of data credit on them so that I can get fresh unused IP addresses but for some reason they almost always get flagged now. This has been happening for the past month or so. This never happened quite this way before
The type of adverts my friend is posting is sort of offering “massage and related type services for rewards” so whilst not at all illegal or even close to being illegal they might be against cl terms and conditions. The tone of the adverts is probably accurate to describe them as “adult services”
I can’t really speculate about what is happening in your case because I am not familiar with UK laws. I know that in the US, Craigslist has completely removed any Adult oriented sections from their site. There was new legislation earlier this year that had the potential of making sites like Craigslist legally responsible or at least monetarily liable for any illegal activity that was found to take place on their site. Craigslist was rampant with prostitution up to this point and they refused to do anything about it for years. Once the possibility of legal action became legislated they quickly closed that door. In the UK this may be legal or a grey area I can’t say. I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe CL is closing down that section of their site in the UK also. If not, then maybe your posts are just too obvious as to what is taking place. A little more left to the imagination may be needed.
When posting on craigslist everything was fine with my adverts which were 3 or 4 adverts but then I suddenly bumped them up to about 5 to 6 and instead of just deleting a few the system just blanked deleted the entire account
Is there a certain number of adverts from one account that will trip some type of flag which then means the account is more likely to get new adverts deleted or the entire account
Thanks for any help and advice
By the way this is for the UK based Craigslist
Sorry to say but that is impossible to answer for the following reasons. 1- Craigslist does not and will never tell you the limit that triggers any action on their site, and 2- Each location and each posting section withing Craigslist has different settings for each given action. So if in London it may take 3 posts before a trigger is set, in Los Angeles the same trigger may be set to 5 posts. So it really comes down to trial and error for each individuals situation.
Hi there
Is it possible to post in the US version of Craigslist when you’re account was set up in the UK and or you are physically located in the UK with regards to your IP address etc.
I’m in the UK but want to make a couple of posts in the USA would it be possible?
Thank you
Normally Craigslist is very critical about keeping posts in their local areas. They want people to deal locally with each other not across the globe like you can do with Ebay. I would think it would be even harder since you have a UK account and UK IP, not a US account and IP. Having said that, you could give it a try and see if you squeak through and no one notices. If it is for one or two posts you may be able to do it, and even if you can’t, it’s no big loss. On the other hand if you did plan on posting more than a couple of posts, and you plan on doing it on a more long term basis then you would have to set up a different account with new IP’s, Email address, PVA, etc. We cover all that in great detail in the Members Section. So give it a try and if it doesn’t work, check out our website for greater details on how to do it.
Thanks very much indeed for your help and for your helpful site!
How would you rank the US craigslist site now. Is it still the dominate “goto” classified as it’s always been?
Would it be fair to say that Craigslist would be the equivalent to the UK “Gumtree” which definitely is the goto advertising site
It seems like it’s “all or nothing” with internet companies. Examples being there is only one:
Google search engine
Airbnb
Uber
Gumtree
Ebay
so on and so forth? Any thoughts? You could write a book about this topic though
While Craigslist does remain popular, it’s appeal is waning due to all the restrictions and difficulties posting. Also, the pay to post has not been appealing to many that only used to use the site because it was free to post. Craigslist is the best alternative for selling a small amount (one or two) of any item. If you want to sell greater quantities and not have to deal with the posting hassles then Ebay is a better alternative. It also depends what you are trying to sell. For most local, small items CL is a good way to go, but for selling world wide, or for selling cars, there are many pay alternatives such as Autotrader, Ebay, and others. While it may cost more than $5 to post, they generally get a better readership and less scammers on the other sites. Craigslist also can’t be called the “GoTo” in the US because it has great appeal in some places, but hardly any in others. Some major cities like NY, L.A., Dallas, etc have great popularity, but many small regions rarely get any activity. For those that want the familiar, sure, Craigslist is an easy choice. For those that want to explore a little bit and maybe pay a bit more, there are better alternatives. Craigslist is not what it used to be and will probably continue to decline over the years to come. It is only popular because “Craigslist” has become part of the popular lexicon like “Google it” has, but the stigma of Scammers, and the elimination of all the “Sexually Explicit” (Dating, casual encounters, etc) parts of the site have eliminated a good amount of it’s visitors.
c list has become a worthless dumping ground of whores, scammers, and racisists. I hope it dissapears soon. You can’t post a legit ad without it getting flagged and deleted, but the crap ads stay up for weeks or months.
Craigslist Personals have been permanently shut down. Clicking on any ad displays the following message:
“US Congress just passed HR 1865, ‘FOSTA’, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully.
Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day.
To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness!“
That is correct. I just heard about that earlier today also. It took this long and the threat of potential lawsuits to get them to close up this section. People have been clamoring about this for a long time because it is well known as a scammers delight section. Prostitutes also use it frequently. Maybe this will clean up Craigslist just a little. At least you wont see used condoms as you want through the door. 😉 (metaphorical joke for those that didn’t get it)
Craigslist will now charge $5 per post on services offered and gigs. What are some good alternatives to craigslist?
This has been a long time coming. I brought this up many months back when Craigslist started testing this in limited markets. On the bright side it may get rid of some of the spammers and cheats on Craigslist. On the other hand, the only real reason Craigslist has been successful is because it was free. Now that is has started charging, will this expand to other sections of Craigslist? Will this be the end of Craigslist as people refuse to pay and move away from the site to alternative sites? Who knows. It will be interesting to see. Not all free sites can make a transition to pay, so we shall see.
I think it will only be a benefit for services and gigs people if they are able to get more clients. If incoming number of people remain the same or become worse (For whatever reason) then charging would be a major hassle. It would depend on the business, but if at this point you have to post several ads just to get few people then that can add up to be costly and perhaps even unsustainable. Another issue is how long will posting last? I think for the testing areas it was reduces to only 7 days. Before, I think, ads would last much longer so it could translate to less exposure over all. Would you happen to know any good alternatives to craigslist?
I agree, and the problem also is that in some markets it is irrelevant how long your ads lasts because the sections get flooded with ads so quickly. For example, in major markets like Los Angeles (and it’s suburbs) or New York, if you make and pay for a post now, in a matter of HOURS it will disappear from the front page to the second, third or fourth page. So in reality you just paid for a 3 hour post, because again, in reality how many people really go past the first page? As far as alternatives, there are hundreds. The problem boils down to which one do you want to use. If you do a search for “Craigslist Alternatives”, or “Free Online Classifieds” you will get many to choose from, but most have a small footprint, so little traffic. The biggest alternatives, are Backpage, Kijiji, and Facebook. Aside from that there are many localized places that may give you good service simply because they are local and trusted by the locals. In some cases small may be good.
Craigslist Terms state that you can only post one item in one category every 48 hours. What if I have lots of different items to sell, and need the money quickly for buying Xmas gifts?
Should I group them all in one post?… but the items range from sunglasses to headphones to a car.
I get that they don’t want ppl posting the exact same thing in different categories.
But, its not clear if I can post two different items in one category… or, in different categories.
Actually you are misunderstanding the terms. Let me put it this way. You are NOT allowed to post the same item per post more than once every 48 hours. What that means is that you ARE allowed to make multiple posts as long as they are different items. You can make many posts in the same category (or different categories, doesn’t matter) as long as they are significantly different. In other words you can sell a car and a camera in two separate posts at the same time, but don’t try to sell a pink camera and a red camera in two separate posts because they are so similar that it can be classified as SPAM and you can get Flagged. If for some reason you wish to sell two items that are similar, be sure to make the Title and Post body as different as possible to make the two posts look and feel different in every way. This is the best way to avoid having problems. As to your other question, yes you can sell multiple items in one post, that is OK. The reason people get in trouble is that they will try to sell the same exact item in 20 posts. That is SPAM and totally against CL TOS.
What to do if my account has been blocked and Craigslist has not answered any of my emails
Create a new account and start again wiser and better.
I think Craigslist needs to be shut down
Hahaha, you and a lot of other people. 😉
It’s free speech
CL is now staffed by a group of sexually frustrated loosers living day by day in fear of seeing the Cash Cow put out into a concrete Pasteur…DO NOT use CL for any purpose as it is now a heaven for the Nigerian Mafia. Stay away and watch CL rot and burn.
My thoughts exactly.
the site is filled with pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and scammer artists and people posting the same listing 50 times on the same day without being flagged and nothing is done about it. yet my legitimate postings continuously get flagged off of the board withing minutes of being posted and sometimes even sooner. the site is a cesspool.
Well, then I guess the answer is easy! Become a pimp, prostitute, drug dealer or scammer and you will have it made in the shade! I jest of course. 😉 I do agree with your assessment.
Is Craigslist still the biggest online general purpose advertising site in the USA? I’m a US citizen but live in the UK and am out of touch
It depends on what metrics you are using. It used to be the largest, but now with Ebay, Kijiji, and other options, it is one of the largest. It is still used by many people that want to post their items for free, but due to the huge problems with Fraud, Scams, and difficulty posting, it has dropped out of favor with many folks. Some people would rather pay a small fee and have a better experience than what they have at CL.
absolutely agree, I just called their “Cust Service” number(415 399 5200) and got a VM tree that did not even offer the subject I need: multiple postings from same company across the USA. What a complete POS!!!
I now have nowhere else to go and all attempts to flag are futile, they never work, even when I enlist colleagues of diff companies in our same industry.
Thank you. Im 58 yr old guy who barely use my phone properly. I have now idea how scams, operate. So one who takes their time to help me is a friend. thanks dave
Hi there, since yesterday I put my piano on the sale, and inmediatly I get this email. From a very angry man 🙂
Thanks for your response. I m Mr ( Xavier Sam Serrano) from United State I’m ok with the price and condition you give me and i
will be paying through PayPal (www.Paypal.com) .. So i will be paying directly into your PayPal account without any delay, and i
hope you have a Paypal account and if not you can easily create your PayPal account on their website at http://www.paypal.com
and send me your PayPal email for the payment, You do not have to bother yourself about the shipping. I’ll instruct the Shipping
Co Agent to come for pick up at your door, when i must have you pay.
Name: Xavier sam Serrano
Address: 2902 Whispering Winds Drive
City :. Pearland
State: Texas
Zip code: 77581
Country: USA
So kindly get back to me with your PayPal details like this below
Full Name:
PayPal Email:
Phone Number:
Amount:
Home Address:
As soon as i receive this details from you, i will proceed with the payment immediately and i have already arrange for a private
shipping agents will come for the pick up of the item at your house door step and They Will take care of the picking up
document including the full information to pick up the item at your house door step. So I will need your home address as soon
as the payment is made to you
Thanks…
Yeah, I love the way he points out so cleverly that he is “from United State” like how many people would point that out unless they are NOT from the United State (missing the s at the end, says a LOT!). I also love the way a piano will be picked up from your door step. Yeah, just leave it outside and my shipper will pick it up from your door step. No need to be inconvenienced. What a maroon (as Bugs Bunny used to say). Scam for sure!
Hah, that’s funny, at least he mentioned the Piano, I get “your Item” a lot. Hah, who would buy my “ITEM” without one single qualifying question, especially when it is a high ticket item????….come on people use some common sense!!
I have flagged pets listed in the “free” section as it is against CL policy or so I thought. 2 days later and it’s still there. Are they actually checking these things?
I called a number to reply to a Puppy ad in the free section to make sure he wasn’t scooped up by someone with bad intentions and the number put on the post belonged to an elderly gentleman, 71, who had been receiving calls for hours. I felt horrible for him. We chatted for a bit and with his permission sent a form to CL customer service to let them know that the number attached to this already prohibited free ad was incorrectly listed with my Dad’s number and was causing him great anxiety. I haven’t heard a word back and the post is still up. I am PISSED! What else can I do?
Yeah, don’t expect any help from CL, it’s not going to happen. One person flagging the ad is not going to do any good. You have to get your friends and family to flag that ad repeatedly. Put up a Facebook campaign or twitter campaign and get all whom you know to flag that ad. It’s the only way really. Wish you luck.
I have looked at so many cars on craigslist for sale first anyone can go to the first page look up cars for example $2000 dollar cars you get so many scams the cars are pics of other people’s cars you try and get a reply from someone its always someone as lost a family member or they are going to the military they won’t to go through eBay or other site like Amazon for purchase and shipping first off all you dumb ass scammers they don’t do that. I have tried to get in touch with so many owners and all I get is scams if you want to sell your car just have it set up so you can talk to the person. Craigslist is a joke I can find hundreds of scams a day and they are so smart. Any person out there can look and see but you still use craigslist I just won’t to buy a car. Anyone out there can prove me wrong it will just be the scam mers or craigslist there is a place for all of you hell as plenty of room.Thanks Rainman
Cars are a MAJOR scam on CL. The ones that are reasonably priced are usually scams, and the rest are incredibly over priced. The general public has this ridiculous impression that they can ask for a car MORE than a dealer would ask. Also that their beat up, burned into the ground POS is worth a LOT of money. I guess they get this impression from all the reality shows that go around Flipping cars for money. Try other sources for buying cars, CL sucks when it comes to cars.
We are needing to buy another car on a small budget, due to the one we paid a lot for having unsolvable check engine light issues. (Runs like a dream, except when it doesn’t.) With one exception, all the cars we’ve got the most service out of have been purchased from individuals. The ones that have been a ripoff were from dealers, including the current problem truck. (And our mechanic looked at it and recommended the lot!) After having made such a bad mistake, we’re scared to death this time.
Always before, we found promising used car ads in the paper, met the owners and looked the cars over. Talked about car history. Now, there are almost no cars in the classifieds. I check local FB pages where cars are sold and “for sale by owner” pages of all kinds, including craigslist. What is driving me crazy is all the dealers posing as “owners.” I’ve started keeping a list of the phone numbers and what dealership they are so I can identify them quickly. Two local used car dealers with pretty good reputations are doing this.
WHERE are the honest, local, private owners like we used to always deal with? Aren’t any normal people selling cars now? I”m at my wit’s end with this project and sick to death of researching cars.
You are correct. A LOT of Dealers pose as Owners to try and sneak by the people who don’t want to deal with dealers. They figure if they get the car in front of you, you just might buy it if you like it. DON’T FALL FOR IT FOLKS. Always ask if they 1- OWN the car themselves, 2- Have a pink slip in THEIR name (if they are selling it for a friend, or relative, just move on to the next one. That is a dealer ploy) 3- Where can you meet to see the car (If at a dealership or some strange place, run away). I have seen dealers tell people “Yeah, it’s my car but I am selling it THROUGH the dealer to get more exposure” BS!!! As to your question “WHERE are the honest, local, private owners like we used to always deal with?” They got sick and tired of the scammers, and BS going though Craigslist and gave up. That’s what it boils down to.
I have used Craigslist for 7 years and have never paid for a single ad. I have no problems with Craigslist and it has actually been quite beneficial for me. In fact.. I don’t know anyone who has had to pay for an ad
Only some ads are PAID ads. Most are FREE.
I have the same experience.
I have used it for several years and have had lots of trouble with it, including having multiple ads removed by Craigslist without telling me why, having multiple “flake” buyers tell me they are coming over to look at an item and not showing up, and telemarketers getting my phone number on Craigslist and calling trying to sell me something. The site is very poorly managed to say the least.
question.. I in the tampa, fl area in the united states. I sell car products like radios, window tint, etc. I post on for sale by owner car parts. my ads gets flagged within 24hours. now how come I see others posting in the same category and they don’t get flagged?
thank you in advence
That’s easy. I have discussed this before. Most likely, you are getting flagged by competitors or some folks in your area that have a hair up their B-hole. That is not the system flagging you. That is some people that feel you are taking sales away from them. So they want to take you out of the picture.
thanks for the reply. now how can I flagged them? just click on the prohibited button? now how do I know if the system was flagging me? and how could I do more than 5 or 6 ads before getting the message from cragslist that states that I have reached their limit?
You can flag them the same way that they flag you, BUT it may not be very effective. See, what happens is that some of these people are really serious, so they use flagging software. They really want to corner the market. Other folks have a whole boat load of friends, so they get their friends, and their friends, friends to flag you. One sole person clicking the flag button over and over again isn’t going to do much. So unless you have either of what I mentioned, you will have to put up with the hassle and frustration like Michael Swain just posted.
You will know the system is flagging you when either one of two things happens. 1- You posts DO NOT show up at all, or 2- Your posts show up and disappear withing a few short minutes. The system is FAST, humans are SLOW.
Posting multiple posts is a sure fire way to get flagged, Ghosted, or banned. I recommend you proceed slowly testing the waters for your area as you learn.
Forget Craigslist unless you want to deal with all the frustration and fraud that goes on that CL doesn’t care about. It’s rapidly becoming a thing of the past anyway.
I am from Melbourne Australia but my posts keep defaulting to sfbay? In settings I have selected Melbourne but it keeps defaulting ? As people here have said there is no customer service and I would appreciate some advise from anyone on how to fix my problem.
I also have had 2 accounts put on hold and cannot get any reply from cl as to why.Anything I advertise is similar to others for much the same thing but mine gets flagged all the time.
You have a couple of problems. CL is looking at your IP and then setting you to SFbay. You have to check your IP online or check with your ISP to see why this is happening. You can change your settings all day at CL and it will not help. They track all users to see where they come from. If you cannot get help from your ISP then use a free VPN in Melbourne to correct the problem. As to why your accounts are on hold is impossible for me to take a guess at. As for flagging, well, that is probably just user abuse of the system because they don’t want your competition.
Here is the main problem.
Users can flag ads without giving a valid reason or any reason.
So the scammers login with multiply accounts and flag anything they think hurts their business.
Someone posts a ad for a car at less money than your ad flag it and reduce you competition.
Someone mentions a scam. Flag them to stop exposure.
There is also no customer service. Just the same scammers in their forums.
No control. No CS. No abuse control.
Does anyone know how to be on the relevant page on craigslist? Is there any tips anyone can give me? I have been posting on craigslist for over 6 years and lately I haven’t been receiving any traffic. I am so sad that the new default is relevant rather than newest. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
First make sure that your posts are not being Ghosted. Getting NO traffic like you said, I would find rather odd. Even with relevant results you should get something. Secondly use a tracking software to find what is bringing people to you. What words are they using for search so you can reword your text to suit the relevant searches. It’s just like website SEO in the old days before the search engines started hiding key words.
Relevant search is a fairly new CL scam, the “relevant” search is dominated exclusively by resellers like HomeAdvisor who sell any hits to those that subscribe to their service.
Your ad’s are NEVER going to be relevant when going up against these resellers. CL is most likely being paid by these folks and is using “relevant search” as the vehicle to always put these ad’s on top of search results.
You may be absolutely correct. This may be similar to what Google was doing a few years back where on EVERY search results Google properties (such as Youtube) would ALWAYS be the number 1, 2 or 3 positions. It was obviously manipulation and they took a lot of heat for that. Now they hold their properties back to the second page of searches. If this is the same situation I don’t know if CL will care if people get pissed at them or not. Only time will tell.
I don’t think CL cares IMO. The whole CL thing has become rather dated and newer competitor’s are available for many categories. This is an easy cash cow for them, they will ride this until the cash dries up i predict. And yes, many faithful CL people/users will suffer.
Precisely the issue.
I agree with you my friend. Craigslist has become an over moderated site run by power hungry individuals. That Peace symbol doesn’t mean much any more. This is why we have to do everything we can to show them that we are like the “Occupy” people. We wont leave, we wont hide, we wont be pushed around, we will win! For everything they do, we can find a solution.
Craigslist sucks for anything – alternative, Ebay or backpage.com !!!
I used to sell things on craigslist, Well at least i tried to here & there which the very last time i posted something there it was for a car which my ad got flagged and to this day i still can’t figure out why it got flagged? Anyway i went to their so called community forum for help but quickly found that it was filled with nothing more than a bunch of cocky douche bag wet behind the ears smart ass punks that all needed their fu***** teeth knocked out.
All i did was ask if someone could please help me understand why my ad got flagged and right away some little smart ass dick head said, Oh if you can’t figure that out on your own then you shouldn’t be selling anything here. If i only could have reached through my monitor that day and choked that little prick to death i sure as hell would have.
No one there gives a rats ass about actually helping you, All they want to do is ridicule you from the very moment you ask a question. Since craig to this day still can’t figure out how the hell to properly run the website that he created instead of letting a bunch of cocky moronic punks control it by getting together in groups and flagging what ever they feel like flagging which that is exactly what they do then he should close it the hell down or sell it to someone with a fully functional brain that knows how to run the damn thing properly with real staff members who are qualified / trained to help you.
Agree completely!
Craigslist is a dark seedy low life douchebag site.
A buddy of mine recently made an account at craigslist and posted a couple individual ads for some miscellaneous chevelle parts that he has and 5 days later his ads were flagged and removed. He showed me exactly what he had written in the ads which there wasn’t anything wrong with them that would have violated any policies as all he had written in there besides the descriptions were the asking prices along with his phone number.
I wish i could find a really good alternative to craigslist which i did try a few other sites however the ones i found barely got any traffic. All there really is is ebay which gets a lot traffic however it sucks that you have to pay fees.
I agree with you. We had a Classifieds section on our website and ran it for about a year before we closed it. It was meant to be an alternative to CL but only a few legitimate people posted and the rest were spam. Other simply tried to over burden the server with hundreds of fake accounts and logins. People even got mad that we had an option that they could pay to upgrade their ad and place it on a slider of the front page for greater exposure. I got a few angry emails saying that it should “ALL be FREE”. Some people you just can’t please.
There seems to be plenty of spammers and scammers these days, Seems that the most i ever ran into were on craigslist. At least once or twice a week per each ad someone would contact me and ask for me to reply directly back to some email address they included in the message because they claimed that the craigslist email relay system wasn’t working however if that were true then their message would not have reached me, It was easy to spot the ones who weren’t actually interested in what i was selling and were just trying to obtain my email address so that they could add me to their spam mailing list just to send me a bunch of garbage emails for viagra etc.
Have you ever thought about reviving your classified ads section one day? Maybe a second run would do better now that a lot of people learned how much BS craigslist really is.
I would have thought that the ebay classifieds site would get more traffic however no matter what i tried selling there the visitor counter hardly ever budged.
I may consider reopening it in the future. I agree with you that ebay is a bit slow in getting sales but it seems to be the only legitimate place for now.
Agree! Use Ebay or backpage.com !
The regular ebay site is a good place besides the fees however i was actually referring to the ebay classifieds site that used to be called Kijiji. That place is like a graveyard! I included some links in my last post but i guess you’re not allowed to do that?
I agree. Kijiji started as a good site but became over regulated as well and has since lost favor. They didn’t do the Ghosting and other stuff like CL but they were real Nazis on so many other levels that is why people kinda started to ignore it. As far as links, in posts, I only allow links to legitimate and well known sites otherwise this place would be SPAM heaven. I get so many upstart sites wanting to list themselves here and this would cause this article to loose all credibility since most of those places disappear within a few months or are graveyards with less than 10 posts. I try to give my readers good information and not waste their time. As you see I do allow links to legitimate, well known sites.
I would never go to the forum and ask for help. It’s a free-for-all troll’s paradise, unmoderated, abusive, catty, and above all else, not helpful.
Craigslist is a dark seedy low life douchebag site.
You might want to attend some
”Anger-management
courses or a therapist…
I am not sticking up for CL, but you don’t have to go there, there is a delete button and a choice…Make a choices and not rant here, RANT ON CL they have a category for just that thing…
What I am getting at is this: Take Pro-choice females and the whole abortion debate…
I believe in PRO-CHOICE 1,000 %! That choice is before you
get pregnant, before you spread your legs (not talking about
rape or incest & some other factors i.e. down-syndrome maybe) but by enlarge, the truth is simply this, don’t kill a fetus as a form of birth control…I am so tired of the PRO-choice song and dance, makes no sense at all.
You have a choice ladies, we have established that, now we art at odds about when you make that choice..
Enough said~Les
Psycho, I don’t think i could have put that any more eloquent, but yet accurately. i’m at “peace” with these self-righteous nose-pickers, that this IS the only thing in their existence that they have & because they don’t know how to utilize it or share it, they will remain that way till they die with, once again, they’re dicks in their hands!!…………
What is happening? I just registered an account, confirmed email (I do receive the email notice from Craigslist, in regular folder, not spam folder). But when I published my posting, nothing happens anymore, no email for the final step to publish it. The suggestion is to check spam folder or internet service provider, but how come I can receive it for confirmation of registration but not to posting? Obviously Craigslist did not send it out.
Putting aside any problems with your ISP as you mentioned, I believe that you are experiencing a sign of Ghosting. This way they can save server space by never having to post your post and ghost it. You just never get an approval. As you said if you were blacklisted in the regular way you would not even get an email. If you don’t get the email after a few hours then I would seriously consider Ghosting as the only option.
Yeah well check this out. Some jerk kept posting in the lost and found lmao about how all the “animals’ need meds. Knowing people who have had their pets stolen lately I smelled a rat like he was either the thief or some sick bastard who thought it was all a joke. So I wrote them an email and said to eff off. Now, every day EVERY DAY this sick fuc publishes a post with my picture and email address.I have contacted CL a dozen times and they do nothing. Even though it is illegal harassment and they can see the loser’s LP/
Yeah, well, I have mentioned many times before that sadly enough, NEVER expect any help from CL. It’s just not coming. How the heck did he get your pic? Did you send it to him? Did you also send him your email address and skip the CL email obfuscation? Emails are easy to change, your mug, not so much. 😉
.and you wonder why…..the creeps are CL they are behind the “animals’ need meds.
You are fighting who you think is the creep….look a bit higher..”THEY” are CL
CL is thankfully losing ground and my first experience in the Help Forum was like scene out of Lord of the Flies.
Ignoring the name calling, bullying and lewd expressions for a moment, I love the standard “is working as intended” answer with no detailed back up of what that intent is or what you did to offend the CL gods. Since my crystal ball is out being cleaned at the moment I neglected to realize that line 372 in the agreement clearly states ….. yada yada yada. Yes, I am an idiot for not bringing out my magnifying glass or for interpreting certain “rules” differently than the CL Gods interpret them.
I did get one straight answer finally in the slew of offensive material, in reply to my saying that, if a post is flagged by the system (not a user or a reader) there should be an email that says why. It would improve things greatly because otherwise you are left in the dark and the help forum is neither help nor forum. In answer one person said that CL does not want you to know why. That if they did it would teach people to circumvent the system, but how exactly would that happen? I mean, if the rule is (as it is these days) that you should not post closer than 48 hours, and you know that, how is that a bad thing? Why should it take a gazillion flags to to figure that out instead of one message from the system saying, “hey btw … just letting you know we have this rule … you might have missed it … so I am letting you know now.” No harm no foul. It is like they want to foster this “us four and no more” environment. But if you do that, things like what is currently happening (like people becoming disenchanted with the whole thing) happens. And the only people who will then use it are the limited four they are being so exclusive about.
I have actually a personal theory that the reason why they will not email you the reason for ads being removed is because it would be additional fodder for lawsuits. That if there would be true transparency and everyone had to abide by the same rules that CL likes to hide behind, you would come to find out how not equal the whole set up is.
Sorry for venting, just can’t stand hypocrisy and CL seems to be the capitol of it all.
I agree with you 100%. I think the mentality at CL is spreading throughout the web. People are being LESS transparent as the world moves forward and people are having greater problems communicating now than ever before. I don’t know if it’s technology’s fault or the current PC environment that we live in. I find it interesting how so many companies and websites operate the same way. The other day I was submitting a blog to a couple of blog directories and the blog I was submitting was denied, but they can’t tell you why. They send an email saying “Your submission was denied but we can’t tell you why specifically. It could be one of the following reasons A, B, C, D, etc or maybe none of those” I read that and thought that this is the most retarded email I have ever read. Why not just say, “Your blog was denied for X reason. If you fix or change this then we can possibly reconsider it in the future.” I also find this in dealing with companies in the real world. So much hidden info just creating situations where you will make mistakes and they will just be there to jump on you just like what you experienced at CL. I think Bullying has taken on a whole new face.
I recently applied for an Amazon Associates account. Best experience of my life – despite getting turned down (although eventually approved). Here is why:
I created the account and posted the ads on my site. Policy is not to approve sites until so many hours after the first referral sale (Amazon does not pay you per click but pays you if that click turns into a sale). Cool. I am an author with books for sale only on Amazon and received an invite to join. Had a test site up and running before the finale build out. Anyway, so yes, placed ads, had a sale the next day and the day after got an email saying … “sorry but …. ”
Well, they gave me the reason as not being enough content, which kind of surprised me. They shut everything down automatically, I had to fill all the forms back out again, and go through the entire spiel again. However, since I knew that it was a content issue, I waited until the full launch of my new site and made sure I had plenty of content. A plethora of content, and guess what .. I got approved!
It was a win / win. They make money .. I make money. The site is better because of it (I thought of tons of additional things a result to ad) … and we are skipping happily down the road arm in arm.
Facebook disapproved an ad because the person in the picture (provided by them) had too much skin showing. Ok .. whatever .. not my call .. but good to know. So then changed the picture … and the ad got approved. How bad was all that?
We need more win/ win communication and all I can say is that CL ads response from 5 years ago vs today .. is telling in how they need to pull themselves into the 21st century.
I think it really just comes down to the self, or user moderation websites have simply evolved to a dimension of Troll paradise and it seems reasonable that in time people will realise it and hopefully stop utilizing such sites. But I doubt it.
Another question….regarding flagging. I’ll often ‘troll” the Flag Help Forum to look at responses from the helpers in hopes of learning something I didn’t know, and I see a few people who ask why they got flagged. So how does that work??? Does CL contact you each time you’ve gotten a flag? Do they send out an email or something? I’ve never gotten anything like that, so I’m just wondering how it is that they know they’ve been flagged. Are they notified after one flag, or 5…or each time they’re flagged? Sounds like a real odd way of doing things 😦 Kind of counter productive.
You will find out that you have been flagged when your post is no longer showing up and then you log into your account and the post will say “Removed by the community”. CL does NOT contact you.
“Does CL contact you each time you’ve gotten a flag? Do they send out an email or something?” No. You nonchalantly browse to your ad, and it will say, “This post has been flagged.” One time I did try the page where you can request a review or petition Craigslist that my post was erroneously flagged, and the next time I posted it it didn’t get flagged.
I agree with you that other sites are doing this. I have all my ads ghosted by Craigslist and for some reason my Yelp reviews suddenly disappeared to the restricted ads where users have to go through the hassle of entering a CAPTCHA in order to view the “bad” reviews and my reviews don’t count and cannot be seen by most people. I inquired and they simply said that their proprietary system thinks that I am a fraudulent reviewer. I posted both positive and negative reviews of companies I’ve dealt with and made these reviews an honest assessment of my opinion and tried to see things through the business I was doing business with. They kept sending emails asking me why I haven’t posted any reviews lately and I responded to one of their emails simply telling them that since I’m a fraud (in their opinion) and am posting fake reviews (in their opinion) it isn’t worth my time to post reviews when they won’t be viewed by anyone. I did get a response that I still should write reviews since their proprietary and top secret system may eventually decide I am a legitimate person and stop flagging my reviews. I responded to them asking them to just close my account with them.
Good for you. That’s the way it has to be. These sites need to learn that all this secrecy and privacy and Political correctness in some cases needs to stop. If you cant be honest and speak your mind then there is no point in visiting these sites. They will notice it as they become less relevant. Heck, even South Park made an episode spoofing Yelp.
Dr, Soles touched on multiple topics I’ve had experience with. First, I should say that I used to believe Craigslist did ghosting, but I think ghosting has since been debunked. I also used to have my CL ads routinely flagged for no reason, but lately my ads have been pretty good at showing up and staying up.
Regarding Yelp, I was once paid a hundred dollars to post up to 10 positive reviews for a moving company. I didn’t realize it would be so hard. I think all but one of my reviews were flagged, including my Yelp review. I don’t know how they do it, other than that there must be some common grammatical or phrase patterns that get automatically flagged, no matter what.
It’s been over a year since my IMDB account got flagged, and I was required to provide a credit card number to be able to post, and they rejected my (real) phone number as sufficient proof of identity. This was especially sore, since I felt like I had friends and community on some IMDB discussion groups. One group became flooded with trolls, and I got attacked non-stop. I reported and reported, and finally, IMDB must have got sick of my reporting troll posts, and it was just more expedient for them to put a stop to me rather than put a stop to the trolls. I just looked for some of my old posts, just for old times sake, and noticed they had deleted everything I ever wrote. This was sad, because I wrote a lot of serious reviews and made a lot of contributions to IMDB movie data. I have long since realized, however, that there is a world of difference between what you write on the internet, and what you write on paper, as in a book, for instance. An owner or admin of a website can completely delete any trace of what you wrote, for no reason at all, if they wake up on the wrong side of the bed. I felt it was wrong of IMDB to do this to me.
I was a writer in a private writer’s community. When I say “private”, I mean it was owned by one man with a strong “Christian” (in his interpretation of the word) reference point. I even wrote a widget script that sought to acquire demographic info from readers. In his mind, the “are you religious?” question meant that everyone in the world was either “I am a Christian” or “I’m not religious.” I pointed out that there were also other religions, and his question was leading, and wouldn’t really produce reliable data.
Eventually other differences of opinion caused us to split apart. One week when he was one vacation a writer tried to publish a story which was a very conspicuous plagiarism of the British television comedy “Keeping Up Appearances”. I made a comment to the writer, and by the time the site owner came back from vacation, he was in an uproar over the incident. In his mind plagiarism wasn’t a bad thing, especially since he made his revenues off of ads on article pages, such as the person who wrote the plagiarized story (she substituted the name “Bucket” with “Pail”, for instance, and substituted the name “Hyacinth” with “Iris”. I caught her on the point of where she used the name “James” for the husband everywhere but in the very last paragraph, where she tripped up and used the name “David”, which was the character’s name in the tv show). I confronted her and she pretended she had never heard of the show. I reminded her that one year before she and I had a discussion about the show, even saying, “If you’re calling me a Hyacinth Bucket, Gregory, then go ahead, I don’t mind.”
Well, the site owner eventually deleted me, and every one of my many stories, which possibly numbered a hundred or so. Lesson learned, behind every website is an ego that needs bolstering. If you don’t supplicate that ego as if it were a Messianic incarnation, you could find that hours and hours of your work could be turned off with no trace, just as easy as turning of a light switch. This is not possibly with something published on paper. I was a newspaper correspondent for five years, and I can tell you that no matter how I might have bruised some egos, those old newspapers still exist in closets and basements, and no one person has the capability of turning them off forever.
I agree with much of what you wrote. Most people in this world have huge egos that need to be stroked. The smaller the mind, the larger the ego I think. The internet has given rise to the ability for anyone to have their own little kingdom and push their supposed weight around (if only on that website). Heck you can run into instances of this in the real world also. BTW Ghosting on CL was not debunked as you say but instead it is just no longer used as much. Once people caught onto it, Ghosting lost its effectiveness and now CL does Flagging instead. The staff or system will Flag you but you don’t know if it was the system flagging you or the community. This confusion works to CL’s benefit since it’s harder for you to fight.
I recently experienced the unpleasantness that can demoralize an honest Craiglist user.
In my area there are a number of Craigslist users that use the ad space to spread malicious rumors and vilifying groups of people they don’t like.
The content of the ads typically asserts fallacious details, allegations and unsubstantiated ‘facts’ to arouse the reader into hateful respite toward the individual or group.
I flag these slanderous ads but they remain. Recently, I have posted ads in support of these groups or individuals being unfairly maligned in my community and provide real facts to give readers a balanced prospective upon which to form an opinion.
Well, flagging didn’t work, and posting opposing ads (or any ad, i.e. subject, information, promotion, etc.) has now somehow resulted in no matter what ad I post, in no matter what category I post, and no matter what single area I post it, all my ads are deleted.
I know this is not from legitimate flagging. My ads all comply with TOU. Readers cannot identify me as the OP of every ad that’s being removed, there’s no signature style or credit within to identify the user.
I don’t know how or why, but Craigslist has become a trademark of deceptive practices when it comes to moderation and inability to get staff to respond to inquiry. The ‘user help forum’ is the biggest nursery of troglodyte trolls I’ve ever encountered. They claim they’re there to help, but ultimately they just offer guess’ and insult, antagonize and blame you for asking their advise.
I agree with you. Craigslist has always had this problem and it has never been checked or controlled in any way. This has always been the biggest problem with internet companies and that is that there is no transparency. They can easily hide behind anonymity and do as they please. You are basically screwed at Craigslist now but that is not the only place that this happens. There are many other places that have similar deceptive policies or personnel working for them, Youtube for example. Google is the biggest and most anonymous of all internet companies out there. Emails flow down from their ivory tower but you can never contact them. I have uploaded several informational, business related videos to Youtube and because someone didn’t like it for whatever reason, they were taken down. You just get a polite email saying that “It’s not what the Youtube community is for”. What the heck does that mean? I see tons of useless garbage on Youtube, as you expressed with CL in your area, and nothing is done to stop them. BS is all I can say.
I posted this a bit ago, but think I did it wrong because I didn’t see it come on. This is my question 🙂
I routinely flag scamming posters, and those that I don’t see CL do anything about, I’ll send to them on their contact form. I flag quite alot ( though never more than once each day on various “illegal” posters) However, in the last week I notice now that when I click Reply to see if a phone number or name has been added to the reply box, for certain posts I have to prove I’m not a bot, it’s like a Captcha box. Is this put in by CL or the poster? Is it’s CL, are they checking up on me? It doesn’t happen with each and every one I click the reply box on (since so many are not even in this country and would never post a name or phone contact), but on the few that I do click, that box pops up. I always get in….just wondering if this is something new and if it’s a “good” thing?
That is something set up by CL. You cannot add that much HTML code to your post to make a CAPTCHA like that work on CL. They are probably testing it out on some posts and will make it system wide soon enough. There are many people that do automated emails through CL so they are probably trying to stop that.
Will that help them to identify scammers? Or is just a technical thing for them? It’s only on certain posts. Thanks for the response!
It will only help reduce the amount of automated, non-human emails generated through their system, nothing more. But there are some bots that are good at bypassing some CATCHA systems so we’ll see how effective it will be. But NO it will not reduce scammers since those are human generated not BOT generated.
I might have some incite on that, after going on vacation for 12 days, my employee was turning on our auto-poster & walking away till the next day. he didn’t realize CL saw all the activity and ”soft-blocked” it, and as he continue they just simply flagged and deleted every ad automatically till I noticed that we didn’t have a fresh ad in weeks and now my IP Address is blacklisted (for the most-part) after ALOT of research I found this CL Programmer that had 1-time program download fee for areas such as: auto-flagging, auto-posting, HMA, VPN, craig’s theme, Dashboard, and on, & on. Well he convinced my wife to take the whole thing for like $500-$600, we were so devastated with all the flagging and now being “blacklisted” that I woulda done just about anything. anyway, the ”Dude” said that after I fully understand the novice portion, that I will get to the point that if someone flags me, it will find the IP Address and name of the culprit, & then with that knowledge and info I can make his ads from that IP disappear and never show up anywhere, but his screen will show it’s there and as nice as that sounded, I then realized what kinda of a website/internet it will become if left to everyone to police themselves!! I’d love a solution to the abusers who take the same generic 6 ads and post them over 50 x’s as if noone can figure out what his product is and where they can find him. But in these ppl’s mind, they truly believe that all CL buyers should call him FIRST, then everyone else. I explained CL is a pie & everyone who gets a piece of it has to offer the best product, by the best people, at the best value. So her I sit at 3am searching for the ”answers” to my posting & flagging issues, really hoping someone says something that makes me have a joyous AH HA moment, I figured it out, again, whew………until the next thing arrives!! I thank all of you for sharing…..:-).
As a CL poster over the past couple years, there is a new scam with “relevant search”, ALL the top ads are reseller ads from HomeAdvisor in my posting category. At the help desk thingy, all they do is change the subject rather than answer my basic question.
That’s not really a scam as opposed to a manipulation of the search function. There are many sites that do similar things on Google as well. Google has a much stronger and tougher algorithm to crack and this problem is becoming less prevalent over time but the algorithm at CL is not as hard to crack. That site probably has studied the search patterns over a range of time and found what most search queries are and created posts to match them.
Well, the thing is, is CL selling ads now to resellers like HomeAdvisors? They refuse to answer, if not then they are simple as eventually CL will cease to be a factor in this market for both consumers & “real” posters offering services.
I am not aware of CL selling ads to populate the first few spaces of their search as what you are describing. They may be testing something for future implementation or these companies may be manipulating the search results. Impossible to say at this point.
I have found that when I asked for help. They didn’t offer any help but just insulted me calling me stupid or dense. When I replied defending they accused me of bad behavior, continuing to use the community as an excuse for flagging. They would not explain how many flags it takes or why folks like to flag without giving a reason.
I really hate sites that belittle you when you report bad behavior. IMDB did that to me for reporting trolls. It’s like when you report a crime to the police, and the lazy ones would rather make you the problem, rather than do something about the actual criminal.
Haha, but of course. Can’t have you rocking their boat after all. 😉
It’s time for the free market to send Craig’s List to the bin of irrelevance along with Myspace etc. If you believe they are the only option they will be. Never click on their site and they go away.
Not to worry. They are slowly becoming more and more irrelevant as time goes by. They no longer have the stranglehold on the Classifieds market that they used to have.
I have to disagree….they’re just as “popular” as they’ve always been. I’ve tried using other other free ad sites, and only CL brings in the money I need. I’d LOVE to find something else because I hate using them. You can’t get enough people to agree to stop using them (for either running ads or making purchases) to make a difference. I’m afraid it would take an act of congress to take them down.
For certain markets or certain niche, I agree that they may still be very viable, but I have had readers post that they are making more money from other sites such as Yelp for their niche. Depending on what type of business you are running, Yelp, Ebay, Amazon, etc can be very helpful.
Ok…this is an on-going problem and I don’t know what to make of it. For over a year now, the Portland, OR w/e/t has been plagued with a company that completely overtakes the whole category with scam posts. The posts are put up in continous strings…some contain over 50 (a few months ago I copied all 54 of one string and sent the whole mess to Craig). They were taken down after several days, only to sneak back in first with a string of maybe a dozen, then gradually 30 to 40 and up from there. So over the weekend, they were back with a string of 33 posts, which I copied some and sent to Craig again. He emailed back saying he would take it up with “team”. This morning there isn’t one legitimate post up…not one…yet there are so far a string of 18. I contacted him again and asked what is the point of letting them overtake this category? He just emailed me back saying he was sending it on to the team again, but asked if I was aware of the seriousness of my charges. What??? What “charges”? You’re not supposed to say anyone is posting “illegally” by being non-local, over posting, clearly scams? They ask for the reader’s information, never show a real-world contact, suggest PayPal for payments….what am I needing to “realize” the seriousness of my charges????? So….what do you think about this? Just askin’….
I agree with you and what you are trying to do. I know how they are posting this way and how they are getting away with it. I am also aware of the answer that you are getting from “Craig” because I have been down that road. They don’t really want to be bothered. They don’t really want to investigate or ferret out the trouble maker and so what they do in turn is to put the burden on you. Such as the other person or group is “Innocent until proven guilty” that kind of babble. Or, “They didn’t really mean to do that” or “It’s a simple misunderstanding” or you basically get the idea. Put the burden back on you so they don’t have to bother. There are no “Charges” because this is not a “Legal” matter and they are not the police, but it basically scared you off or put pressure on you to back off which is what they want.
But I didn’t back off 🙂 I told him there aren’t any “charges” unless there’s also no such thing, really, as “flagging”. I went back into the category and copied off 15 of Posting IDs, sent them to him and told him to do what they’re supposed to do. So I guess we’ll see. However…those posters have already put up about 10 from from a few days ago…so it appears to be a never ending battle…and I’ve already flagged all the new ones. Craigslist is like a bottomless pit….everyone keeps falling in, over and over…but not one ever hits bottom to keep them from coming back 😦
Good for you. Keep giving them hell! I have said it before, and it is really true, Scammers are like roaches. You may see one or two but there are hundreds that you don’t see. That is what you are running into.
I literally just had a CL poster removed from my home by the state’s Drug Enforcement Agency. He rented a room from me for 6 days, in that time he changed my wifi access, locking me out of my account, reconfigured my router and password, added himself to my wifi account and he and a visiting girlfriend went on a drug induced frenzy. I asked all the right questions, did the checks. I was scammed by him. Not only did I pass up strong candidates for my room, I must buy a new router, have 5 locks replaced/re keyed, have the neighbors approaching me about the drug bust- scales, hypodermic needles, cocaine, razors with residue….the list goes on. The local police were able to confirm his REAL identity, and he has been convicted of 2 felonies and has 7 other convictions from eluding police, assaulting an officer, and passing bad checks. I do not believe I will ever feel safe again. Yet, he is already back on CraigsList looking for his next victim. Because there is an active DEA investigation, the authorities cannot contact CL. Readers beware!!!
Sorry to hear about that. I don’t know what type of budget you are working with but in the future try running a credit history on the perspective tenant and see if that helps you find better roomies. Every place has different laws, but if the law allows you to charge them for the credit report fee then do so, and if they don’t want to pay then just move on to the next one.
Yes real sorry about that, have to check backgrounds better. Talk to people that know them, I guess.
Ok…so I go into CL this morning and see all the new little [x]’s after each and every posting…mine included. One of the volunteer staffers says that
” Yes, this is a new feature. 2015-04-22 11:45
It keeps a list of ads that you’ve hidden within your browser’s local storage. ” When I click the [x] after my post it says
” 1 hidden posts
click to show hidden posts” As you do this, your post is “hidden”…you can undo if you decide to do that. I went thru several other posts, and they’re all at one post…all little messages are the same. My question is…what is this? What is a “hidden” post? What list of ads in my browser are they talking about? Can you please explain this? They’ve done this in all the categories…tons of little [x]’s 🙂 Thanks for any info!
Happy to explain…. Its a new filtering system where you can clean the clutter away from your view on the screen as you are browing Craigslist. You select which posts stay and which posts go away. You hide them from your view so you have less clutter. The dark side (as I commented on my Forum section) is that I believe this will be used as another Flagging or Ghosting method. Mark my words, the next thing will be that ads will be removed based upon how many people click the [X].
“The dark side (as I commented on my Forum section) is that I believe this will be used as another Flagging or Ghosting method. Mark my words, the next thing will be that ads will be removed based upon how many people click the [X].”
I disagree with you, and here’s why: First of all, clicking the “X” appears to be a client side jQuery function, and if the function isn’t AJAXed, then that means the hiding only happens in your browser, and Craigslist doesn’t know anybody is clicking the “X”. Of course that could change, and Craigslist could start recording these clicks. But that would be the same as flagging, and they already have flagging. Now they have hiding (for you) and flagging (for them).
I kind of think that, even though the hiding feature is common enough across the Internet, it’s revolutionary for CL, which hardly ever changes anything.
I understand what you are saying, and like I said, I think this is just the beginning. I think that if I can see this potential, then they will see it quickly enough as well. I believe that the Flagging and Ghosting have become passe and they need something new. This would be a way to get a greater amount of feedback on posts as opposed to having to jump through hoops (clicking a few links) to get a post Flagged. This method is just quicker, easier and cleaner. You see a post, don’t like it, click the [X], boom you’re done. I believe it can also be turned into a ranking system if not Flagging. Enough people dislike a post, then it just drops down to the back of the pages. Lower and lower it goes as more people click the [X].
Full disclosure: I don’t work for Craigslist, and I have really gone through a lot of pain to figure out how to keep my posts up without getting flagged (as most people here can identify). I am a long time web programer, and I wrote my Master’s thesis in psychology on the subject of group dynamics on the web: crowd sourcing, social conformity, getting people to click your like or share or buy now button, stuff like that. I can whittle my main grievance with Craigslist down to one subject: an un-moderated reliance on crowd sourcing doesn’t work. It is completely abused. The theory is that the crowd knows best. Yeah, like Ferguson Missouri. The crowd takes real good care of the community.
There are YouTube video tutorials on how to do nothing but flag posts. The hypothesis that the good outweighs the sinister when it comes to flagging is unfounded. The few bad will ruin it for the good many. If CL doesn’t ditch the old un-moderated model, and synthesize some human review of which ads are being flagged, I’m afraid Craigslist is going to remain hit and miss, and cause a lot of sadness for sensitive people.
IMDB discussion boards have gone the same way. It is actually easier to get away with being a troll, than to be a forum member who actually cares about the community. I’m no champion of CL, believe me. Everything I state is the product of actual scientific peer reviewed research, or years of programing sites like CL, or just being a frustrated CL ad poster myself.
So…what would you have them do then to correct themselves? I don’t see how they can keep going on with the way they’re doing things the way they’ve been doing it for years. I’m going to stop flagging. It’s really futile. They seriously don’t act like they care one way or another, yet go out of their way to tell you to flag. It’s truly a crook’s haven.
Unfortunately, I have to agree that Craigslist doesn’t care. There’s a lot they could do, and could have been doing for years. The fact that your ad can be taken down by competitors, even when you have not violated any terms of service, and the fact that your competitors can post numerous repeated ads and you can do nothing about it, and that it is nearly impossible to contact an actual human just indicates to me that Craigslist is the Wild West, with little to no accountability. They don’t seem to have a handle on abuse.
CL is where you take your chances. I use it, but it’s a bitter pill when my ads are flagged. When they are flagged, I wait two days, then post a brand new one, with a brand new title, with brand new text. I don’t use the same pictures as the ads that were flagged. It’s almost impossible to re-post an ad using the same title, same text, and same pics as a deleted ad. But you can start to build more ads, you have to go real slow, like one a day. I think deleted ads get scanned and rejected by some CL bot algorithm, which makes it almost impossible to get it published. Then you have to start fresh.
I have two CL accounts using two different phone numbers. For the past few weeks I have been pretty lucky, posting one from the first, wait a half hour, then post another from the second. I’m using the same IP for both, just different phone numbers and different emails. The two ads are totally different from each other. Then I stop!…and repeat the next morning. You can’t get too greedy and post too many ads in a 24 hour interval, that was my downfall.
I haven’t had a deleted post, or an issue with posting in over a couple of years now. I have a “stable” of 5 different ads that I alternate. Instead of “renewing” each time….I’ll mix it up and delete a post myself. Then, maybe a couple 2 or 3 weeks later, go ahead and post it as a new post. When I get a week with a good amount of writing projects in, I’ll go ahead and not post for that week…I sometimes will not post as long as 2 weeks. I keep a record of what I’ve deleted and what titles I’ve used for them, then come up with new ones. I never post more than one ad, and never post in another category. I hope my luck doesn’t run out 😦 After saying I wouldn’t, I did go and flag two new posts in that category, very obviously both are scams. The [x] activated, and now it shows “2 hidden posts”. Did you or the moderator say that CL might use those x’s on certain posts and then flag those off if the number of x’s reach a certain point? If that’s the case…they’re just another type of “flag”.
I said that I believe that this will eventually become another Flagging method. It just seems made to order for that use and abuse. BTW you sound like you have a good handle on what you are doing. I wish you continued success.
You could be right then….since I asked that question, I’ve accrued 7 hidden posts. All deserve to be flagged. Ok…I said I would stop flagging, and now that I know how this is supposed to work, I’m quitting. Let the scammers have their day….I had to appointments this afternoon, so I’m happy 🙂
Oh my gosh!!!! This is exactly what I’ve been thinking!!! I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to seem paranoid, but I was thinking this would be just another way of flagging off posts. This would be a way for competitors to get another business off. I’ve been a regular flagger, but now I’m wondering how much good it’s actually done (along with other flaggers). This is a little scary 😦 Thanks for the quick response 😦
Too much paranoia on this site. Craigslist doesn’t need two flagging, two ghosting systems. For that matter, ghosting as a strategy has pretty much been debunked. When you flag a post, it will also hide the post. No mystery there.
Hahaha, I guess you have had generally a good experience with Craigslist. Glad to hear that. In this world there are obviously people on both sides of any argument or experience. We are here to help those that have issues with Craigslist. The people that have a good experience obviously do not need our help. BTW, two flagging / Ghosting system or three or four are needed since any time you create a system people will find a way to get around it. First Ghosting was a big problem. People figured out ways to deal with it. Then Flagging has become a different problem. There in an entire industry of people that hire themselves out to post or flag against your competitors. So obviously CL must upset the applecart and create a new system. If you think that we are paranoid then you obviously do not know how many people are out there trying to make a living just balancing the posts on CL to go one way or the other. It’s just like lobbyists in the government. Everybody wants to get the upper hand when posting on Craigslist.
So….I went in looking for a used car, and as usual I see strings of ads by various chronic overposters. I clicked “prohibited” to flag it, and it seems to have activated the [x] for that heading and the post disappeared. Now…unless I went back to “undo” it, it would have stayed gone. Contrary what CL staff is telling people…this [x] is clearly doing something other than just cleaning up the list when you are looking for something. I’m not liking this. I might just give up flagging altogether. Let the scammers have their day 😦
I’ll try to reply to susan064, although it appears the moderators don’t care for my explanation for some reason. When you flag a post, you’re also indicating you don’t want to see the post. So, the “X” is auto-clicked on your behalf. Not really so nefarious, if you think about it. You flag a post, so you obviously don’t want to see it, either.
I do not disagree with your comment, I just didn’t get the email telling me that your comment was awaiting moderation. For some reason yours slipped between the cracks until I came here to approve another comment and I say yours also. We may disagree but that is OK. Only time will tell how this new method will pan out. I just have enough experience with CL to see the way most things turn towards “The Dark Side”. 😉
Actually…when I flag a post, I’m wanting that thing to gain more flags so they’re eventually blocked. I don’t care if I see the post or not…I just want compliance. If I have to comply, so should they. That being said…when I cause a post to disappear, am I the only one who sees that? So if I flag a post, the [x] is activated, and I decide to not “undo” which renders the post invisible from then on to me…I’m the only one that knows that? That’s a really muddled method. It seems like overkill.
This is just the beginning of this new method. Let’s wait and see how it pans out. I’m sure it will be changed over time.
Well…I’m one of those that rely on CL for my living. I’m now living solely on social security, and unless you’re my age, you don’t know how little that can be after working your entire life and hoping social security will be able to offer some help…which in my case leaves me $500 short every month. I’ve utilized CL for the last 12 years off and on, and it’s been a Godsend. I never overpost and practically know the TOUs by heart. I also know that Craigslist is a bunch of nasty, elitist a**holes, and next to making sure I’m compliant, I also make sure I never have to deal with their snarkey, holier-than-thou attitudes. When things change, I want to know why, how it all works, and how it will effect me in particular. Just call me paranoid…s’ok by me.
Oh…one more question. When I click on my handle…it shows 0% posts deleted in the last 31 days, and up to 50 posts from the last 31 days. I’m guessing that means I haven’t been deleted? But…the 50 posts seems VERY excessive…I don’t post nearly that amount each month. And why is this important information on me? Thanks!
Hard to say…. Maybe it’s a mistake in the tally of posts, maybe they are adding in flagged or ghosted posts. Really hard to say without doing a thorough analysis of all the posts. It’s only important to you if you are the type of person that uses these numbers for tracking your successes or failures with different ads. For the average folks its just useless data.
No…don’t track anything. I just don’t want to give anything to CL that they could use to mess with me being able to post. My gosh…what a tempest in a teacup they stirred up by putting in one little [x] after each post LOL
I promise I won’t be a pest…but something interesting. I’m online getting some work started, and I go into Craigslist to see if my ad is about the renew, and the 7 posts I flagged yesterday are all gone. So it appears you were right…at least for now. Next they’ll turn the table and flag the flaggers too LOL They won’t see anymore from me. Have a great weekend 😀
Not sure if you told us you flagged the ads first, and they were then hidden, or that you hid them, and they became flagged.
It’s also likely that when one honest person flags a bad ad, others will also flag it, and with enough of those, the ad will be removed.
BUT: My concern about flaggers and flaggees goes both ways. I think all flagged ads should be human reviewed, otherwise, the abusers will win. Ads should not be automatically removed, just because a certain threshold of flaggings has triggered a removal. I don’t think automation (key words detection, string parsing, etc.) is up to the task yet.
As a programmer, I sure would love to be part of a pattern recognition project, though.
Well…what I did was, I flagged the usual posts (ones that I’ve routinely flagged for a good year or so 😦 Only this time, when I go back to the list, another number has been added to the lower right box, and the ad has disappeared. I have to click to unhide to see it again. But when I flag posts now, they just go away. If I go back in there, I’ll notice the numbers of clicks to hide are lower. You know…when this new function happened, I went in to the Help Forum (yes, I troll, but it’s the only way I can learn anything..) and one of the volunteers (who is the only one who really appears to know what she’s talking about…”Catha”)…anyway, she happened to say to one of the other volunteers there…”not sure how this will work, I started with 50 hidden and now there’s only 4…” So I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it happened to me also. I flag posts that are clearly against the TOUs (non-local, Paypal only, etc). If a post shows no local relevance, no real world contact info, no company name or even a tidbit of credentials, I’ll flag. I’ve done my own investigating on certain ones, so I flag them routinely. Last summer I went to w/e/t to renew an ad, and the whole category had been taken over by a scammer (from Canada I learned). So I spent almost an hour copying the Posting ID’s, and sent them in an email to Craig (I have his email address, so whether he’s really “Craig” who knows…). There were no less than 56 Posting ID’s. It took 2 days, but they were all taken down. This outfit tries to come back, but I keep flagging. I’m just not sure if it does any real good, ya know? Plus….for every scammer that disappears, there’s always a bunch of news that pop up 😦
Scammers are like roaches. For everyone you find there are usually a dozen more hidden somewhere. 😉
Whether CL will admit it or not there are immature staff playing games with peoples ads. There are blocked words on CL that will stop your ad in a second under Therapeutic. Then there are flagged and removed. I have had many ads, all were quite appropriate flagged and removed before they were ever seen. I can’t use my name in my ad or it is always flagged and removed before it shows up or is ghosted. No one has to tell me that the staff are not doing this. I had one flagged and removed in 3 min……it takes much more time to show and have others flag it. Are any of the staff accountable for their actions?
AND NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING!! Especially from the Therapeutic area because well…again….society rules….who cares, right?
I think craigslist is a giant cesspool and should be wiped the he** off the internet permanently. I had some ads posted there that were 110% legit and had them up for a few months renewing them here & there whenever it showed that i could, Well the other day i signed into my account and some of the ads were deleted as they were reported as being spam which i only had one of each posted in my area unlike other ads that i have seen repeated there multiple times in different categories plus in different locations etc that never get treated as spam which is bs?
I decided to go the forums page as i was disgusted about my ads being flagged and wanted help, Huge mistake. You won’t get the help you thought you would which i highly recommend not wasting your time ever doing that as it is filled with nothing but a bunch of cocky smart as* idiots that doesn’t care about helping you, They simply just want to criticize you and pis* you off even more by telling you oh you should try to sell it this way or that way and that i shouldn’t advertise that i will ship my stuff or that i accept paypal which i thought this was a free country and that i can accept whatever payment types i choose and that i can write my ads the way that i want, I have been making my own ads and selling things for over 14 years so i don’t need any selling advise from a bunch of cocky punks that wouldn’t know their ass** from a bunch of holes in the ground.
Well i just happen to love paypal and have been using it for a little over 14 years now without any problems on many different sites. They didn’t like it at the craigslist forums when i told them that the only ones who hate paypal are the ones that want to rip you off because they know they can’t get away with doing that because paypal won’t allow it. I was ripped off 5 times within a year, I know it was a stupid thing to do to keep buying things after the first time but i wasn’t worried because the idiots that ripped me off accepted paypal and paypal never let me down before which i got my money back each time but after that i quit buying there for good and i’m not wasting my time trying to sell anything there either anymore after this crap with morons flagging my ads for no reason.
What kind of website just allows anyone to report an ad as being spam and have it deleted without actually having someone that works for craigslist at least take a look at the ad/ads first to see if they really are spam or whatever they were flagged for before removing them for no damn reason, I will tell you what type of site it is, It’s a 2 bit circus and a big friggen joke is what craigslist is. Do yourself a huge favor and find a different place to buy or sell because CRAIGSLIST SUCKS.
I agree with you and just wanted to respond to your last question (even though I am sure it was rhetorical). The internet is full of sites that take actions randomly without any real substantiation. I have several sites and have had hosting terminated and had posts or videos deleted because a supposed DMCA claim was made against it. There is NEVER any proof or documentation or substantiation of any of this. Google is really bad about that also. They simply delete your videos, posts, whatever because they feel that they should. So no one ever does any real checking. These huge web entities consider themselves to be Gods. They are the final decision maker whether you like is or not.
I submitted an ad on CL offering a free ticket to a sporting event. I listed everything about the ticket, even attached a photo of the seating chart! I then waited to see if my ad would appear. I waited a F___ HOUR AND A HALF and STILL my ad didn’t show up in the listings! I figure my ad must have been ghosted again for some stupid reason or other so I said “screw it”. I logged-into my account and deleted the ad! I then went to bed starting to like the idea of keeping the extra ticket for an arm rest and place for my belongings! Next morning I wake-up, check my emails and find a bunch of replies from people regarding the ad! F___ CL UN-DELETED MY AD and POSTED IT AFTER I went to bed! The F___ jerks!!!!!@
That is hilarious. I have never heard of that happening before.
Does Craigslist no longer send email notifications for when an ad is flagged and removed? I used to receive an email saying when this happened, and now I don’t know unless I log in to my account. I just want to confirm that they stopped doing that if anyone knows. Thanks.
If it is taken down by the staff then you will NEVER get any notice. If it is done by users flagging then sometimes you will be notified, but this may be on the way out. I think the want to stop people from getting into posting wars and reposting to combat flagging.
I see. Is it confirmed that CL staff flags and removes posts? I am mostly concerned about receiving emails from CL. I use the site for dating and also selling old stuff. I don’t know if responses to my ads get through. I know that sometimes trading pics wouldn’t always get delivered, which is just obnoxious and kills my game. With the hassle of anonymized emails and using Gmail or Yahoo, I think sometimes their anti spam protocols would kick in. I now use an email address that is on my own server/domain and doesn’t have any such anti spam. So that leaves the CL anonymized addresses to potentially be “getting in the way.”
I know until about 6 months ago, I received many more responses and met more women in person as a result. At this time I stopped receiving as much spam as well. When I was getting about 3 spam to 1 real message ratio I knew everything was working. If CL has killed spam that effectively I wonder if they have also disrupted real people messages.
I don’t believe my ads are being ghosted, and I have tested responding to my own ads even attaching pics and they seem to get through, but I feel like *something* is up. I used to get A LOT more messages.
Maybe the format change in October had an effect, maybe CL has just finally lost popularity with single women. I suppose this is a topic for another site, but the technical discussion is what I’m here for.
Posts taken down by staff is a fact. I have had plenty of experience with that already. What you can do is test your messages by using different IPs and see if your ads show up and send yourself emails with different emails to see if they get routed properly. Doing a control experiment is the only way to find bugs. You should also ask people for their direct emails from the first contact so you don’t have to worry about the CL email system. Always remember that CL is very cyclical and things go up and down.
I just have a question, today I posted my opinion how there are so many people on Craigslist selling more than 2 puppies are either breeders or backyard breeders and since selling animals is not allow they are only allowed to re-home them. This people are charging $500 and up for each puppy for their re-homing services. I placed the post in the same place where the breeders were selling their animals.. I knew I would be flagged but I did not know what would happen after. First my post was barely there 1/2 hour. After my post was deleted I visited the forum for people that are new to Craigslist and why there posts were flagged. I knew that my post would upset the people who were posting illegal ads but when I mentioned what happen in the forum I was pretty much called every name in the book, how I was crazy and had a very poor attitude. They said I should not have posted my concerns and that I should have posted in Rants and Raves. I explained the reason for posting there was to make everyone aware that these people were doing something illegal on Craigslist however no ones does anything to stop or curtail this behavior. So what I have learned from Craigslist is that you need to follow their rules no matter what however I one person did something wrong and gets raked over the coals but thousands of people post illegal ads on Craigslist and because the average user does not flag these ads and the Craigslist community on the whole allows this to continue to happen, I was wrong to do this.. I even had a Craigslist adviser keep posting comments that he does not understand why I have not learned my lesson because all the people that comment in the forum told me I was completely wrong in what I did. I did not feel that the bullying I experience was called for and I do not see why Craigslist has rules of illegal posts however continues not to take them down when they do not meet Craigslist guidelines!
I know what you mean and I agree with your assessment of the situation. What can I tell you aside from the fact that they are a bunch of inbreed hypocrites.
Craigslist is an Amazing Website. It is practical,local,friendly, free. It is the greatest website to sell your unwanted, old furniture.
However, for some people out there who are complaining about Craigslist, it is better to find out how to use the site first before making any comments.
I have been selling Furniture on Craigslist for 4 years, I have met amazing people while buying and I have met amazing people who bought furniture from me. It is A Cash deal process, you get to keep the money you make and you do not need to share with Craigslist, or Paypal. If you have not had the luck of selling on Craigslist, it is not the Site’s fault, it is simply finding a smart way of how to advertise, how to marker your products. and price properly. My Furniture pieces get to be sold at 125 dollars in between 30 minutes to 2 weeks, depending upon who is willing to buy what, and I have people drive from Denver, from Pueblo to buy furniture from me all the time. I Learn the honest ways of advertising and marketing my furniture. and I offer the most excellent customer service to them as to assist them to a schedule when they could come over to see my furniture, In the past 4 years, It has been an amazing experience with Craigslist.
There are scammers out there, everywhere you go, there are those scammers, however, be smart and be wise and that will allow you to be on the top of the games, if it is a scammer, shove the email to the spam folder. Who cares.
Twice in the past, there were two guys asked me if I wanted to meet them somewhere, I said, “Fuck you.” Why in the world do I want to meet any one that I have no idea who they are.
And Craigslist is a great resource to advertise local sales, local events, just anything local, because it is like a Social Media Board where locals can find out what is going on. It is great to advertise Moving sales, Estate Sales, downsize sales. I mean there are all kinds of stuff you can do or accomplish by using Craigslist. You just have to learn how to use the Site first. and Be cautious and protect yourself if there should be any harm.
Glad to see you have had a positive experience.
It’s so amazing, yes. Until, like anything else, it breaks. I think the crowdsourcing feature has more than shown its flaws. I’m guessing most of the people who are saying we shouldn’t complain because CL is free, and so amazing, blah blah blah, have never had their perfectly reasonably and legitimate ad flagged repeatedly by…who knows who? And therein lies the flaw, there is no accountability in who, how, or why ads get censored.
I know how you feel. I tried 6 different times to advertise for a housekeeper and within minutes my ad was flagged and deleted. I mean wtf? The worst part is no why and no-one to call to find out why. The site is just crap. I will just pay the fee in my local paper.
Craigslist is a a charlatan website. Nothing but criminals on it.
Don’t trust it.
I came upon this ad while searching the Internet and haven’t used Craigslist for years after my ads started getting ghosted as spam and was treated rudely by the Volunteers when I tried to get answers as to why all my ads were getting ghosted. I never got an answer other than my IP address is from a city 35 miles away from where my live and I tried to explain that this is where my ISP’s server is located and they simply told me to find another ISP when this wasn’t an issue before so for some reason now my IP address being 35 miles away is a problem. I asked if anyone flagged my ads (most likely yes) and they said there is no way my ad can be removed unless several people flag my ad. I now use Backpage and have never had a problem with my ad being ghosted and even though I have to pay to place an ad I love the fact that I don’t have to worry if my ad will suddenly without warning get ghosted. Most likely I was banned from Craigslist since the last time I tried to post, I was asked for my cell phone number and my ad never appeared. It was ghosted and never posted. Unfortunately most people look at Craigslist when looking for classified ads so I am at a disadvantage and wish people realized there are other sites than Craigslist to look and a lot of people trying to sell items have had troubles with Craigslist and went to these other sites.
I agree. On our site for example we have an excellent Classifieds section and its completely free to use and post and there is no ghosting or flaggng. All ads are moderated so no BS ads will show up there. Only real ads from real people. But its like you said, people get one thing stuck in their head and its hard to break away from that and try something new, different and many times better. People sometimes expect to get great results with little effort. It’s surprising how many ads we get at our site with no contact info and no pictures. People arent really interested in useless ads like that so you wont get any traffic from that. But interesting ads with images will get traffic and responses.
I wish the ads were not full of commercial listings all the time. I look at the RV/camping listings and it is just dozens and dozens of professional ads from the local camping mega mall. If I wanted to look at that I would seek them out. I generally like craigslist, but it really can be irksome to have to wade through all the for profit business listings to find affordable items.
I agree with you completely. CL started as a community posting service and has really lost it’s way. The funny thing is that people are always like that. Profit making companies try to get stuff for free even though they can afford to place a paid ad.
Craigslist is getting just like Auto Trader and Cars.com. Almost entirely dealer ads now when it used to be mostly private party ads. They ahve taken over because they spend more money per ad.
To those people that Complain about Craigslist. So they make money, Do you pay for the service? $$$. Yes there are problems with service, however, again, it’s free. IT”S not Craiglist fault there are SICK people out there that just have to mess something good up for no reason other than, they can. The people that over post, the people that make harrasment calls, the people that use an add for soliciting and those that just want to screw up or hack the site all have a sickness. Apparantly greed and the lack of being Mature has gotten a grip on their weak minds. Craigslist is not the problem, it’s the people that use it. The fact that I can post adds and sell items with no fee is great. The fact that people try to by things for nothing is not Craigslist fault and trying to bargain is the old american way. At least you can always just say no. Why get bent because someone offered you less than you are asking. Finally, which is best, Craigslist or Ebay where you pay to sell and many time you get scammed on what your buying anyway. Think about it and don’t Curse Craigslist , but, Attack the SICKoo’s that try so hard to mess things up for others.
I used to Love Craigslist, but it been 6 months since I’m trying to sell my baby items, and washer mashine, and I have no one (even spam) email me or call – which is very weird. I am refreshing my adds, and I did make canceled my add completely and realist items, but nothing works, Not even one person have enquire about any of my items, I have asked few other ppl if they have experienced same thing and they said yes, no one contacting them about their items as well. I don’t know, is there silence war against Craigslist going on? Or there was too many scary stories around in media about it?
Yes Craigslist appears to be on the decline and I think for a lot of reasons. I’m sure others can chime in here as to what those reasons are. But yes it has gotten some bad press fr a lot of the dark seedy side of the site. Traffic for me is way way off.
Craigslist is still the most profitable site for me. Of all the online sites, retail or auction, craigslist makes me more dollars than any other, more so it makes me more hassle free dollars. Yes I get the typical scam offers, idiots, late night drunk babble guy, but have learned how to avoid or just, deal with them. Most importantly, I’ve never, never had a bad transaction through CL. Can’t say the same for fleebay or scamazon. Worst customers on those two because if they don’t like the product, regardless of the wonderful service you provide, they leave you a bad rating based on product not service which is very wrong because negative reviews have sever impact on business.
So, regardless of what CL is doing or not doing to their users, I have the choice of stop using their free service at anytime. How can I complain about that?
If you dont like the ratings on Ebay or Amazon, I know you wont like the rating system on Fiverr. They ALWAYS side with the buyer no matter what scam they are pulling. You loose your product, service and money because they will give the buyer a refund (take it back from you of course) and allow them to keep the product or service for free. Fiverr is the biggest scam site going, even worse than Craigslist because the staff there helps the scammers to win.
Perhaps people are not interested in what your selling or the price. Try sending a reply to your self or someone in your household to see if the email is being forwarded. If not perhaps re doing an accout might be a solution. Perhaps your email address or some information was wrong in your profile.
Craigslist is a joke. I have posted several honest and legitimate items. I have gotten hateful, smartass, racial, rude, and threatening texts and emails. All of this from me not selling my items at 75% off the low price I have already listed it for. I have lowered the price from the listed price 25% and still get trashed. I then get flagged by these people that I wont give my item to. Now craigslist wont let me post anything. I was polite to all of the people that contacted me. I have emailed craigslist and no response. Craigslist can suck a turd through a straw! Some days I would get 7 calls from all of the neighboring states about the same item and they all would bash me on it. I believe craigslist has a little group of young people that want certain hot items that they cannot afford. They then get each to call that person to beat up on the person trying to drive the price down so one can get the item for nothing. I am sure they know each other cause they would say the same things almost. They must be on a forum together or they work for craigslist searching ads. Today I got an email from the same guy that bashed on a set of AFR heads I had on craigslist. He was inquiring about a Trans Am I got on there. I responded on the Trans Am and then 1 minute later, the AFR heads were flagged and he never would respond back on the Trans Am he was inquiring about. After two emails, I figured it out. Same thing happened when a guy from another state asked about another item I had for sale. He asked and I responded. I got the same item flagged and he never responded. Now I cannot repost this item. I changed the title some and got it up for two days, but it was ghosted and would never show up under search. Craigslist is full of scammers, envious people, thieves, liars, stalkers, and just the worst of the worst. Craigslist is poorly run and should be restructured all together. Other listing sights nickel and dime you to death if you sell something and eventually take 20% for each item sold. I believe sometimes Grandpa was right. You just cant beat paper and ink in advertising. When I grew up, you got your ass busted for doing wrong. When you got older and still did not know better, then you got worse for being a smartass. Now days, kids are not allowed to be spanked or even lay a hand on. We wonder why things are going the way they are?
I agree with you, but you should use the Free Classifieds we have at our site. It’s free to use! We don’t take any commission from your items sold. We also monitor ALL the ads and prevent the spamming and game playing that you are talking about. Only quality ads are allowed at our site. No BS ads make it on to the list, and NO ONE has the power to flag or delete ads except the ADMIN, but we don’t have to do that because we don’t allow crappy ads to begin with.
Which is why I maintain there are a ton of weirdo freaks in this world and at least half of them are on Craigslist.
Curious question: Are the people who answer questions on their board “volunteers” or do they really work for Craigslist. They were weird and unprofessional whenever I needed help and even made obscene comments and I’ve seen plenty of racial slurs even though I’m sure if a person seeking help used the language they used they would be banned but the people answering questions do use obscene language. I remember looking up their site on the Better Business Bureau and couldn’t believe how many complaints they had.
The people on THEIR board (not ours) are not employees of Craigslist or true volunteers. They are simply trolls who log in and comments as they please. Anyone can make comments on that stupid setup they have and there is no moderation whatsoever. You could log in and start slamming everyone if you wanted to. Its like a running gag over there. Who can insult people the most and make them cry and fall apart.
News UPDATE. It’s not Craigslist, IT’s the Stupid ones that just want to mess something up for others. These sick o’s are every where , not just Craigslist. At least you don’t have to pay for the so called crappy service. You also don’t have to use Craigslist, The American Way. As for the small group, that just wants to steel. Even though your price seems fair to you dosen’t make it that way to the rest of the world. Again, you have the right to say no just as they have the right to ask for lower price. At least your not paying for the selling service. Are you one of those sick o’s that just want to mess it up for others. I’ve had great luck with selling and buying. Yes there are those people that want to mess things up with any means they can think of but there are also good people selling and buying and I’ve met many. It’s no differant than good old ink, garage sales, auctions, and yes ebay. You stil have that group of people that under bid or offer. Nothing makes you accept.
I’m sure there are thousands of stories out there about PayPal scams. It happened to me last year and is still happening because I’m trying to sell some camera equipment. I’m disappointed that there are so many untrustworthy people out there trying to pull the wool over our eyes, but I’m more disappointed that PayPal allows them to. What is PayPal doing about this? Why aren’t the honest people being protected? I agree with the writer, I simply don’t offer PayPal as an option…. Local and cash only. But it sucks that we can’t use it with the comfort of knowing that PayPal has our backs if some shady goes on.
Sorry for your bad experience with that transaction. There are people who prey on the good people, that will probably never change. I’ve been lucky when it comes to avoiding scams. I never follow up on an offer when; 1-paypall is mentioned 2- my driver will pick up 3- will give you extra $$ for my time 4- provide full name & address 5- pay by cashier check or money order. These are just to name a few, generally, if a reply to my listing is out of the ordinary, I don’t bother. I’d rather loose a sale than loose my goods & money.
Could you please share with us the details of your bad experience, step-by-step. Maybe sharing what happened could help someone avoid being scammed, thus making your negative experience to someone’s positive.
Something tells me these scams are all coming from Nigeria. I get multiple offers, daily sometimes, with some kind of crazy offer to purchase my item & how they’ll pay extra $$, little something to help for my trouble.. come on, really? who in the right mind is going to pay extra for my time? Not a legitimate buyer. And it’s always from out of town so they will need all my info so they can send the money order asap. Another tell, the English is always different than what’s spoken here. Easy to recognize the ill willed.
Now I have fun with these guys. Like today, I got a guy texting me, asking the typical phony crap:
buyer: ” interested in you item”, “is it still for sale” “if you forward your paypall account email I will …..”
I know what this is and where it is going.
My reply: “My friend, you have to pay me 1 million $, my item is very very very very very valuable.
my immediate 2nd reply: “it is good for the village in Nigeria. Maybe you can pay with goat. You like goat, oh say u like sheep. Why u like sheep, MY FRIEND, U CAN NOT PUT IN THE PUPU, why u do dat to de sheep … oh no, u r bad man, very very very bad man… u can not put in de poopoo”
Buyer: “what kind of insult is this, fkr”
Me: “the bigger insult is WHY U LIKE TO PUT IN DE PUPU. u bad man. GOD is watching you.”
he used the f word a few more times, but it ended soon after. But that is how I deal with these guys.
Before I started doing the fake replies, I engaged with one of them. We communicated for a few days. Learned a lot. He was from Nigeria, 38, if he was truthful. I played like I wanted to join their scams in hopes of finding out how they con people because, I have no idea what they do with just an email tied to paypall, or my name and address or email. I can kind of guess or imagine what they do. I know the end result, but how do these fkr’s get away with it? What are their steps in scamming people. Well, I didn’t get that far with him but I did get a chance to share some of my principles, my philosophy, and some thoughts of goodness.
Bottom line, they’ll always be con artists, and I’ll keep using CL. As long as I stick to my rules, listen my intuition I’ll be safe. Never take it personal when these guys send you an offer, either ignore it, or if you have a little time, have some fun and see what you can do to reverse the displeasure.
Funny stuff there. Gotta give you credit for imagination. 😉
It is FREE PEOPLE!!! FREE!!!! ….. NO Like …… NO use. Simple as that. All this entitlement mentality is really absurd and is a reflection of this society’s down fall.
Yeah there are things that CL can improve…. Yeah there are things that upset me but the last thing I am going to do is blame CL. I get flagged, I get spammed… I am faced with the same crap everyone else does but dam people no one is making you use CL, nobody is putting a gun to your head, no one is forcing anyone to use CL.
Simply put, CL can do anything it wants.
CL is one of the most powerful websites and it does a lot of good for a lot of good people. Can you count how much money you have made selling stuff plus all the money you saved buying stuff?????
Who else is going to do that for you…….FOR FREE????
God Bless Craigslist and all that they do for us!!!
So free is good ……talking about where society has gone , your it. How about just plain creditability ?
Your liberal disposition disallows you to keep on the point and your entitled mechanism is unable to make one!
How about gratitude…????? Be grateful for what CL offers you, for FREE. This crap is insane. Criagslist owes you nothing.
Credibility for WHAT???? Shameful to think people complain about a gift, a gift to the people for the people. CL could have sold for billions and waved his finger to all of us. Instead, he kept the site, open to all, FOR FREE. Craigslist is a privilege, not a right. Get your entitled head out of the ozone, pass through the “I am superior” zone, and come back to reality…..
Agreed. What Zutu said.
When is somebody finally going to sue CRAIG??? Ghosting is 100% illegal. Craig, you’re ghosting hurt me. When I was totally broke I put some items up for sale. They were nice things that were very well priced – nobody called. Days went by… I lowered the prices… Not one fucking call. I had no money to eat. I had no idea that my ads were being ghosted. If this were settled in the fashion of eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, you would not like the outcome Craig,,,, and even I would not allow it for being too unusual and cruel, and yet you not only allowed it, you planned it, you did it, you still do it. Do you not understand that there are people who depend on your site so that they can eat?
By the way, I have noticed that sometimes when things are ghosted and I have lowered the price a couple of times there seems to be a certain call I get from an interested party who drives around in a truck picking up bargains. I’ll bet there are some unbelievable bargains to be had from off of the ghosted list… after unsuspecting people who are in need of cash lower the price on their items… Yeah there must be some super deals. So who is it that is allowed to see the items for sale on the ghosted list? TELL US CRAIG! Tell us what steps you are taking to protect those who have ads ghosted from being victims of an effort to make low ball offers on the items that are ghosted?
I have a very strong suspicion that the ghosted list is the most coveted, and that there are people who either work at CL or who are paying CL for the list of ghosted ads that have had 1 or 2 price reductions. These people then go and make low ball offers on the items that are already priced too low. CRAIG, are you starting to see how and why what you are doing is illegal? It creates a major conflict of interest. It is fraud. Craig, not only is what you are doing illegal, I don’t see how anyone could be so inconsiderate of others. FUCK YOU.
Brian just about everyone has experienced you problems. Sad. Craigslist is a very poorly run operation and got so big because it was the first player on the block. It is too bad someone with a superior product did not come up with it first.
I noticed that search does not discover all relevant listing anymore. For example “wall unit” now finds 100 or less. I have been watching a listing since a few weeks ago. It’s no longer discovered by this search. However if I use “wall unit xxxx” where xxxx=other_identifier, this listing is discovered !!!
I also noticed some changes in the user interface. It was scary for a while as some did not make sense. The good news is, they seem to be “harmless” for now. I guess newbies must justify their existence by changing things around.
Hi, I recently found out what dog-flipping is. I had yorkie mix puppies that I rehomed for a very low fee, $20, thinking that whoever wanted them would really want a puppy. I sold one on a site on FB, and the next day she was on Craigslist for $100. I emailed the girl, and soon after that, she had the same puppy back on there from a ” different city” under a different name, claiming the puppy was a shorkie. My dog was a yorkie, but the dad was bigger and the breed is unknown. She was then selling her for $150. I’ve done my research since then and dog flippers tend to keep the dogs (several at a time typically) in very poor conditions, with barely any food and water, but only giving them just enough to stay alive. There’s a little more to dog flipping than this, but I’ll leave it at that for now. I had no idea of this beforehand. So I have made it my mission to warn as many people as I can. I posted several ads to Craigslist in different cities, but not long after they were being flagged, until all were flagged (there are a lot of dog flippers out there). One thing I don’t understand is the girl who flipped my puppy, her ad was flagged several times by me and some friends. Her ad never got removed and she was lying about the puppies and plus it’s illegal. But I was trying to save people from being scammed and hopefully save the lives of these animals. I never mentioned any names, and I added the precautions to take while adopting/rehoming pets. And mine got removed. Craigslist is their main source for preying on people looking to adopt and also looking for free or low fee animals. So I’m wondering why scammers get away with flagging your ads. It seems, even though it’s free to post, that the flagged posts should be reviewed first. I got rid of my puppy, I didn’t spay my dog like I should have, but it’s too late for that. I just want to get the word out. When we find homes for our pets, we trust they are going to be in good hands. And in a lot of cases like this, they are not. Why can’t we talk to someone personally about this and why do they get away with flagging people warning others about them?
I’m surprised to hear that her ad stayed up at all. She must have picked areas that she knew would not give her trouble. MOST cities are constantly watched by animal rights people and any animal sale ads that go up are instantly taken down by flagging. Thank you for bringing this problem to everyone’s attention. It is sad but true that a vast majority of people in this world have the morals of a flea. They are only looking to make a buck and don’t care who or what they hurt. Flipping cars and homes is one thing but flipping animals is another level of disgusting altogether.
Yes it is, and all that happens to the animals. The girl who flipped my puppy is in the same area as I am though. My first post, in my area, was removed pretty quick. I think I may have misread the policy though, because I’m not sure if I can post to different areas in my state? Those warnings were also removed. Also, warnings like this should be able to be spread nationwide. I wish there was a way. Thanks for the reply.
This WordPress blog gets lots of exposure so this will get your word out. My site and my forum get thousands of hits per month. I have a 200 ranking on Alexa in the USA, (The lower the number the better with Alexa), and top 10 on Google and Bing, so we do get major Nationwide exposure for the Craigslist niche. You’re welcome to post it on my forum if you like, and I can assure you that it will not be deleted.
I completely agree.
i didnt no all the rules to craigslist but it vary frustrating to not be able to call your company for help ..like the fact that i have made some mistakes and i work for a store that has employees create there own Craig pages …so when we found out we can not do that now what to do we do i emailed them and they just refer me to help page that don’t help …i need to fix the problem not sit here hoping it go away ..4000000000 million dollar company should have a better help system .
…..
CL has a lot of problems with their web site and is poorly managed. A new version similar to CL is in the works by an entrepreneur I know and he hopes to eliminate most of the BS which we are experiencing with CL. You will be able to get in touch with the employees of this new exciting site and get some satisfaction!
I hope it works out. Unfortunately the first guy on the block in this case CL usually gets ingrained in people’s minds so it’s hard to break in. Backpage tried and although a lot of people post on it I think the number of readers is fewer than the posters.
I’d just like to know why certain people can post 1000 ads, spam the hell out of the list under the “dealers furniture” section for example, many of them IDENTICAL and reposted 20 times a day, but I try to put 2 legitimate and completely different ads up and get IMMEDIATELY DELETED.
What if I just turn into a huge dick, and post 5000 ads from rotating IP addresses and just plain outspam the blatant spammers like a huge asshole? Who’s going to stop me?
You can do that. Craigslist may stop you or try to stop you, but you certainly can do what you said.
Don’t really want to be that kind of jerk, but it IS frustrating as hell to see some people get away with it, while our little business that sells a few one off items from time to time on CL, can’t seem to cram 1 or 2 little ads on there amongst all the spammers – one in particular that just covers the board with 1000 duplicate ads every day & no one seems to do anything to stop them
You know there are just some people like that no matter what you do. We started a classifieds section and a forum on our site to help people learn, post freely and express themselves. First day or two, it was flooded with spam. Had to make everything manually approved to catch what the filters didn’t catch. On a small site like ours people really felt the need to post 50 ads for the same thing. Then I emailed these people telling them to keep it to one ad per item, and they came back and did it again. End result had to ban them. Same with the forum. You don’t know how many stupid posts we get for designer shoes, drugs, luggage, gambling and all that crap. You folks never see them because they never get published. The web is full of the A-Holes that you see on Craigslist.
I’m no attorney but it seems like CL has really opened themselves up to a class action lawsuit by their allowing people other than their direct employees to remove people’s ads therefore causing them financial harm. Just my opinion.
Hi…I keep coming back to you guys for more answers 🙂 Ok…here’s a question for ya…How long does it take a poster to be notified of a flag? If I flagged someone, does Cl wait to add to other flags for that particular poster before they’re notified? Or does notification wait until they’re almost ready for removal? Just curious as to how it works 🙂
You should post these questions on our Forum so others could also contribute answers. But, the answer to your question is that there is no notification at all. Craigslist used to warn people that their ads had been removed by Flagging. That only happens after the ad has already been removed. There is never any warning prior to removal or that an ad may be removed if it gets too many flags. It just goes down. Currently Craigslist will not always warn you. Many people complain that they don’t know they were flagged until the check in their control panel.
It depends, at least that’s what I find. Usually if the CL system gets you it is deleted immediately and usually before it even makes it out onto the platform. If some smartass troll flags you it could be as soon as it gets posted or anywhere in between.
I agree with you David Elias!
That makes at least 3 of us who feel the same !
Not to point fingers, but it’s not Craiglist posting many duplicate adds , it the user and usually, sorry, but businesses. Individuals may post duplicates but usually never over three. This is to keep their add fresh. I post more than one at a time, but go back and delete the older one. With the added update feature this becomes unnecessary which is nice.
There are certain hangers-on in their Feedback Forum, people with handles like “Helpful_Hedda”, who are there 24/7 giving out really bad advice and pretending to be staff. Any time you have a question, concern, or complaint, staff completely ignores it and allows these “helpful” hangers-on to respond, resulting in zero resolution and 100% frustration. It really is the most poorly run site on the internet. I do not know why it’s still so popular.
Hahaha, yea that “Helpful_Hedda” has been there for a long time, and is well known for giving BS advice.
It is still around because it was the first player on the block and the biggest. People have a tendency to stay with what they are familiar with. I think Backpage is a much better site in regards to the trolls.
The Craigslist Forums are a frickin joke. I once posted a timeshare that I had for sale and it kept getting flagged. I posted it in Cabo where the timeshare was so I was thinking that it was most likely someone from the timeshare place that didn’t want their visitors seeing that they could get the same timeshare for 1/4 of the price.
People in the forum were idiots. They basically told me that timeshares were a scam and that scams were always flagged. Then we got into the debate as to who says that they are a scam when there are millions of people in the world that own one or more timeshares. As a matter of fact Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Ellen, Matt Damon, Jimmy Fallon and Adam Sandler own timeshares at the same resort that I was trying to sell. If you can get a room there over New Years you will see them there.
So I got off Craigslist because it’s really a waste of time. Good luck to those who somehow see any value in Craigslist.
I agree with you. That is why we created our Forum and Classifieds sections to help people and get them more exposure. Our Classifieds has No Ghosting or Flagging and you can post anything you want as long as it’s not illegal. We even have people posting from other countries. Your ads will stay up for the duration, no hassle. We also republish every ad on all the social media networks that we are tied into, so you get more exposure than with a single ad on Craigslist that may or may not stay up. 😉
fuck you craigslist, Fucker new verified account, new city new Internet connection with new PC, but still flag our adds,
Craigslist making us foool.
Ok just got a few texts from some scammer. Saying that they were interested in what I had posted. Then came the red flags they told me they were a marine biologist and was at sea. Well as I already looked at this site before a few times. Already knew this was a scam. So I reversed looked up there number and some how they managed to steal a landline number for a southwestern bell located in Spanish lake mo. But thanks this site is really useful
I have been getting horrible threats and calling me all sorts of names, I report them and they still continue to email me after doing so. I dont get why I am always getting flagged but people who put nude picture up there never get flagged and if you try there adds up there for weeks. Why is that? This site seems to me out against a lot of people but others they can put what they want and they never get flagged at all.
There are many reasons that this could be happening to you. Unfortunately I cannot ask you and get answers from you here since it would fill up the entire page and leave no room for other comments. Go to our forum where we can dedicate as much time and space as needed and you can get helpful answers. Go to http://www.beatcraigslist.com/forum and post your question. I’ll give you a more detailed answer there.
Mr. Craigsliststaff your responses here I find absolutely hilarious. I have been to your so-called “help forums” and posted my problem only to find out the same people who are screwing things up for the rest of us are the only ones that lot lizard around that forum and offer advice. I posted a simple ad about a vehicle I had. It is not a parts vehicle but does need a repair to be driven. In the very first line of the ad it states this. Some people call that misleading. How if it’s the first thing stated. Second problem is that a made a couple comments people didn’t seem to like very well such as, (Keep in mind this is the first line) “The transfer case is bad, due to some geniuses thinking they are going to come buy it and drive it home let me say it again THE TRANSFER CASE IS BAD!” Lastly it says at the bottom “the price is non negotiable.” “If you are thinking of offering less then please move on to the next listing” This according to your forum posters makes me an A-Hole. First of all there is a reason behind the posting and slight shock talk. It is to assure that people who actually know what they are looking at are the only ones who contact me. Anyone who is offended by that is the same idiots I am trying to avoid having answer my ad. Second I don’t see how this is a popularity contest. I’ve said nothing offensive at all to the normal reader. As far as your forum lol, I went there, disagreed that my post was flag worthy and guess what? Now ALL my posts get flagged!!! Very well run show I have to say. Keep up the good work and I’m sure you’ll be around the next decade. I may just start one of my own. Couldnt do any worse I’m sure. Please stop feeding these people a ine though. There is no help from CL staff as I have sent 23 emails with absolutely no personal response. ALL automated.425943634, 4391695954, 4390151231, 4391697925, 4395509294, 4395993432, 4396026245, 4396126790, 4396142263, 4396135361, 4396842923, 4396846465, 4396839990, 4396849703, 4396931055, 4396927048, 4397010046, 4397118460, 4397117176, 4405401581, 4397120940, 4397119576, 4397115897, 4379738575, 4390155114 Those are all the same post reworded several different times to no avail.
There seems to be some MAJOR confusion going on here, and I’m glad that you brought it up so I can clarify it. First of all I (and my assistants) are NOT Craigslist. We are not associated with Craigslist and we have nothing do do with Craigslist. We are here as an aid to the people trying to post on Craigslist. We are here to help you survive Craigslist. The Forums that WE have are NOT the same forums as the ones on Craigslist. I can assure you that on our forums there are no trolls and no insulting users. Any such persons would quickly be booted off the forum. You have been using the Craigslist forum, and sending Emails to Craigslist, NOT ME. If you had gone to our forum, you would find that it is a friendly environment with no negative talk. I simply will not allow that. To use our forum, use the link on the right hand corner of this blog in the “Blog roll” or go to http://www.beatcraigslist.com/forum. That is where you can post any questions or problems that you have and it will be answered in a nice, and honest manner. All the posts that you say you posted, were on the Craigslist forum, not mine. I am the administrator and I can tell you that no such posts have been posted OR deleted. I hope that clarifies it for you and anyone else that is confusing US with Craigslist. You can feel free to post on our forum and you will not be bashed.
To craigsliststaff (not to be confused with the staff at craigslist, but rather this forum’s admin who uses this as username):
Do you think that perhaps just a teeny tiny bit of the confusion might stem from your choice of username?
HAHAHA….Yes, I agree with you completely. Unfortunately it’s far too late to change that now, but the story goes as follows. Many, many, many years ago when this blog was created I was going to call myself “Craig” or “Craigslist” but at the time I thought I might get sued or Automatic (WordPress) might kick me off for copyright infringement or something like that. So By calling myself “STAFF” I didn’t think there was any way there would be a problem with that since I guess I was thinking of being like an inside informer type. Well, many years have passed and I see others calling themselves “Craigslist” all over the place and I guess for better or worse, this is where we are now. If I changed it now I don’t know how it would affect the blog. Heck, the world might actually go off its axis or the time space continuum might fluctuate and cease to exist. In other words I just don’t see any alternative, so I just muddle through with what I have. BTW Thanks for asking that in a polite manner as opposed to some of the really nasty comments I get that I simply delete because they are not worthy of being posted. 😉
First, thanks for such a wonderfully informative blog. After extensive reading here, I can’t find any related specifically to my problem.
(1) I used a simple title: gift shop for 4 sale
(2) I outlined the kind of gift shop, and how long it’s been around, which is 12 years.
(3) I let people know why I’m selling it. Failing back.
(4) I upload one aerial shot of the store showing it on a lake.
(5) I tell people to Google my store to learn more. I only started asking people to Google it in hopes that less information would increase the odds of my ad actually staying up of which work for almost 24 hours.
(6) I allowed my phone number to be publically shown.
(7) I posted the ad and hoped for the best
One of two things always happens.
(1) CL deletes it within five minutes claiming the post is in violation of CL’s Terms of Service, but does not tell me how.
(2) It stays up for a few hours, even a full day or so and then CL’s deletes it without any rhyme or reason.
I made absolutely sure that there were no keywords or phrases that might cause my ad to get flagged like, knives, cutlery, military, weapons, guns, etc. as my store sells all of the above except for guns.
I’ve never used Craig’s List other than to sell a dishwasher and an arcade machine, of which were posted years apart. It worked like a charm!
Here’s the clincher, often CL would tell me that I cannot post an ad for at least forty eight hours, when in fact I had not posted an ad in nearly five days, only to be told yet again that I still had to wait another forty eight hours. Rather than forty eight hours, I waited over seventy two hours this time around only to be told that I need to wait another forty eight hours! At this point I’m getting livid as I’m running out of time to sell my gift shop as I only have about 15 days left.
I ran this same ad late last year, using the same wording and pics and it stayed up for a full forty five days, however when I tried to repost it using a newly written ad, it’s as though I (or my computer and or store address and phone number) has been banned from ever using CL again. As a professional webmaster of nearly 20 years, I’ve tried every trick in the book to keep my ad from being automatically rejected as there is a lot of money here at stake. I tried Proxy service, new email address, new phone number, and or new account, various combinations of all of the above, including changing the information in my ad completely, but I have yet to see if changing the ID of my computer will work, IE: it’s assigned name I gave it would I first set up the computer.
So I ask you, what in the dickens is going on?@#$%
Free or not, if CL is going to allow us to use their service which can greatly effect the financial side of the end user for the worst, doesn’t CL have a moral, and or legal obligation to the end user to provide a reliable platform that is fair to all, a platform that does not falsely lead the consumer into thinking that they have a viable way to post critically import items for sale, only to learn weeks later that their ad was falsely deleted without notifying the end user via the same email address that was used to set up their CL account?
This blunder with CL’s is costing me *dearly as I have ALWAYS had wonderful luck using their service in the past, that is, until now. Have I been back flagged somehow? and if so, why would CL do such a thing? Though I don’t fly, it’s as though I have been put on some kind of, “Do Not Fly List” if you will with CL. Doe’s CL really have that kind of processing power to keep tabs on me? More likely with recent news about Facebook and the NSA, that CL has also been infiltrated by the NSA, thus my inability to mask who I am so I can once again use CL?
Thanks in advance for your tireless response as it should prove to be quite interesting.
Cheers!
James
All I can think of is that your IP is on a banned list. Maybe someone else used your IP at some point for spamming. Maybe you posted in the wrong section and someone got pissed off. Its really hard to say in situations like this. Its like finding a needle in a haystack. Maybe a competitor is flagging you because they may not understand exactly what you are selling and they think it impacts them. Some people may think CL is not for Real Estate Transactions. Very hard to answer fully.
one of your problems is mostlilky you had a virus or something on your computer cl servers document your ip adress of your computer also the ip mask adress from your isp when this happens you cannot post to cl you will get error messages I myself had the same issues I have a back ground in network security only way to post is having a new mother board or use a different machine and email hope this helps
biggdaddy, CL does record your IP address, but I don’t think a virus has anything to do with it because you can’t really transmit a virus from a client side to a server side using a text form…although, I would leave it open as to whether you can transmit a virus by uploading an infected picture file.
CL has a lot of problems and is not set up right to eliminate the proper running of their web site. An entrepreneur I know is in process of starting a new, much more advanced message board and he hopes to eliminate the major problems which CL has been running into. Their customer service lacks professionalism.
Every ad I post gets auto-flagged. It doesn’t even make it to the site live it gets auto-flagged right away. What is the reason for this?
That is hard to answer. There are hundreds of reasons why this could happen. Go to my website and read through it. See if you find any clues that tell you what you are doing and how to change it.
Is craigslist taking any update? Last 4 days i tried to post on craigslist job section(admin office) but all my ad get ghosting !Even when i renew my ad it get flagged !!!!! i never seen before this problem.i change my ip,phone number,email, and 1 post in 48 hours……nothing works at all !
This is probably a problem that is related to your account. Even if you change IP and so forth, your computer’s MAC address is visible to CL and that is enough right there.
Anyone who spent time on the CL discussion forums will tell you that the site is run by lunatics. That’s why it doesn’t work. They have put power-hungry nut-jobs in charge of moderation. And the good posts get flagged, while the boards get flooded with spam and scams.
Craigslist is no difference than Google, Microsoft, and others as they have aligned themselves with the government agents who keep CL competition in the gutter. Local Drug & Task Forces use CL to do stings by offering profession “LADY” services if you know what I mean and asking for people to do things that are illegal. These ads are only taken down not because of flagging but, only I an others expose the truth that CL allows the cops to use there service in violation of there TOU to “SET PEOPLE UP”.
I have a device that will allow a person to take their house off grid at the push of a button. Telephone & Internet Connections are “disconnected”. No Spying why disconnected. My ad lasts 2 minutes and is flagged.
We Need a venue to sell without Government Intervention. Craigslist more than sucks.
The problem is that once these organizations become as big as the ones you mentioned, they decide to work with the government. They do this for one of two reasons, and I don’t know which one applies to each of these companies that you mentioned. Either they are Liberals and the align themselves with the current government so they see no problem in working with the government against the people that use their services. The other choice is that they are afraid of government repercussions if they don’t go along with the government. Government now is a bully compared to what it used to be, so many people and companies are afraid of it. Sounds kinda like the old USSR doesn’t it? 😉
I’m using Craigslist to promote my moving service, but for the last 10 days my ads are not coming live in services section. Please Help me what can i do..I post ads but every time Craigslist flag my ad.
We have an entire section on our website to help you out. You can download the tutorial videos for free or join the members section to get them faster.
Don’t blame the “Liberal”. Most Liberals want to be off grid. It’s the Conservatives who align themselves with tough law enforcement agencies, Homeland Security, NSA and CIA.etc. etc. Conservatives and Republicans have historically aligned themselves with these organizations.
Sorry Claire while the DHS was founded under GW Bush I did not find him to be a true conservative. Both the NSA and CIA were founded under Harry Truman a liberal democrat. Both sides of the isle have used and abused those agencies since their inception. Liberals have and are constantly coming up with legislation both on the national and state levels to reduce individual freedoms not true conservatives. No liberal I know and they are legion wants to be “off the grid” In fact they want more gooberment intervention and provision.
Every time I start CL, it takes me to one of my deleted posts. It says the post has been deleted. I know it has been deleted – I deleted it. It’s kind of like CL are pissed off that I got one past them, and that is their way of pouting about it. Just a little annoying.
What I don’t get is why craigslist allows companies who are quite obviously running scams to continuously post, despite the fact that those companies have been reported multiple times.
Housing Scams for example there are two companies at least American Standard Online and First House Financial who have been posting thousands of ads all over craigslist for 6 years now at least. They consistently use the same phone numbers and have specific wording in each ad that make it easy to find their ads. They can’t possibly be unaware of it. Yet they just allow these companies to continue to post ad after ad after ad, day in and day out year after year.
You got that right. I stay within the rules and yet there are all types of business owners who some how are able to post 10, 20 ads right in a row which basically allows them to have their own craigslist page. what tics me is when I post an ad then some cheater does his/her grand postings and wipes me off the map. Mostly house cleaning services. Ive emailed, called and texted these cheaters with no luck in getting them to play fair.
Here is an example of an ad posted in multiple areas multiple times a day 7 days a week: I left out the contact number. But it seems this person doesn’t get flagged and deleted. Yet those income claims are a violation of FTC guidelines because they do not have equal sized disclaimer stating these are not the average earnings but CL does nothing about it. I have seen this ad for many months now every single day.
” Does your cell phone provider pays you back cash?
You will be Promoting:
– $39/month Mobile Service – Unlimited 4G voice/text/data – No contracts, no credit check – No monthly products to buy – No big up-front entry costs
Training provided
COMPENSATION :
get $20 residual every month for every 3 people you enroll get $450 residual every month if you and your team enroll 30 people. get $1000 on top residual every month if you and your team enroll 54 people.”
Hmmm, by the looks of it, that one actually sounds like Solavei which is ran by T-mobile. I can only come up with that since I’ve been looking into the prepaid wireless business. I know they offer commission, but never really looked into how much. As I look now, the post was off by $5 dollars (it’s $5 for every 3 people), so it could have changed since then. The rate plan 39.99 is the same, though. I think the main thing would have been to be cautious when giving one’s information over the telephone and also making sure the person at least had a website and/or registered business name. The only reason(s) I could think of the person leaving out their website is that they don’t have one (brick and mortar) or don’t want to give it out due to spam, which I can understand that myself.
It is Solavei. They are spamming everyone and everywhere. As far as doing wireless as a biz you will need a lock of luck. I was in that biz for a while. Very very tough. Way too many competitors now and the margins are razor thin.
lol @ spamming everyone and everyone…so I’ve heard! I know I was in a facebook dealer group and they started condemning people who talked about it because it was spammed throughout the post so much hahaha! Yeah, it can be tough with lots of competitors, but I live in an area where people barely know what it is haha! Their only problem would be “wanting to be” stuck with AT&T and Verizon, but people are starting to move to straightalk more now. Not many know what an MVNO is (which I use to not know as well), so I guess that can be a good thing about living in rural/small town areas. I only starting looking into the business aspect because I was looking for a cheap sell phone provider for myself (I’m cheap, lol) and it came to me that I could just become a dealer on the side to sell it to other cheap people like myself, haha. I only plan on doing it as a little side job and maybe online, since I don’t plan on trying to do brick and mortar. I also could just sell pins/sim cards to friends and family and just be fine with that. Since I plan on learning about building pcs and becoming a pc technician as well as other stuff, I thought it would just be a nice thing to add on the side. I have too many things on my mind to just want to do one thing 😀 haha!
I know no site can be 100% but Craigslist has some major and I mean major house cleaning to be done. I know they have their own systems for flagging but the way they allow individual people to flag is very unprofessional. I think they should have individual flags run through their system and if it is ok with their own systems they should warn the flagger and only 1 flag per month per individual. If their system catches someone flagging the same ad over and over again they should have their accounts cancelled. Maybe not perfect but it might go a long way in telling these vicious punk flaggers their game is up.
Recently my ads in the service section are deleted immediately. I am not spamming, have several accounts, maybe post three ads every 2 – 3 days from three different accounts. All ads get flagged before even showing up on Clist. YET, the spammers, I am a fence contractor, those that post 5 – 10 ads “all in a row” seem to never get deleted and are there everyday. Craigslist sucks, I have given up and rely on my google ads. Too bad BACKPAGE can’t develop a following.
Hi, I had 3 years selling furniture on Craglist and never had problems making ads, but they keep getting deleted. I have been changing my IP address, phone number, and e-mail address, and nothing works. Does someone know if Craigslist is capable of seeing the phone number? I always put my number in the picture not the text. Could that be the reason I am getting blocked????
I was scammed by this site. $1010 was stolen thinking I was renting an apartment by a fake african american realtor in Astoria, NY who had the keys to the building and apartments in the building.He was all dressed up as a christian and gave me a buisness card and had me sign papers and gave me a reciept. I was younger and naive then and gave him all my cash on hand. I reported this to the police, but they never found him. Not to mention when looking for a job. You have non-stop texting from job offers(scammers), which is annoying. I would tell them to stop texting me.You have to be very carefull, espeacially when handling with this site. It’s on the top list full of scammers and dangerous people.This is a good thing your doing with this site letting everyone know about criagslist dirty little secrets. I wish I could had known better then what I know now!!!
Kathy there are a lot of scum on CL. As Obi wan kenobe said: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
and many either work at or for CL
Anyone on here saying they have never had any problems is full of BS and I would love to stand toe to toe with them and have them tell me that to my face.
Kathy, I’m sorry you lost so much money. You need to be cautious about any dealings with strangers. You could have googled the so-called realtors name; called their real estate office and have spoken to the owner/broker to be sure he works there. NEVER pay with CASH — first clue. I’m an older female and I’ve learned NOT to trust too many people. I’ve been using CL for many years – and have never had a problem.
I have sold many things on Craigslist without any problem.
Yes, and so have many people. This blog is not here to discourage people from using Craigslist. This blog is here to help people prevent from getting ripped off and/or understand better how to use Craigslist. I know Craigslist reads this blog (I have seen references made to this blog on Craigslist) and my hope is that they will listen and learn from the problems people post here. They may not like change at Craigslist (as many people and organizations do not) but I think when the evidence is overwhelming with certain problems, they eventually have to address it.
I have never had a problem on craigslist. In fact, the majority of my possessions are from craigslist, including my car, which cost me $1500 and has ran with no problems for 3 years now. Sure, you get the occasional spam response to your postings, but they’re clearly spam, so don’t respond. There’s no reason to ever venture into personals, unless you’re a creepy mother f***er to begin with
Hello Dear Value Customer
we are a certified and legitimate and international licensed loan lender
We offer loan to Business firms,companies and individuals at an affordable
interest rate of 3% , It might be a short or long term loan or even if you
have poor credit, We shall process your loan as soon as we receive
your application.
Our aims is to provide the best to our customers and give the a secure
service OUR PACKAGES INCLUDE: *Home Loan *Auto Loan
*Mortgage Loan *Business Loan *International Loan *Personal Loan *And
Much More.You can contact us with this email { worldonlineloanfunds@gmail.com }
BORROWERS FORM
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Full Name…………………….
Loan Amount Needed…………….
Duration:…………………….
Gender; ……………………..
Religion :……………………
Province/ State :……………..
City :……………………….
Country…………….
Age…………………….
Contact Address;……………….
Occupation :…………………..
Monthly Income…………………
Cell Phone Number :…………….
Email :……………………….
Purpose Of Loan :…………………..
Have you apply before {yes or no}……..
Regards
Mr Eric Wilson
So the new scam coming for the holidays is to offer you a loan? That’s a good one. One big mistake is that they aren’t appealing to personal greed enough. A loan at 3% you can get pretty much at any legitimate bank locally, so why would you do it with a stranger unless you have horrible credit and don’t have those options. I think they should make the interest 1%, then they would get more interest. 😉
REALLY why would you not go to a local lending institution
I have written Craigs List several times without a response-I use it to post cars for sale-the problem is many people, especially dealers post the same ad
over and over and it becomes spam, crowding out all the other ads-so, yes, I flag those ads that appear multiple times-the idea is to either renew your ad or delete it and re-post it and not leave your old one up-this is really the biggest complaint I have about Craigslist in that they do nothing about this problem
CRAIGSLIST.COM IS DEAD
Two reasons, possibly 3, which confirm my suspicions that the site is gone straight to hell.
First of all, a few months back, I posted an ad on CL’s NSA personals. Immediately thereafter, my spam folder got flooded w/ messages from fake profiles; these “women” were sending me obvious cookie-cutter messages along w/ photos which looked like they were taken out of a foreign porno magazine. An actual # was never provided, only a link to some bogus dating site where they’d ask me for my credit card #. The relentless spam became so annoying that I had to delete my email acct.
Second, a day after I posted a rant on CL about the issue, my post was flagged. Rational post it was, but it was flagged anyway lol.
Finally, I tried to post an ad on CL to try an sell something, but before I could publish it, a map popped up asking me to “click yes” if whether the location was correct, and there was no way to “click yes”, so I couldn’t complete the process of posting.
CL, u and all ur scumbag minions can eat a #&#*@*#$.
CRAIGSLIST IS DEAD
I would love to agree with you but it is not dead…it will never go away because of the money that flows in, does not mean they are good…they are very bad…however…follow the money, idiots will always pay to sell their china crap
No its not dead unfortunately. Morons like CL shouldn’t be in business. Backpage would be the big fish in town if they had come out before CL. It just happened the way it did again unfortunately. It is run by a bunch of knuckleheads. Honest people get hassled day in and day out yet people can post all kinds of crap and vial things and get away with it. That makes no sense at all but then again what has been pot head hippie knucklehead ever makes sense anyway.
They have deactivated all links on the real estate side of things, although they say they have only stopped IMG, FONT, TABLE, DIV, and SPAN tags are no longer supported in this category. So tags should work but aren’t. This is a huge source of business for real estate agents, anyone have a work around?
We post in the for sale section and they have also deactivated the links there. Why would they do this? There is no one who is going to cut and paste a link. Expecially on a mobile version.
We have moved to Backpage.com – not nearly as much traffic, but hopefully this will change. Craigslist blows on so many levels now. Like they guy above, we dont even check our emails due to all the spam. We use junk emails to post and the link will just send them to our site. No longer.
I’m a freelance writer and editor who’s never had a problem with posting my services under “writing/editing” category — until now. Suddenly my postings are flagged and deleted with no reason. I only post once every six weeks or so (so it’s not because of over posting!). You cannot reach the CL staff for clarification. Frustrating. And I made the HUGE mistake of using the community forum. Within seconds I was verbally attacked and bizarrely bashed. It was weird. I had to cancel my participation with minutes, it was that abusive and unprofessional. Every response also mentioned CL’s standard read our Terms of Use (a lengthy document from which I could not see where I’d suddenly gone wrong). I felt like CL does this as a ploy to make you just go away.
Forget those forums. There are nasty mentally disturbed people on there, many of whom I suspect are the flaggers themselves. Oh how I would love to get my hands on one in a little MMA style. They are just sickos so welcome to the club of those of us who have been through the same things.
I think it may be time to start a petition to stop the bullying behavior on CL. I too was a victim today of being flagged 9 times for a nice LCD TV I was selling for a very reasonable price as we are moving soon. Within minutes, the ad was flagged. I did this post/flag dance all morning long until turning to the forums. That was the biggest mistake EVER. The guys just started attacking me and calling me a stupid bastard, mentally retarded, a useless piece of ****, etc. I can’t believe it. I’m an educated professional and having to endure this abuse was sickening. I did the right thing and replied respectfully (yet firmly) to each poster and even gave them more information so they could make a more informed decision on who was at fault. This of course backfired and the abuse got much worse. It’s no wonder teenagers commit suicide based on what the internet “trolls” do and say. It’s purely evil and I’m very disturbed by this behavior and it must stop. I’m glad there are people like you guys to tell your stories as well. Thanks.
The stories are legion Brian. While there probably are some half way decent aspects to CL IMO they are few and fa between and getting worse all the time. For some reason this particular publication attracts all the low life scum of the earth and it is getting worse. CL doesn’t care. They leave those people alone but try and put in an honest post or ad and your flagged. Don’t ever get on those forums. as those people are the worst of the worst. People that lead horrid lives with no positive meaning. CL seems to attract them.
I was disturbed by the Forum comments, too. It was a little twilight-zonish. I think there’s an interesting “media” story here. What’s going on w/ CL? How are these “flagging” decisions made? Who’s behind the instant-abuse on their Forum? And if they aren’t behind it themselves, then WHY are they allowing it to continue?
YES,where do i sign?Wow,what a trip turning to the cl forums for an answer is.6 or 8 people replied ,one of which was civil and helpful .The rest were like prosecutors with me the guilty.How odd!
@1guilty,
We are all experiencing the same thing. If you are a regular poster to CL you should get the program by the HowToBeatCraigslist people. They have a lot of information and excellent tutorial videos on how to get around a long of issues on CL. If you are just trying to sell an occasional item there is probably nothing you can do at least that I know of. CL is not interested in petitions or having an upstanding site with integrity. They are non-responsive to our plight.
Craigslist can be a valuable marketing tool.. but ONLY if you know all the secrets to circumvent malicious flaggers, ghosted listings;
…and are skilled enough to know which replies are real and which are sent by either:
1) craigslist staff (“is the item available?” is ALWAYS an automated craigslist response to make people think they are getting responses especially when they are getting zero responses – these replies are automated and FAKE!), or
2) scammers (“greetings sir/madam, please send the following details so i can send you a fake check that is for an amount greater than the sale and you give me real money and lose it: your name, address, birthday, ssn, bank account info, your passwords to every web account, your driving records, the name of your dog and any other security questions” [[ok i exaggerated the amount of info they ask for you.]] “oh yeah, and also i’m a nigerian prince and please ship the item to 123 street, nigeria and i will mail you a certified cheque”… you get the point.)
Once you get by all this and you do some tricks to circumvent phone registration which I won’t even post here else craigslist would ensure it didn’t work, well after all that, then craigslist can be a valuable method for advertising and selling items.
You see, with craigslist, you don’t pay money (most of the time). You pay TIME. THe time to learn how not to get scammed, and the time to circumvent all the BULLSHIT craigslist puts you through.
Oh yea, and don’t even THINK about getting “support”!! The VERY LAST THING you EVER want to do, if you need help, is to go on the forums!! Because those MORONS there will NOT help you but they will insist you did something wrong and then ridicule YOU for being the moron who can’t post a listing correctly, even though your listing follows all the rules. PLUS THEY HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BAN YOUR IP< EMAIL< PHONE NUMBER, AND EVERYTHING, AND IF YOU INSIST THAT YOUR LISTING IS FINE AND INSIST YOU NEED HELP, THEY WILL USE THIS FREEDOM TO BAN YOU FOR "WASTING THEIR TIME".
I say that in caps as a warning because of the countless number of people who have come to me telling me this very same situation.
I agree about the flagging. Craigslist is a bunch of crooks. I posted an add and every time it got flagged but the other guy who had the same add was able to post and spam. Yes I posted in the local area and when I went to the forum the negativity about my post and non help from the so called staff made it impossible to speak with a moderate tone. I simply asked them why was it that my posts kept getting removed and flagged when the other guy who has the exact same posting was able to keep on posting and clearly violated rules by spamming before the 48hr mark? I posted every 48hrs got flagged every time and this guy was posting every day sometimes 2 times a day and is never flagged, which really made me think it was him doing the flagging. Do not go to the community for help they are pc superheros behind the desk and will ridicule you and your questions. Would like to have put my fist threw a few of their heads. I had been a Craigslist frequent user but never will I ever use that cheat of a site ever again. Word to the wise Craigslist you burn enough loyal customers you will loose because everyday there is another site that opens that will take your place and I will be in the front of the line. SCREW YOU CRAIGSLIST.
The reason you got flagged is because you did not have the mods in you pocket, they get a cut of what ever is flagged and reduced in price….the guy that was not getting flagged …made a deal with some of them, you do not need to cut them all in only a few.
Watch how fast this dirty secret gets flagged by …well guess who
Hahahahahaha…..very amusing…..thanks for making my day. 😉
I agree, I am so waiting and looking forward to the day that CL is a thing of the past. It’s going to happen, I just know it is. The creators, staff of CL cater to all the pervs and thieves and make it possible for them to successfully do their thing hassle free.
To: Bev Delvecchio
You are so wrong to site all users as pervs and thieves! There are many testimonial bloggers here in this forum attesting to being flagged, ghosted and harassed and blatantly hacked by the creators, staff of Cl who are honest, good TOS abiding users of CL’s site.
Get your facts before you post, it would not make you look such the judgmental person who hassles others. Speaking of hassle free why not just get rid of CL yourself if you know a thing word go about how to and that would then have you worthy of my real attention!
Bobbie
To: Bobbie Paxton – My comment doesn’t site all users as pervs and thieves! Clearly you did not read my statement properly as you didn’t even get my name right and the end of you message is clearly nasty and negative something I don’t participate in. ~Peace be with you~
Very positive things to say about CL; they have saved my life in this job market and bringing me decent clients. I have spent $$$$$$$$$$$ on websites and made $0.
Enough said, thanks CL for helping the community.
I know CL can be extremely frustrating. I have to camp out on my computer to grab a good deal before it’s gone. I have fallen on tough times. I’m unemployed and a single mother. I had no choice but to furnish my home with free items from CL. I was able to get a nice kitchen table. I have also wanted a red couch for years. I finally found one for 85.00! It is so perfect. To the sellers, Not every response with “Is it available” is a scam. I often say that because I get so disappointed when I other people snatch free items up only to resell them minutes later at their “vintage” shop for several hundred dollars. If I could afford some of the prices people ask for on there, I would go to a furniture store! So when you are a dealer and are consumed with making a huge profit, don’t whine about people that flag. The idea some have is to flag the person selling items for a good price, then be rid of your competition, then over price your items. I see people that clearly put on their ad for free items “only for those who need it”. I explain my situation and never get a response back. I once made the mistake of buying a car from CL. It broke down in a month. I tracked down the original owner and was told that I was ripped off. She had sold the car to a man for 400.00, then he in turn sold it to me for 1000.00. If I had only remembered. People on CL seem to worse when it comes to greed. Gordon Gecko would be so proud. I do get on there to obtain household items. Any items I can’t use, I donate them to a battered women’s shelter. I think people are just disillusioned by CL. They lack integrity and are essentially predators. I call them bottom feeders. I always love how they get an item free, slap a coat of cheap buck store paint on it and claim it is “shabby chic or vintage”. 5.00 desk…paint at the buck store..1.00..CL ad..200.00. Not exaggerating, I saw this ad yesterday. I got my desk for free! I didn’t flag them, but I did write to them and tell them it wasn’t worth that much!
What about the nationwide glut of scientologists posting ads for “classes” and “events” on craigslist without identifying themselves as scientology? They are using craigslist to troll for victims. And craigslist doesn’t care. To see 360 ads posted in SF alone in the last few days from just one poster, go to craigslist, and search “All SF Bay Area”; “All Community”; and the number: 3944
UNBELIEVABLE!! This is happening all over the country.
CL is a scam…why would this surprise you at all ….look at the moderators people who cannot function in life EXCEPT behind a screen …..they are so sad
My only complaint is it takes forever for my ads to go online. And due to companies posting spam it often makes it more difficult for people to see real local ads.
What you say about it costing money is only true for people who want to massively spam multiple areas with their postings. This only applies to businesses really.
You are correct. Only businesses pay for advertisements at this point, but the pay areas are increasing. Craigslist has seen that the pay model has worked for them, so they are increasing the amount of sections that require pay to play. Will the private users ever have to pay? I don’t know. I don’t think they will because it will probably be used as an upgradable item like most other companies do on the web. Give away a few free sections and allow for upgrades to other sections. This has been proven as a very lucrative business model.
I’m very upset as someone who needs to hire household assistants on a regular basis. For years CL has been completely free, then suddenly they add my city to the list that requires paid job listings. It’s hard enough going through the hundreds of responses per week as it is, there’s no way I’m paying $25 per ad to just get what I’ve been getting. CL has definitely lost my business – and unfortunately they probably don’t care.
If I had the money and know how (don’t have either lol) I would make a web site similar to Craigslist and NOT allow people to flag!
And if there is a site like that already I don’t know about it and I won’t get Facebook in order to list on some classified sites. I am on other classified sites that allow flagging but so far have not had any trouble with any of them other than Craigslist.
Sure I would have terms of service but unless those terms were violated posts would NOT be removed. I would understand if only posts violating their terms got flagged but it ain’t so. People can not like a post for whatever reason and flag it. I’ve had people drive as far as 100 miles to buy things from me so I have good stuff and all the people are doing that flag is hurting someone from finding something they want to buy.
I don’t buy into it taking so many people to flag for some posts to be removed because I’ve had posts when clicking on renew (I never renew early and wait for my account to show a post is up for renew) and the second I click renew it got deleted. There is no way anyone would even have time to flag it that quickly.
People in the flagging forum some of them are rude and only want to find fault. Sure there is some that their posts violate terms and I understand those being flagged and removed but when someone’s ad does not violate the terms some of the people there in that forum really get rude or picky about how they think a post should read, etc. I don’t mind learning how to write a better ad but I do mind having posts removed that don’t violate their terms.
I totally agree … there are pople who flag just because it.s the only way they can feel important … they know nothing about the item, person posting, or anything else…. it is impossible to list rare items on craigslist… like a rare guitar in Nashville … some jackass thinks a guitar can’t be worth 20 grand so they flag the post….. craiglist sucks… and nationwide listing would be a big plus … i’d travel to another state to buy a rare car … or whatever … so why can’t you advertise in another state?
Well, I don’t know if your question is rhetorical, but Craigslist doesn’t want people posting outside their local area because that is how Craigslist began. Local people selling locally. Even though they have gone national, they still maintain this philosophy. I don’t agree with it, but I am simply clarifying.
Need help with phone verifying… been trying to verify an ad I placed on CL today. spent 3 hours, and a lot of frustration with no success. at this point im ready to throw the damn thing away. and give my son $100 for it and say I sold it on CL for him. anyway around the verifying? tried calling San fran.. that was a waste as well.
Forget trying to call them. It’s and effort in futility. They really don’t want to hear from you. The whole Craigs thing has really gotten way out of control. Far far too many nutjobs hiding behind their computer screens who get a jazz off flagging people. I beginning to see there are a lot more sick minded people in this world than I thought.
To the people who think CL is a waste or negative, i say you are just finding reasons to dog on a great website that provides FREE postings to consumers. Maybe you had a bad experience for whatever reason, but i have been buying and selling on here for a number of years (about 5-6 years) and NEVER have i had a bad experience. It is a great alternative to ebay if you want to deal locally. I have sold and bought anything from little toys to cars and everything in between. To CL staff, keep up the good work and dont worry about these negative people dogging on you. You know you have something great here and they are just finding reasons to bring you down for their own self preservation. The simplicity of the website is what makes it so great. If everyone remembers Myspace, it was a one hit wonder and extremely difficult to navigate and set up. Facebook went viral with IT’S simplicity and is now the leader of the Social Network. CL has the same which people like. I do agree with the need of fixing the “dealers” overposting of especially cars, but with popularity and technology comes with a price. Just stay ahead of the game and you will learn to weed out these people and once again make it a better place. Thanks CL for everything!!!
I too have worked with CL, and until today have not had any problems. However, I went to the forum for help when my ad was flagged. As it turns out, I understand why (somewhat nit picky, but okay). However, I’ve been called names, harassed, cussed at, and tormented all day by people who have checked out the forums. I’ve offered apologies and more, but the harassing emails have not stopped since 8:00 AM- and it’s now 7:00 PM! People I never even spoke to are sending me harassing emails from the forum links, and CL is impossible to get in touch with. They will do nothing about it, and they don’t realize I have a good income and some legal knowledge. If I can get a lawyer on my side, I’m filing a law suit for them allowing this ongoing harassment. They deserve to be shut down completely!
The forum is really full of crazies. I have heard your situation repeated many times. I’m sorry for the trouble that you are experiencing and I agree that it is very unprofessional to allow that to continue. I wish you the best on whatever course you follow.
I too have the same exact experience. One person kept sending me filthy emails cussing me out. Ads constantly get flagged even when they have been accepted for a long time and then after I renewed them the ad was flagged. Nothing at all makes sense on this site. Some within seconds of posting. There are a lot of sick pathetic people on this site who have lonely pathetic lives and sit behind their computers in the dark litle corners of their rooms just to make people miserable. If only I could get my hands on them.
Yes they will do something about it…they keep flagging you and all others, the only thing they could do is get rid of the moderators they have, they are egotistical self centered individuals with a power complex,,,they feel like they rule the world,….their tiny one as much as it is.
Actually they have some serious mental issues that many in the sociological filed have studied, they give them so much material it is a proverbial gold mind.
We need NO reason To DOG you..CL gives a thousand reason across the world Everyday……finally the wheels of justice are taking a hold….one must always wait for karma to come around
Dog a great website…..well you really have some issues, looks like you drank the cool-ade, or maybe like all who come on here to push CL, you are part of the problem
It is just a matter of time that your great success with CL will turn into the same bad experience that we are all talking about. I had great success with CL too, when I first started using it and had many good things to say, but now, nothing but BS with all this flagging going on towards people who are not breaking any of the CL rules. I suspect that you will start getting hit with all the BS too once the many people such as myself start closing out their CL accounts.
I’ve been buying and selling using CL for more than a decade and have never had a bad experience. CL provides the community an amazing service that is unparalleled. Unfortunately, there are those who abuse the system but they’re easy to spot and avoid. For all the critiques, perhaps your better off staying away from CL. I am honest with my listings and post in the correct category therefore I never get flagged.
Craigslist is a privilege, not a right. I hope CL never goes away and is able to stick to its roots.
I am forever in-debt to CL and will do my best to keep things the way they are.
Thanks CL! Keep up the good work.
Wow, dude, pass over some of that green, herbal tea you got there, and maybe a couple of those brownies. It sure seems to make the world a prettier place to be.
Craigslist really sucks. the bottom feeders on there and the flagging for no reason. Best use oodle.com or ebay. Untill they fix the flagging issue it sucks and i cant recommend it. Its a waste of time.
I understand that people actually have software at their home to automatically flag ads. Is this true?
Yes, there are many different programs out there to auto-flag on Craigslist.
The Craig bots are getting stronger ,smarter and straight rude. Time for Craig to step to the side.
whoops …..my bad what they care about is flagging
Whether Flagging or Ghosting is your issue, I suggest you visit my main website. At my site I go into much greater detail about how to deal with Ghosting and Flagging. Putting all that aside, what I meant was that you should never give up. I know it’s hard, but good things only come from much effort. If we persist, we can change Craigslist.
Link to your site please…….
and as much as I agree with not giving up, the members are so out numbered by the flagging, trust me…seconds after you get a new add up it is flagged (price wrong) how in the heck is one supposed to keep up or fight when you are out numbered by 20 to 1 or 80/1 people flagging…then use the ridiculous forum only ….berated and told to go find other place to sell …or you don’t get how we work or read the FAQ…you can make perfect add and if they don’t like the price then it is gone ….yes give me the link to your site and show me HOW it makes a difference …you and I talking about it is NOT going to change it…they need to internally change
JUST Google Craigslist customer service complaints,..and see how many you get…any intelligent business would look at what its customers say …the only problme they are the only dog on the porch….so they play …..there way only
Here is a real good one
http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Craigslist
Craigslist Customer Service
User Reviews, Ratings and Comments
Craigslist customer service is ranked #483 out of the 502 companies that have a CustomerServiceScoreboard.com rating with an overall score of 18.31 out of a possible 200 based upon 652 ratings.
This score rates Craigslist customer service and customer support as Terrible.
633 Negative Comments out of 652 Total Comments is 97.09%.
19 Positive Comments out of 652 Total Comments is 2.91%.
Issue Resolution
* Negative Comments (633)
* Positive Comments (19)
* Employee Comments (0)
Haha, I already have a link to that Customer Service rating on my site. I agree it is ridiculous. I also have a link to another website that points to the fact that Craigslist readership has gone down. The problem is that changes are small and incremental. Google for example no longer indexes their ads for search like they used to many years ago. The days of Craigslist are numbered, take it from someone who has been around from the beginning. That is one of the reasons I formed my site. My site is listed on the side roll of all my blogs, but I’ll make it easy for you. Go to http://www.beatcraigslist.com for much more info.
‘Then I ask YOU how to change it……all they ace about is flagging .
It is sad in so many ways what Cl has become, you have Mods that are power hungry, no clue about pricing just want to say you are wrong.
No way to correct abusive power of over moderation…they just say” if ya don’t like it move on.”…..long way…..what Cl started out as….
Any remember can post any price they want…except for being flagged if they the Mods do not agree you are gone.
Serious abuse of language
I agree with you my friend. Craigslist has become an over moderated site run by power hungry individuals. That Peace symbol doesn’t mean much any more. This is why we have to do everything we can to show them that we are like the “Occupy” people. We wont leave, we wont hide, we wont be pushed around, we will win! For everything they do, we can find a solution.
That so-called peace symbol is what we used to call in the 60s the footprint of the American Chicken. There are sick people on Craigslist. They should completely do away with the forums. A lot of mental idiots on there.
hi there,
I am having a big issue with ghosting. I like your pay phone idea, but there are no pay phones around here! Can you email me at *********@gmail.com? I would like to pick your brain on strategies and I am willing to pay a fee in return. Thanks!
Sue
Sorry Sue, I would really like to help you but I must keep this at this level. If I took you up on this, I would be getting hundreds of requests for assistance. I post all my new ideas here or at my home page http://www.beatcraigslist.com and I do it free of charge so everyone can have an even deal when dealing with Craigslist. As far as a pay phone, there must be a pay phone some place nearby. Every liquor store, hospital, garage, shopping center has one.
What’s up with all the flagging that goes on with craigslist these days? The format is obviously not working–good and interesting ads get flagged by angry people. I notice that MSW ads requesting certain body types are allowed to stand but WSM ads requesting true romance without adultery quickly get deleted.
Why the hating on a preference? And how exactly does flagging work? Do these flagger-jacks sit around waiting to flag in tandem? Sign on to more than one IP addy at a time to get their thrill from deleting advertisers who do not wish to see their cockshots or commit adultery? Why is it okay for men to ask for no fatties but not okay for women to request no skeeves?
Most importantly, why does craigslist allow this to happen? Any plans to stop the madness? Most people probably do not even realize they’ve been flagged since no message is received, so they just figure the system gets crappy results. And following that, men seeking good old-fashioned romance probably figure there’s not many women here besides bots and hookers. This could be one reason why craigslist personals aren’t used much anymore for true romance, but rather just for married people looking to cheat, hookers, and sex games.
Too bad.n CL was once the cream of the crop.
And another thing about the false and abusive community flagging on craigslist–the reason I requested no adulterers or cockshots is because every time I’ve placed an ad or spoken to a friend about their having placed one in the last several years, we all have had the same experience of receiving lots of pics of dicks and married men responses. I can see getting those when posting in the “sexual encounters” areas, but those of us posting in the “dating” section looking for real partners feel accosted when opening a pic only to see some limp dick. Craigslist management neither responds nor seems to care that this happens to women on their site who are looking for real romance.
I guess it’s time to go with match.com. Too bad.
The CL “community” “staff” are made up of certified nut-cases. That’s why you get flagged and if you report it they flag you again and ban you.
Who says there hasn’t been any? 😉 Telling the truth is never easy!
Curious how you guys have managed to keep the site up w/o harrassment. I’m doing research on the ‘other side’ of craigslist, and haven’t found much yet.
Since Amazon has gone “amazon” as in another country. They suck. Months after selling something, they send me an email saying I did not send the merchandise. This was a lie, but I have to go through all my tracking numbers to prove it. Their staff is illiterate and down right rude. Ebay is no better. They don’t stick up for the seller but for the few crooked buyers out there looking for something for nothing. They are all the welfare recipient’s best friend. They spend hours looking for bargains they can resell. I don’t know where to sell good items online anymore. The auction houses are just as bad. It’s better to just burn the stuff.
I agree with you. I used to sell on Fiverr before but got tired of all the scammers there as well. If you want something for nothing use Fiverr. Its easy to tell a seller “Give me a refund or I leave you a bad Rep” and most will refund your money because one bad rep takes 30 positive reps to make it back to where you were. They have a weird algorithm where your good reps get diluted a multitude of ways but bad reps really hurt. If the seller wont budge you can also file a complaint with Fiverr and the will automatically give you a refund and take it out of the sellers wallet no questions asked. No appeals, no proof required, nothing. It’s totally one sided.