Tag: craigslist

Craigslist is still scammy

hyperlocal craigslist transactions without the ick factor of craigslist remain an unsolved problem.

i have a steam mop i’d like to get rid of and the easy channels like coworkers and foaf have failed, but like hell i’m going to deal with craigslist weirdos to move this item. what do do?

Craigslist Robbery

“I came across the ad that was for a prevailing wage job for $28.50 an hour,” said Mike, who saw a Craigslist ad last week looking for workers for a road maintenance project in Monroe. He said he inquired and was e-mailed back with instructions to meet near the Bank of America in Monroe at 11:00 Tuesday. He also was told to wear certain work clothing. “Yellow vest, safety goggles, a respirator mask… and, if possible, a blue shirt”. Mike showed up along with 10 other men dressed like him, but there was no contractor and no road work to be done. He thought they had been stood up until he heard about the bank robbery and the suspect who wore the same attire.

The crowdsourced heist

Theft Broadcasting

Brandon and Amber Herbert apparently placed the ad as a cover to a planned theft of 2 horse saddles. They placed the ad on Craigslist, which said that all the belongings were free for the taking at an abandoned house. They then joined in the mob that showed up for the goods. Their IP address was tracked by police through information supplied by Craigslist. It’s funny how few people understand how easy it is to track activity via IP address. For example, the startup CEOs who leave comments here under their real name, and then suddenly go trolling under an anonymous name, all under the same IP.

The goatee, trademark of the dumb male, gives it away!

Craigslist Whining

So when Bunch says Craigslist should run text ads and “pay for the college education of the 10s of displaced journalists across America losing their jobs everyday,” he’s attacking the wrong problem with the wrong solution. And to name laid-off or pensionless journalists as Craigslist’s victims instead of the victims of an industry that didn’t turn around fast enough? As Buckmaster says, that’s not the point.

comedy gold

Craigslist Ambition

dissects the visual cleverness of craigslist (and how it is a yahoo-sized business in the making)

Now Craig’s lead-into-gold trick is that he gets his posters to accurately classify their spam. Into 160 categories. Holy Toledo Jacob Nielsen. You can’t have a pulldown with 160 things in it. 50% of your users wouldn’t get a pulldown with 3 things in it right. Ah, but it’s not a pull-down. 50% of the entire homepage is a giant selector devoted to classifying posts.