Craigslist

Craigslist, once Craig’s list, is a closed corporation in operation over the web to supply classified advertisements, community data services, and community forums. Most of those listings are restricted to locations that embody some five hundred cities in fifty countries.

Craig’s list was launched in 1995 by Craig Newmark, a computer programmer, as a free e-mail service that delineates forthcoming events within the point of entry Bay space of the American state. Over time, Newmark created an internet website with a forum for members to speak with each other. As AN increasing variety of users began to move with the positioning, its content was tailored to accommodate additional community participation. Following its incorporation as Craigslist in 1999, the online website started charging fees for classified job advertisements in major cities. In conjunction with brokered living accommodations listings in the big apple town, the area unit is the sole revenue supply. Users will post data, participate in native discussions, obtain and sell merchandise within the classified section, and realize jobs and romance.

In 2000, following the hiring of businessperson James Buckmaster as chief officer, Craigslist began increasing its services into new markets. In 2001 the organization launched its initial foreign website, serving Vancouver, B.C., Can. This was followed by Craigslist sites for several different cities worldwide and an urban center, London, Seoul, Sydney, and Buenos Aires. Beginning with Hub of the Universe that year, by 2005, there have been Craigslist sites for cities in each U.S. state.

Craigslist is one of the world’s most painting e-commerce corporations, posting countless job advertisements monthly. Craigslist has been owned one-quarter by another online firm, eBay, since 2004.

See All smart Facts on Craigslist

In the Gregorian calendar of 2008, Craigslist reached AN agreement with forty state attorneys general concerning “erotic services” advertisements on its websites. To curb ads for whoredom and different ineligible sex-oriented businesses, Craigslist united to line up an additional rigorous verification program before acceptive personal ads. Among the changes, advertisers should offer a {telephone variety|phone number|number|signal|signaling|sign} and a MasterCard number, with the latter being charged a small low fee for every personal service ad. it’s assumed that having to supply a verifiable number and usable MasterCard can discourage sex operators from posting on Craigslist.

How Craigslist Works

Craigslist.org, initially a point of entry community electronic newssheet, is currently one of the foremost visited English websites, with native classifieds for 450 cities worldwide. The site’s primary performs to host advertisements that cowl much each class you’ll think about, as well as housing, job postings, things purchasable, services, and personals. A forums section also enables users to debate topics from farming to the Linux operating system.

Craigslist’s founder Craig Newmark and business executive, Jim Buckmaster, aim to give users a helpful, noncommercial thanks to connecting with people in their communities [source: the big apple Times]. The online website does not have any flashy animation or graphics — its worth comes from its practical style and, therefore, the contributions of its users. Posting for many classified classes on craigslist is free and absolves browsing and answer ads.

If all you would like to try to do is browse the positioning, you’ll visit craigslist.org and click on away. The positioning features various broad classes, and every category has many subcategories, making it straightforward to navigate to the relevant section quickly. For instance, the “for sale” class options subcategories like a laptop, books, natural philosophy, sporting, motorcycles, and collectibles, among others.

More About Craigslist

Most ads embody the member’s e-mail address. Craigslist offers a performance that masks e-mail, so members do not have to fret concerning their address being overtly shown. All transactions are units between the one who announces the ad and the person responding to it. Craigslist’s workers do not get concerned in any transactions or discussions unless somebody reports a tangle.

If you would like to participate in forum discussions or post your classifieds, you would like to form a craigslist account. The sole factor you would like to become a member may be a valid e-mail address. The signup method is brief and painless — once getting into your e-mail and fill in a very verification word (which helps forestall programs referred to as bots from making accounts to post ads automatically), you will receive AN e-mail that has a link you’ll have to click on to authenticate your account and log in. Once you have done that, you have formally joined the craigslist community.

Craigslist users act just like the site’s watchdogs by observing the content that gets announc. Users flag posts to depict attention to those who are notably fascinating and those who trim from the positioning. The tags that may be applied to posts area unit better of craigslist (a funny or compelling post), miscategorized (a post placed within the wrong section of the site), spam/Overpost (a generic post or one that has been announcing multiple times) and prohibited (a position that directly violates the site’s terms of use).

In this article, we’ll scrutinize craigslist’s impact on the web, the company structure of the corporate, and a few of the controversies involving the online website.

In the next section, we’ll study craigslist’s presence online.

The Community and Gigs classes Craigslist

The Community class on craigslist functions as a community center’s bulletin board. It includes subsections for native news, politics, announcements, volunteer opportunities, rideshare programs, and different native events and activities. The Gigs class is for short work assignments instead of permanent jobs.

Each craigslist website focuses on a particular community. Originally, craigslist solely listed classifieds and announcements among points of entry. Because the service grew in quality, increasing well on the far side of founder Craig Newmark’s original conception, craigslist different accessorial cities to its network. The primary town to hitch the network was Hub of the Universe in 2000. one or two months later, Chicago, la, the big apple town, Portland, San Diego, a metropolis, and Washington, D.C. followed suit. Today, quite 450 cities have a craigslist community website.

Because community members, for the most part, moderate the sites, craigslist workers will focus on coordinating transactions for job and housing posts, serving to members troubleshoot issues, and responding to reports of abuse or ineligible behavior. While not communal moderation, the craigslist employees would severely overworked.

According to craigslist’s reality sheet, monthly craigslist has:

  • more than twenty-five million new advertisements
  • more than one.5 million job postings
  • more than seventy-five million user postings within the forums section
  • more than ten million new photos were uploaded (users will embody footage in their advertisements as long as the images do not violate craigslist’s terms of use)
  • more than thirty million user visits, most of that area unit from you.  s.

With more than eight billion page views, golf shot craigslist inside the high 10 English-language sites government team at craigslist maintains that the site’s success is the user community. The team believes Craigslist offers users an area to speak and facilitate each other, fostering community spirit. The site’s stress on community reflects its founder’s and CEO’s values — Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster attempt to avoid dealings and company culture in their company [source: craigslist.org].

Craigslist communities are attractive to a wide variety of users. The simple, organized layout and helpful computer program make navigation straightforward. Craigslist members vary from teenagers to senior voters. They post on the forums, look online, trade tips, and build new friends. Whereas the location might not be the foremost visually fascinating net destination, there is no denying its effectiveness. Users usually report that it is easy to seek out what they’re checking out in many minutes of work on the location.

In the next section, we’ll examine how the company structure at craigslist sets the tone for the whole website.

Could Craigslist Kill Journalism?

Internet and telecommunications novelist Russell Shaw has theorized that craigslist is tributary to the decline of print journalism. Shaw argues that by charging below-market costs for housing and job postings, craigslist takes revenue aloof from newspapers, implying that papers got to set salaries lower. Articles cannot afford to rent sensible journalists; therefore, the effects trickle down into substandard news [source: Russell Shaw].

Craigslist Financials

Craigslist started as a pet project however blossomed into a full-fledged corporation. In 1999, craigslist was incorporated as a for-profit association. the corporate additionally purchased the domain craigslist.com to forestall anyone from shopping for it and dishonorable craigslist members. Every year since then, craigslist has enlarged to hide additional cities and communities, turning into a strong money force within the method.

Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster are not your typical company bigwigs. Even if Newmark is the founder and chairman of craigslist, he states his title as a client service representative. Buckmaster isn’t solely the chief executive officer however additionally a lead developer for the location. He helped style the homepage, net design, forums, community moderation system, personals class, and computer program.

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark with chief executive officer Jim Buckmaster

Newmark and Buckmaster try to stay on craigslist, a service-based company that targets online communities. They need refused offers to sell the corporate for an enormous profit. Several of their selections fly within the face of ancient business ways. However, Newmark has mentioned that keeping the communal culture of craigslist intact is more necessary than creating huge profits [source: craigslist.org]. Even the site’s workplaces area unit is uncommon for an online company — rather than a flashy office in an exceedingly building made from glass and steel, craigslist’s headquarters area unit in associate degree previous Victorian shopfront in San Francisco [source: Associated Press].

The site earns revenue from background fees for job postings in exceedingly few cities and housing listings in my town. The work posting fee in Boston, la, my town, San Diego, metropolis, and Washington, D.C. is $25, whereas the price in San Francisco is $75. The fee authorizes the user to post-employment in one class — if the user needs to post an equivalent job in multiple categories, they should pay a fee for everyone. The housing listing fee in my town is $10 per brokered housing rental ad. Job and housing ads in different cities are unit free.

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark with chief executive officer Jim Buckmaster

The site generates enough income to support its entire workers of twenty-five individuals. The corporate does not publicly unleash its money results. However, estimations place the several bucks — $7 million for 2003 and quite $20 million in 2005 [Business Week, c|net News].

Besides paid classifieds within the said cities, craigslist options do not advertise the least. It does not sell advertising houses for banner ads, pop-up ads, or other net advertising. Newmark says he does not will use any quiet net advertising on craigslist in the future [source: craigslist.org].

Craigslist’s company philosophy focuses on creating a positive impact within the community; not everyone mistreated the location shares that reading time. Some craigslist members use the site to require advantage of others.

In the next section, we’ll scrutinize several arguments close to Craigslist.

Selling Out could be a Joke

On April 1, 2002, craigslist featured an item asserting that the location would begin running banner ads in real-time. The announcement contained a list of ad houses and a type for prospective advertisers. Most craigslist members recognized the report: associate degree Apr Fool’s joke. However, many took the announcement seriously; Newmark’s basic cognitive process was commercialism dead set business. By the following day, all was back to traditional with no banner ads in view [source: craigslist.org].

Craigslist arguing

One of the most significant challenges for the craigslist community is removing scam artists. Scams could involve faux cash orders or checks, bait-and-switch schemes (in that you think you are obtaining one factor but find yourself with another), phishing schemes designed to get personal info, fraud schemes, and different unethical and misappropriated activities. The location includes a section describing common scam ways and what users should do if available across them.

One scam that has popped up in many craigslist communities involves a purchaser overpaying for an associate degree item. During this scam, an assistant degree innocent merchant advertises an associate degree item on craigslist for a given quantity — say $1,500. Associate degree interest purchaser contacts the vendor and says he’ll send a check for the item; however, once the bill arrives, it’s written for a far larger quantity.

Once the vendor contacts the client to tell him of the distinction, the client apologizes and explains that he wrote the incorrect amount once, confusing it with another purchase. He tells the vendor to deposit the check and wire him the distinction. What the vendor does not grasp is that the statement could be faux. Therefore, he cashes it and wires the award to the client. Once the bank researches the check and discovers it is bogus, the vendor is command accountable. The scam creative person has his cash, so the innocent merchant takes the blame.

Police scan craigslist

Police scan craigslist for ads soliciting misappropriated products or services. Newspapers have featured many stories concerning cops busting harlotry rings once finding them through craigslist. Papers have additionally revealed stories involving police mistreatment on craigslist to seek out sexual predators. In Oct 2007, craigslist created headlines once a member denoted an advert for a keeper and then killed the adult female UN agency skilled the ad. In craigslist’s defense, Buckmaster has mentioned that newspapers area unit additional seemingly to report negative stories concerning the location, probably because some business managers feel craigslist robs papers of revenue [source: The NY Times, Associated Press].

The terms of use on craigslist build it clear that the location has nothing to try to do with the content users post and that it’ll work with authorities in cases involving criminal activity in which violating the site’s terms may end up in stiff fines. Users posting to craigslist should initial click on a button that claims they perceive and settle for the terms of use. Even so, once members use the location for misappropriated or unethical functions, some individuals attempt to hold craigslist accountable.

Craigslist’s terms of use embody a protracted list of prohibited topics and language, including Abusive, unlawful, discriminatory, harmful, harassing, defamatory, or calumniatory language, Posts that reveal some other person’s non-public info, Job posts that violate Equal Employment chance laws Housing posts that contravene the honest Housing Act Posts that impersonate somebody else, unless the position could be a nondeceptive parody of a vital person Scam ads Ads that publicize misappropriated services Posts that embody laptop viruses or different harmful code

Revenge Through Classifieds

In Tacoma, Wash., police charged a feminine craigslist member for a second-degree felony, mischievousness, and criminal impersonation for a stunt she forced on craigslist. The lady denotes an advert on craigslist that merely aforementioned “Come and take something you want” and gave a home address. Folks that saw the ad ransacked the house, inflicting quite $1,500 in damages [source: The News apsis.com]. The house truly belonged to the woman’s kinswoman, whom the lady felt due penalization for insulting her mother.