Craigslist is, for the most part, great. I’ve gotten work through it, sold things, bought things — just like a lot of people.
But there’s also a huge downside to it, as I learned yesterday (and again today).
Craiglist is self-policing, meaning that other users — regular folks, not designated admins — are the ones who can remove a post. In theory, it takes more than one person to cause a post to be taken down, but in reality it’s just a matter of having multiple logins.
In other words, your ad can be removed for any reason whatsoever, and you won’t even be told what that reason is. (That’s true even though a flagger has to choose from three options: miscategorized, prohibited, and spam/overpost. You’re not told which yours fell under.)
You have to post to a forum for discussing it, where people will speculate.
But that’s all it is: speculation. There’s no way to know. And, in fact, there are people who go around flagging posts just for the hell of it. In one case I know of, one person with multiple logins is removing every Craigslist ad posted by her former employer.
Here’s the ad I posted that was “flagged and removed” twice:
Here’s the deal: We publish a bi-monthly professional magazine dealing with the real estate industry that goes to about 40,000 people across Virginia. Every issue has one or two feature stories.
I’m looking for reporters to help create them.
That means calling folks across the state (99 percent of whom will be extremely happy to talk with you, which is cool), interviewing them, and organizing their comments into a coherent story.
Note that I said reporters, not writers. I’d love it if you were a great writer, but what’s most important to me — right now — is the reporting side. That’s because the mag is being heavily edited (or edited heavily) as we change styles. No point having you spend time writing if it’s gonna be rewritten.
Eventually I hope to find the perfect writer(s) with the perfect style, but for now I’d be happy with a good reporter or two.
The specifics:
For each story (one or possibly two every other month), I’ll give you the topic and we’ll talk about possible angles for the story. Yes, I definitely want your input.
I’ll give you some good contacts, and you’ll need to find others (e.g., “Call the National Association of Such-and-Such and get them to explain this”).
Then you go forth and interview three to eight people and chat with them for, of, 15 or 20 minutes each.
We pay $300 to $400 depending on the complexity and the number of calls (and, of course, we’d set the price for each piece ahead of time). No, you won’t make a living doing this, but it’s a nice bit of petty cash for not a huge amount of work. And it could even end up being a regular gig.
You need to know what makes a story interesting and who can help you do that. You need to be articulate, have a great phone and e-mail presence, a sense of humor, know how to interview people, and be able to write it all up. And, of course, you need to show me — writing samples, résumé, etc.
If you have experience in real estate or financial services, that’s great but certainly not required.
All that said, if you’re interested or have questions, let me know!
Why was it removed? One person didn’t like my opening phrase, “Here’s the deal” and said that was probably why. Another didn’t like the tone of the ad. Another thought it was too wordy.
In other words, ads will disappear from Craigslist because people don’t like a phrase you use or your tone of voice. We’re not talking about writing something offensive; we’re talking about “I would have used a different tone.”
Wow.
One person on the ‘discuss why your ad was deleted’ forum sent me a nasty note calling me an arrogant SOB who didn’t deserve any responses. (This may or may not be true. But if you don’t like the tone of an ad, how about, er, not answering it?
Nope. On Craigslist, if you don’t like the ad for any reason or no reason you can flag it for removal. You don’t have to give your name, don’t have to give a reason. Just … because.
Twice this has happened with the same ad. I’m gonna keep posting it, but I think I might just start flagging ads at random — become part of the problem. Because it really needs to become a big enough issue to be fixed.
The Fray
Admiral says:
I see nothing wrong with the way Craigslist does things. Why? It is public. That means if ANYONE disagrees with your post then stuff like you describe happens.
Same would be true if you were to put up fliers on electric poles. Someone may disagree with it and remove it from the pole.
You can become part of the “problem” and start flagging posts out of spite but, it seems that many have beaten you to that job.
Why not post on a job website?
If you do not like the way a service is presented there are many alternatives.
gnomic says:
Too many people think that you are entitled to not just thier opinion, but that you are entitled to have your life run by thier rules.
Its not surprising – That is exactly what the right wingnuts are preaching. And its how our leaders are behaving.
I police spam for an eco-blog and remove one type of ad that I belive is nothing more than a scam. But its not about thier tone; I will stop the minute someone reputable proves that thier claims are true. I let a lot of posts go by that I disagree with (well, I comment about my disagreement, but I don’t take any action) because the free marketplace of ideas is one of the things that make this country great.
And people that exercise censorship just because they can don’t understand American democracy.
Marie says:
I think the tone of your ad is very appealing. If reporting was my field, I’d want to see that ad. Hell, if writing was my field, I’d want to see it.
Maybe they should have the rule be that if people can click a link to have an ad removed, then others should be able to click an link to have it stay. Damn, I hate that.
I gave up on finding a job through Craigslist in my field in my small midwestern city. For about two months, every single ad, except one, appeared only to be a come-on to gather email addresses or some scam. I figured they were all posted by the same person (or fleet of people) because they all had similar wording and the same tone. The one ad that was legit? Yeah, it was removed. Don’t even get me started on the cars for sale ads.
Andrew, keep posting your ad, but please don’t become part of the problem.
David Lee Frater says:
Yes, we can just give up and go to another site, but that is rather defeatist isn’t it? I haven’t been to a single site, anywhere, that was run by what I consider to be fair standards at all.
Craigslist is not alone in their simplistic and myopic approach to web service management. Myspace, has even more random and silly rules and guidelines, they have automated checkers that search through any independent videos you created, and look for tags that may constitute a copyright infringement of some type. No person, no human being, ever reads the introductory paragraph to the video, in which it is explained, very carefully, that the background music used in your video production, is in fact, being freely distributed at several public domain sites, or, that perhaps YOU DO HAVE permission, and PROOF of permission to use the background music.
You can contest the automated bots decision to flag your piece as having violated a copyright, but, nobody ever reads the contention either, nobody ever reads ANY of the mail you send into Myspace management….
Ditto, ditto, for youtube as well, once you step on a button, THATS IT, your a bad boy now, a fiend, a spammer, and now the bots ARE OUT TO GET YOU…
For most of these sites, 3 strikes and your out…
They cancel your account, you may have been a member for over two years, you may have dozens of readers, fans, people who include you photographs, blogs, or videos on their pages as well… You may have spent hundreds of hours uploading tons of things…
And Whammo… all that work, all that effort, all those contacts…. Gone…
All because some automated bot thinks your a bad boy.
There has to be a better way to manage these sites… MUST BE.
David
Slappy says:
Wow. I feel your pain.
Our social ability to communicate courteously certainly hasn’t evolved enough has it? Maybe for fun try posting … “revel in as much hyprocrisy as you like … or don’t.” within the context of any issue in any message board, anywhere … watch the fall out … call it performance art.
Rage on Mr. Kantor.
Trae says:
I hate Craigslist for that very reason. The concept of self-policing is good, there are more people there to check on things than an office could employ, the problem is that once it’s flagged no one is there to review it and find out if it actually is a problem. I’ve had stuff flagged because (like you said) the tone was “inappropriate”. Who gives a shit about the tone?!?! Why is it that I can read that, find out I don’t have any interest in it, and move on? But someone else has to read it, find no interest in it, so feel it needs to be removed.
I’m really hoping Kijiji or iList gain enough market share to usurp Craigslist since they appear to have a much more solid model.