Backstabber Report

Craigslist – The Spam Generator and Troll Watering Hole

I haven’t used Craigslist much. In fact, it has been years. Recently, I decided to list my iPad on CL, hoping to avoid the fees on eBay.

All I can say is, Craigslist is a piss pot full of people who don’t seem to have a life. Truly, the patients are in charge of the mental ward.

Within minutes of listing my iPad I started receiving spam mail to my email I use for things I expect to get spam from. CL was one of these, but I never expected so much. I loved some of the responses from people as they tried to sell me their crap. Such as, “I was really drawn to your ad and that’s why I want to share with you my secret for making money. CLICK HERE”

Wow, I didn’t know my iPad ad could be so moving.

In another spam mail, “I saw your item and seeing how you know your stuff I knew you would want to see this immediately.” (“see this” being a link)

I love generic emails that can be sent to anyone about anything they might have listed in any category.

Within 15 minutes I had 100 spam emails and no offers to buy my iPad. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

My listing was flagged and removed. What the Hell?, I thought. Why was my ad a problem? I followed the link in the email to the “flag help” area. It was there I discovered things I didn’t know about Craigslist.

It seems anyone can now flag a listing for removal and it does not require any real explanation. There is also no delay in the removal to give you a chance to argue for your listing to remain in place because you haven’t broken the guidelines. As soon as somebody flags it, the listing is down.

This has given the nutjobs carte blanche to wreak havoc on people listing items and even personal ads. Some are so anal as to flag a listing because of too many mis-spellings. Others flag for things like an iPhone being listed in electronics instead of cell phones. Considering an iPhone is far more than just a cell phone, what moron sits around their computer all day waiting to flag everything that they see.

I started looking at the threads created by Craigslist users asking why their listing was removed. This is the area where the trolls love to gather as they answer questions. Now, some were removed for legitimate reason, such as selling puppies, but others were nothing more than spiteful and sophomoric.

One girl posted a personals ad looking for a man. I won’t go into detail about the ad, other than to say it was not offensive or sexual in nature. She listed what she was looking for in a man and what her interests were. She provided a picture. Her ad was flagged and removed. She wanted to know why.

The answers she got ranged from, “You’re too long winded” to, “You look like you might be fat.” Others said they didn’t like the picture that showed her nose ring, while others wanted her to post pictures showing her body – not just her face. It quickly became a bunch of assholes attacking a 27 y/o woman who didn’t meet their requirements of a woman who could list a personal ad seeking to meet a man.

Why do these Internet gangs form? Because Craigslist does not monitor their own website. They leave it to their members to be watchdogs and make decisions about what listings stay and which are removed. Since there is no recourse to appeal to people running CL, the most aggressive of the CL users have taken over.

This has led to fair-minded individuals leaving Craigslist to the trolls. Trolls being the members who eliminate competition to products they might be trying to sell themselves, or they simply want to stir up a fight by flagging ads so they can make comments about the individual who listed it. These trolls also realize that since CL has nobody in charge there are no repercussions for their offensive behavior.

The original concept of Craigslist served a purpose when they first started. Sadly, it has become a monster out of control that the founder has left to it's own devices.

No wonder sane people no longer use it and the only people who join it now are the scammers, spammers, and socially challenged.