please help me understand

[DinhRose]

i dont understand craigslist! More specifically i dont understand people flagging ads. They keep flagging my ad for a cell phone for removal? Yet strippers can advertise on there. Oh well i guess if it doesn't involve sex than craigslist will not allow it. Lol.

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[lowly monk]

I just stay away from CL.

 

[tlfreek]

It's not craigslist its the community. One of the cons of having a community monitored forum - things get flagged.

I've had similar experiences with motorcycles - just assumed it was competition flagging my stuff so their bike would be unique.

still a very cool idea -

 

[The B]

craigslist rocks... how did we ever sell our junk before? and i've definitely found some righteous deals on stuff..

my ads get flagged often... generally because they're slightly outside the guidelines or questionable. there are a LOT of self-proclaimed "craigslist guardians" who browse craigslist flagging ads all day long.... sounds very sad and pathetic, and it is. but the website still rocks.

 

[DinhRose]

you know i never thought of competition flagging my stuff before. Good point. Dont get me wrong i love cl but i just cant wrap my mind around how petty people can be with the site. I was selling a cell phone?! I understand if i was selling questionable items and/or services but a cell phone? Oh well i'll give in to the evil known as ebay then.

 

[The B]

you know i never thought of competition flagging my stuff before. Good point. Dont get me wrong i love cl but i just cant wrap my mind around how petty people can be with the site. I was selling a cell phone?! I understand if i was selling questionable items and/or services but a cell phone? Oh well i'll give in to the evil known as ebay then.

you never know.. my wife gets stuff flagged all the time, actually, now that i think about it- and all she ever posts is straight up regular ads with baby clothes and appliances and normal stuff.

lots of A-holes out there, i guess.

 

[deadeye]

Look at it as "You get what you pay for".

 

[DinhRose]

well if anything i really enjoy the responses from cl. It's concrete proof that public education has failed the users. There's rampant poor grammar and misspellings

 

[RVTECH]

The 'Free' category really helped with Spring Cleaning of my shop today and saved a trip to the dump!

 

[RVTECH]

Once you learn the 'quirks' of CL you'll find it is a very powerful (and free) tool.

 

[mjbskwim]

It's not craigslist its the community. One of the cons of having a community monitored forum - things get flagged.

I've had similar experiences with motorcycles - just assumed it was competition flagging my stuff so their bike would be unique.

still a very cool idea -

Well if you are one of those jerks that put your motorcycles in the RV section,then I flag your ads(except I don't look at Portland CL much)

Mostly you ad gets flagged because you didn't post it in the appropriate section.(motorcycles and quads in the RV section is big up here.If I want a quad,I look in the motorcycle section)
And I noted in one ad how much cheaper my 5th wheel was than comparable posts.Yeah they didn't like that much.

But if you post in the Seattle CL,be very careful what you put in the garage sale column cause it will get flagged and removed before you can check on it.

Remember...use the proper section for your goods!

Oh and I love to look at the personal section.You can tell when the guys answer the W4M a lot.The ads are by the hundreds.

So up here I posted an ad stating that the guys must be falling for the bots.Nothing sexual at all.
I got 5 emails in about 5 minute saying I'm just the guy they are looking for,check out my profile

Good times on CL

 

[CAL30M1]

I hear you. I can't stand CL. Whenever post high end guitars for sale they get flagged within minutes. It irritates the heck out of me.

 

[teflon6string]

Generally, I find CL to be THE place to buy/sell personal toys (guitars, amps, motorcycles, cars, trucks, kayaks, etc).

There are the standard scammers (bots). "Is item still in sale best price plase?" I get 5-10 of those for every ad I post. Their goal is pretty straightforward, fishing for phone numbers and active email accounts to exploit. At this point, CL is still a filter. Bots won't know your actual email address or phone until you respond, even just to tell them to die. But a little judicious screening sorts them out from real contacts, and CL remains a viable way to connect with legit buyers and sellers.

Sadly, serial ad flaggers can be far more irritating because they're actual humans (not bots) who will single out your ad for personal reasons beyond multi-category spamming, pawn shops and car dealers "selling this one for a friend" posing as private parties, and keyword abuse (sorry, a Suzuki 250 with dorky handlebars is not a "chopper").

Impotent self-righteousness, anger, stunted personality disorders, straight up insanity and getting back at childhood bullies are common motives - usually a dysfunctional combination thereof. And, if they really have a bug up their butt, they'll do it over and over again, never explaining to you what their problem is in the first place. From the safe perch of anonymity, cowards can target and harrass anyone they want to. 99% would not badger you if doing so involved identifying themselves.

So while I've often wished we could make gun deals on CL (this week I have a monstrous bass amp I'd love to trade for a used 44 mag lever gun), I guess I don't need to include an unstable whack patrol among my list of correspondents regarding firearms. It would be great to have a way to respond to flaggers. At least ask them why. Unfortunately, CL cannot add a 2-way link to the flagging circuit without charging money or requiring registration - and then atrophy as a result.