Craigslist

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craigslist.com
E0867 craigslist-logo.png
CraigslistAA.png
"Screen shot of Craigslist for Ann Arbor Classifieds location taken October 2012" Site
Type E-Commerce
Launch Date 1995
Status Active
Product Line Shopping Website
Platform Cloud Service
Website www.craigslist.com


C
raigslist
is a free online forum where users can anonymously post and browse advertisements for goods and services. Similar to the classifieds section of the newspaper, the forum is unique to different cities and is divided into multiple categories. Craigslist does not offer any forms of secure monetary transaction, so users must personally communicate with the ad-poster in order to set up details for a transaction. The site is run by around 30 staff members out of California, and otherwise largely moderated by the community through the flagging of prohibited content.[1] Due to the shortage of formal authority and the anonymity of the users, many people view Craigslist as an unsecure route for online transactions. Additionally, media coverage of people using Craigslist unethically such as “Craigslist Killer” Philip Markoff also provided a negative reputation for the site.

History

The site was created in 1995 by Craig Newmark in San Francisco, who started a local email list, which then grew and became established as a for-profit company in 1999, however the site maintained the use of a .org domain to "symbolize a relatively non-commercial nature, public service mission, and non-corporate culture". The site is run today by Jim Buckmaster who is titled CEO since 2000. While the site gets more than 60 million new classified ads posted each month the company is run by only about 30 staff members out of San Francisco.

"eBay acquired roughly 25% of craigslist in august 2004."

Countries Available

US, Canada, Europe Asia/Pacific/Middle East, Oceania, Latin America, Africa covering a total of more than 700 local sites in 70 countries. The site supports 13 different languages, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Filipino, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portugese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.

Ethical Implications

Terms of Use

There have been many run ins with the law through activities on craigslist, in their Terms of Use they state, "You are also required to comply with, and to ensure compliance with, all laws, ordinances and regulations applicable to your activities on craigslist."

"Craigslist is intended and designed for users 18 years of age and older, and access or use by anyone younger is not authorized."

Prohibited Content

From the official CL Terms of Use[2]:

(1) illegal content
(2) content in facilitation of the creation, advertising, distribution, provision or receipt of illegal goods or services
(3) offensive content (including, without limitation, defamatory, threatening, hateful or pornographic content)
(4) content that discloses another's personal, confidential or proprietary information
(5) false or fraudulent content (including but not limited to false, fraudulent or misleading responses to user ads transmitted via craigslist)
(6) malicious content (including, without limitation, malware or spyware)
(7) content that offers, promotes, advertises, or provides links to posting or auto-posting products or services, account creation or auto-creation products or services, flagging or auto-flagging products or services, bulk telephone numbers, or any other product or service that if utilized with respect to craigslist would violate these TOU or CL's other legal rights
(8) content that offers, promotes, advertises or provides links to unsolicited products or services. Other content prohibitions are set forth in guidelines for particular categories or services on craigslist and all such prohibitions are expressly incorporated into these TOU as stated in section 1 above.

Flagging

Flagging is an available option given to help keep content on the site in "good-faith" according to its users. It is censorship by the public.

Guidelines: "A user shall not "flag" (or otherwise seek removal of) content on craigslist without a personal, good-faith belief that the content violates the TOU. A user may flag content only on his/her own behalf. A user must not permit, enable, induce or encourage others to flag content for them. A user must not flag content for others."

Privacy

Clprivacy.png

When creating a Craigslist account you can use your email or a handle for your login. Having a handle gives you the option to maintain an online identity and offline anonymity. When other users view your account then they will have no way of tracing your craigslist identity.

Also it is stated that at login "cookies must be enabled". Many users attempt to maintain more privacy by erasing their online bread trail. The way they can do this is through activating settings to clear cookies after leaving a window. So it is interesting that this login does not give the user the option, but insists cookies must be enabled. See full Privacy Policy When meeting up to make any transactions made over CL, the company is not held responsible for any actions or damage that may be caused.[3]

Security

Clsecurity.png

This warning is big and bold when you click to login. It infers that there are common scams and fraud that occur with Craigslist, since there needs to be this WARNING up front.

"The collection of craigslist users' personal information (including but not limited to email addresses, IP addresses and telephone numbers) is not allowed for any purpose."

"Any copying, aggregation, display, distribution, performance or derivative use of craigslist or any content posted on craigslist whether done directly or through intermediaries (including but not limited to by means of spiders, robots, crawlers, scrapers, framing, iframes or RSS feeds) is prohibited."

Fraudulent Posting

Since Craigslist is a free platform where anyone can post, there is a possibility for fraudulent posts. Users can advertise fake items and invalid information passing them off as genuine. Common scams include but are not limited to advertising fake products as real such as tickets or jewelry, job advertisements that involve money transfers with fraudulent checks, and product transfers with a fake Craigslist guarantee.[4] Yet, there is no third party detecting these scams to prevent users from becoming susceptible as Craigslist does not take any responsibility for postings. Craigslist does however provide basic guidelines to help users detect scams and protect themselves while users can also flag suspect posts.[5]

Personals

The personals section on Craigslist is where users can seek others for different types of interactions. Users can either seek others for relationships, friendships, meetups, or even sex. Through the section offering casual interactions the problem of prostitution arises. Although the "Erotic Services" section has been removed from Craigslist, users post similar ads under the personals section seeking the same services.[6] Unlike a controlled online dating website, Craigslist users can post anonymously about themselves. Also, there are no guidelines about what exactly to post so users could relay false information. This presents dangers to both parties in that meeting up with someone anonymously contacted online can be very risky. There have been many cases of Craigslist meetups gone awry.

"Craigslist Killer"

In 2009, media coverage of Philip Markoff's murder of Julissa Brisman sparked ethical controversies over the issue of anonymous online users meeting up in real life to make transactions. Markoff used Craigslist to hire three different women offering massage and lap dance services and met up with them in different hotels on different nights. He was suspected of robbing all three women, and the murder of Julissa Brisman. After his arrest, Markoff made several suicide attempts, and on August 15, 2010, he was found dead in his cell from self-inflicted wounds and suffocation. The Markoff case drew much media coverage and inspired The Craigslist Killer, a movie that aired on the Lifetime Network in 2011.[7] The media attention that correlated the killing with Craigslist negatively impacted the site's reputation and raised awareness about the dangers of online anonymity.

Reputation

While the site is reputable for being free to use and efficient in advertising to local communities, many people view it in a negative light because of the lack of security and the risk of dealing with anonymous traders.

Photo of Philip Markoff[8]

Copyright

See Infringement Claims

Platform

The site is a Google Site built in javascript. There are supporting formats for mobile and tablet, but they are not as often utilized and the site is not optimized for viewing on these alternative platforms.

Posting

Once a user creates a login they are then free to post ads for almost anything they have, however there are a few guidelines to follow. Since the site is "intended and designed as a local service," a user may post content only to the single specific geographic area offered on Craigslist (see http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites) for which that content is most relevant. The same or substantially similar content (for example, an ad for a particular item or service, a particular offer, a particular message or a particular comment) may not be posted to or communicated via more than one such geographic area. Content that is equally relevant to multiple (i.e., more than one) geographic areas should not be posted on Craigslist."

Because the site is a live form, posts are listed in order of the time they were posted. This enables users to see the most recent postings first, which is relevant since old posts may no longer be standing offers. However,if an ad is posted and not commented on for over a week, it is less likely the ad will receive much traffic because it will be pushed down on the list. The ad can still be found through relevant filters and searches, but reposting the ad will provide it the highest probability of activity. Due to the manner of this process there is a guideline that a "user may post the same or substantially similar content no more than once every 48 hours."

Movies

Lifetime Network aired The Craigslist Killer, a dramatized account of the Markoff case in 2011.

Zach Galifianakis is producing a movie on Craigslist, called "craigslist joe". View the trailer here. The movie will be out August 2nd

A 24 hour documentary has also been made and can be watched on youtube here.

Watch episodes of real people submitting real postings on Craigslist TV. Watch here. The series is now in its 4th season.


References

  1. Craigslist Fact Sheet
  2. CL Terms of Use
  3. HTTP Cookie on Wikipedia
  4. http://www.moneycrashers.com/types-common-craigslist-scams/
  5. http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
  6. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/05/no-erotic-services-no-problem-for-prostitutes-on-craigslist/
  7. Wikipedia of Philip Markoff
  8. 'Craigslist Killer' traced former fiancee's name on jailhouse wall in blood before his suicide

External links

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