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Written by Timothy Johns

Category: Craigslist

Published: 19 March 2018

Last Updated: 19 March 2018

Hits: 1349

• craigslist
• craigslist spam

For years, it's been pretty undisputed that you'll find more spam than anything else on Craigslist.  Fortunately for CL, there has always been enough value in their listings to keep using it - and just skip over the spam.  Finally!  Finally, they seem to be doing something about it.  Recently they started charging for posts to some areas like Computer Gigs.  I've noticed way less spam on those pages... almost non-existent.  Good job to them on that.  But, while checking to see if they were actually charging, I noticed another big improvement...

At least I think this is new.  I noticed they have an agreement that you must agree to before publishing your post.  It lists tons of different types of fees that users will be punished with by doing things like posting for the sole reason to collect respondents' information, running automated software/scripts to post their spam, and just spamming in general.  I'll paste that part of the agreement below.

Thanks, Craigslist, for finally listening!

LIQUIDATED DAMAGES. You further agree that if you violatethe USE section, or you encourage, support, benefit from, or induceothers to do so, you will be jointly and severally liable to us forliquidated damages as follows for: (A) collecting/harvesting CL users'information, including personal or identifying information - $1 perviolation; (B) publishing/misusing personal or identifying informationof a third party in connection with your use of CL without that party'sexpress written consent - $1,000 per violation; (C) misrepresentingyour identity or affiliation to anyone in connection with your use ofCL - $1,000 per violation; (D) posting or attempting to post ProhibitedContent - $4 per violation; (E) posting or attempting to postProhibited Content in any paid section of CL - the price per postapplicable to that section of CL; (F) sending anunauthorized/unsolicited email to an email address obtained from CL -$25 per violation; (G) using CL user information to make/send anunauthorized/unsolicited text message, call, or communication to a CLuser - $500 per text/call/communication; (H) creating a misleading orunlawful CL account or buying/selling a CL account - $4 per violation;(I) abusing or attempting to abuse CL's flagging or reporting processes- $1 per violation; (J) distributing any software to facilitateviolations of the USE Section - $1,000 per violation; (K) aggregating,displaying, copying, duplicating, reproducing, distributing, orexploiting CL content for any purpose without our express writtenconsent - $3,000 for each day you engage in such violations; (L)requesting, viewing, or accessing more than 1,000 pages of CL in any24-hour period - $0.25 per page during the 24 hour period after thefirst 1,000 pages; (M) bypassing or attempting to bypass our moderationefforts - $4 per violation. You agree that these amounts are (1) areasonable estimate of our damages (as actual damages are oftendifficult to calculate), (2) not a penalty, and (3) not otherwiselimiting on our ability to recover under any legal theory or claim,including statutory damages and other equitable relief (e.g., for spam,we can elect between the above liquidated damages or statutory damagesunder the anti-spam statute). You further agree that repeatedviolations of the USE section will irreparably harm and entitle us toinjunctive or equitable relief, in addition to monetary damages.

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Written by Timothy Johns

Category: Craigslist

Published: 13 March 2018

Last Updated: 13 March 2018

Hits: 1202

• craigslist
• craigslist gigs

Craigslist will start charging for posting on Computer Gigs starting March 15th according to the website.  For some regions it will be $5 and some will only be $3. 

Is this a good thing?  I think so.  First, it should alleviate some of the spam.  I've been complaining about the amount of spam on Craigslist for years.  It deters legitimate businesses from posting projects when they see a bunch of crap like "Earn money from home", "are you sick of your job", "Amazon reviewers", etc.  They're all trash posts and make the whole category look bad.  Most of them aren't even readable with the amount of broken English, etc.  Can't wait until those dirty spam factories get shut down - at least in Craigslist Gigs category.

Second, it will alleviate some of the 'cheapos'.  The people that offer no pay.  Or the people that offer 50% of the business, that is making zero presently.  Who in their right mind even respond to such garbage offers.  "I have an idea...".  Don't we all? I have plenty of ideas that I would create websites or web apps for if I had plenty of time on my hands and plenty of money.  But, if you're looking for projects on CL, you're probably not in that boat either.  Oh, and my favorite... "I need a college student...".  That's basically saying, "this is not paid".  Hopefully if these cheap-skates don't have money to pay for development of their business they also won't have that 3 or 5 dollars to post.  I've found that most of these people don't have plastic windows and cardboard walls in their physical storefront, but they want the cheapest possibly solution for the part of their business that could make or break it (the online presence). 

Anyway, for now I'm all for Craigslist charging $3 or $5 per post in Computer Gigs in hopes that it will again be a good place to post projects and a good place to find projects.  When posting projects, you'll still get inundated with junk from Pakistan & India claiming they can do the job for $10/hour.  Of course if you're gullible enough to bite that hook, you'll be dealing with broken English, availability of 2am to 6am, and the worst coding for your business possible.  Eventually, you'll just have to hire someone in the U.S. to clean it up and fix it, which will probably cost more than having it done here in the first place.