Posted on 03/24/2008 9:55:48 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
>>So you’re saying that no one should assume any ad placed anywhere is valid? What about the responsibility of the ones placing the ad? How about those who are making money off the site?<<
You know the ad is valid because there is FOLLOW UP COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOU AND THE PERSON THAT RAN THE AD. I have NEVER acted on an ad without some sort of follow up communication.
Regarding those that make money off the site: If I rent a car from avis and use it to go to and get away from a bank robbery should avis be responsible because they made money off me?
Did craigslist make money off the ad in question? Trust me, they ones they get money from are quite legitimate and traceable. The others are a free service that I DO NOT want removed because someone found a way to use it to harm others on a VERY rare basis. I like driving my car even though some numbsculls crash their cars regularly, sometimes killing people.
Life is risk.
“Sounds like dad ran with the bunch around the ship channel around Mcarty street.Know that area and about the people during that era as well. I may have even known your dad, or, at least some of his friends.”
Interesting, they were take no prisoner types of business men that dressed well and played for keeps.
>>One could easily assume the ads placed are being vetted.<<
Only if they are a complete idiot or really, REALLY lazy.
Choose any category of Craigslist and this is what you are offered:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html
I repeat my first sentence.
“Was your Dad’s name Billy Sol?”
LOL, Billy Sol Estes, I remember that guy.
>>It is free to people who use it, but it makes $$ for Craig. Ergo, along with profits comes responsibility.
I believe courts have already laid this as precedent.<<
Yes, the part that brings dollars brings responsibility. the other parts don’t. As I mentioned in a previous post Craigslist is the model of the bulletin board in a restaurant or store that has business cards and ads posted to it. It is a free service of the restaurant that is otherwise “making money” from their site (brick and mortar). Making them responsible removes a useful service to them and their customers. Those posting the ads are responsible and, yes, there is precedent:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/fair.housing.html
So by your standards, I could post an ad saying, "Local bank to give away cash, simply walk in wearing a ski mask and brandishing a weapon and pass the teller your written note. That's all there is to it" and anyone showing up to follow that ad would be as innocent as a dove and shouldn't be prosecuted????. Why how were they to know that the bank wasn't serious????
Give me a break.
A wireless card could be used in a laptop at a free wi-fi site, and it wouldn’t be traceable.
>>Why is CL less liable than Ebay would be for selling vaporware?
Answer: It isn’t.<<
Sorry. You answered wrong. It is NOT liable. And the reasons are many, actually. For starters, they are not making money from the ads in question. Further, they do not edit the ads at all. It’s the old addage “if you don’t touch it, you are not responsible”. If they edited a single ad, they would suddenly become responsible for all of them. It is community monitored.
Craigslist runs under a completely different paradigm than Ebay and completely different rules apply. You don’t need a CDL to drive a pickup. And of course there is this: http://www.craigslist.org/about/fair.housing.html
Every time I read Tom Bombidil, I get flashbacks to Tim Benzedrine...
(a smile and a tug of the forelock to "Bored of the Rings")
>>So you’re saying that no one should trust any ad posted on the internet, and the operators of such sites are absolved from any responsibility for ensuring that what is posted on their sites is valid.
Got it.<<
If it were not for your obvious sarcasm, I would agree with you. The entire statement is basically true, unless the site specifically SAYS you can trus their ads. But that is a different animal than Craigslist. I never buy or sell there unless I get a confirming communication from the other party to the transaction.
As another poster clearly said, that is just “God-given common sense”.
‘Course, those who do not have the common sense God gave a turnip are destined to be in for “hard” times. And that was going on WAY before Craigslist.
The first folks to show up had to have broken into the house, if the man was out of town. The idea that someone wanted to have some ‘cover’ for a burglary sounds about right.
Tim, Tim Benzedrine
Hash, Boo, Valvoline
Clean, clean, Clean For Gene,
First, Second, Neutral, Park
High thee hence, thou leafy Narc!
An entire generation's minds ruined between that and Monty Python... ;-)
>>A wireless card could be used in a laptop at a free wi-fi site, and it wouldn’t be traceable.<<
Yup. And cops have had to deal with that sort of problem for as long as there have been cops. It’s why there are so many of them.
You're being purposefully obtuse. To quote Ronaldus Maximus, "Trust, but verify." Make a phone call and find out.
ping
Oh yea, back in the day, remember it well. Saw dust floor honky tonks, scams ran abundunt and the guy you were rubbing elbows with at the bar, the one with the cowboy boots and hat along with the diamond rings might be worth millions and out having fun, or, could be a nobody looking to score.Yup, back in the day when the cops walked in the bar you could hear a half dozen guns hit the floor.Back when a handshake really did mean something or meant nothing at all.If you ever heard the song Colorado Koolade, there was a lot more truth in that song than most people know.Been there, done that and I don’t care to relive it but wouldn’t take anything for the memories.
Verify with who? The person who posted the ad, or the operator of the website?
>>The idea that someone wanted to have some ‘cover’ for a burglary sounds about right.<<
I think that is on the top of the list of possibilities. I also think the people that showed up without talking to the owner were acting in a really stupid way.
Nobody has mentioned the guy in Seattle who listed his neighbors address as a place to basically get sex for money. A lot of people showed up and it became a big story against craigslist here in seattle.
But the same rules apply as applied here. A few radio talk show hosts went against their own core principles and thought Craigslist should be responsible.
What nobody thinks about is that one of the reasons these stories are stories is that they are so rare. And if they become common they will collapse of their own weight. That is, nobody will trust this kind of ad and few will show up at the site listed in the ad.
The only time a thing is legitimately listed as free is when it has little value - like a stack of old palat boards at a warehouse with a “free firewood” sign on it and placed on the stree. And even then one should be cautions.
Just taking obviously valuable stuff off someones property because of an anonymous ad on Craigslist is one of the dumbest things I ever heard of. And I’ve been on both sides of legitimate “free stuff” transactions on CL.
So you’d prosecute those who trusted that the ad had been vetted by the operators of Craig’s list? I see.
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