Posted on 05/06/2008 11:51:23 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
Doug Kelley was perplexed when Craigslist ads for his Sacramento carpet-cleaning business started disappearing from the popular Web site. Every time he re-posted one of his classified ads, it would vanish - often within minutes.
After competitors' ads started showing up, some of them openly denigrating his company, West Coast Carpet Care, Kelley knew he had a problem.
Since then, Kelley estimates he has spent $11,000 in attorney's and court fees fighting his online business adversaries.
"You'd think (Craigslist) would want to get rid of the tweakers and keep good-quality, licensed business people who are productive members of society," he said.
Like other small businesses worldwide using the free classified Web site, Kelley stumbled last year onto a little-known dark side of Craigslist.
Some critics say it's a situation where anything goes, including slanderous attacks and competitors ejecting each other's ads in a process called "flagging."
Using conventional software to circumvent Craigslist rules, some individuals have figured out how to quash competition by removing ads of their rivals, whether they're house-cleaning services or real estate sellers.
Craigslist employs an automatic tool that yanks offensive or false ads if enough different users flag them. The problem: Single users can cheat the system with software that makes the flagging appear to be from multiple users.
It's a different form of Internet advertising sabotage, similar to "click fraud" where individuals repeatedly click on a rival's paid Web advertisement on Google or other search engines, to run up their rivals' costs.
They're also slamming each other with accusations of false advertising, bad business practices and even criminal activities.
"They're cybertrashing each other, whether bumping each other's ads off or defaming each other's products," said Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety, a volunteer network dedicated to Internet security issues.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
I have seen this behavior in some forums, but I thought it was done manually
Tech ping.
Here's the problem - the flagging process ought to bring the ad to the attention of a moderator, not automatically pull the ad.
I’m not in the same league, but I’ve had political posts pulled several times. And they weren’t offensive and violated no standards.
Craigslist states in the agreement that a post can be flagged for being too commercial.
I’m a Carpet Cleaner in Phoenix and the same thing happens here.
Re-post your add and get over it.
I bet there is a 100% chance that the person complaining is over posting his listing like all the other carpet cleaners, he thinks he owns the place and this guy thinks he is special so he hires a lawyer.
For free you get what you pay for.
I’m glad he wasted $11,000.
That is a lot of rug sucking.
I get kicked off the “Lesbians for Lesbians” all the time ;^)
I don't know squat about "CraigsList", but if it's an advertisement (as described in the article) how can it be "too commercial" ?
Now I know what's happened to all those ads labeled "personal" ...
Anything that can be done manually can and will be done with a “program” that does all the manual things digitally with only enough finger action to start the program.
How many moderators are there on a very large free service?
Apparently, not enough.
Well, that was dumb.
“You’d think (Craigslist) would want to get rid of the tweakers and keep good-quality, licensed business people who are productive members of society,” he said.
Nope not at all! Craigslist was made by tweakers, used by twealers, and funded by tweakers, so get used to it or sue their tweaker butts off!
It's not an altogether capitalism-friendly community. A few months ago when Nintendo Wii systems were in very high demand, I got my ad yanked, apparently because they thought my profit margin was simply too high.
Probably none.
Well, maybe, maybe not. Even if it might have a few warts, they do provide a free service a lot of folks use. Meanwhile, ScrewBay, aka Ebay, thru nefarious means has gotten a 26 or 28% interest in the private company craigslist. And you know they've got in mind it take it over, since craigslist has cut into their profits. I hope ebay does not get control of craigslist.
As far as pulling ads, both ebay and craigslist do it, for varying reasons. For example, both of them pull down any ads for Southwest Airlines Rapid Reward vouchers, I presume because S-West gave them both a rash about it. And if you put just about any software up on screwbay with the name Microsoft on it, there's a good chance they will yank it. Ebay doesn't look at what the item is whatsoever. If M-soft tells them to yank it (VERO rights BS), then they pull it and say unkind things to the member who posted it.
I wondered if the 64 was stolen and listed for a quick sale...
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