craigslist online community is a favorite site of mine
Written: May 07 '05
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One does not need to sign up or register to utilize any of the one hundred craigslist sites that represent cities within twenty countries. You do need to adhere to the rules of the site when submitting a post and have the opportunity to maintain your post with options to delete and edit or simply let the post expire on its own.
Upon arrival at either www.craigslist.org or www.craigslist.com you will be at the San Francisco board that first launched in March of 1995. According to the fact sheet the two cities I have utilized, being Los Angeles and San Diego, started in August of 2000, along with New York, Chicago, DC, Portland and Seattle. Earlier this year Zurich, Rome, Seoul, Buenos Aires and Mexico City were launched. The additions are based on user request. craigslist was incorporated as a for-profit in 1999.
All craigslist.org sites are laid out in the same gray shade with the links and forums in blue. To the right side of the page you will find all the cities a site is available. The communities are broken down into countries with some links in red. The left side of the site has the search feature, which is a great tool to use and categorized for each subsection. I regularly use autism in the childcare area to see who else is seeking help and who is a specialist looking for clients. I have searched for math tutors in the services area under lessons with my main search usage being in housing for specific areas and criteria for my match like two bedrooms and rent maximum amounts.
The craigslist site has the following subsections:
Community - this includes childcare, pets, events, lost+found, politics, musicians, classes, volunteers, rideshare, artists, activities, news+events, general and groups.
While planning a trip to Sea World in San Diego this past spring break I regularly checked the rideshare area to see if anything of interest was posted. From my browsing this area over a period of time the posts are college students and younger adults wanting to share rides to San Francisco, east coast and to Las Vegas. I really never saw people posting looking to share rides back and forth to work on a daily basis.
Volunteer postings are from non-profits and start up companies with the opportunity to make money, get a free haircut, be an extra in a movie, work in shelters, mentor a child, teach another language, etc. I have not responded to any postings in this section since I utilize www.volunteermatch.org and am a member of www.beinamovie.com and www.tvtix.com.
Housing - apts/housing, rooms/shared, sublets/temporary, housing wanted, housing swap, vacation rentals, parking/storage, office/commercial and real estate for sale.
This section has many pages of listings, especially over the weekend when apartment managers and real estate companies post openings along with pictures. Each page contains 100 listings. The volunteer med student we had last year found his apartment on this site. The search option has keywords, which I have used for various suburbs within Los Angeles and the boxes to check off if you have cats or dogs and want a place that accepts them. There is a box for minimum and maximum rental amounts plus the number of bedrooms you seek, with the range from 0-6.
There are links at the top of the page to click on to read a success story, the LA BBB, housing forum, credit reports and Tsunami relief. I have never clicked on any of the links or reported postings. At the very top of the pages when viewing under any subsection you can click on help or post, which is located at the right side of the screen.
I am a renter so cannot utilize housing swap, but have looked around at the shared rooms and housing wanted to see what people are paying and willing to pay. There are many moving out to Los Angeles or transferring to the area and seeking to sleep on a couch, clean your house for a place to crash and lots of private rooms available for decent prices. In all postings the area will be mentioned, for example - " this is in or around Hollywood area". Some listings have websites to check out further listings, many have phone numbers posted, others you need to contact them via email. All posters have the option of using an anonymous email through the site or posting your own within the listing. I have always opted to anonymize mine and have used several different emails for craigslist to send the replies along to.
jobs - some of the forums include accounting, biotech, customer service, education, legal, medical, marketing, nonprofit, retail, sales, skilled trade, tv/film, web and writing. There is also an ETC and part time link.
I have skimmed around a few times under health, education and non-profit to see what companies and schools were hiring. I have noticed postings for the disabled community and noted what the amounts being offered were. There are additional options to include in this section with most stating they do not want phone calls or recruiters and you need to send a resume to apply for jobs with the criteria and specifics posted.
personals - strictly platonic, women seeking women, women seeking men, men seeking men, men seeking women, misc. romance, casual encounters, missed connections and rants and raves.
I have looked around here on weekends when bored and found interesting postings. The missed connections are usually someone mentioning a specific person they saw at some club and did not get to exchange data, someone they spotted at the mall or someone they went to school with and want to reconnect.
The platonic area consist of postings looking for someone to walk pets with and hang at the park, go for coffee, talk on the phone, etc. Many have a photo posted and their listings have codes like m4m-27, w4w-22. Many are new to the area and want someone to hang out at the beach with or nighttime concerts.
for sale these include barter, auto parts, bikes, baby+kids, free, tickets, furniture, computer, jewelry, garage sale, household, sporting, tools, wanted and others.
I have utilized this section quite often with posts under free, tickets, barter, household and baby+kids. I gave away clothing, yugioh cards, toys, bedding and pillows and toys. Within the free stuff I posted a stack of National Geographic magazines, a holiday card organizer, foot spa and rice cooker. Just last week I sold under tickets two to Disneyland for $20 each. I have had repeat people come to my house for items under separate listings. I listed bedding under household and toys under baby+kids, as well as a case of GoodNites.
services computer, automotive, household, erotic, event, financial, lessons, legal, labor/move, skilled trade, real estate, therapeutic and small business ads.
Please note that the erotic section has explicitly sexual content, with photos and users must be at least 18 years of age and release and discharge the owners of the site from any liability before you can enter the erotic section. The postings range from nude massages, photo shoots and those seeking sexual relations.
I use the services section often in search of tutors and handyman services to see what the prices are. I did post here once looking for lawn service, but the fees were too high and many were in other parts of the county not willing to come to my area for a low fee. I did find some autism therapists that emailed me their resumes under therapeutic and lessons, but most under this section are college students wanting to help those in high school and massages are in the therapeutic area. I found someone called a subby hubby who was only charging $9.00 per hour to do chores around the house. His listing had a lot of examples of cleaning windows, ceiling fans and shopping. It turns out he was in the west part of the valley and too far a distance to come to my area.
gigs - this is in a red marked link. Creative, domestic, event, labor, writing, crew, resumes and talent.
I have checked this area out several times with many postings in search of deliverymen, waitresses, drivers, research participants, models and spokespersons.
discussion forums - there are many here with the messages being displayed below one another. I find this sytem hard to follow along and have only looked around the parenting, health and education ones utilizing the search function for specific areas. Some of the forums include over 50, queer, fitness, film, education, housing, politics, wedding, gaming, garden, music, legal, money, kink, jobs, spirits and testing.
If you want to post in the discussion forums you will need to register. The kink/fetish forum has a policy of no personal ads. Everything posting on the www.craigslist.org or .com sites are the sole responsibility of the person of whom such Content originated. craigslist does not pre-screen or approve Content, but it does reserve the right to refuse, delete or move content for violating the spirit of the terms of the site.
There is a privacy policy and copyright infringement policy on the site. Posts cannot be threatening, abusive, deceiving, harmful to minors, degrading on the basis of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, religion, age or disability. No postings of illegal services, unlawful behavior, spam, stalking or computer viruses. Only the services section allows the use of commercial websites.
I also learned of another rule I tried to break when I posted the same ad in two different areas under service. I was allowed to post it under barter and household, but when I attempted to gain more exposure by placing it under skilled trade I got a message stating I would have to delete the posting beforehand. It was mentioned that many complaints about the same postings in many areas was the reason this rule had been enforced.
This also pertains to posting the same thing in more than one Metropolitan city. I have seen many respond to postings and warn others of scammers in hopes that the original posting would get deleted. I have followed many stories on the site in amusement when people get irritated over other postings and the amount of money they are selling something for or wanting to pay for an item.
There was this one female who has a company and was trying to get people to give her free stuff because she has a child with autism. Yet her postings and responses made no sense and a few of us spotted her posting in San Diego and San Francisco and warned others.
The site also has an events calendar on the left side of the page with the current date in yellow. The time is displayed on the site as well. It has taken no more than ten minutes for a posting to appear. After you click on to post and adhere to the rules you have the screen to add your data, your area, amounts and specifics relating to the section before completing the post.
There is an additional step you need to follow in order for a posting to appear. The email will be from craigslist.org with the subject line - POST/EDIT/DELETE(free stuff) Intex Jumpolene. The data in the parenthesis represents the section being posted in with the rest the title of your post.
There is a link in the email that is used to have the listing appear, and can be used to delete and edit. Depending on the section and location being posted the expiration date can be from 7 days to one month.
The posting I made in San Diego under childcare for someone to go with me and my children to Sea World for two days expired in one month. However, since this is a busy section I posted it once over a weekend and then the following midweek. I received many responses and some from people for future visits and with tips on our visit. My posting was very specific with the dates we would be going and the amount I was willing to pay and then if experienced with autism the maximum rate I would pay. The person I found even picked us up at the train station and took us shopping at Target after registering with Holiday Inn.
I posted in barter back in November of 2004 that I had two tv/vcr combos that were not working and if someone would fix one they could have the other. The guy I chose picked up the tv and went home to fix it and came back with the finished television. He was friendly and honest - even forgot he had a porno movie in the tv that he needed to remove.
The therapists I responded to all sent me their resumes with their backgrounds in working with autistic children. Unfortunately their fees were out of my price range. I have noticed that they are still posting quite regularly, so maybe it will dawn on some posters that their fees are too high for families.
I did respond to a college student who had a website posted for her babysitting, yet she never replied back. Awhile ago I wanted to find a therapist for myself and found someone who was willing to work with me in my home, but the added expense was too much since she only offered weekly. When I first received the Portable DVD player from Epinions as a holiday gift I posted on craigslist looking for someone to help me figure it out. A nice fellow called me on the phone and walked me through the process and it turned out the unit was defective as I had thought.
Personally I turn to craigslist for all my needs. It is like a phone book on my computer screen with many options to explore. I can see who is offering childcare in my area, what the rents are in my community and the ones I want to move to, find some interesting free items and barter with others to get items and services handled. My only complaint is having a dial-up connection and having respondents giving me their phone numbers to call for more details. I feel when I post on the computer I want to deal with email before making a call to finalize the deal.
I find the ease of posting and managing my listings far superior to the Free Cycle system of yahoo groups. There are many cities across the country and abroad that have a board and forums to help those moving and travelling. Before we head off to our next vacation I will be visiting other craigslist sites for ideas in various communities.
It would be nice if someday you could subscribe to a forum and get notified of specific postings that fit your search patterns, but that is more wishful thinking than an actual complaint. I tell many I encounter about craigslist and most already are aware of the community and activities on the site.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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