(craigslist traffic) Jim's "selective" statistics...

again, he "forgets" to mention Alexa -- 5th paragraph-- (something they used to do all the time when things were truly going well...) as I've said before, absolute numbers are not the relevant metric (you would expect them to grow as more people go online etc.) How has craigslist been doing relative to other sites gives a much more accurate image of what's really going on: craigslist's Alexa rank has gone down significantly since I started checking it in 2006 (7th at its best, 12th at its worth; it does fluctuate a bit, of course, -- it is 11th at this point -- , for instance, but that does not change the fact that it's been a definite downward spiral... from 7th to 11th, assuming it's not going to go back to 12th and lower... -- I doubt it...).

Delia

(Steve Outing) interesting experiment...

Hi Steve!

I hope that after this little (apparently unintended) experiment, you will walk away with a much less naive notion of what craigslist is all about. I didn't give your letter much importance when I first saw it (although your suggestions were not bad, your characterization of what craigslist is and does sounded way to groupie-like to take seriously). I *am* pleased to see that it has gained some traction (other articles and people, such as Jay Rosen, mention it) and I hope it will be a learning experience for a lot of people.

Delia

P.S. take care! D.

is Craig planning to retire on his own island?

Although this was no at all what he asked people for when he turned for profit (he just asked if he could charge to pay the bills), you'd think at the kind of profits they've been racking in, he's made enough off of craigslist to retire a long time ago if he just wanted a regular retirement (like he implies) and..."a little bit more"... (last sentence)

Delia

P.S. at one point I really thought these guys were great... (Voice of America); now they sound like idiots... (doing little more than repeating the ridiculous PR Craig feeds them) D.

is craigslist in a panic over their legal issues?

MORE: anonymous bellow sort of got the idea, although he is a bit confused as to what really matters -- it's NOT the size of the place, it's achieving critical mass *in a particular location* (having extremely few ads pre-charging shows it's nowhere near critical mass).

re: "Right now in Boston and Chicago, you only have half a page of jobs up. And that isn't even accurate since focus groups and egg donations aren't jobs, those should be gigs. So really, you have very few job ads up. Now imagine if you charged a fee in Denver or Houston. You would probably only have a couple of ads up right now, since those cities are so much smaller. If there's only a handful of jobs posted a day, your readers are going to go elsewhere, and with no readers, your employers are going to go elsewhere."
(anonymous craigslist poster)

intending to charge fees before hitting critical mass...

Delia

P.S. dumb idea... UNLESS they think it's closing time so they'll take whatever they can get...

(craigslist prostitution) people worth reading and quoting

Hi, Mark! (7th comment)

Trench is not bad... I mean, back when he started his blog I was glad someone else was taking a critical view of craigslist and keeping it up but I don't find his analysis particularly insightful.

Here are a couple of people I found worth reading and quoting on the subject of craigslist prostitution: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (the existence of craigslist's erotic services "increases traffic and generates a number of users [to the site], which in turn enhances their revenue);" Steve Diamond, business law professor at Santa Clara University ("Newmark and Buckmaster are driven mostly by self-interest") and University of B.C. associate law Prof. Janine Benedet ("there is an argument they are really sort of pimping").

Take care!

Delia