STILL MORE:
EVEN MORE: CL User: as far as I can tell, if KIM is doing something illegal and posting it on craigslist, craigslist is legally obligated to remove her ads once it is made aware of the fact. I believe Sarah gave them all the information she needed to give them (they could have easily verified if KIM has a license to run a charity or not.
Delia
P.S. I believe posting on the craigslist boards regarding such things is a waste of time (look how much good it did regarding prostitution before Blumenthal got involved) D.
MORE: CLuser:
re:"Again, this is not the right place to be airing such grievances." --> I agree, Sarah would do much better to contact people like Richard Blumenthal who are in the position to *make* craigslist do something about it... (like he did re: prostitution)
what more could craigslist want Sarah to do than tell them this?:"There is a fake charity in Skowhegan ME. I contacted the Town office and Dept of State. This KIM has no license to run a charity."
all craigslist would have had to do is do what Sarah did (for *them*) -- pick up the phone and verify that KIM has no license to run a charity --> this would have taken less time and effort than emailing back and forth and demanding that *Sarah* PROVES what she just told them (how ridiculous)
Delia
P.S. they are apparently annoyed that she found out there is something illegal going on and would like her to shut up and move on... D.
....
(comment-138079190) CL user: you are talking like a "crazy person", yourself:)... -- "the systems" just don't work in the vast majority of cases (nowhere enough craigslist "customer service" people)
Delia
P.S. apparently, Craig & Co just don't want to spend the money so people like Sarah are just left to talk to themselves until they figure out they are just wasting their time and move on...
P.P.S. assuming Craig reads the comments (fair assumption I would think -- there really aren't that many), Sarah has publicly (on his blog) brought to his attention that something clearly illegal keeps being posted in a particular place on craigslist -- I would think that this would make craigslist legally obligated to do something about it... but I could be wrong... D.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
2 comments:
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Hi Delia:
I have been complaining to Craigslist about this issue for several months, through their recommended onsite channels, flagging the posts, writing to abuse@craigslist.org & their online form. I even attempted to post to their online forums. (What a joke that concept is. Most of the replies are monosyllabic and lack all the graces of formal and informal prose. Craig must be so proud of his staff!) They repeatedly refused to do anything to resolve the issue. The fake charity ads are still there!
I was becoming annoyed with seeing the person, about whom I filed the complaint, beg for farm animals/livestock, then turn around and gloat that there are now too many and sell the offspring for profit, only to beg for more at a later date (only one example), which is what prompted me to take further action, well within the scope that my anti-geek brain would allow, of course!
I received several e-mail replies, allegedly from Craig himself. After I explained the situation in one e-mail, I received the following reply, and I quote in verbatim "just looked... can you send me some evidence that this is a scam? Craig". Wow, I thought, they just may attempt to rectify this problem! How delusional was I? Subsequently, my reply was to advise him to do the same thing that I did, contact the Town and State offices. His follow-up reply was, and again I quote in verbatim "I have no contacts. Craig".
Isn't that last comment contradictory? If you view his Facebook profile, you will see that he has rather influential contacts, one of whom is perhaps one of the most influential in the free world! After all, his profile photo is one, in which the new President-Elect has his arm around Craig, which must mean that Mr. Newmark IS an extremely important person by association, correct? (I hope and pray he doesn't invoke his contact to have my posting complaints about craigslist.org deemed a national threat and have the secret service eliminate me! In all this, must I not attempt to maintain my sense of humor?) He also has similar things posted to his blog, including self-promoting articles, etc.
Now, admittedly I am not a psychologist or medical professional, but I would surmise that if one must attach oneself to "celebrities" or those perceived by the public to be "important people" in such a blatant manner, then one must be very insecure and have many shortcomings. In such a situation, this person must present himself in such a manner, as to give the appearance and illusion of self-importance, which apparently is infused by osmosis! I reiterate, I am not a psychologist or medical professional.
Since making the post you read, I received an extremely nasty, derogatory e-mail letter. It was a personal attack on myself, my character, my mental stability, my love for animals, especially all cats from cute kittens to majestic tigers, and my lack of computer programming skills (For the record, I have never professed to be a computer geek and no one can accuse me of being one, ha ha.). I was further advised that it was inappropriate to post a complaint about a scam, to a blog post which is essentially about solutions to rectifying the problem of spamming (Guess I was spanked!)! I quote "Your posting of this on Craig's blog was inappropriate and not the place to leave such a message.". This retaliatory letter was obviously a knee-jerk reaction and retaliation, for my daring to initially post a comment on Newmark's blog, about this issue.
This letter to me, may have even been written by the esteemed Mr. Newmark himself, since it was his personal blog to which I posted the comment and apparently from where it originated, that is if he does personally reply to posts! The author may have been a coward, because it was anonymously sent. I can only speculate.
In the letter, it was intimated that I am crazy. May I assume this person also has a medical degree, or is at the least a brilliant clinical psychologist, which would qualify him to make such an insightful diagnosis of me sight unseen, in addition to being a grand master champion of computer games? So many talents. A truly gifted person, indeed. Here is a quote from the letter, which substantiates the diagnosis of me: "they look like the rantings of the old single crazy cat lady in town.". Not that it is relevant to the cause, but for the record, I am very ecstatically married to the man of my dreams, am not old and decrepit still being under 50, still love animals large and small, love nature and it's glories, and my husband and I have an amazing hobby farm on our rather substantial property. I do not profess to be a nuclear physicist, but I am college-educated and somewhat literate. If I were more happy with my personal life, I would have to become two people. Ahhhh, if only that were possible by mitosis.....
However, I would prefer to be the "crazy" person, who is sick and tired of witnessing good, hard-working people scammed and try to advocate on their behalf, than be a narrow-minded functionally-illiterate computer geek, who has no tangible knowledge outside the realm of bits and bytes & Dungeons and Dragons!
It is this woman's "considered opinion" that one of the reasons why craigslist.org staffers, perhaps even Newmark himself, wrote that vile derogatory letter to me, is because I brought to light one of their many shortcomings and highlighted the fact that they intend to do nothing to resolve the issue.
In summary, Craig/Craigslist.org obviously intends to do nothing to correct this ongoing problem, just like they appear to have done nothing about the other spam issues on their site. I offered, what appears to be a simple and reasonable solution to this problem, which is to implement a program whereby charities and nonprofits must include their registration/license number in their ads, just as they do in all other forms of advertising, but Craig and Craigslist do not wish to comply.
Have a Great Day, Sincerely, Sarah -
November 7, 2008 at 8:50 AM
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thanks for your comments, Sarah! I left a comment for you on Craig's blog. Good luck with everything! Take care! D.
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November 7, 2008 at 7:03 PM
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sorry about the delay... (was away for the day)
CLuser: sorry but I do not wish to follow you anywhere or anything of the kind (I've already said everything I had to say to you)
Sarah: I think you've done pretty much everything you could have done under the circumstances (and definitely a lot more than craigslist could have reasonably expected you to do)
If you really want to do more about this, I would contact legal institutions. If you have trouble with the local ones and believe they are corrupt or non-responsive for some reason, I'd go up the ladder.
Richard Blumenthal, although not the attorney general for your particular state is very familiar with craigslist issues so he would make a prime candidate if there is a way to just drop him a line somewhere (I'd keep it short and to the point, with hyperlinks to what you see as evidence and with a short story of what you've done so far including your contacting craigslist).
Delia
P.S. OK... I'm entirely done with this topic (didn't realize it was going to get this involved). D.
Take care everyone!
Delia