In the coming months, Craiglist will begin charging fees for some of its listings. New York City real estate listings will be the first to get the fees. –Slashdot
I’m sure everyone who read this did a double take. But what defines your place in life is why you stopped to look twice. You had one of these reactions:
- Begin charging fees?! This goes against everything Craigslist stands for in my life! What’s going on here?!
- Begin charging fees?! You idiots, Craigslist has ALWAYS charged fees!
And if you had the second reaction, you’re probably a San Francisco Bay Area resident who has worked at an office that tried to hire people. Those ads cost $75 a pop, and they’re the source of much pain. Did you know that Craigslist is a for profit enterprise? Don’t be fooled by the dot org… anyone can use that domain suffix. And their lovely Victorian house-turned-office-building on 9th and Irving has a bright, happy staff that gets paid. Yes, I’m a Craiglist junkie. I’ve gained a desk, a bookshelf, an apartment, a job, and several graphic designers from them. I’ve even used them to find my soul mate. His name is Craig Newmark. And he doesn’t know it yet, but he’ll be mine someday. But I digress. The kicker to this story (for all you who fell into the first category of double-takers) is that the community BEGGED Craigslist to start charging for ads. Some people take advantage of Craigslist by deleting and resposting their ads several times a day. It moves them to the top of the list. So if you’re apartment hunting, service hunting, or job hunting (in a city that doesn’t currently have to pay to post ads), you see the same handful of ads all day long, every day, pushing the others out of the way. It’s just plain obnoxious. The fee will discourage that behavior. Why do I really care? These days I can identify with Craig-my-soul-mate in this dillemma — how do you keep a community in check when you know imposing limits will anger many of them? The internet is based on freedom and self-regulated anarchism. People get mad when you mess with that. The Writ (that literary community I help manage) is going through a surge of growth and development right now. In the midst of all this, there’s a heated debate about censorship. One community member has been testing the limits, commenting disrespectfully, posing as other members, and generally pissing people off. I said let him be, ignore him, and he’ll get bored, but apparently my plan failed. This has been going on for six months, and cyber books are starting fly at cyber heads. Some sites shut down in these situations. Others try to grin and bear it. And still others impose restrictions. As we see with Craigslist, sometimes a community actually wants restrictions so they can feel some peace… even if it discourages newcomers and limits who can participate. I don’t have any answers on this one yet. I know we need to promote peace and respect, but I really don’t want to inhibit freedoms. To me, online community is about fluid structure, collective mentality, expression, opportunity, freedom, and respect. It’s interesting — I can’t really wrap my brain around any deviation from that concept.Even though I know Craigslist has always charged fees, I’m in the first category of double-takers. This goes against everything Craigslist stands for in my life! What’s going on here?!
Posted in Community | 
2 Comments » | February 4th, 2006
