Joho the Blog
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June 22, 2006
Go, Craig! He begins by saying that he doesn't have the capacity to think in terms of "user generated content." [Did I mention: "Go Craig!"?] He says CraigsList is a flea market. People go there to buy and sell but also to talk with other people. The only only way the site can run is by counting on people policing the site as much as possible themselves. "People are overwhelmingly trustworthy." As a result of counting on self-policing, trust develops. He contrasts this with corporations that don't trust their customers. "I work with too many cops now that want me to be feisty. I'd rather have a nap." "I count on doing customer support only for the rest of my life. After that, it's over. The wisdom of the crowds works. "We do suffer from the problems of any kind of democracy." The site gets spam, worst being political disinformation. In fact, Craig says he was just "swiftboated." By way of hope, he points to Dan Gillmor's Center working on understanding citizen journalism and projects such as Congresspedia, a wiki about's who's buying Congress and what's written on the price tag. He says that in his little world, one of the thing's that's worked is remembering what it's like to be left out, and then include people. [Go, Craig. My hero.] [Tags: supernova craig_newmark craigslist] Posted
by D. Weinberger at June 22, 2006 12:29 PM
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Comments
People are inherently trustworthy? I guess he's never bought anything from craigslist. I've found most of the folks I've dealt with on craig's list to be world-class flakes. You set an appointment to see something, then you drive 45 minutes to see it and nobody's home. Then when you've gotten home you got a call, 'oh I forgot', with rarely a sorry.
Another time I looked at an apartment, I agreed with the renter to rent it and that we'd do the paperwork the next morning. So I drive (45 minutes again) to the place, nobody's there, call on the phone, and she decided to rent it to another party.
I gave away a matress on craigs list recently, with a twist. because of flakyness and the need to have the matress gone the week I was moving, the matress was free, but the taker had to leave a $20 deposit until they hauled off the matress. It'd cover the cost of having to drag it to the dump if they flaked out.
Craig's could use a poster rating system like E-Bay. I have the perfect name. flakeslist.org
Posted by: Greg | June 22, 2006 06:35 PM