I’m debating on whether or not to make a Craigslist account to solicit a weird (non-sexual, get your mind outta the gutter!) social request from a stranger. Its harmless, really, and will only take a couple of hours. Knowing that these social media sites often have unwritten mores that members follow, is there anything I should do before I post this request? Does it let brand new members do it? Will people think I’m a serial killer for having exactly 0 posts before this one? Will people even know how long I’ve been on the site if I make a random user name and post tomorrow? And for my own sake, if someone responds a certain way, should I know that they are untrustworthy? Or is it like any other message board?
It’s not a message board and no one knows how many posts you’ve made. In fact, you can put up 10 posts in a row and now one will know they’re all from you (assuming they don’t match one to the other because something in the body or title links them together).
They’re just classified adds that are free and you post yourself.
Also, keep in mind that after a day or two, in some of the busier areas, you may need to repost your request or it fall too far down.
I see you already made your post, how did the replies go.
Sorry, but Craigslist has had too many issues with stalkers,strangers, murderers and weirdos to be useful for anything other than selling items, looking for day laborers and posting scams.
You’d do better posting something Facebook and waiting for your responses.
Several of your responses will be scams of various types.
I see, good luck.
Well I’m not going to respond to people asking for weird additions to my solicitation. I’m going to put it all out on the post, people can either agree to it 100% or ignore it, I’m not looking to negotiate, then we can meet somewhere for a couple of hours with no commitment. Should cut down on scams where they try to get me to give them money, right? No money will change hands, if they even ask for some confirmation or proof, I’m just going to ignore them. How hard could it be?
I hear this thrown around quite often without much to back it up.
Yes, there are weird people with bad intentions on any web site, craigslist included, but the same can be said about any bar, flea market or downtown street. Using common sense and precaution is a requirement.
That being said, I have hired painters, sold furniture, went on several dates and found a guitar teacher and a job from Craigslist without being rolled or scammed. And the people I met were all perfectly civil.
I can tell you lots of great stuff about Craigslist.
I’ll come back here in an hour and post about it.
This is actually Dan Quale. You can tell by the spelling of “potatoe.”
In my limited experience with Craigslist it is a good way to buy or sell items. In my area just the other day a man posted a whiskey still for sale. Of course, the first potential buyers were undercover cops.
He showed them the still, how it works and all the supplies he had including less than a gallon of moonshine. His ass is sitting in the local jail facing felony charges mostly relating to tax evasion. Dumbass.
Am I the only person gobsmacked that, in 2014, someone cannot figure out what craigslist is like? Without asking other people online?
Umm…you might want to re-read what I wrote.
Selling things and hiring people: OK
Meeting strangers for intimacy: No way
And frankly what “worked” for you may not work for others.
I’ve had some great experiences with Craigslist; hiring someone to help move an item, find a mover, etc. but you have to use common sense and be prepared for a deluge of dick pics if there is even the slightest hint that you are female in your ad.
So I did some serious browsing of Craigslist over the weekend. I noticed that some people leave their phone numbers in the post but they spell it out like “three oh five two…” Spammer filter, I gather, but I was surprised people have no problems leaving phone numbers. Why not just ask whoever’s interested to private message them? Another thing I noticed perusing the many posts, nobody leaves email. Is that because of some reason I haven’t figured out yet? Personally I’d rather leave an easily replaceable free email than a phone number
There should be a ‘contact’ button on the upper left part of the page that will have a craigslist email that will forward it to the person’s email address.
Ok, I re-read what you wrote and stand by my statements. You throw out the generic “vast numbers of scary people on craigslist will hurt you” warning without any cites or even anecdotes to back up that claim.
I offered my personal experiences on the site for both business and social reasons without meeting anyone scary or crazy.
The OP can decide which answer helps him/her more.
I’ve sold and bought a number of items on CL, also found a bunch of singers for a band (none of whom panned out for various reasons). I don’t list my phone number or email address; craigslist anonymizes (is that a word?) the email address of both parties when you use the reply to ad button. The lack of a phone number can dissuade some people from replying to an ad, as many people don’t promptly reply to emails, but whatever. Cash only, period. I meet in a public place to perform any transactions, if it’s feasible.