the defenses of Craigslist have been overrun. Some categories on Craigslist have become over 90% spam. The personals sections were the first to go, then the services categories, and more recently, the job postings.
Craigslist is fighting back. Its latest gimmick is phone verification. Posting in some categories now requires a callback phone call, with a password sent to the user either by voice or as an SMS message. Only one account is allowed per phone number. Spammers reacted by using VoIP numbers. Craigslist blocked those. Spammers tried using number-portability services like Grand Central and Tossable Digits. Craigslist blocked those. Spammers tried using their own free ringtone sites to get many users to accept the Craigslist verification call, then type in the password from the voice message. Craigslist hasn’t countered that trick yet.
::: via Techdirt :::
The optimistic technotopia that emerged from the craigslist free posting model may have just slammed it’s face against reality. Hmmm actually maybe it’s not that simple. I think “new times, new problems” is the best way to look at things.
For the record, i got a very awesome bike and had a great interaction with someone off of craigslist the other day, so it’s not all dead. I still know women who post personal ads on craigslist and get hundreds of responses within a couple hours.
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