Is Craigslist Dying?

I went to Craigslist in my local area for the first time in awhile. I used to like “best of” Craigslist because some of them were great, there still are some, but its just not the same. A community I used to visit had about half the number of posts as I remember, and of jobs and things for sale, I would say roughly half the posts are just bottom feeding companies autoposting one post a day.

Is Craigslist going to be another web 1.0 app that just dies off? Is it the same in your area?

Craig himself is long since retired from doing stuff and they never seemed to be interested in working with other apps because most of them just scrape and don’t add value to CL, but the Fediverse can, if there was a filter for the spam. What do you think?

xia ,

I was going to post something to CL a month or two ago, but was shunned away by new & intrusive PII collection... seemed offensive and discordant with the original spirit of CL, and I ended up "nope'n out" instead. RIP another internet era/icon.

makeasnek ,

It would be nice to have a decentralized or federated buy/sell platform that replaces craigslist. Facebook marketplace has absolutely eaten craigslist for lunch, and I hate that I have to use it to sell stuff, but there are few viable alternatives for local sales.

eBay is great until you want to sell a $300 iPhone and don't want to mess with buyer return fraud which is rampant on that platform (and most custodial payment services like PayPal). I don't sell anything on eBay for over >$100, got burned too many times.

krolden ,

Facebool marketplace did a number on Craigslist. Also you need to pay five dollars to post a car ad now which sucks.

dirtySourdough ,

Oddly enough I've had the most success selling things on craigslist in the past few years. When I list things on OfferUp I get some messages but everyone is super flaky. People are still flaky on craigslist but I almost always end up closing the sale there instead of OfferUp

Roopappy ,

I still like it. But it does have two problems:

  1. Post spam. There is no enforcement of the posting rules, and nobody reacts if they are reported. For example, I'm looking for a Volvo, and people post a Dodge but put every car manufacturer name in the listing so they show up in every search.

  2. Scam fucking overload. Every time I post anything for sale, the scam traffic is overwhelming. I listed a car and got like 12 similar scam responses. Most appeared to be chat bots with no human behind it. Some surprised me by responding to my sarcastic replies.

But I still look there. The site works for the most part, especially if you use the search modifiers. And selling stuff works too. Sometimes you get murdered, but it's rare.

HurlingDurling ,
@HurlingDurling@lemmy.world avatar

Sometimes you get murdered, but it's rare.

Yeah, I hate when that happens to me, its so inconvenient

LemmyKnowsBest ,

I don't believe you, because you can only get murdered once, and after that you wouldn't be able to post comments on the internet.

HurlingDurling ,
@HurlingDurling@lemmy.world avatar

Didn't you know? Everything on the internet is true!

Trust me 😉

BradleyUffner ,

I posted several large wood working machines for sale there in the past year and every one was bought within 24 hours.

Snowpix ,
@Snowpix@lemmy.ca avatar

Everyone here uses Kijiji or Facebook Markeplace. Craigslist isn't on anyone's radar because it has a reputation for being sketchy.

Bartsbigbugbag ,

Long since dead here. Nothing but scams and data harvesting.

datavoid ,

Like others here, facebook took over the market ..market in my area as well.

However, I think we can all agree Craigslist really died the second they removed the casual encounters section.

Etterra ,

You mean the "totally not prostitution, for real you guys, I mean it, don't arrest me" section? Because that's why all the hookup and dating sections vanished. It was even in the news at the time.

datavoid ,

The one time I went on that site for that reason was in the early 2010s, pre-tinder. The other person was real, but substantially less female than advertised. At least they were polite when I told them I wasn't interested?

pineapplelover ,

Nah I like to go through Craigslist. I live in the Orange County area and lots of people use it.

RubberElectrons ,
@RubberElectrons@lemmy.world avatar

I saw the same when I lived in OC. It's pretty lively up here in Seattle too.

JimmyBigSausage ,

Still sell and give away things all the time on Craigslist. Bought a cool sleek table for my patio.
People use NextDoor too.

ShepherdPie ,

Craigslist died in my area the minute Marketplace opened up. It's a shame too because Marketplace is hot garbage for browsing cars. You can select what color you want but not engine or drivetrain for example.

arefx ,

In my experience yes. The Facebook marketplace killed it. Which sucks because I refuse to use facebook.

QualifiedKitten ,

I still use Craigslist, but it does seem like fewer other people do. I've never really cared to get top dollar for whatever I list, I mostly just want to avoid tossing it in the garbage or hauling it to a donation drop off, and it's worked well for that. I'm currently browsing for a few items, and it does feel cluttered with dealers, even when supposedly limiting it for sale by owner only.

I tried Offer Up once a few years ago, and for some reason, it didn't notify me of any responses, so by the time I thought to check it again, I had already sold the item through CL. I refuse to use any Meta products, so FB Marketplace effectively doesn't exist to me.

Silverseren ,

Craigslist has been spam for quite a while at this point. Even for me in my thirties, I don't know anyone who has used it legitimately for at least a decade.

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