Craig and his List

Schlemphfer writes "The San Francisco Chronicle has published a long interview with Craig Newmark of Craigslist. The interview covers topics like running a business with a moral compass, hiring people while finding leadership to grow a website, and last week's eBay purchase of 25% of the site."

Comments

Re:yeah but

[Xshare]

Note the referral link in parent's comment. He tried to disguise it so we won't notice. I suggest modding parent down.

Re:Truly A Help

[catbutt]

600 page views a second at peak hours (and 1 billion a month) according to craigs blog.

...is like MS buying Debian

[Anna Merikin]

Craigslist has/had its problems but it has become an institution here in NCAL. It is so hugely popular that people try selling their castoffs for incredibly high prices -- two-year-old laptops for a couple of hundred more than when they were NEW. And because the ads are free, nothing is lost. A poster, f'rexample, has advertised the same 1983 650cc motorcycle for $2500 every other day for nearly two years. Craisglist is, to me, a free spam area as well as a public, community service. Myself, I have bought several motorcycles (one FREE) and two laptops, a mobo/CPU combo, and the odd PC network card and CD-burner through CL over the years.

NB: I believe it is a credit to Craig's readers that the overpriced motorcycle has NOT been sold!

And because, like /., there is no moderation as such of their forums, and mostly no registration needed either, flame wars, OT posts, misinformation, etc. abound.

"Craig is a coder" is the `explanation in the feedback forum. He bu8ilds what people ask for or seem to need, and pays little attention to the way his service is used.

If EBay can buy into Craigslist, can't someone sell shares of Debian (if there are any) to MS?

I don't understand how a .com can own a .org. Or am I missing something?

how do they run it badly?

[Trepidity]

From everything I've heard PayPal has improved markedly since eBay bought it.

Craigslist good Karma. Ebay bad Karma.

[spyware scams_suck]

This article restored my faith in the "google" philosophy, Craig is doing the right thing and not selling out. Until reading this in-depth interview I interpreted the story earlier this week implying Craig had sold out. On the contrary, it turns out a former employee with 25% (closely held) shares sold them independently which is a whole lot different from Craigslist negotiating a sale to eBay.

Craigslist has ALWAYS had the Google philosophy--Do what's good for the community--Everything you do comes back to you. People helping people. I was shocked too about the 25% sell but knew it couldn't be Craig wanting it. If that were the case, he could have sold out for millions of $$$ and retired in style and luxury during the dot com boom. Instead he's just barely or just comfortably paying the bills for running the website via fees from job ads.

I recommend /. readers read the entire interview (warning, its long, but hey, its Sunday morning...). My faith in (as Craig calls us) nerds is restored. We gotta make a living but we don't have to sell out.

Amen.

Its a long shot to think that eBay could expand to include a highly regional business. My guess is its not likely to happen, but if it does I may take another look at eBay.

i'll never take another look at ebay as long as some scam seller from Romania, Russia, Indonesia or Nigeria can hide behind his computer while ebay does very little to stop him from coming back again & again to scam others AND ebay can trap me with legalese ("you bid so you have to pay") into sending $$ to the scam seller because i pressed the "buy it now" button and "won."

The 25% buy by ebay of craigslist looks like another way ebay is trying to make themselves "smell" better without too much ODOR to gain a better reputation for "safety" with the public.