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Craig and his List

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stuff-to-read dept.

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."

10 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. like earth's changing magnetic field by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    in comes ebay, and... craig's moral compass starts to swing wildly!

  2. Interesting... by Xshare · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Craig uses only Linux PCs and a linux PDA.

    Anyways, back to the subject at hand: Craig said they didn't really promote Craigslist... yet now it's so huge they even charge for job listings in certain cities(that's how they get all their money). Wow. This is really showing how the web can really be a great place for community building an etc.
    The interview's long but it's well worth reading. Craig touches up on how he will work with the eBay fraud people to find new ways to combat fraud now that Craigslist is getting bigger (and hopefully better).

    1. Re:Interesting... by daviddennis · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't see that much potential for fraud in Craigslist. I bought a PowerBook through it; I went to the guy's house, checked out the PowerBook, bought it, took it home and it's worked great ever since.

      I much prefer that to eBay, where you're essentially committed to buy the item before you get to see it. In most cases, I still try to buy big-ticket items from people who are nearby, so I can pick up the item and make sure it exists.

      (Erotic Services, of course, are illegal and so cannot be described accurately. That's a problem for consumers of same).

      D

    2. Re:Interesting... by stephanruby · · Score: 2, Interesting
      This would predict that 1) early movers have a big advantage, and 2) newcomers will have a hard time breaking in.

      That's true to some extent, but there are other things you can learn from Craig.

      1) If you become popular, don't hire more than one or two people. This way, in hard times, you will still be able to thrive.

      2) Usability and simplicity are important unless you have a lot of money to burn.

    3. Re:Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      I only first found out about the erotic services and casual encounters pages this week when reading the other Craigslist articles on slashdot. All I can say is... WOW!

      There seems to be prostitution and drugs advertised on there. Crazy. But, interestingly enough, no one says "marijuana" - they say "420" (I assume "snow/slopes/skiing" is cocaine?). And one erotic ad said "The $250 charge is simply for companionship. No sexual activities are expected or should be implied. Anything that happens between two consenting adults is their own private decision."

      Wow. Interesting wording. I wonder how that works legally. I mean, she comes in, there's $250 on the nightstand, you start going at it, she leaves an hour later. I'll bet (literally) those guys met with an attorney to word the ads so it's all legal.

  3. moral compass of companies? by wobblie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ridiculous. The only way for an organization of individuals to have any sort of lasting "moral compass" is to dilute power among it members. There is a practical method for this, it's called democracy. In business circles it's called a cooperative.

    Anything else will fall apart or centralize to the point of paralysis.

    A heirarchical organization has only the "moral compass" of the fellow at the very top - not much of a moral compass.

    It is quite amusing (well disheartening actually) these days to watch all these "internet activists" attempt to recreate (in complete ignorance) what syndicalists were doing over a century ago.

    1. Re:moral compass of companies? by wfberg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ridiculous. The only way for an organization of individuals to have any sort of lasting "moral compass" is to dilute power among it members. There is a practical method for this, it's called democracy. In business circles it's called a cooperative. ...

      It is quite amusing (well disheartening actually) these days to watch all these "internet activists" attempt to recreate (in complete ignorance) what syndicalists were doing over a century ago.

      You're confusing two things.
      Syndicalism puts trade unions in charge of industry, whereas co-operatives are organizations that are owned by their customers (so if they make a profit, they usually pay it back to the customers, in effect they're non-profit organizations).

      Co-operatives are alive and kicking, my health insurer is a coop, and I'm considering switching my banking business to a credit union.

      Co-ops even have their own TLD, .coop which has3181 domains under it.

      Co-ops can be just as evil as normal businesses though, in that their members might ask them to maximize their profitability, just like ordinary stock-holders. The one thing that guards against too much evil is that in big co-ops no one entity has a controlling interest, nor are there major shareholders that can easily collude, since it's a situation of one-man-one-vote more or less.

      --
      SCO employee? Check out the bounty
  4. Article restored my faith (in Craigslist) by RabidPuppetHunter · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    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.

    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. In the mean time, Craigslist meets all my needs and after reading the article I an reassured that they match my philosophical views too. Like Google, doing simple very well can be fair and also profitable.

  5. Nonsense by werdna · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The issue is not who has the power to act, but rather to whom the actors are accountable. A hierarchy works fine, indeed far better, than a committee, so long as there are adequate checks on the hierarchy.

    As to decision-making by committee, the problem is that "None of us is as dumb as all of us." Consensus will almost never equate to moral decisions. This is one of the reasons why the United States operates under a constitution that strips the power of the majority to act in certain areas -- precisely because MORAL conduct often requires sacrificing the will of the many for the benefit of the few.

  6. Re:Truly A Help by Chatmag · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If Alexa is any indication, they are doing well. Alexa users make up maybe 10% of Internet users, but being in the top 100 on Alexa is very good.

    --
    Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com