DISQUS

I don't know because they haven't been very transparent about what they are doing beyond "listening to the community" and the aforementioned voice verification system (which apparently doesn't work with VoIP). If they are doing more they should be speaking up about it, IMO. Nobody will fault them for providing too much information or taking more aggressive steps to counter this problem.

1) aggressively moderate the ES category by adding headcount. There you go, not only does it address the problem but also attacks unemployment.

2) employ a blacklist of words and word pairs that automatically flag a listing for review before posting. For example, "massage" is what it is but "prostrate massage" is categorically a sex act. When a listing in the ES section includes the word "donation", flag it for review. It's not that difficult.

3) the phone verification system CL implemented appears to have a lot of issues (google it) so a rethinking of this system may be in order. I'm not sure what the point of phone verification is anyways, aside from blocking bulk posters.

Having offered three ideas I think it is now appropriate to point out that it should be up to CL to define the solutions... which was the essence of what I wrote originally.

No ulterior motives, in fact I write quite frequently about the demise of the newspaper industry and I am neither nostalgic about it nor sympathetic to their plight, believing instead that newspapers have fully earned the pain they are experiencing right now. It would be entirely comical to suggest that I am writing about CL because of what they have done to newspapers; if you take the time to read my newspaper industry commentary you will quickly realize that.

It's always curious when people defend prostitution by stating it's long standing professional status. Imagine where we would be if slave trading were successfully defended on tenure grounds.

I do keep my moral perspectives targeted on my own actions but that does not preclude me from commenting on the actions of other entities in the public arena, nor is there any inherent conflict so what's your point? I probably do offend someone's moral fabric and given the fact that I write a public blog, fire away because I can take it... being the big boy that I am a little criticism may sting but is otherwise not fatal.

Why am I so concerned with this issue... you do understand that this is the kind of issue that I write about? By your logic I suppose a question back to you would be "why are you so concerned about what I write?".

It's a service that connects buys with sellers FOR MONEY in these cases. The postings for erotic services are not free so it's entirely appropriate to point out that CL is profiting from human exploitation. Buckmaster knows this and that's why they said they would donate the revenue from some subset of erotic services listings, which suggests they have a pretty good idea of what % of erotic services ads are prostitution, to charity but to be quite frank I can't imagine many groups that would want to take that money. The nonprofit board I am on would certainly not want to touch it, so perhaps a human trafficking victims advocacy group would be the only appropriate recipient of this money. As for Buckmaster himself, it's entirely a style issue and you know as well as anyone that PR is about perception as much as substance. Buckmaster should stay away from the camera, he comes across as entirely lacking in empathy and emotion, which Newmark himself displays quite well despite being monotone while doing it, and that hurts Craiglist's case in the public eye. I really taker issue with anyone suggesting I am being disingenuous by pointing this out, especially considering that you pointed out the same characteristic about Buckmaster. I have no dog in this fight other than finding prostitution in general to be morally reprehensible, I don't have any investments which would be competitive to CL, have great admiration for Newmark himself (I don't know him but many of my friends do, such as my friend Hugh below, who speak highly of him), and lastly, am an avid CL user myself, although not for erotic services :) Yet I firmly believe that this is a problem that is only going to get worse for CL and rot out from the core if they continue on the same path, how can that be disingenuous?

What I find interesting with this case is that if we were talking about Walmart of Exxon exhibiting behavior that could be defined as profiting from human exploitation there would be no debate whatsoever. Yet go to erotic services on CL any day and it is revealed to be an endless stream of advertisements for what are prostitution services, regardless of whatever semantic hoops the posters jump through, and well CL's position as upstanding community citizen is not questioned. Worse, when the debate is initiated, in this case on ABC, you say Bashir is "baiting Newmark". It's all the media's fault.

CL supporters say the company is already aggressively combating postings for illegal services, stolen property, drugs, and cooperating with law enforcement for violent crimes, yet there is no meaningful decrease in the number of postings for said services, and an anecdotal observation is that there is an escalation of violent crimes, therefore Occam's Razor would suggest that CL is either not effective or not interested in being effective at combating ads for illegal services that they are generating a posting fee from.

After watching the interview with Newmark and Buckmaster I became convinced that these issues are not a priority for them and/or Newmark is interested in a "community solution" because he does not see it as a problem, which probably reflects a position that prostitution should not be a crime in the first place. Debate prostitution all you want but it's still a crime and businesses that willfully enable it are acting as agents.

As for cooperating with law enforcement, sorry but they don't have a choice on that matter because they are not entitled to any privilege or confidentiality while operating what is most certainly a public service. They can cooperate, be subpoenaed, and ultimately be subject to warrants and seizure of data, which could be massively disruptive to their business. I believe that Newmark and Buckmaster understand the downsides of not cooperating and are acting according, in addition to whatever moral obligation they feel.

As for Buckmaster, he should be outraged that Craigslist's many positive contributions are being overshadowed by a small number of serious violent crimes and a more general view on sex and property crimes. That outrage should be visible whether being asked about it for the first time or the 10,000th time.

I appreciate you suggesting I "seem like a smart guy" but in reality I'm just someone with an opinion on this that does not correlate to any ideological position or deification of Newmark. We are challenging businesses to be socially responsible in many ways right now, Craigslist should not get a pass.

Ian, Congratulations on the new opportunity, Nokia will benefit greatly from having you on board.

let's not go putting anything more than the basics on twitter for the moment!

That is from Bryan Stolle of Mohr Davidow, I just quoted what he wrote.

Ian,
What is the advantage of using the wordpress widget vs. a text widget with the code? Based on my experience, the latter is generally more reliable.

Would be nice if they pushed out the new widget on top of the old code so I don't have to reinstall it.

I actually called OnStar and asked them why they didn't do over-the-air updates. My wife had a car that was 1 year newer than mine and the voice command software was much better, so I did what any software guy would do and went looking for the update.

After working through the tech support levels I ended up talking to a guy who knew something about the onstar network. He said that the data costs were steep so they wouldn't do software over the air, plus there was the whole issue of an update not properly installed and the car breaking down as a result. Maybe in a few years...

Zoli,
Your first mistake was buying a Volvo, surpassed only by your decision to purchase a first model year. There is something about Swedish cars that inspires a binary reaction among mechanics.

On a related note, over the years we have all had experiences with modern automobiles and electronic problems but in recent years I have seen a marked increase in reliability and, more important, troubleshooting capability.

We have had 5 vehicles that were 2004 or newer model year and not one experienced any electronic problems despite an abundance of gadgets. In fact, on a Denali my wife had, we were notified of a transmission software upgrade via email as part of their automated monthly diagnostics (through OnStar the car sends diag data back to GM), much like modern software update services.

Thanks Frank but the company had an enterprise focus well before I joined, in fact the strong emphasis on enterprise while still straddling the consumer world is what makes it interesting to me.

Craig, I've been doing this for long enough to know that attacking competitor offerings like you just did really doesn't do your cause much good, it just makes you look petty. That's really a shame because I have a lot of respect for your accomplishments going back to Now Software, including what you did at Attensa, and am looking forward to what you will do with Pump.

We just had a good exchange with Robert and I don't know why you just couldn't let us have our day. We're all competitors but we are also in the same boat with regard to trying to grow a market.