Exploring Craigslist.......Is it really a good idea

While I was I watching a Rodney Dangerfield classic "Back to School" I was speaking with a Frat Brother about trying to find a not so used refrigerator to replace the one a tenant broke at a rental property I own. He told me I should check out Craigslist and see what I could find. He claims that he had hit or miss success with the site. So I took his advice and decided to check it out. Now I must state ahead of time that I've never really explored this site. I get to the landing page and it is a very basic design with just plain text nothing fancy. So the first thing I tried was the "search craigslist" feature. I typed in "fridge" and it brought back over 137 appliances placed by users for free. Once I found an item I was interested in I was able to place an anonymous email to the poster and ask questions interact with the seller. That is one quality of a Web 2.0 site. Interaction is important. Another thing I noticed was the lack of advertising and promotion of the site. Simple and basic but completely interactive.

In the middle of my search I was distracted a scene from 2 of my favorite comedians Sam Kinison and Rodney Dangerfield. The topic is a college history class.


Back to the fridge search. After a 10 minute search I found a stainless steel Kenmore for sale in Bowie. So I placed an inquiry with the seller and waiting for a reply. So I decided to search other features of the site. I started out in the jobs section. Lets see if Craigslist can find someone a career. After searching several catagories (accounting+finance admin / office arch / engineering art / media / design biotech / science business / mgmt customer service education food / bev / hosp general labor government human resources internet engineers) I've come to the realization that these employment opportunities almost completely from self employed recruiters or small business owners.

I browsed the discussion forum, checked out the Linux discussion line. And there were actually some informative. You have to weed through the sexually explicit advertisement but you can get some feedback from some knowledgeable individuals.

I also took a look at the housing section. To see what kind of people would what try to rent or find a roommate. I also a housing swap chances. It can almost be addicting to see how amusing these ads can be. There was one ad in particular that was quite funny. This young lady was looking for a roommate. She had quite a long list of requirements. The ad started out somewhat normal. This person has a single family home that she would like to rent a room. She places some pictures of the house on the ad, then she gave her lengthy list of requirements. First she want to rent to a single straight female or gay male between the ages of 21 - 35. Professional, with a stable job history, she explicitly states no one in law enforcement or who works for the local government. She wanted someone who was 420 and pet friendly. Apparently she has 12 pets and enjoys smoking illegal substances while all the day long. She details that she doesn't have a job and doesn't intend on working at all. She details what areas of the house are completely off limits with out her permission...literally you can't go to the laundry room unless she knows about. Also there is a two car garage that you are to never enter or leave the house through. She goes onto explain that she stores several hazardous things in the garage and doesn't want to expose anyone to them. I'm staring to wonder if this place is a meth lab or something.......

There were several areas of Craigslist I would not explore. Just my own personal reasons. The dating area strictly platonic, women seek women, women seeking men, men seeking women, men seeking men, misc romance, casual encounters, missed connections, and rants and raves. I don't want anything to do with those. The services area I didn't want to bother with. I'm sure Craigslist can provide services for all types but I just don't think its for me.