Well, three of them remove ads that readers (like you) don't like. The fourth nominates an ad readers like a lot for the Best Of page. If an ad gets enough flags, it's history. This system is fully automatic, nobody reviews it unless it is the best of craigslist flag. If an ad is removed the person who posted it gets an unbelievably polite email telling them their ad's toast but not much else. (If your ad got flagged off go here in this FAQ). The number of flags needed to remove a post varies by category and city. CL staff can change the flag thresholds as they see fit. They don't tell people what those thresholds are. One person can flag an ad more than once (and have it count) but it is a real pain to do multiple flags and nobody bothers (I mean a real pain).
The CL help system has information on what the links mean subtly hidden here and here. If you pause your mouse over a flag button a little clue-me pops up as well.
Use this flag when an ad is placed in a
category that is either totally irrelevant or when the ad could be better
placed in another category. This flag to removes ads in your favorite category that should really be in someone else's favorite category. If it looks like someone just made a mistake (like a Ticket ad in Tools) you might send them a little heads-up-o-gram; "Hi, I saw your ad for a Ticket in Tools. Is this a mistake? Thought you might want to know. Cheers!".
Some examples:
Putting an ad asking for something in the Free category. Free is for giving away stuff. Wanted is for asking for stuff.
Any ad that discusses another ad. See this little rant about Discussion Posts. Also, If a discussion post has someone's personal identifying information in it, consider this.
Putting an ad for a roommate or house mate in the Apartments for Rent category. Apartments for rent is for renting an apartment; no other tenants included. If you are going to be sharing the space post in Rooms & Shares.
Putting an ad for your service or business anywhere but in the services category. Commercial posts go in services.
Use this flag to help clean up stuff that is against the craigslist TOU or really blows it on any of the posting guidelines.
If you don't want to see ads for guns, drugs, hookers, scams, etc. then it is up to you to flag them. If the situation is really serious or you think it needs immediate attention, see this.
Read through the craigslist terms of use at least once. (twice if you weren't sober the first time) Check out the Prohibited Items list. Understand more stuff is prohibited that is not on the list (use common sense) Read all the help FAQs. Ask questions in the
helpdesk forum if you aren't clear about something you are thinking about doing. It's pretty simple. Play Nicely With Others....but especially Play Nicely With Craigslist. They are bringing you this incredible resource for free. Show some class and have some respect, O.K.?
If you're tired of commercial outfits posting their HTML drenched come-ons anywhere but in Services, Minor entrepreneurs top posting their ad 14 times a day, the third rendition of the same sad song in yet another category...well, it's up to you to flag them. You are the "community" part of "Community moderation". Keeping craigslist from getting junked up with spam is up to you. If some spammer simply has too many ads up to flag, see this. Specifically, per the craigslist TOU, use this flag for ads that include Content...
that constitutes or contains "affiliate
marketing," "link referral code,"
"junk mail," "spam," "chain
letters," "pyramid schemes," or
unsolicited commercial advertisement.; Translation: FREE IPOD!!!. 'nuff said.
that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or
solicitation if posted in areas of the craigslist sites
which are not designated for such purposes; Translation: A business posted outside of services is pretty much spam. See this note however.
that includes links to commercial services or web sites,
except as allowed in "small business ads". Translation: See above. Yeah, linking your business website is spam. NOTE: If you host some pictures on a commercial site and link to them in your ad this is not a problem. You are not advertising the site where the pictures are. If you link to something like a page on Amazon where there is a pic and description of the thing you are selling you are also not considered to be linking to a commercial site. You are not advertising Amazon, you are just using them as a reference. But if you have your own website and you want to advertise it, better post in Services somewhere. The same goes for posting ads for commercial website that you are affiliated with (maybe a distributor for their products?)
Posting too frequently (overposting) is a major problem. This really pisses people off. If you think your ad has to be one of the top ten on the page...well...what about everybody else? Everybody can't be on the top of the pile. So Play Nicely With Others. Take your turn. Sure, there are websites on the net that claim to have great advice on how to market on craigslist. A lot of them advocate being an asshole. Do you really think you are going to get enough money to make acting like that something you can live with? Craigslist could make a LOT of money if they wanted to. They pass on it and keep it free for you. Take the example. There is a better way to be in the world than just another jerk businessman/woman stepping on anybody and everybody in pursuit of a buck. Do not post more than one ad for the same item. Do not repost your ad more than once every 48 hours. Always delete the old ad when posting a new one.
Some examples:
Posts that are not in the city closest to where the poster lives often get called spam. Poster is in Florida but is posting in NYC.note
Posts that are repeated too often get called spam. Reposted every other day or every day or every freakin' 20 minutes....!!!
Multiple posts for the same thing get called spam. We heard ya the first time. And the second time. And the third time...
Ads that link to eBay or other auction items are also
spam - check out the FAQ
Guidelines regarding auctions.
Ads posted more often than once every 48 hours, multiple ads for the same thing up at once, ads for the same thing in multiple categories or sites...all pure greed and all called spam.
These are for the best of the best,
the creme de la creme, the gold medal winning, the sparkly shiny,
the... well, you get the idea. This special flag is to nominate
and/or vote for a post that deserves to be added to the Best Of craigslist
page. When a post gets enough of these the CL staff looks it over for inclusion on the Best Of page.
A: Aaaak!. My ad got flagged off! Wazzup with that??
Wazzup with it is your free classified ad annoyed enough of your fellow craigslist users to get it removed.
But first things first. Do a little attitude check. Go ahead, right now. How do you feel? Are you annoyed? Angry? Outraged? A bit bewildered?. Consider that having your free classified ad taken down is hardly a big deal. It's not like your dog came down with herpes or your (now) ex-roomie skipped on the phone bill AND scored your favorite Flaming Turds CD. It's just an ad. Cost you nothing but a bit of time. If you are getting a big emotional reaction over it stop reading right about now. You have emotional issues. You need a therapist, not a FAQ. The authors of this humble document cannot help you. You could post a flaming "suggestion" in the FeedBack Forum filled with passionate references to Flag Nazis, unfairness, censorship,Freedom of Speech, injustice, etc., etc. Many people do. Perhaps it makes them feel better. But nobody will care except for a few trolls who will be mildly amused at your distress. So get Help, really.
Onward...
Ads get removed two ways; users flag them off or staff removes them. We will look at both cases. The important thing is you want your ad to stay up. So; figure out what went wrong and don't do it no more. End of problem.
Users flagged your ad off.
This process is automatic. Annoyed users flag your ad. Enough flags and it goes and you get that little email with the story. Staff never sees it.
The more times the same ad is flagged off the easier it will be for it to be flagged in the future. Fix it before reposting it.
All the flags (except Best Of) do the same thing. The number of flags needed to remove an ad varies by category, city and the flagging history of the ad itself. Craigslist staff does not talk about what the numbers are. See the first section of this FAQ for what the buttons mean. One accidental flag won't do anything, it takes several to remove an ad.
Nobody knows why your ad was flagged off. Really. No one can crawl inside the head of the people who flagged your ad and see exactly what they were thinking. This is why staff says not to ask them in the FeedBack forum. They really don't know. However users (and staff) can look at the details of an ad and many times they can make some pretty good guesses. You might post The Details about the ad in FlagHelp Forum and ask the peanut gallery for help.
These are the Details about your ad that they need to help you :
Complete text and headline of the ad. Copy and paste it. Don't be shy, nobody knows who you are. If there was an address or phone number replace it with xxx-xxx-xxxx or something. More>>>
Did you get a flagged-off email? How did you know your ad was flagged off? More>>>
Anybody can flag anything for any reason. If they are having a Bad Hair Day they can flag your ad. If they don't like your spelling they can flag your ad. If they think you are the 9th incarnation of the Devil they can flag your ad. If they think they are the 9th incarnation of the Devil they can flag your ad. OK?. It takes a number of flags to remove an ad so one person having a monthly moment can't kill an ad. You have to annoy (or at least inspire) a number of people. That means you are quite possibly doing Something Bad.
One person cannot set multiple flags on one ad. Well, ok, they can. But because of the protections craigslist uses it is a LOT of work to do. Even those that know how are very unlikely to bother. It's easier to send a hate-o-gram from an anon. email if you think something is truly wretched. The case where an ad has been flagged off by someone using a script or something is SO rare that it is well worth considering absolutely everything else first.
People can and do get together to team flag ads. Craigslist can shut this stuff down by raising the flag threshold in a category. There are several forums dedicated to flagging ads. Ask in the FlagHelp Forum for directions to one. You can read through them and see if any of your ads are being targeted. Most of the posts in these forums are calling for flags on ads that do indeed violate the craigslist TOU. However some people use these forums to call for flags on ads they simply don't like. Others don't understand the TOU very well and mistakenly target ads. At any rate craigslist condones the existence of these forums so there isn't much you can do. As the flagged off email says, "... if you are convinced that those flagging your post were mistaken, please feel free to repost." BUT, if your ad gets flagged off again and again then you are going to have to change something.
Various categories develop regular readerships. These are people that have been reading through the category on a daily basis for years {?). In SFO the Free, W4M and Motorcycles categories have regular readerships. A lot of these "regulars" tend to think alike and over time they can develop a definite attitude about "their" category. They can be quite aggressive about things they don't like. Perhaps they feel your W4M ad is bitchy or your motorcycle is priced for more than their very expert opinion deems it is worth. They may not know each other or ever communicate but they do tend to flag the same things and some completely innocent ads can get flagged off. (ads that are innocent in light of the craigslist TOU). Once again, as the flagged off email says, "... if you are convinced that those flagging your post were mistaken, please feel free to repost.". If the problem continues for you and you are positive your ad is kosher, contact craigslist customer service at Abuse@craigslist.org for help.
Yes, other people have ads up that are lots "worse" than yours and they aren't getting flagged. Guess you must be doing something that is drawing fire to your ads. Find out what it is. Two things have been proposed. First, Bad Timing. You posted your bad ad when a lot of people were reading the list and so you got a lot more flags than someone who posted at some odd hour (and whose ad was buried by the next day). If there was a bad ad like yours just above yours and two more just below it...well...how about not doing bad ads? That would be the easy solution. The second is that the other ads are getting ignored. You have to actually open an ad to flag it and if the headlines don't invite people to open the ads so people don't see how rotten they are.
Staff only knew about your ad because somebody sent an email to abuse@craigslist.org and complained. Staff don't go reading through the ads.
One complaint to abuse@craigslist.org will do it. Staff will look at the ad and if it violates the craigslist TOU they remove it. They might pull it if they just don't like it. It's their site. They are not cavalier but..well...it is their site. It is a private site, forget those Freedom of Speech arguments.
If staff is doing a mass sweep on some spammer it is possible you got caught up in it. They will delete perhaps thousands of spams all at once and they go by the IP the ads were posted from. This means they don't look at every ad. It is not common for innocent ads to get clobbered this way but if you are posting from a public access point (library, internet cafe, poorly secured WiFi, etc.) this could be a problem.
If you got an email telling you your ad was removed it might indicate the problem. You might not get an email and all you see is a message about you ad being flagged when you go to look at your ad.
If you don't know exactly what went wrong, if you have reviewed the craigslist Term of Use and you have read all the information and examples in this document, then FlagHelp Forum and ask the peanut gallery for help. Other users can look at the Details of an ad and many times they can make some pretty good guesses about what the problem was. Remember, even if staff removed your ad they remove a LOT of ads every day. They may not remember your particular case. (And this can be a good thing ;-)
You have come to the attention of the Abuse dept. This is Not Good. Something has to be a bit more serious before someone will mail it to abuse@craigslist.org. If you keep it up you might get blocked. That won't solve your problem with keeping your ad up but it will solve everyone else's problem with having to see it.
A: How can I get help with my flagged or blocked ad?
If you paid for your ad then there is contact information in the craigslist help sections for paid ad posters.
If you posted a free ad then the options are more limited. You are not going to get lots of support for a totally free service. You can try emailing Help@craigslist.org or abuse@craigslist.org. but often no one answers or you get a form letter FAQ (worth reading). There are a huge number of flagged off ads every day and craigslist does not have the staff to answer an email from everyone. Remember they have to look up the ad and then pretty much make the same guesses as anyone else. They don't have the manpower to answer everybody. Still there are a number of resources:
You already found this document. If you read everything you may get some ideas about what went wrong.
Craigslist has two help forums staffed by volunteers ("Peanuts" as in Peanut Gallery). One is the HelpDesk Forum and the other is the FlagHelp forum. Craigslist staff seldom participate in these forums. When they do their "handles" (forum name after the headline of the post) appears in gold with a little halo next to it. They tend to use real names. Jimº is Jim Buckmaster, Craigº is Craig Newmark, and so on. The FlagHelp forum is the place to ask about flagged off ads.
Some things to know about the FlagHelp forum:
L.L.L.: This is the first commandment of any online forum, anywhere, anytime. Lurk, Listen, Learn.
Lurk. Read through the forum without posting anything. Read back several pages. See who is who, how people are posting, what the general tone is. If it seems like a real zoo you might want to try another time.
Listen.. Do a search for threads on subjects like yours and see what might have been said already. If a poster seems to be interesting or knowledgeable and they are posting in Green, click on their handle and read through their posting history.
Learn. If you are new to CL forums make sure you have the mechanics of posting figured out. Know what to click to make a new post and how to make sure your replies to posts stay all together in one thread. If you need help, just make one post and ask. If you need to try it out go to the XYZ testing forum and make some nonsense posts (or reply to some) to see how it all works. Then see how much you can learn from what has already been discussed.
The people answering questions are self appointed volunteers. They are not affiliated with craigslist and receive no training from craigslist. They are just other users like you or the authors of this document. Some of them are quite knowledgeable. Others are clueless. Telling one from the other can be tricky; anyone can learn to sound authoritative with a little practice. Everyone is anonymous. Reading through the forum and noting who is saying what can be quite valuable. Trust your own judgement as to who is likely a knowledgeable adult and who simply isn't. On the bright side there is usually someone around 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Like any unmoderated online forum the FlagHelp forum has plenty of trolls. Trolls crave attention and attempt to get it by being annoying. No doubt you know some of these in day to day life. Ignoring trolls is always the way to play it. Do not post a link to an ad in the forum because the trolls can then look up the ad and flag it to see if they can get you to twitch.
Posting in the forum with an attitude is THE perfect way to shoot yourself in the foot. The most common attitude people post with is, "THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY AD AND I WAS FLAGGED UNFAIRLY AND BTW MY SHIT DON'T STINK!!!!'. The trolls will instantly spot you as a Live one and will have a field day. The Peanuts may well join them. If there was nothing wrong with your ad then you don't need help.
GIGO. Garbage in, Garbage out. If you don't say enough about your situation for someone to at least try an intelligent answer then you are likely to just get blown off with some bullshit . Helpers get tired of asking again and again and again and again and again and again for the basic information needed to try a diagnosis. Someone may well just take a wild stab based on whatever little you've said and move on. And you won't know it . It might sound good but you won't realize it is the longest of long shots. You never gave enough info for the more likely possibilities to be explored.
Myths and superstitions abound. Nobody has to pass a test that certifies they know what they're talking about. Lots of the helpers are just copying what they heard someone else say and that person is saying what they in turn heard somewhere. You can get some good clues but if it sounds funny it probably is. It's worth listening to everything, saying 'thank you" and then going off and sifting it out for yourself with some large grains of salt and your favorite beverage.
If you post an ad that violates the craigslist Terms of Use there will no shortage of people to tell you all about it. It can be useful to know but the Terms of Use can't push flag buttons. It is rarely the reason your ad was flagged off. But you won't find any sympathy and it don't pay to argue. Some of those people waving the TOU in the air are fundamentalists about it; it really don't pay to argue with 'em. In these situations it is best to either say nothing and leave or say "Thank You" and leave. You run the risk of someone deciding you need to be punished and doing a search and destroy mission on your ads.
Some people offering "help" have strong personal agendas that can distort the help they offer. This happens most frequently these days regarding animals and weapons. You can get some mighty creative interpretations of the CL rules from these folks. They are not interested in telling you the way it is as much as they way they would like it to be. Be wary and, as with the other fundamentalists, it don't pay to argue.
Say "Thank You." There are people in the FlagHelp forum that are genuinely trying to help you. They are very real people just like you are. Manners matter.
If you tried to post an ad and something popped up that said "Yer blocked suckah! Bwahahahah!" then yes, you're blocked. You are also trying to post on the wrong site. The 'Blocked' message on craigslist is more polite and it looks like this:
Look familiar? We made up the error number. These are not error codes, they are more like serial numbers assigned to each blocked post and they track exactly what the problem is. CL staff can look up the number and know what happened with your ad.
O.K. So what do you do about it? There are 4 kinds of blocks so first you need to find out what you are up against.
Just the ad you are trying to do is blocked and it's your fault. See those three little bulleted items in the 'Blocked" message? Check your personal ad for a phone number (any string of digits even if they are spread out, it's software reading it boychik, and it's not real bright) , emails (any use of the @ symbol). Check any ad for a link to a commercial website. Check any ad for a link to an auction. Find one? Go back, take it out, do 20 pushups to build character and try again. If you are posting a lot of ads quickly, read this comment by Chaley in the forums (Chaley is craigslist staff).
Craigslist also blocks certain words. If you use one of these words in your post you could get blocked. Needless to say the list of forbidden words is not published and it changes all the time. The idea is that if you use one of the forbidden words you are doing something you shouldn't be doing anyway. But it could happen that you are totally innocent and just tripped across one of the words (and of course you don't know which one). The thing to do is keep reading here. Try some of the tests mentioned to see if the cause is something else. Look at the part about posting the Details in the HelpDesk forum and see if anyone can diagnose it for you. If it turns out this is really the problem and you are not doing anything Bad then use that File a Report link in the blocked message. (The link here is just an example. It does not work)
Just the ad you are trying to do is blocked and it's not your fault. Some webmail domains are being blocked due to abuse (by other people, of course ;-) The domain is the part after the @ symbol. The domain for Foo_foo@hotmail.com is Hotmail.com. Like that. Recently Sneakermail is being blocked. Try posting using your normal home email (you can change it later). If that works then either you were using a blocked domain or your individual web email addy was being blocked for other reasons (see the next item). There can be other problems as well. The automatic filters that block ads might think you are doing something bad when you really aren't. The trick is figuring out what is looking bad to the filters. See this post by Annette° http://sfbay.craigslist.org/forums/?ID=81885909
You, personally, have been blocked. This means you are on the Abuse depts. shitlist. Not Good. If you have been getting a lot of ads flagged off that could be a clue. It doesn't matter if the ad(s) you got blocked over were in Cars+Trucks or Baby+Kids. Blocked is blocked. You won't even be able to post a Personal. Try a test post in Free or somewhere...you know, something like "Free Mattress!!, some stains and tears, smells a bit from our Llama sleeping on it. First come first gets...on curb at 530 Market St...." If that gets you a 'Blocked' message then you are indeed screwed. If you know what you did then you need to email Abuse@craigslist.org and impress the abuse folks with how you have reformed yourself and won't do it no more, etc. Include the email address you were trying to post from and the error number from the 'Blocked' message. If you sincerely don't know what you did ( after reading the info at the> Conduct and Terms of Use links) you could try posting the Details in the HelpDesk forum. The peanut gallery will help you try to figure it out and staff might chime in as well. Details about your blocked ad that they need to help you :
Complete text and headline of the ad. Copy and paste it. Don't be shy, nobody knows who you are. If there was an address or phone number replace it with xxx-xxx-xxxx or something. More>>>
You, personally, have been very, very blocked. Deep sixed. Major Blocked. Poster child for ExLax. You're lucky you can get on the site at all. This can be caused by two things; Talent and Bad Luck. In the case of Talent proceed as above. Email abuse@craigslist.org and open a dialog along the lines of how you now understand that you have been very, very bad. But you have seen the light, virtually Born Again in fact, and you really, really promise not to do it again. You won't even think about doing it. Bear in mind you have really pissed off some good people so it's going to take a lot more than your standard line of bullshit.
In the case of Bad Luck...well...stuff happens. This is rare but it does happen. The internet address you are getting on the net with can be very similar to one being used by one of the aforementioned Talented individuals. You are getting caught up in a block against them. If you are posting from work one of your co-workers may have been up to some Sweetness 'n' Light that got the entire organization blocked. (a bit of discretion may be needed, esp. if it's your boss) . If you are using a WiFi network or other wireless someone else on the network may have been causing problems. Internet cafes, coffee shops, libraries and other places with public WiFi or net access may be blocked for this reason. If you are sure your operation is squeaky clean (or at least washed and dressed) then email abuse@craigslist.org and tell your story. The more information you provide the better they will be able to figure it out. Don't forget that error number. It is wise to send such an email from your home email and mention the email you are trying to use to post if it isn't your home.
A: What about Shannon Lewis, Enam and the other Black Hats?
What is to say? Jerks exist; they always have and always will. Many of them are only too willing to take your money for information or software that promises that you can do all the things that craigslist AND the vast majority of the people that use it, don't want you to do. Intentionally doing things that are unwanted (abusing) is Black Hat. There are quite a few other words for it however this is a family oriented FAQ. Use your imagination.
It's worth considering that the people preaching schemes to make lots of money on craigslist (and selling books, software, etc.) seem to be selling their stuff a lot more than using it themselves. Them that can, do...
Craigslist is not intended to be a commercial site. If craigslist staff wanted to make some serious cash only a few banner ads would do it. The site traffic alone is worth millions per month in even the simplest advertising. 10 billion page views per month*, at only a hundredth of a cent per page view is a million dollars per month. 12 million dollars per year, Gentle Reader. Totally easy money---just a few banners, right? But they don't do it. Makes you wonder doesn't it? Why would ANYBODY turn down a steady 12 Million/year income?
The answer is very simple. If they did it they wouldn't get 10 billion (and growing) page views a month any more. They would no longer be what they are. They would be sell-outs. And the people that are doing those 10 billion page views a month are very sensitive about sell-outs. Craigslist is special and it's readers know it. It's VERY special. Nothing like it exists. It has earned a place as one of the top 10 websites in the world by having a completely unique culture. In a world where everything you know about has sold out except your mother (viz. how wonderful you are) The essential craigslist culture is about being largely non-commercial. No banner ads. No Google AdWords. No making the big money. It's worth protecting this. When you yourself actually want to buy something on craigslist or sell an old set of snowtires (or whatever) you want it to be there for you. Don't piss in the soup.
Craigslist is not only intended to be largely non-commercial for craigslist, it isn't intended to be very commercial for you either. In some areas commercial ads are only barely tolerated. In others they are frankly allowed, but it's pretty obvious those areas are off the main track aren't they? 105 or so categories if you don't count forums. You can advertise your business in only 17. You can sleaze a commercial ad in two For Sale categories. Carefully posting business can do ads in jobs and gigs. The Yellow pages it ain't. The commercial advertisers themselves regularly abuse the commercial areas so badly that they are useless for everybody, reader and advertiser alike. The more Black Hat everybody plays it, the more worthless it all becomes. You cut your own throat. And when the readers go away because craigslist has become just another commercial wasteland, where will you be? (not rich and retired, we all know that)
There is one aspect about playing Black Hat of course; do you think all those users, not to mention the staff, are going to just sit by and watch? The flagging system is the tip of a larger effort to protect the site. The flags act as eyes for the staff and certain automatic systems. Enough flags will remove an ad of course, but enough flags can do other things as well, like remove every ad you have posted whether it is objectionable or not. Ads mysteriously don't appear. Ads seem to get flagged off with suspiciously little effort. It isn't your competition clobbering you, it's the way you yourself have been acting just once too often.
Craigslist has imposed registration requirements to post in the commercial (services) area. That was a gift to quell the worst of the abusers and give everyone a chance to run an ad without it being buried by some top posting idiot or other spammer. Registration has spread to some of the Personals. Same problem with intentional abuse. The registration requirements are mild---do you think they will stay that way?.
Craigslist's staffs most potent response to abusive sellers (particularly in jobs and real estate) has been to charge for the posts. They don't charge much but it's enough to cut off the Black Hat games. How much to you want to pay and pay and pay and pay? Been on eBay lately? And who is paying? The commercial posters. See where that one is going?
Being a Black Hat hurts your business reputation. One easy way to tell who NOT to do business with is to look at who is abusing craigslist. People know the score and they know that if you can't be trusted to play nice on craigslist you can't be trusted for much else either. Every time you get an ad flagged off the headline lags behind after the body text is removed. People know who got flagged off. They remember when they see you again. Even if you don't collect enough flags to get removed how many people are going to respond positively to your ad vs. the number who respond negatively? Can you afford anybody thinking you're greedy or pushy or rude? It's "marketing" running exactly in reverse. Go ahead, make your competitions day.
Craigslist readers have some special tools too. There are a LOT of them and they all have flag buttons...and they talk to each other. Flagging gangs (better known as Flagging Forums) not only exist but more pop up all the time. A lot of them are oriented around some sort of special interest like animals or weapons. But more and more people are banding together to swat spammers and commercial posters. Recently, a car dealer with 290 posts up had no posts up within a few hours of his "case" being presented in a flagging forum. His attempts at reposting failed again and again (as the gleeful posts in the flagging forum noted). All 290 ads were perfectly legitimate and posted in the proper place and within the terms of use. But he was hogging the board and it got noticed. A lot of people don't like that sort of thing. They decided he had to go. He went. His competitor with a lot fewer ads all politely spread out (leaving room for others is part of playing nice) had no problems. Now don't you just know our piglet is sitting in his little office and swearing his competition is flagging him off. Could be, but he made sure they would have plenty of help---help from all over the country.
The more people get sick of spam and overposting and top posting and posting on multiple sites and junk ads from web operations the more they are going to band together to do something. The idea has proven to be effective against even fairly large abusers. You really don't want that to be you.
If you found this FAQ from one of the Black Hat sites you might want to go back and think about things some more. The best tips and tricks are the White Hat ones you work out for yourself. By the time it's been published it's old news, the competition is hip and the systems that can and will take down your bad ad and block you are more than hip. Your own secrets to get an edge, to make friends, to get the community to like you, to be remembered in a good light, to be turned to first by customers; these are the things that build business and make money. There can be a place for craigslist in a business plan but it's likely to be a much smaller place than you would like. That is just the nature of the place. If you intrude in ways and places where you are not wanted, well---what do you think is going to happen? The Black Hats would like you to believe they have an inside track on getting away with whatever you like---but they are selling something, remember? What sells better than dreams?
Just craigslist users like you. Most of us have hung out in the HelpDesk, Flag Help and Feedback forums a bit and have watched the people and issues come and go. A lot of people show up pretty upset about their ad getting flagged off. Some are bewildered, others angry, a few in definite need of meds. But there is a lot of frustration with the flagging system: understanding how it works, trying to find information in the craigslist Help, just trying to keep an ad up. So we thought we would put together this FAQ and see if might help some people. We don't work for craigslist. We aren't affiliated with craigslist. We didn't ask for Craig & Co. to approve this. It's just our take on things. Hopefully it may help you. But don't quote us, we may be wrong.
Craigslist staff links various public sites for their own reasons. We suppose it is an endorsement of sorts (and are flattered) and we assume we aren't too off base on the general content. But this is still an unofficial user effort and it changes periodically. What you read here today might not have been what was here when staff linked it. So don't hold it against them, O.K.?
Some real estate postings can be a little different. You want to post where the real estate is located no matter where you yourself are. So if you live in NYC and you are renting your vacation place in Florida then post in Florida. That is where people looking for a place in Florida will be looking. Mention in your ad that you are in NYC.
Some real estate postings can be a little different. You want to post where the real estate is located no matter where you yourself are. So if you live in NYC and you are renting your vacation place in Florida then post in Florida. That is where people looking for a place in Florida will be looking. Mention in your ad that you are in NYC .
The links have been changed. This note is for the benefit of people reading old posts that contain the old links.
If you never got a confirmation email, or you got an error about a "similar ad, ask about it in the HelpDesk forum.
Thanks
The abuse@craigslist.org email
The craigslist customer service department (Annette°, Aristotle°, Clint°, Craig°, and Geoff°) monitors the abuse@craigslist.org email. If the situation is serious then email the ad number to abuse@craigslist.org with a brief note about the problem. Read This and then the rest of this section.
The customer service folks are VERY busy. Keep an eye on the big picture and only send in things that really need personal attention from staff. Material that is or could be immediately damaging to someone should be sent in. This stuff should not be entrusted to the community moderation (flagging) system.
Examples of some things you might mail in:
Personal information. If someone wants to post their own name, address, phone number, etc. then that is their business. They can always delete it. But if someone else posts it (including copying their ad in a Discussion post) then that is a major no-no. If it your own info that has been posted, definitely mail it to abuse@craigslist.org. If someone made a typo with a phone number and now your phone is getting flooded with calls, mail in as much about the situation as you know. Be as complete, clear and concise as possible with your description of the problem.
Really dangerous stuff for sale. Things like explosives (black powder, dynamite, blasting caps, det. cord, reloading primers, etc.). Hazardous medications (prescription stuff that could hurt the unwary). Just run of the mill bad ads for guns, knives, "420", "tina", erection enhancers of all kinds, etc. should not be mailed in. Just flag them. Ads only soliciting dangerous things should only be flagged. As a rule, ads that simply violate the craigslist TOU and/or are dumb should be flagged. Ads that really present an immediate hazard in the community should be sent to abuse@craigslist.org.
Way out of line spammers. Too many to flag...like dozens of ads. Collect the ad numbers and send them to abuse@craigslist.org. These matters are too big for flagging to resolve.
Injuries to you. If you are the target of a prank, if your copy write is being infringed, privacy violations, etc, then use the abuse@craigslist.org email. In these cases you yourself are the victim of whatever someone else is doing in their ad. If you yourself are not the victim, then just flag the ad.
Some examples of things you should not mail in:
Someone posting something hateful and racist in Rants & Raves. Part of the reason Rants & Raves exists is to draw this garbage away from the other categories...and you signed up for "offensive content" when you entered the place. Don't waste anybody's time with it. If you don't like it, definitely flag it.
Ordinary breaking the rules, not playing nice, etc. Customer service is 5 people, craigslist has around 10 million users. The setup really depends on you flagging bad ads. For day to day garbage, just flag them. Even if it is something that really pisses you off, just flag it. Count on it pissing other people off too, drawing more flags and getting removed. Save the resources of customer service for the real hazards, things that could actually hurt people, not merely offend or anger them.
Scams. Unless it is something very new, just flag it. If you don't know if it is a new one, check in the helpdesk forum. Remember that even if CL staff deletes a scam post it will be back within the hour under a new name. The scammers are pros at it. Your ability to spot them and your good judgement is your protection.
Use your browsers Back button to return to wherever you came from.
Some things will get your ad shot down in a hurry. Maybe not every time and maybe not if it gets posted at some odd time when few people are watching and maybe not if a whole lot of worse ads are right ahead of yours and catching all the heat. But often.
Selling puppies The craigslist TOU forbids sales of "Animals and animal parts, including the retail sales of cats and dogs." This is found on the craigslist partial list of prohibited items. Although there are ads for critters of every genus, species and variety on craigslist and they don't seem to get flagged by users, your puppy ad didn't last long. This is because a group of users has organized to flag ads selling puppies. They have their own agenda regarding puppy breeding. For further information on this you might ask them about it. Regardless, the CL TOU does seem to forbid their sale. Check out Jims post (Jim is the CEO of craigslist)
here.
Being a Deceptive Slimeball. Huh? Certainly not you!. Well, what are people going to think if you put a price of $1 in the headline of your ad but there isn't a $1 item listed in the body? How about those lists of keywords for unrelated items or brands. Do people looking for those things want to see your ad? How about those BS sunset pictures in the personals? Think people want to see the same sunset again and again when they are expecting to see a picture of you? How about those fake purses or other counterfiet goods. They are illegal, against the CL TOU a couple different ways and 100% slimeball. Pure flagbait. One fact of life on craigslist is you are going to deal with a lot of flakes, one way or another. People get tired of it and ads that have something deceptive in them (being flakey right up front) are going to draw fire.
Too Commercial.. People get tired of commercial ads in areas of the site not intended for them. If you run little ads for your business in the For Sale categories (maybe a service or repair business) people looking for good deals on something are not going to appreciate it. If people wanted to read commercial ads they would go to the yellow pages for the big guys or some "auction" site for the little guys. People want used stuff, cheap and flea market style. Even if your ad is not commercial but it looks commercial, like with tons of HTML. Bad news. A whole bunch of ads can make you look like a business too. If readers start recognizing you as the guy with 20 ads up they are going to figure it is an under-the-table junk business. Could be a problem. Renting something is not selling something. Renting things is a business activity. Hello? Mary kay, Tupperware parties, etc are also business activities AND they are MLM (multi-level Marketing). MLM is banned in the TOU so you can't complain about getting flagged off---but you could try posting in the Services category anyway and see if it flys. You will be asking for trouble immediatly anywhere else.
Non-paying job of some kind in the Gigs section. A gig pays something..as in cash. If it doesn't pay money think about posting in Volunteers. If it is a barter deal (for pictures/portfolio, experience, etc) perhaps post in Barter. But non-paying jobs in Gigs is not prohibited by craigslist. Check out Jims post here. Still, if enough readers in some city don't like it they will flag it off. People looking to make some ends meet aren't looking for Investment Opportunities. It is worth always looking at it from the readers point of view. In the case of Gigs the readers are very often people that need to make some cash quickly.
You might believe that every model out there is dying to work all day for a couple pics for her portfolio. They don't see it that way. Really. If you are a pro and they are a pro, then you pay for a model for pics for your portfolio and the models pay for pics for theirs.
Ads posted too many times or too often. Ya gotta remember, every ad category has a regular readership. Some of those people have their own ads up too. When they see some ad being "top posted" a couple of times a day or 5 copies of the same thing they get annoyed. They don't like seeing their ads getting pushed down the page by a selfish advertiser. Nobody likes seeing the same ad again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. Posting too frequently (too many times per hour) can also get you blocked.
Flag Rant. If you mention flagging in your ad you will get flagged. Every time. Sometimes it is just juveniles flagging you because it obviously upsets you. Other times it can be people they think you don't get it and need to be taught a lesson. Whatever. Never mention flagging in an ad. (unless it is a Rants&Raves post that you know is going to get flagged off anyway, then have fun)
Asking To Buy Bad Things. It ya ain't supposed to sell it then you ain't supposed to ask to buy it either. Look over the list of Prohibited items in the TOU. Don't ask to buy things you aren't supposed to sell. The same principles apply as far as what tends to flagged and what doesn't. It's about what annoys people. As far as the TOU goes enforcement by flagging is selective. But you still don't want to be selected.
Barter for Services. The barter category is for bartering things for things or things for services. If you are the one posting you need to have the goods. You can ask for other goods or you can ask for services. If you are the person posting and you want to offer your services you will have problems. We know that everybody wants a massage or some photography done, but when you offer to barter services like these for anything (goods OR other services) you are effectively advertising your services. Service posts go in Services (a commercial category). In your services ad (in Services) you might mention you take barter in payment. If this wasn't totally confusing we can keep trying. Just don't post in Barter offering your services for anything.
Scalping anything.. iPhones, TMX Elmo dolls. Playstation games you have on advance purchase, tickets of any kind, the latest hot photo lens, etc. Craigslist readers just get real tired of this stuff. Yeah, it seems like an easy way to make a buck, it's just capitalism, lots of people are doing it on eBay, blah, blah, blah. You are getting flagged off because people don't like being taken advantage of. A craigslist motto is "play nice with others". Scalping ain't playing nice. Take this garbage to eBay.
Too erotic in Erotic Services As of this writing there seems to be some fairly aggressive flagging in Erotic Services. Some theorize it is competitors flagging each other. Others think a group of moralists of some type are ganging up on ads that violate the craigslist TOU. So far, of the example flagged-off ads that people have presented in the FeedBack, Flag Help and HelpDesk forums, none have been solidly inside the TOU. This doesn't explain the flagging but it does mean if your ad is flagged off it's kinda hard to complain.
Problems in FreeYou wouldn't think that giving something away for free would be such a big deal. But the free category has a very loyal, intense and competitive readership. More than a few people use the Free category to acquire items they can sell for a little money. If you need to get rid of something quickly it can be a win-win. But you can hit some problems.
If you post something for free in the Free section it needs to be really free, as in no strings attached free, to anybody that wants it. If there are any conditions attached (other then recipient must pick up and haul off) it will cause you problems. People are following the Free category looking to score something they can turn around on eBay or CL for some cash.. They don't like it if you say "Free to needy only" or something like that. Everyone's needy; people don't want your judgement on what is 'needy enough'..
You can also have some problems in the Free category if you are offering something totally worthless or that is a huge effort to haul off. Offering "Free Antique Fencing, you pull the posts and roll up the wire" may not go over too well. It just looks like you are trying to sucker someone into hauling off your garbage at no cost to you (including the dump fees to get rid of it). If it isn't something that could be sold (if you wanted to go to the trouble) don't post it in Free...or post anyway and don't sweat it if the ad gets flagged off.
A curb call ad is where you post that something is sitting out on the curb and for anybody that wants it to come and get it. Unfortunately, unless someone responding is right on top of the location there is no way to tell if someone else has already gotten it. Even if the post says "deleted when gone" there will still be a race to get there first. VERY annoying waste of time. People consider these "crap ads" and flag them. A similar situation happens if you post first come, first serve and then actually tell people responding ; " whoever gets there first...." Very bad idea. The polite way to handle things is to make appointments with people for them to show up at a set time (usually within a few hours). If they can't make that time scheme move to the next person. If someone agrees to a time and then flakes out, move to the next person. This way anybody responding can be confident the item will be there when they show up as long as they show when they say they will.
Intangible items are VERY iffy in the Free section. If you can't take it home in the trunk... ("Look honey, I got it free off craigslist...!") Promotions are also a bad idea in the Free section. See Jim's posts here and here.
Posting a Wanted ad in Free is a Kiss o' Death. Post it in Wanted, o.k.? But you can have problems asking for a free item in Wanted anyway. See the next item.
Cyber-begging. Lemme guess, your ad in Wanted wanting money for the rent, your sick cat, your broken car, etc. etc. didn't last too long. Simple fact is people are tired of these. No matter how pitiful the backstory (do you know just how many single mothers there are out there? Poor ones?) these types of ads annoy readers. They get hit up constantly from everyone; the spare changers on the street, the guy at the door of the supermarket (always the out door, get 'em while they're guilty), the teenagers wanting a quarter...it's non-stop. On top of this the people reading the wanted section are looking to sell something. Your appeal for free money (and sometimes free goods) are not what they want to see. They want ads by people looking to buy something.
No Price. If you want to seem greedy (and get an ad flagged) leave off the price. Saying things like "make me an offer" or "taking the best offer" without listing a reasonable price is an invitation to trouble. Leave that crap for the auction sites. Listing a price and saying "obo" or "or best offer" seems to be extremely common (search your site for "obo", without the quotes). Extensive reviews of net acronym sites reveals that, as expected, it is universally understood to mean "will sell at stated price or best offer less than that". So long as the price you set is reasonable, it's good. If you set an artificially high price though you will be seen as simply soliciting bids (very bad). You can leave off "obo" in most cases. People are going to make offers anyway.
Keywords. craigslist asks you not to use keywords. You read and agreed to that when you posted. So cool it already. OK, you figure it's sophisticated to put lots of keywords in your ad so anybody searching for something else will see your ad. But..uh...right after they see it they are going to be pissed off because you screwed up their search. They are going to think "gee, what an asshole". Hittin' the [ Prohibited] button makes 'em feel better. If you think the WhiteText games will work think about getting blocked. That stuff really pisses people off and they'll mail it to Abuse@craigslist.org.
Keywords just don't make sense. Do you think for someone looking for a Honda part in Auto Parts is going to be interested in your ad for a Buick part? No. The searchfunction on CL searches the entire headline and body. If you have the words to describe what you got then your ad will show up in the right searches. This is what you want, getting your ad in front of people looking for what you have. Those are the people that will buy your stuff, not people looking for other things.
Ad in the wrong place. Different categories in different cities have regular readerships that are...umm...sensitive about certain things. Put a wanted ad in the Bay Area Free category and it will be flagged off within 145 sec. of hitting the site (I checked ).A lot of times putting a Wanted ad ANYWHERE but in the wanted category will bring your ad to grief. It doesn't matter how much sense it makes to put your motorcycle parts Wanted ad in motorcycles where all the bikers are. The other people posting want to sell stuff and you are getting in the way. for a lot of items you might run a search of all of For Sale and see where other people are posting similar items. Try going with the flow.
In SFO, roommate type ads in the apartments for rent draw a lot of fire.
Ad in the really wrong place. Like the wrong city. NYC apartment hunters get irritated about having to skip over a zillion ads for vacation condos at the south pole. Folks looking for a house in San Francisco don't want to wade through the Generous Offerings of the Reno Real Estate people. Tends to draw [Spam] flags.note
Shipping and PayPal Craigslist is for local transactions. A LOT of people like it that way. Shipping and especially PayPal (an eBay company) make it look like you are running some sort of web biz. Leave it out. If people want something shipped or to pay with PayPal trust them to ask.
'Tude. If you're going to run an attitude in your ad you better be pretty funny. Ha Ha kind of funny. Yeah, we all know the flakes are thicker than dandruff on a snowman but if you go ranting about it in your ad you're going to annoy readers. Some of them (guess which ones?) are likely to flag the ad. Same goes for bigotry, male chauvinist pigotry, Homophobia and the like. How many women do you need to irritate with your charm before your ad gets flagged off? Sure, there is nothing in the TOU that specifically prohibits you from being an adolescent jerk. Do you want your ad to stay up or not?
eBay Anything Craigslisters hate eBay. Even those that don't keep their mouths shut. It's part of the craigslist culture (never mind how richly eBay earns it). If you mention in your ad that you have the item on eBay...well...maybe just delete the ad yourself to keep it from suffering. If you talk about how your price compares to eBay prices you are asking for problems. eBay is a bigger market with more competition driving up prices. eBay sellers have to covered eBay fees, PayPal fees, shipping, inflated "handling" charges and all the rest. If people wanted to pay eBay prices, play the eBay game and get screwed the eBay way, they'd go to eBay. 'round craigslist there aren't ratings, there are flags.
Discussions. Discussions are ads that complain about or
comment on another ad. This includes your considerate warning about the latest scammer (we already read the millionteen warnings on the ad pages and that one in the posting email). Everybody knows already (except you). If you would like congratulations for your astuteness in spotting some scammer then here: Congratulations!. There, now you don't need to put up that discussion ad. How about those back and forth posts debating somebody's price on a car or the endless begging for people to get it together and post all the right dimensions in their ads in Bicycles? This stuff gets real old and people rightfully flag it. The advertising categories are being read by people looking for good deals on stuff they can turn around for a profit on eBay. Or maybe just for some cheap tires. Or they want to get rid of a mattress. Or something. If they wanted to read discussions they would go to the forums. If you have a beef with somebody's ad, send 'em an email...don't inflict it on everybody. If you want to rant about something try the Rants 'n' Raves section.
If a discussion post has some ones personal identifying information in it, consider this.
Spamola. Yes, this one is for you Webmaster Jr. When you link to your website in your ad people tend to reach for that [Spam] button. craigslist is a local trip, your website isn't.
Ranting and Raving in Rants&Raves. Yes, you got flagged because you posted there. R&R is the open sewer of craigslist. It exists to draw all the garbage posts away from other categories. It's the place to say all those horrible (you hope) things that would irreparably alienate anybody you might tell them to in person. It is a place for cathartic expression of the worst you can dream up. And things get flagged out of there for equally savory reasons. If your post stays up 15 minutes then that's your share of fame. Now shut off the computer and go outside and play.
back to info on your ad being deleted by staff or flagged off.
Go to the top of the Unofficial Flag FAQ
Some examples of stuff users flag, the long shots:
Your ad might not get flagged off over some single big no-no. It can be a number of smaller irritants catching people in different ways that earn you the honors. Death by paper cuts. These items are some of the less common or less likely things that could draw some flags to your ad. But some of them could draw enough to do you in. One clue is that your ad runs several days or more before falling. Consider carefully.
Looking Like A Scam . Yes, image really is everything. There are a lot of scams on craigslist and if your ad looks like one some of the jumpier scam-spotters are going to flag it. If the price is too low for something pretty nice looking (especially a car or motorcycle) it can look like a scam. Stock pictures taken off the web instead of an actual picture of the item adds a scammy flavor. How about a pic of the one you are selling? Does it exist? See how that works? If your ad is just one big image with little or no text your chances can be poor. This is a time honored spammer/scammer move to beat the filters. If you act like them you will get clobbered like them. Your ad needs to be believable. That means enough description for people to know what it is and to be confident that it is "real".
HUGE pics. O.K. so you hosted your pics on some pic host. No problem, lots of people do. But those 1268 x 742 shots of your collectors baseball card (3 megs each) are pretty annoying---even on a fast connection (and many people are NOT on fast connections). Pictures sized so they look like the other pics (hosted by craigslist) work best. Good pictures, well cropped (make the good stuff go right to the edge of the frame) get the job done. Pic editing software is free all over the web. Try Irfanview.
Price Too High . Some of the self styled experts that haunt various categories can decide your price is out of line (perhaps above retail for a used item). Not out and out scalping of some hot item but more than they think it's worth. They can take it as a personal affront and feel bound to straiten you out. So they flag the ad. They may also send some email commenting on your price. Watch for these---and see the next item.
Evil Answers . Note the sorts of replies you get to your ad. If you are getting hostile replies you can bet your ad is annoying at least the jerks out there. Perhaps you are getting a lot of lowballers. In any case, never reply to these in any way.
Dangerous Goods . If you post something that has been recalled you may get flagged by people that know it is something hazardous. This can be a big deal in the Baby&Kids category. But people get into a protective trip all over craigslist. If they think you are selling something that can hurt the unwary they may flag your ad. It's kind of an ego trip for them but whatever. Do be sure whatever you are selling is safe for use as intended and if there is anything iffy, declare it. This is just good ethics too.
New in the Box . If you say New In Box!!! you might think it's a big selling point but readers wonder; why you don't you just return it? Did you buy it with a hot credit card and are now trying to convert to cash. Is it stolen? Are you some wretched dealer in their beloved category? Why do people sell brand new things? You might need to explain a bit---and make it good. Everybody hates a lame backstory. Also, see the next item.
Lame Backstory. O.K., so your gerbil got into some rat poison and died a horrible death but before you could bury him the cat found him and now the cat isn't looking too good so you need to sell your grandmas antique dresser to pay for the vet bills and you really hope the cat doesn't die too so please buy the dresser. Get the idea? Just describe the dresser, post some excellent pics, set a reasonable price, make sure you have contact info--- and leave your pet woes for your blog. Long descriptions of why you are selling something, how much you paid, "my loss your gain", etc. interest no one. A story is a story but Latinum is for keeps.
It Really Is The Competition! Or maybe you have a bunch of enemies? This is very unusual but it does happen. The thing is you have to understand your own responsibility and the overall logic. You will never be innocent. Perhaps you are the new musician in town so you post in Services looking for some gigs and you talk some trash about all the existing bands in the area. Whaddya think is gonna happen? Or maybe you are an employer with a very high turnover. Those disgruntled ex-employees are reading the job ads you posted to find their replacements---and they have your gentle management style fresh in mind. Or maybe you are doing a lot of interviewing and turning a lot of people away---none too tactfully. It is possible to make enough enemies that will see your ad (post interview) to get it flagged off. The Personal ad poster that sends not-too-nice replies to suitors (or maybe no replies) can build up a personal non-fan club too. If you can piss off a group of 30 people you can generally arrange your ads demise. Might be more, might be less but 30 can be a good working number.
Double dealing If a number of people contact you about your ad and you tell them that everybody should meet at your storage unit (or someplace) at such and such a time then it's pretty obvious you intend to run a little auction. This creates a number of motivations for the people involved to flag your ad, not the least being that auctions are seen as greedy. If you are a 'regular' seller and you develop a reputation for this sort of thing you will be noticed, remembered and flagged on sight. Same goes for deceptive ads. Everybody that comes to look at an item and finds out you are trying to rook 'em is going to go home and look up your ad....
Silence is Golden except when it is in your inbox. You should get some reply to your ad sometime, even if it is from some Nigerian scam outfit. A long stretch of silence and then flagged off could mean people have been trying to contact you but you never answer. Pretty annoying especially when you answer an ad a couple of times, never hear back from the poster, and then they repost the thing. Check your spam folders, maybe people are trying to give you a heads up.
No Contact Info If you have no way to contact you in an ad you have a problem. Readers have a heads-up-o-gram button they can push to send you a message. But some people miss that and just flag you for a heads up.
Frustrating the Reader If you leave critical info out of an ad readers get frustrated. Don't make them play email tag to get the basics. If your ad has lots of Lame Backstory and little real meat---who needs it? Cars: make, model, year, status of emissions, title and registration, known mechanical issues, maybe the VIN....like that. Bicycles need quite a bit of sizing info as well. As a rule, give enough info for someone to research the item (for themselves!!) pretty thoroughly on the web. Anything that has to fit somehow (clothing, bicycles, intimate relationship, etc.) should have enough info in the ad for a reader to check the fit.
The Ad That Wouldn't Die If you have run an ad a few times, may be changed the category once or twice if you can, and the thing hasn't sold, give it a rest. An ad seen to often, even if you let it expire every run, can wear out it's welcome. This can be a high likelihood item too, as mentioned above, or just something that creeps up over a year.
Nobody Home If you post a personal ad and people answer but you never write back to them then they may get annoyed. Especially guys. A simple and polite "thanks for replying and best of luck" is always appropriate---and keeps from making enemies (who have flag buttons)
.
It ain't Tic Tac Toe Three ads in a row isn't good. It makes it look like you are hogging the list. 6 or 10 ads in a row WILL do you in. Ads need to be spread out if you have several in one category. The slower moving the category is, the longer you have to wait between postings to get them spread out. You never want to look like you are being greedy or taking up too much space. Combine items in ads where you can. ALWAYS delete an old ad when reposting it. Remember, even if the ad is old it will show up in a search with your new ad---maybe right below your new one---and you look like a board hog again.
Evil Twins It could be that you aren't doing anything bad at all. But somebody else is. And they look like you. If you are selling a common item (many others for sale in the category) people might think you are another seller that is overposting or that several sellers are the same person and REALLY overposting. And everybody gets some flags. If you sell a high abuse potential item, like software, you might be confused with someone else selling stolen software that just got flagged off---people think you are them doing a repost. Rare but not unheard of.
Evil Flagging Scripts It has happened but it is incredibly rare. Craigslist has some good protections in place against script flagging. But still, you can't rule it out completely---just rule out EVERYTHING else first. Then go looking for all the other people in the same situation. There will be a lot of them all at once. It is pretty easy to detect this when it happens and it tends to get reported to abuse@craigslist.org quickly. They shut the game down just as quickly.
back to info on your ad being deleted by staff or flagged off.
Go to the top of the Unofficial Flag FAQ
Some examples of stuff staff removes:
Ads selling guns, drugs, your kid sister, etc. Read over the craigslist TOU. Drink a lot of coffee if your eyes glaze over. You agree to it every time you post...might want to read it at least once, right?
Ads posted too many times. Having 3 or 5 or 8 or more ads up for the same thing is Not Good. You might think you are being clever posting to each sublist in the Bay Area and beatin' the system but..uh...all those ads show up on top of one another when browsing the whole site. Delete the old ads if you repost them.
Commercial posts in the Wrong Place. Hello, Big Apple Futon? Are you listening? POST IN SMALL BUSINESS ALREADY!!!! [Note: as of this writing craigslist is experimenting with allowing some commercial posts in the regular advertising categories. Read about it here.. But a misplaced commercial post could still trip you up as could abusing the new system in the works]
National spam. Post your ad once on the craigslist site nearest to you. If you post your ad in multiple cities you will have problems. (Your main problem will be Clint, the head Customer Service guy. They don't call him "The Hammer" for nothing).
back to info on your ad being deleted by staff or flagged off.
If you got a flagged off email it should have a copy of your ad in it. Just copy and paste that into your post in the Flag Help forum. There is a lot of information that will be useful to people trying to help you. If it won't fit in one post (you get an error about a 2400 character limit) then break it up into two posts. Just post the first half in one post, refresh your browser so you can see the new post you made and then reply to your own post and put in the second half.
If you did not get an email telling you that your ad was flagged off then you have to go to your account or to the publishing email you got to see the ad text again. Click on the ad headline in your account page to see the ad again. (it will be pink if the ad was flagged off). If all you have is the publish/edit/delete email that you used to put the ad up in the first place, try clicking on the link in the email and see if a copy of the ad comes up.
█►►►►►LOUD ANNOYING HEADLINES DRAW FLAGS◄◄◄◄█
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
If the craigslist staff removed your ad you may not get an email about it. See the section of the Unofficial Flag FAQ on ads removed by staff. Ad removed by staff have actually been looked at by staff...and they didn't like the ad. Take this seriously.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
Posting an ad in the wrong category is a major reason ads get flagged. Example: if you want something then only post in the Wanted category. Sometimes people have trouble with personal ads if readers think it should really be in another category. People in the Help Desk and Flag Help forums can usually give you some advice about which personals category your ad should be in. They can just give you a feeling about how other people may be seeing your ad.
If you are a commercial enterprise of any sort (except for car and furniture dealers and some real estate people) then you need to post in Services. Readers get annoyed with commercial posters in the regular advertising categories.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
Too many is Too Many. More than one ad up at a time for the same thing is Too Many. Delete old ads before posting new ones. Read the stuff on the posting forms as you are composing your ad. There are some warnings about posting to several sub-lists in the bigger cities. You should only post one ad. It will always show on the main list for your city and also on the sub-list if there are any and you specified one when you posted.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
Posting too frequently is a major reason for ads getting flagged off. The rule is to repost an ad only once every 48 hours. But a lot of times readers will just get tired of seeing your ad even if you only repost it every 3-4 days. There is a regular readership for every category and these are the people seeing your ad again and again and again and again...
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
If people thought your pictures were offensive they might flag your ad. You might think that picture of your Johnson is just the thing to get the ladies to answer your CE ad but what they really want to see is your smiling face. Do you look like a nice person? They get real tired of looking at Dick Pics. At least put a ribbon on it or something fun.
They might also flag an ad if your picture didn't seem to have anything to do with the ad. All those pictures of a flower or a sunset in the personal ads are very romantic (?) but people see it as a scam. There is the pic callout next to the headline of the ad but when they open and read the ad they get a picture of a flower, not of you. They wanted a picture of you. They feel kinda scammed. They flag the ad.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
Hopefully your ad was only posted on one site; the site closest to the item being sold. If you are selling your couch that is in your garage post on the site nearest you. If you are selling your cabin in Florida then post on the Florida site nearest to the cabin (no matter where you live). Ask in the Flag Help forum for some of the fine points on this.
If you post the same ad on more than one craigslist site you will be seen as spamming. People flag spammers.
If you post something on eBay and then advertise your auction (or the same item) on craigslist you will get shot down every time. The craigslist terms of use forbid this and the readers hate it.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
Craigslist asks you not to use counters in your ad. Putting a counter in anyway is a good way to get flagged.
Craigslist also asks you not to use keywords. Putting a bunch of unrelated keywords in your ad will just mess up peoples searches. If everybody did it the search function would become completely useless. Being rude like this will draw flags to your ad.
If you describe your item well in your ad you don't need keywords. People searching for what you have will find you. There is no point in your ad turning up in searches for something else. People won't suddenly change their mind about what they were looking for just because your ad is crudding up their search results. They will simply think you're an asshole and flag you. No kidding.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
In the autos and furniture categories you need to post as a Dealer or an Owner. If you mix it up when you are posting then you can have problems. If you are a dealer or look like a dealer then you need to have the by-dealer checkbox declared in your ad. If you are a dealer or look like a dealer but have by-owner declared in the ad instead, people will figure you are a liar and/or are trying to scam them and they will flag your ad. If you are not a dealer then you don't want to look like one. Stuff that will make you look like a dealer:
Selling lots of cars or furniture and having a lot of ads up
Slick HTML drenched ads
Ads that look like they are using a form of some kind (like an eBay posting format)
Ads that look just like all the dealer ads, especially in cars. Car dealer ads do have a "look" to them.
Simple, plain text ads that look like Ma & Pa posting work best. Don't copy what the dealers are doing unless you want to look like a dealer.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
If you have had a lot of ads flagged off in the past there is a good bet you are doing something wrong. If there is a pattern there you want to figure it out.
If your ad gets flagged off and you figure there is nothing wrong with it, repost it and it gets flagged off again then you should cool it with that ad for awhile. If you keep reposting it then it will seem like you are top posting and other people will flag you for that. Find out what the original problem was, let things settle a few days and then repost.
Reposting a flagged off ad can also cause it to become "brittle": it gets easier and easier to flag it off in the future. A lot of flagged off ads can compromise your account and you may see all your ads suddenly "flagged" off (they vanish from the boards and show as pink in your account)
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
If you have a whole lot of ads up people might think you are some sort of commercial outfit. That will draw flags . This is especially true if you have a lot of ads all in one category and you post them at once so they are bunched together in the list. Try to combine ads when you can and generally keep a lower profile. If you are just somebody with a lot of stuff to sell you don't want to look like a dealer that should be posting in Services.
If you are a real estate agent or broker and you have a lot of ads up people can just get tired of you. You are getting free advertising for your business. If it looks like you are being greedy with that then people are going to start thinking "SPAM" when they see your ads. They will push the spam button.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
If you had $1 listed in the price field of the headline, it better be a $1 item. Putting some low price in the headline to sneak into by-price searches is going to annoy people (D'ya think?). Annoyed people will flag your ad. Any price you list in the body of the ad needs to match whatever you had in the headline.
Asking for Best Offer or asking for people to send you offers without naming a price in your ad can cause problems. See the list of things people flag. Link below.
Not listing a price is usually not a good idea. If you have a number of things to sell in the ad at different prices then you might leave the headline price field blank and just list the individual prices of the things in the body of the ad.
Don't forget to post answers to the rest of the questions in the list. In a lot of cases it will be impossible to say anything intelligent about why your ad was flagged off without all the information.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here.
The W4M category is sort of special and there are some details to know to post successfully there. First off ladies, guys really do think with their crotches. This makes the category an irresistible target for the porn site and dating site spammers. In order to fight this and help the people that don't want this junk, the flag thresholds are pretty low most of the time. This makes it easier to flag off the spam. But it also makes it easier for the Richards to flag off your legit ad. Nothing to be done about it.
Many of the spam posts look just like ordinary legit ads. But if you reply to one you get a spam email advertising some dating site (or worse). This really pisses the guys off. Other spam posts are more obvious. Like the ad has a picture of some scrawny model with a blatant sexual come-on. The guys who answer get the same spam email but they're twice as pissed off because they knew better. That woman is NOT going to be posting a personal ad to get a date. She'll be dating one of her fellow models or the photographer or some rich guy. This results in the guys being pretty trigger happy about spam posts and a lot of times they will flag if something even smells suspicious (like the picture is too good looking or the ad is too sexual).
Because of all this it is important to keep it real. Really real. Ads that are not seen as 'believable' draw flags. One of those little facts of life is that by your age the beautiful people are all hitched to other beautiful people. The people that can get dates easily among their co-workers or activity partners or through their church groups are pretty much doing that. People with killer flirting skills have their pick of the eligible bachelors in the vegetable isle, never mind any bar. Yet posting in the personals you have a couple of paragraphs and perhaps a photo or two and that's it. You need to convey not only that you are interesting/desirable but also that you are an actual person and not a come-on for some dating site. This can take good writing skills and carefull attention to exactly how you are coming across.
As a side note; when the guys post their own ads they get a TON of porn and dating site spam in their inboxes. Some of it is pretty subtle and it takes a study of the email headers to realize it's junk. This just ads to their frustration. It can make for a tough audience.
Some pointers:
Make sure you posted in W4M. This is a simple mistake to make---and to fix. LTR is not NSA. You want to pick the area you are posting in with care and make sure your ad matches your intents.
If you go asking for some uber-prince in your ad all you are going to do is make a lot of guys feel inadequate. Flagging your ad might make them feel better. Guys get tired of demanding women who want more than they have....especially if the woman doesn't seem to measure up to what she is asking for. If you can meet a nice guy that is decent company and you can make a friend figure you are ahead. Nice guys know other nice guys, y'know?
Keep it positive and up-beat. Nobody likes a negative, depressed or hostile (bitchy) date. Guys have had it up to here with those attitudes (and are often blissfully unaware of how often they act the same way). Usually they can't do anything about it. But they can flag your ad. Lists of do-not-wants can be very hazardous to your ads lifespan. Every single one of them is going to piss off the people it fits. They will flag your ad. To keep your ad up you really do have to consider all those guys you are NOT interested in meeting. They WILL be reading your post and they have flag buttons.
The only acceptable picture is one of your smiling face. No flowers or sunsets (seen as deceptive), no pictures of you and your ex or you and some friends or you and your big, scary dog or, worst of all, you and your kids. (People can take major exception to children's pictures being posted on the net). Just a nice picture of you, smiling and clothed. If you don't have one then skip the picture altogether. Remember that when a guy opens an ad with a "pic" or "img" callout next to it he expects to see a picture of you. He will go immediately to the bottom of the ad to check it out. It will always be your first real impression. Digital cameras take hundreds of pictures at a time for free. Get a good pic to use.
Saying that you won't provide a picture until you get one is unwise. This is the mark of the 'secret' dater (or maybe a control freak). Someone who doesn't want co-workers, or perhaps a current boyfriend, to know about the ad. If you expect a picture of someone then provide one first. It's your ad, you are taking the initiative. If your co-workers don't know you are looking then you aren't networking well. If you are looking to sneak around or have anything to be ashamed of then why would a guy want to go out with you? Or rather, why would a nice guy want to go out with you? At any rate it is very easy to come across as demanding or "off" with this move. Best avoided. Still there are a lot of reasons for not posting your picture out on the web. But you can always send it (first) by email to nice respondents. The thing is to lead the dance.
Some sort of physical description of yourself is appropriate. Women seem to like guys that are taller than they are. Guys tend not to prefer women who are taller than they are. Hard bodied gym rats don't tend to prefer soft bodied sofa seekers. This stuff is obvious (?) so don't leave it out. There are plenty of exceptions of course. But beware the weasel words ("curvy", "voluptous", etc.). Each one of them will instantly be translated into something you wouldn't have said. So just state your height and weight and let it go at that. If you have an unusual build ("very muscular") you might mention it. A simple full height picture of you will be worth more than anything.
Shorter ads tend to work better. You might be looking for a guy who is a great reader but all they guys who don't read that well (which is a LOT of them) are going to feel frustrated and annoyed with your post. The epic work also increases the probability of saying the wrong thing. Think very short stories, vignettes even; not novels. Bear in mind that everything you say reveals something about you. Revealing too much too soon can be a turn off.
Sugar Daddy and Cheatin' ads often don't last long. Guys don't like to be thought of as wallets (those that do post their own ads). Looking for a married guy might avoid some diseases but he will come with marital troubles---and every guy that has ever been cheated on is going to have some issues with the ad.
Race matters to a lot of people and it is definitely something you want to declare, somehow, in your ad. You don't want people that aren't interested in dating your race to waste time responding to your ad, right? But when/if you express a preference, the keep-it-positive rule applies. "Seeking my beautiful black knight" is a lot different than "no fishbellies!". Of course your own picture says a lot.
Prejudice and hatred exist. Some people are jerks---and more. Another one of those facts of life. They may flag your ad if you belong to a race they have chosen to hate. They may also flag BBW.
Aside from keeping an ad up, you also want it to work. You want it to reel in some potential dates that are rough matches for you in intelligence, attractiveness, interests, social class, etc. This can mean spending some time studying The Art. If you read through a bunch of ads you may be struck by how they all seem the same. You need to stand out (in a good way). Try Sharyn Wolfs Guerrilla Dating Tactics. It has a good chapter on writing effective personal ads. There are many other good resources as well. Read up.
Use your browsers Back button to get back to wherever you were.
For some general examples of stuff users flag go here. The discussion of The Long Shots may be helpful to personal ad posters.
A word about your Freedom of Speech:
Sorry dude, the constitution only says that the Government cannot interfere with your free speech. It does not say that any private organization has to publish anything you come up with. CL is a private site, just like your home is. They publish things that people want to say on the web. They call the shots on what they will or will not publish for people. You can stand on a street corner and yell whatever the constitution permits you to, but if you want someone to publish it for you then you have to play ball with them. CL can decide that your little blast is more than they will tolerate and remove it... And/or eject/block you to prevent further problems. Very simply craigslist can say: "not here".
The bottom line is that you are a guest in someone else's house. Respect the house rules. You have "civil rights" on public turf, not in someone else's private domain. That is what the "civil" part is about.
