If you posted an ad and it appears to be live in your account, but no amount of searching will find it on the site, then indeed this is one kind of blocking. It is commonly known as "ghosting". This is an anti-spam move and the idea is to NOT alert the spammer that their ads are invisible. If you are having this problem the basic solution is to not look like a spamer (or if you ARE a spammer, spam some other site). Your best bet for sorting this out it to visit the craigslist Help Desk forum and look around. It is a fairly common problem and there will be a lot of discussion. You should be able to get enough ideas to get your ad live without actually having to post yourself.
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 something 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 web site. 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). Keep reading here. Try some of the tests mentioned to see if the cause is something else.
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°
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> Terms of Use link)
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.
So what else can you do?
You could try posting the Details about your ad in the Help Desk forum. The peanut gallery will help you try to figure it out and staff might chime in as well (extremely rare). The people helping are self appointed volunteers---and they are just other users like yourself. They may have a clue, they may not. Searching the forum and reading up can be very valuable.
The quality of the help you get will depend on your attitude, on the quality of your presentation, and on who's around. You want to present your self as an adult, you want to present ALL the information possible about your ad and your situation, and you want to sign in (so you can post with a green handle)---and also click on other peoples' handles to see what they have been saying. See this for a fast introduction to forum handles and a couple of common forum terms.
These are the 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
This document or any part of this document may be linked as desired. If anyone wishes to link to a portion of the document that does not contain a convenient link please contact the authors, links can and will be added.
forum and look around. It is a fairly common problem and there will be a lot of discussion. You should be able to get enough ideas to get your ad live without actually having to post yourself.
