Unofficial Flags FAQ

  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 Feed Back 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...

Four quick shortcuts (but sometimes shortcuts won't get the job done!):

To go directly to the list of examples of things users flag, go here.
If you believe your ad was one of the 2% craigslist says is wrongly flagged off, go here.
For problems with a W4M ad, check this out.
If your ad involved an animal or animal services, try This.

   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.

• 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 9^th incarnation of the Devil they can flag your ad. If they think they are the 9^th 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.

• 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. If the headline doesn't invite people to open it the won't see how rotten it is. of course if the headline is pretty awful, they may open it just to flag it.

• 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 Feed Back 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 the Flag Help Forum and ask the peanut gallery for help.

  These are the Details about your ad that they need to help you:
  

  1. Complete text and headline of the ad. Copy and paste it from your flagged-off email. 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

  2. Did you get a flagged-off email? How did you know your ad was flagged off?  More

  3. In what category did you post?  More

  4. What price did you have listed in the headline of the ad?  More

  5. How many copies of the same ad were posted at once?  More

  6. How often the ad was reposted?  More

  7. Describe any pictures and whether or not they were uploaded to craigslist.  More

  8. On what site or sites was the ad posted?  More

  9. Did you use a counter or keywords in the ad?  More

  10. Did you select the By-Dealer or By-Owner check box when posting? (if there was one to select anyway).  More

  11. Have you had other ads flagged off in the past?  More

  12. How many ads do you have up all together?  More

  13. How long did it take for your ad to be flagged off?  More

  14. Did your ad involve an animal or animal service? Go here.

• For some examples of stuff users tend to flag, go here..

• 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 or removed when you go to look at your ad. If you are using an account the ad will appear in pink. 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 you might post in the Flag Help Forum and ask the peanut gallery for help. Other users can look at the Details of an ad (above) 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.

• For some examples of stuff staff removes go here.

Go to the Unofficial Flag FAQ Home



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