If you haven’t yet, visit http://charlottesville.craigslist.org. It’s a “local” website to which anyone can post and reply to posts for jobs, services, housing, items for sale, personals, gigs, discussion forums, and so on. It was first created for San Francisco and now exists in 450 cities with more than 7 billion page views from more than 20 million people per month. The interface is almost as ugly as the Drudge Report, but I love craigslist! It took some time for Charlottesville to take to craigslist, but I think it’s finally getting there. Part of the problem in getting the word out is that local newspapers typically don’t want to endorse others’ classified ads, especially if they’re free.
If you look around in every city, you’ll learn really fast that there are a lot of legitimate jobs and for-sale items. I especially encourage you to visit San Francisco’s craigslist site to see the potential. I’ve bought designer sunglasses, moving boxes, and concert tickets on craigslist, and I know it’s especially popular for jobs in the arts, hospitality, and nonprofits. You’ll also learn really fast that there are a lot of eccentrics filling the discussion forums with racy topics and sexually curious couples and individuals looking for anonymous and long-term romances. Go for what you need, whatever that may be.
What’s on Charlottesville’s craigslist right now?
User “some guy” posted a provocative list of “10 things most people don’t know about me” earlier today. I’ll give you a teaser:
“8. I haven’t showered…”
“7. I go dumpster-diving for food, even though…”
“5. The last three women I’ve…”
Thanks for sharing, some guy. I was disappointed to see some exchanges on immigration in this section that struck me as incompetent and insensitive, but craigslist is about civil liberties if nothing else. In the “web/HTML/info design jobs” category, I found a well-compensated position for a webmaster for the Virginia Quarterly Review. On the “furniture” site in the “for sale” section, you can score a “Tall Gong” in “Fantastic condition” for only $50, and find great deals on tables and bookshelves in particular. Finally, if you like reading the sections of local personals where people want to connect with someone they saw but didn’t get to meet, you will definitely like the “missed connections” forum. You can filter it to m4m/w4w/w4m/m4w for your needs. I think the idea of posting is intimidating or “sketchy” to a lot of people, but what if you made eye contact with the love of your life and he or she happens to visit craigslist, too? I’m keeping my fingers crossed for yesterday’s post about a Whole Foods sighting.
My advice for using craigslist is to be cautious of posts that don’t seem local. If you’re purchasing something big, ask for the seller’s phone number and do a little bit of “pre-screening.” If you’re selling, take a picture and upload it– it will go faster. Always use anonymous addresses so you don’t get spammed. If you can, do transactions in public places. (This doesn’t apply to random encounters, of course!) If you want to engage in the personal ads, definitely use protection and know what kind of risks you’re opening yourself up to. But for everyone, go have fun!
Related posts:
- What you’re not missing on Charlottesville’s craigslist right now…
- Saxx for Sale (On Craigslist too!)
- Our Favorite Posts
I should add that what I’ve been doing is using DC and Richmond’s sites mostly (ie concerts), but I think the sunglasses came from Phoenix or San Francisco. The more people that know about and use craigslist, the better the stuff to buy!
VQR webmaster? Waldo, did you get fired? That’s outrageous if it happened!
I’ve sold concert tickets using Craigslist locally, and been able to avoid the JPJA/MusicToday minions who, I’ve been told, search for market-rate sales of tickets there. I’ve also found roommates and tenants, tho’ not in our little Ville. I keep hoping for Craigslist’s “Tipping Point” moment here. Maybe when the kiddies return for classes -gulp!- next month.
Fired? Not hardly.
In fact, my position has been as a contractor since I started there in October of ‘05, but VQR has decided to make it a proper, full-time position, which is great. I’ll be applying, natch.
Fired? Why not assume I’d quit? Wait. Don’t answer that.
Rare is the web developer who can also design. I’d say you’re probably a lock if you can work Photoshop, Waldo. I’ve been programming for almost 10 years now (christ, I’m old) and the number of competent people I’ve met that can program AND design is in the single digits. You don’t see many of these listings because of that .. it’ll be broken out into 2 jobs, designer and web developer.
I certainly can’t do it .. photoshop is scary to me. I’m pretty sure there are bears inside it.
I forgot to express how disappointed I am in craigslist here in cville. Maybe I’m spoiled coming from DC, and it’s just taking time to catch on .. but the rants and raves section, always the most entertaining area of craigslist, is extremely weak here. There’s either bad entries, or no entries .. not sure which is worse.
C-ville’s “The Rant” is far superior, and really, it shouldn’t be.
Most programmers are beastly bad designers. Which is fine, because they generally don’t have to know anything about UI. But VQR is small enough that the web person has to know his (or her) way around Quark as well as he knows mc files or BBEdit. That’s true for a lot of small organizations, or, at least, it should be.
Give the Charlottesville Craigslist site some time. The CL folks only gave Charlottesville a page within the last two years. Having lived in two major cities where CL is popular, I’m happy it’s here and hope to see it take off a little more.
Here’s a question for those who came here from other cities: is CL called “the Craiger” in your home city? It was called that in one city where I lived and I thought it was odd, but funny.
I’m pretty sure the Cville craigslist site is well under two years old. I think it’s closer to the 8-10 month range.