You Suck at Craigslist

YSaC, Vol. 294: Flagging on the top right.

Written by

drmk

in

Need Flagging? – $5

Tired of seeing spam ads? Your competitors got you down? No worries, with our service we will have ads removed within minutes! The process is very simple – just let us know the URL or posting title & section, send us a payment with PayPal, and the ad will be removed within 5-10 minutes (10 ads or more – 30 minutes). We can also do bulk removal at discounted rates.

1 ad – $5
5 ads – $20
25 ads – $50

Payments are made through PayPal, once payment is received the process is started immediately.

NuclearMosquito emailed this listing, saying: “Now I know in “this economy” (whatever that means), people are looking for new ways to make a quick buck. Somewhere along the line, someone will think, “Hey, I should charge people for an already free service! Maybe even one they can do themselves! Surely someone will fall for it.” Sadly, they just might. This ad promises to flag other Craigslist ads for you. They even offer a discount for bulk flags! Just Paypal them $5 per flag, along with the URL of the ad you want flagged, and they’re on the job. Now really, you have to wonder if the people that read this ad and think it’s something wonderful don’t notice the flag button, that they can click themselves, FOR FREE, in the corner of that very ad! The mind boggles.”

Indeed it does. I should, of course, mention that this ad got flagged. I wonder if someone paid them to flag their own ad? I would have, just for the irony of it.

Comments

15 responses to “YSaC, Vol. 294: Flagging on the top right.”

  1. corn flakes Avatar
    corn flakes

    This reminds me of a similar business that i have.

    Are you tired of having to contact people on Craigslist? Do you have a working email account but hate checking inboxes? Are you frightened that you cant email about that futon without craigslist goblins eating your computer and (soul). Simply email me your questions and the CL ad URL and i will contact the poster and tell them you questions and requests (in your exact words!!) Only 4 bucks an email, or “brevity is best” promotion and only pay 25cents per word!! You can also pay by giving me your bank routhing number, account number, and social security number.

  2. Martha Avatar
    Martha

    I thought it said “Need Flogging?” Because that’s a good price.

    1. zaar Avatar
      zaar

      That was my first thought!

  3. kt Avatar
    kt

    for $1 i will think of you briefly…for $10 i will think of you for 5 minutes…or maybe not. just paypal it over to me anyway.

    1. lauren Avatar
      lauren

      Already been done 🙂

      1. drmk Avatar
        drmk

        Indeed it has!

  4. Colleen in MA Avatar
    Colleen in MA

    What I want is a way to flag people in real life. Not to flag them out of existence, exactly, but some way to flag them so that others know that they are trouble or are mean or need to be avoided. I’d pay for that.

    1. Count Blah Avatar
      Count Blah

      YES. Because there’s only so many times you can secretly put a sign on someone’s back that says “I AM A GIANT DOUCHEBAG” before they a) start to notice and b) realize you’re the one doing it.

      1. drmk Avatar
        drmk

        Was that you?

        1. Count Blah Avatar
          Count Blah

          Of course not! I would never do that to you. I actually came over here because I HEARD about the sign and wanted to console you. *pats you on the back, then walks away smirking*

        2. Martha Avatar
          Martha

          /snort

  5. Courtney Avatar
    Courtney

    OK, I started to count all of the steps necessary to do things this way but got tired/bored in the process. There is NOTHING faster than one little click. The hard part is thinking, “Is it really miscategorized? Is it really prohibited? Do I *really* care?” That’s the hard part. And you can’t pay someone to think for you – well, other than elected officials, of course…

  6. CE Blog Avatar
    CE Blog

    I’m more interested in whether or not they made any money from this. Dear God don’t let people that stupid exist.

    1. Courtney Avatar
      Courtney

      If they could keep their post from being flagged, I’m sure that someone has/will/would pay $5 for nothing. I have faith in humanity – that someone somewhere is stupid enough to do this.

  7. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    I’m not familiar with the flagging system on Craigslist, but does the number of times an item gets flagged by unique flaggers affect how quickly it gets taken down? If so, I can see how the person who placed this ad does business: they run scripts through proxies (to give each “flagger” a different IP address), that all flag the target ad. Once the ad reaches the threshold number of unique flags in a certain time period, I would guess it gets taken down.

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