New phone verification for ads
So for the past couple days I’ve been reading a lot of complaints about craigslist’s new phone verification for ads posted in services. I think its a great idea, but I don’t know exactly how it works because I don’t post ads in those categories. It’s meant to keep the scammers and spammers out because you need to have a CL account which also needs to be verified using a real phone…not a throw-away cell phone or a VOIP (Vonage) phone which is apparently what the scammers are using. They need this tool in the Jobs section.
Here’s what I think they should do to prevent spammers…there’s been some discussion the last couple weeks about CL’s new idea to limit HTML in ads to limit spam…but I don’t think they do enough. There is absolutely no reason for HTML in craigslist ads. Many people will disagree, but that just means they are a spammer.
Think about what CL would be like w/out HTML options for posters….what would we miss? All it does is allow spammers to post their affiliate links, post large images with text that can’t be filtered by CL’s filtering system, it lets the scammers post keywords using light colored text that most people can’t see in the ad. There’s a million other ways that HTML helps the spammers and scammers.
All you need in any CL post, For Sale, Jobs, Services, etc is plain text, with no special characters (^*#@!+) and the normal 4 photos you upload through craigslist. Why do you need anything more than that? People always argue that they need HTML to make their ads stand out among the rest…what makes you so special? All ads should look the same. If you are offering something that people want, they will e-mail you. If you’re trying to scam them, then fuck off! All ads should be created equal. Nobody should get the upper hand.
Plain text only, no special characters, no posting links, no more than the standard 4 photos. Craigslist would be completely different. Also, you should be required to have an account to post ads and you should be forced to select only one city to post ads in for that account. If you move to a new city, start a new account.
Another idea, require posters to fill in Location when creating ads. If they leave it blank, there should be an error page telling them to fill in the damn box! And stop ghosting my ads! If I did something wrong, tell me what it is and allow me to fix it.
Leave a Reply