We here at SFist don't have that much bad to say about Craigslist. We've found housing, bought and sold things which we never thought possible and maybe even watched a movie about it. Yet, sometimes the dark underbelly of Craigslist rears its ugly head high enough so that it punctures the little dream clouds we are floating on.
First, Craigslist gets sued because people are posting clearly discriminatory housing ads. Unfortunately, the mainstream news media picked up on it and gave midwestern house wives and our mothers another reason to fear "the Netscape." However, they do have a point, as it took us all of 30 seconds to find an ad that shows a strong, discriminatory preference. Generally we think that discrimination is bad, however, in the case of roommates it might just be easier for the ad to say something, rather than driving all the way to the inner sunset just to find out if a person is 420 friendly or not?
Oh well, at least the ads above charge rent. A second storm may be brewing as people are now accepting rent in a form other than checks.
The real surprise to us is how long these stories about Craigslist took to gain traction. For year, millions upon millions of people have been posting and read ads; it should come as no surprise that some of them might be considered a little nefarious. You see, while we don't mind sitting behind a little shroud of obliviousness regarding the motivations of Craigslist users, it is almost weird that it took this long for the rest of the world to push it away.
