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Listings on Craigslist getting Flagged/Deleted?

***UPDATED DISCLOSURE: I had an interesting phone call yesterday from New York. A gentleman had seen this blog here on Active Rain and was hoping to find out more from me... reasons why his ads were being flagged and removed from craigslist. Please note that I am not a Craigslist Employee, nor am I an expert. The information I have regarding posting your ads on Craigslist quite simply comes from their rules & regulations: http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/ ***

Ok... so recently I posted an entirely non-Real Estate related want ad for a yorkie on Craigslist, only to find it had been flagged/deleted the next day. It got me wondering ... HOW???? WHY????? WHO??????

FOR CLARIFICATION PURPOSES (since I keep getting emails from people telling me I probably just broke the rules):IN THE TERMS OF CL, NO WHERE DOES IT SAY YOU CAN NOT POST A PETS WANTED AD. IN FACT IT IS NOT AGAINST THE RULES. Even the people flagging your listing will tell you it's NOT against the rules... they just don't want it there. Simply put, there are people who spend almost their entire day removing these posts because they "feel" it encourages underhanded sales of animals.... again... NOT against the rules...

This flows in to our Real Estate ads as well. It is NOT against the rules for Realtors to place their listings on CL. AGAIN... it is left in the hands of people that "feel" CL should be for NON Professional use. Private homeowners only....

So I dug a little:

Can you believe it? There are forums specifically made for users to encourage other users to FLAG your posts!!! Granted, if you are NOT following CL rules and are posting MORE than one ad every 2-3 days... you are violating the terms and conditions.... but occasionally ours disappear regardless. http://www.craigslist.org/about/terms.of.use.html

So has your ad been flagged and deleted? Here's why: (NOTE THAT ALL OF THE LINKS ARE NOT REAL ESTATE RELATED IN THIS FLAGGING FORUM)

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/forums/?forumID=5194

At this site: http://www.forumslister.com/ SCROLL to the bottom and there is a list of FLAGGING FORUMS.

Just thought you'd like to know this is how some folks spend their day :-)

Posted by Michael La Fay & Sara Edwards on 12/03/2007 07:32 PM

Comments (46)

craigs list, flagged, deleted

Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: RE/MAX Active Rain Bloggers
Post is included in group: What NOT to do in REAL ESTATE - BAD BUSINESS
Post is included in group: National Women's Council of Realtors - Not Just for Women!
Post is included in group: Family Ties

46 Comments on Listings on Craigslist getting Flagged/Deleted?

DEC

2007

Hmmm... that is very unusual. Why would anyone want to flag a post looking for a dog???

Apparently running an ad to purchase a dog or even to adopt one is prohibited... You can offer a dog for free or for an "adoption fee" but you can't sell them or offer to purchase them through CL :-(

Maple Valley Realtor Colleen Fischesser Wow, I had no idea this went on, but when I look at the flagging comments I'm confused. Who decides this? I this an internal forum?

Colleen "Fish"

www.ColleenFish.com www.MapleValleyRealEstate.com

And I thought I had way too much time on my hands!

it is apparently a forum just for flagging...

I wouldn't have spent so much time looking it up, if I wasn't truly frustrated.

I REALLY WANT A YORKIE FOR MY KIDS... know of anyone? LOL

Hey Sara,

I post numerous ads (20 to 30) on Craigslist every two weeks and have never had any of mine flagged. I would be kinda pissed if that happened to me.

Sean Allen
The Mortgage Professionals

I've never had a problem w/ CL. Did you tell the forum off?

New information for me; however, I guess I accidentally never offended the forum...did not know the rules anyway. Thanks for the info.

Gail Gladstone, Long Island Realtor

I had actually asked why it was deleted... I have never had such rude responses in my life..

Pure virtual attitude. I don't think any of these people actually "work" for CL... they just spend their day responding.

I have had RE flagged as well. There is nothing you can do really except to repost which you can not do within 48 hours of the ad being deleted or it is seen as spam.

I once had an ad flagged early in my RE career when I was trying to sell a kidney so I could afford to stay in RE. Yippee, I no longer need to sett organs to survive.

Take care!

RJH

LOL Robert

I think you were flagged because of the dog thing- they advise you against giving away, and selling dogs on line.

I'm sure there are Yorkie rescues out there, I'd recommend looking there.

I've gotten flagged on CL a few times...its frustrating, but for the price, well worth the responses I get of my posts, to deal with some minor frustrations.

thank you, I had one flagged too.....i'm going to check it out...

Sara,,i had this happen to me and i could not understand why...! wow, i never knew this... thanks

Thanks for sharing as we do ads each week. Now, I'll have to keep an eye out on ours.

Sorry to hear yours got pulled and not even being real estate related. One place to consider would be a Yorkie Rescue organization or your local SPCA or other animal shelter. Good luck on your quest.

Sara, I sure do hate to hear that you were flagged. The sad thing is there are people like this everywhere. I know of one or two on here who are like that... I have heard that a number of agents go in and flag thier competion on a regualr basis on CL

So funny that you mention this, because that has been happening to me for about the last two weeks. I have no idea why because I am following all the rules.

DEC

2007

Sara, I sell a lot of stuff on CL but never had any problem. As far as looking for a Yorkie, I would check online for certified breeders. I bought a Yorkie (or so I thought) and even saw the parents but I think I got a Silkie, which was fine because it was bigger and my boys would have probably smashed a smaller dog. I found a Jack Russell breeder in AZ after a lot of researching and she pre-qualifies the homes before she will sell you a puppy. She wouldn't sell us one because we already have a very spoiled Jack that she felt couldn't handle a puppy. I was disappointed but she was right.

Hey thanks ya all.

As for the Yorkie ... I just want a smaller dog that my kiddos won't actually break. So finding a breeder online isn't really what I am looking to do lol

Something cute/cuddly/doesn't shed and she has to be small so she can ride in the car with me and go to the office :-) lol

I guess everyone needs a hobby..apparently for some it's flagging. Craigslist can be a free for all.

Sara, craiglist is good and can be bad. We posted about 70 listings at one time with no problems.

This was very interesting Sara. I'm amazed that there'd actually be forums set up to do only this. It's like cybercops. :)

Nope. I have all my listings on there in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Rooms. The only thing I find is that no one sees them after a few days, as they fall down on the list. You have to wait 45 days to repost them when they expire

JAN

2008

I have updated this post due to the fact that people searching this matter online have found it :-)

I simply wish to disclose that I am not an employee OR expert for Craigslist... all information can be found in their terms of use... Chances are if you are being flagged now, over and over... you will continue to be flagged.

Best of luck to all that cross paths with this situation :-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

JAN

2008

For many people Craigslist has become a goldmine and a nightmare. A goldmine for obvious reasons with its reach and a nightmare because they have this tarded system of flagging that any idiot with a mouse and his trousers around his legs can use. You can easily be voted off the island. Flagging also awakens the Craiglists filters to your post, IP address and email. The "system" may then prevent you from posting based upon keywords in the title and message body. You can be blocked or ghosted (thinking that you have been posted but in reality not).

Craigslist anal retentive assh*les have let this go to extremes. A post may be relevant and valuable to the users of that section but be cast out by their posting bot. The only workaround is to convert your text into an image and host it on some image server. The filter can't read an image so it will pass through. But then you still have to put something in the title and that is where they get you. One wrong word and...blam.. into the digital abyss you and your stinking little dog are cast.

I have been fighting this for the past 6 months and have just about had it. I am thinking the ultimate solution is to create a special browser just for viewing craigslist postings. I have hated the layout of their website for years. They just spew a long list of ads with no order or hierarchy. This is just in the idea phase but I am thinking of making the browser so that it encrypts the ad by scrambling the words in the title and message body so that the posting engine can't make any sense of it. The browser would automatically unscramble it and sort and filter the bullshit away according to your preferences. It would be sorta like a browser and a search engine all in one. If you use a normal browser the ads would just look like jibberish. I would also crack their Captcha engine that requires you to feed the the letters before posting, which would make posting much faster. I'm not going to be selling anything so I'm really just curious if anyone thinks this would have merit as it would take me at least a month or two to code.

JAN

2008

I had a property listed on Craigs List for sale. I said it was "near downtown", which it was (only 7 miles) but I was flagged because it wasn't "in downtown" and someone considered that keyword spamming. So I changed my wording to "near down town" and didn't get flagged again.

CL is great, but sometimes some of the regulars can get a little weird and territorial.

JAN

2008

I kept getting flagged on all of my listings for about three weeks which started to really tick me off. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong because it was individual listings, not double posts. I was following the rules. I then received a nasty email from some generic email address complaining that I had too many listings on there and that he was going to keep flagging them. I thought to myself... with all this technology there has to be a way to find out who the dork is that keeps wasting my time. I put his email in quotes and found that he chats A LOT online with his "anonymous" email.. About dirt bikes, smoking weed, etc... when ALAS he had accidentally signed his name to one of the dirt bike posts from a couple of years ago. BUSTED YOU CRAIGSLIST FLAGGER YOU!!! The name looked familiar so, on a hunch I went to my MLS page and did an agent search. Mr. Flagger was an AGENT! He must farm Craigslist or something. Feeling a little feisty, I dialed his primary number... (enter evil laugh here) Hello, this is Sandra from Craigslist. I already know you like Craigslist and dirtbikes but when your up late smoking your bong, could you leave my posts alone? Can we agree that your flagging days are done? He agreed to leave them alone but I still chuckle a little when I see him occassionally on broker previews. And, my posts don't get flagged anymore. :)

Sandra I love that you were able to "contact" him LOL He was probably surprised :-)

JAN

2008

He was REALLY surprised and stammering through most of the conversation. :) He is lucky it was me and not someone who would go to his broker or shame him with the other agents. I'm betting he learned his "anonymous" lesson. He he he....

This might be good ammo if we are ever in a deal together. (enter another evil laugh here)

Sara - this is normal behavior in CL Miami which I nominate as the worst CL city. I was a regular back in 2004 but by 2006 I rarely got on. The Miami Herald ran an article around Dec 04 or Jan 05 about CL and within a few months the real estate section became inundated with realtor listings, the vast majority of which didn't even belong to the agents doing the posting. I then noticed that posts of mine would disappear, particularly in the R&R section - even though they weren't inflammatory posts. Shortly thereafter I became aware of these post flaggers. That combined with the constant racist and foul posts turned me off to the site. I'm sure that's not what Craig envisioned when he came up with the concept of his list.

FEB

2008

SARA, I guess none of my ads have ever made someone mad enough to flag them. They fall off after 45 days so I have to keep reactivating them but that's okay, it gives me an opportunity to change the pictures and freshen up the copy. They are staggered too so guess I never violated the too many postings rule either.

FEB

2008

Apparently one of the flaggers left a message here :-) Anonymity ...

What they don't realize is that A.) I followed the rules with my post and B.)I did ask the flag help forum for advice and they were the rudest people I had ever tried to get answers from in my life!...

"WHY didn't you follow the directions and ask forum 3--the flag help forum--for advice? forum 5194 and the related forums are generally staffed by groups of volunteers who are very familiar with Craigslist, very familiar with the spammers/scammers/breeders/cheaters in their specific cities, and equally familiar with the Craigslist Terms of Use. If it weren't for their volunteer efforts, your Craigslist experience wouldn't be anywhere near as pleasant. And if you DID get flagged, follow the directions. You are ALWAYS sent an email about your flag, including the directions to the forum to FIX your post. "

I'm not sure this person even read my blog, or understands why a person my be frustrated.

MAR

2008

There are groups of people that are ganging up on posters and flagging off anyone's ad they want - they flag rescues, shelters, community information ads, unspayed or unneutered dogs, people who misspell, people who write in capitols, free dogs, all pit bulls, free cats, all ferrets, all services, too high fee, no fee, supplies and much much more. They also regularly "google" people's phone numbers and email addresses to post more personal information about breeders, "sellers" and who ever else they deem stalk worthy.

I, personally, am more interested in the pet section because these are live animals needing homes, but please know that there are general flaggers also that gang up and target people. Competition flagging is another problem on Craigslist. If you are experiencing problems outside of the pet section - please refer to the general flagging forum link below. Also, be sure to contact abuse@craigslist.org if you are being harassed, targeted or slandered in any way. This is their site and they should do a better job of maintaining/moderating and supporting loyal users.

This site is community based, so it is important that we quit letting these people decide how things work around here. Whenever I've emailed staff they've responded with "I need to hear that from more people."

Ask for an increase in the number of flags in your local area to remove an ad and ask that a Term be added addressing Abusive or Team Flagging in their Craigslist Terms of Use.

Some of these flaggers are also known to hack the flagging system by using IP proxies to ensure the ads they want are removed.

If you visit the forum below you will see that the forum has been recently semi-overtook by unhappy targeted pet posters - help out by joining in the conversations and discussions. Remember to protect your personal information by using an anonymous email through yahoo, hotmail or lycos. Have fun and try not to take any of it too seriously, although animal's lives are at stake so it can get heated at any time.

http://craigslist.org/forums/?forumID=4915 - For Pet Flagging - help out! Join in!

http://craigslist.org/forums/?forumID=5194 - For General Flagging

http://groups.google.com/group/craigslistpetsalesflagginggroup - No longer available to the public - ASKED BY CRAIGSLIST TO SHUT DOWN.

http://www.noflagnuts.com/ - Tips and Tricks to posting on Craigslist, most important tip - REPOST often.

stopabusivecraigslistflags@hotmail.com is another group that is fighting the pet flaggers, they have put together a great email campaign - contact them for more in depth information or to be added to their mailing list.

if you'd like to complain privately - email one or all of them @

craig@craigslist.org

abuse@craigslist.org

clint@craigslist.org

Talk soon and keep your emails and forum posts as clean and as short as possible - gets the best response.

Sara - The timing of G. Harrison's remarks just happened to coincide with me seeing my flagger in person. Tee Hee It was good timing that this post jumped to the top right now. He had to call and schedule an appointment with me to show a listing.

Then it gets even better... He showed up early as I was finishing up showing some other clients the house. He is still freaked out after all this time!

http://muttcats.com/shelters/alaska.htm

Here's a link to check on rescues in your area. Good luck!

APR

2008

Sometimes I get so irritated that people have nothing better to do than to try and make someone else's life miserable. That's ridiculous to flag a post for removal simply because you didn't want it there. I don't think that trend has really hit my area yet, but I will definetly pay closer attention to my posts on there from now on. Thanks for the heads up!

MAY

2008

Oh. My. God. CRY ME A RIVER!!! All of you RE spammers actually think you are the injured parties?? I have been looking for an apartment in my small town for several weeks now. Everyday it is the same thing: how many bullshit ads do I have to wade through before finding a "real" one?!?

If you are posting an 800-number in your ad: you are a spammer. If you are posting ads in the craigslist of a neighboring city even though your city has its own craigslist: you are a spammer. If you are posting an ad that is obviously too good to be true, just to increase your call volume and upsell to what you actually have to offer: you are a spammer. If you are re-posting an ad for the explicit purpose of re-appearing at the top of the list: by god, you are not just a spammer, you are used toilet paper!!! Craigslist spam is no different than the email spam that you yourself find so despicable. You waste our time, and what is much worse, you increase the probability of us missing that one good ad we've been looking for.

If you're posting RE commercially, and not spamming in any of the ways above, that's great. You're wonderful. But you all know that more of you are guilty than innocent.

I flag in the RE section often. I see many properties posted by Realtors that are listed in the MLS. Thats fine, but the add needs to clearly show that you are a Realtor and needs to include a Brokerage name as well. Some of the adds are kind of vauge and deceptive.

Craigslist is a free site and rules need to be followed. So some nights the kids are in bed, I will put my headphones on, crank the music, crack a beer and go hunting for rule breakers and flag away. It's up to the members to police each other on this site.

AUG

2008

You need to enjoy life and find a date or something. If your married you need entertain him so he don't look on the erotic service section for a nice sweet busty girl. Its said when al people have to do is make other people life stressful. GET A DAMN LIFE WILL YA!

NOV

Here is the flagging site many use to flag your adds guys

http://www.craigsflagger.com/

here is the site that may are using to flag good ads

http://www.craigsflagger.com

Thanks for the post. I had no idea that they have forums for flagging posts. I enjoyed Sandra's comments.

DEC

One thing thats obvious...........CL flaggers are NO different than any other websites that discriminates and then states private ownership as the RIGHT to discriminate. Spammers are one thing, but flagging because someone thinks the PRICE is too high? Then don't buy it!. Leave a message for others that there are cheaper prices, but being able to REMOVE IT? You can post about wanting to suck massive amount of c**ck and its just fine, but make a penny more than what THEY want? Get used to this folks, its on the internet now, I got a sinking feeling its just a preview of life in these states real soon.

DEC

I don't know what their deal is with this. They say for a listing to be removed it has to be flagged multiple times (though there's no specification as to how many) and by different users everytime. What do they get together decide on a listing and attack it??? I've had listings for clothes, purses etc. flagged within minutes and there's nothing wrong with it, so either they're being targeted by these flag happy idiots or you can just keep flagging until an ad is removed even if it's from the same account. It's extremely frustrating b/c I try to use CL to sell instead of pay the fees on feebay and Overstock but it's near impossible when you seem to get people who run it and just don't want your listings up.

JAN

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