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I always imagined "underground" stuff like this was on member-only forums... "They've just started doing this in the computer services section too. I'm serious

I always imagined "underground" stuff like this was on member-only forums... "They've just started doing this in the computer services section too. I'm seriously freaking out now because I make the majority of my income off that section. I'm a freelance designer. I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills if I can't find a way around this. Anyone have a suggestion? Please?" What about finding legitimate work that creates value instead of destroying it?! Fuckwad. edit: I'm craving for a blockquote feature. Double quotes + italics is a poor substitute and double quotes alone are downright confusing if there's more than one paragraph. edit2: I note that there's 2 requests for a blockquote feature in the appropriate section and they almost have no upmods. Is that representative of the opinion about the (non-)usefulness of such a feature? (hope you don't mind the offtopicness)

pg 18y ago
Blockquoting is on my list to add soon.
- boredguy8 18y ago
  One of the things I like about not having block quoting is that people tend to be far more careful about what they quote. It keeps the discussion focused while also being visually pleasant. So, "Yay!" blockquotes, but a bitter-sweet "yay" and one that includes a, "Can it be done better?"
  - hollerith 18y ago
    Well, there could be a limit to the number of characters in the BLOCKQUOTE element.
  - Hexstream 18y ago
    I don't find it visually pleasant at all when I get confused about what's quoted and what's not, and when everyone is forced to come up with their own quoting scheme since it's not supported. Some use double quotes, some use italics, some use double-quoted italics... It's a mess. I'd much prefer a consistent representation for blockquotes for ease of reading and semantics. It's the Right Thing.
  - pg 18y ago
    Actually that is worrying. It would be bad if blockquotes led to a nastier style of arguing.
    - lacker 18y ago
      You could disallow blockquoting from previous posts in the thread.
    - tel 18y ago
      Like macros? Actually, constructively, opt-in blockquotes might be interesting: you have to click to expand what was quoted making it clear if someone is quoting too heavily.
ews 18y ago
(I work at Craigslist) It's surprising that most of those spammers forums are totally open although there are some attacks not described or discused in any of them. Spammers, as individuals, are far less technical that we think (most of them are just users and costumers of a limited set of programs) and need those forums to contact to each other and solve their problems and technical doubts. It was known beforehand that there would be a phone number and verified account black market. It's possible to block most of them (most) as there are federal databases that can be queried for the origin of a given number (whether is voip,cell or home line). Making them pay for the priviledge to autopost can lead to interesting spamming blocking techniques as we just try to increase their cost per post beyond profit (which is very low for a single post). This is not the only cost increasing technique we are using but sadly it is impossible to share or discuss or ask for feedback of any of them on an open forum.
- d0mine 18y ago
  You do realize that craig is dedicated to this 'game' just as we are. There are measures he could put in place to rid spam completely, but luckily for him spam actually inflates the page view statistics for CL. Which in turn drives up the sales of post for the RE and jobs sections. This is due in part to the 'spam'. EDIT: It is a quote from the submitted link.
  - Hexstream 18y ago
    I really hope I'm misunderstanding. You're saying spammers benefit CL by dramatically reducing the average quality of postings down to almost nothing and that the illegitimate page "views" of bots make up for loss of legitimate page views by actual users that are lost by aforementionned loss of quality and that Craig actually loves it? You're out of your mind. By the way I'm interested in knowing that secret to "rid spam completely" that Craig sits on. edit: Really interesting to see the kind of lame excuses people can come up with. I guess when you're dishonest with everyone then you're also dishonest with yourself. Or is it the other way around?
    - Hexstream 18y ago
davidmathers 18y ago
I've never thought of myself as someone who could get pleasure from other people's suffering, but I guess I was wrong. I really enjoyed reading those messages.
- ews 18y ago
  One of the purest form of joy is other people's suffering, as it containts no drop of envy. At least that's what I think when I deal with these people

pg 18y ago

Blockquoting is on my list to add soon.

boredguy8 18y ago
One of the things I like about not having block quoting is that people tend to be far more careful about what they quote. It keeps the discussion focused while also being visually pleasant. So, "Yay!" blockquotes, but a bitter-sweet "yay" and one that includes a, "Can it be done better?"
- hollerith 18y ago
  Well, there could be a limit to the number of characters in the BLOCKQUOTE element.
- Hexstream 18y ago
  I don't find it visually pleasant at all when I get confused about what's quoted and what's not, and when everyone is forced to come up with their own quoting scheme since it's not supported. Some use double quotes, some use italics, some use double-quoted italics... It's a mess. I'd much prefer a consistent representation for blockquotes for ease of reading and semantics. It's the Right Thing.
- pg 18y ago
  Actually that is worrying. It would be bad if blockquotes led to a nastier style of arguing.
  - lacker 18y ago
    You could disallow blockquoting from previous posts in the thread.
  - tel 18y ago
    Like macros? Actually, constructively, opt-in blockquotes might be interesting: you have to click to expand what was quoted making it clear if someone is quoting too heavily.

ews 18y ago

(I work at Craigslist) It's surprising that most of those spammers forums are totally open although there are some attacks not described or discused in any of them. Spammers, as individuals, are far less technical that we think (most of them are just users and costumers of a limited set of programs) and need those forums to contact to each other and solve their problems and technical doubts. It was known beforehand that there would be a phone number and verified account black market. It's possible to block most of them (most) as there are federal databases that can be queried for the origin of a given number (whether is voip,cell or home line). Making them pay for the priviledge to autopost can lead to interesting spamming blocking techniques as we just try to increase their cost per post beyond profit (which is very low for a single post). This is not the only cost increasing technique we are using but sadly it is impossible to share or discuss or ask for feedback of any of them on an open forum.

d0mine 18y ago
You do realize that craig is dedicated to this 'game' just as we are. There are measures he could put in place to rid spam completely, but luckily for him spam actually inflates the page view statistics for CL. Which in turn drives up the sales of post for the RE and jobs sections. This is due in part to the 'spam'. EDIT: It is a quote from the submitted link.
- Hexstream 18y ago
  I really hope I'm misunderstanding. You're saying spammers benefit CL by dramatically reducing the average quality of postings down to almost nothing and that the illegitimate page "views" of bots make up for loss of legitimate page views by actual users that are lost by aforementionned loss of quality and that Craig actually loves it? You're out of your mind. By the way I'm interested in knowing that secret to "rid spam completely" that Craig sits on. edit: Really interesting to see the kind of lame excuses people can come up with. I guess when you're dishonest with everyone then you're also dishonest with yourself. Or is it the other way around?
  - Hexstream 18y ago

davidmathers 18y ago

I've never thought of myself as someone who could get pleasure from other people's suffering, but I guess I was wrong. I really enjoyed reading those messages.

ews 18y ago
One of the purest form of joy is other people's suffering, as it containts no drop of envy. At least that's what I think when I deal with these people