4 ms·

Try to find a used computer or phone or really any other electronic. FB Marketplace has 5x the inventory.

by acchow 4y ago

Maursault 4y ago
Facebook's interface is heavily burdened with ugly templates, is needlessly complex and clunky. Page crashes! Facebook is also draconian about logging in, can't see much if you're not logged in, thus FB is elitist. You're required to you hand over your identity and submit to forced content and advertising. I personally fully retreated from Facebook permanently by 2009. Good for you, if you don't mind giving up privacy and being a product, but it is not for me. Craigslist's interface isn't sexy, but it is impressively fast and stable. No page crashes, ever. No forced content. No login necessary to search, often no account necessary to contact sellers. If an account is required to contact a seller, it is anonymous and disposable. Craigslist works the way the Internet used to work before it was taken over by advertisers, tracking and javascript. I hope it never changes, and I wish more web developers would take their cues from its simplicity and potency, because the more complex and tricky a website gets, the worse it is, unilaterally.
- Melatonic 4y ago
  Agreed. That being said for some more hard to find used items I have definitely used a friends Facebooks account to contact people because there are some real deals on FB marketplace comparatively.
- ryanbrunner 4y ago
  Facebook also does aggressively fuzzy searching. I was in the market for a sailboat last year, and knew pretty specifically what I wanted. Facebook would always be about 50% what my specific search term was, and then 50% barely related bullshit (wrong brand / size, sailing accessories, powerboats) I've also found Facebook exceptionally flaky from both the seller and buyer side. I don't usually expect responses on half the stuff I'm interested in on Facebook, and it's almost impossible to even give stuff away with the flakiness of people actually showing up to pick it up.
jrnichols 4y ago
it seems to, but sometimes getting the seller to ever reply is a herculean feat. people regularly fail to remove items they've sold, or they literally just never ever reply. hard to tell if it really has that much more to choose from.
asdff 4y ago
seems like when there are no local results they just flood it with global listings

Try to find a used computer or phone or really any other electronic. FB Marketplace has 5x the inventory.

by acchow 4y ago

Try to find a used computer or phone or really any other electronic. FB Marketplace has 5x the inventory.

Facebook's interface is heavily burdened with ugly templates, is needlessly complex and clunky. Page crashes! Facebook is also draconian about logging in, can't see much if you're not logged in, thus FB is elitist. You're required to you hand over your identity and submit to forced content and advertising. I personally fully retreated from Facebook permanently by 2009. Good for you, if you don't mind giving up privacy and being a product, but it is not for me. Craigslist's interface isn't sexy, but it is impressively fast and stable. No page crashes, ever. No forced content. No login necessary to search, often no account necessary to contact sellers. If an account is required to contact a seller, it is anonymous and disposable. Craigslist works the way the Internet used to work before it was taken over by advertisers, tracking and javascript. I hope it never changes, and I wish more web developers would take their cues from its simplicity and potency, because the more complex and tricky a website gets, the worse it is, unilaterally.

Melatonic 4y ago
Agreed. That being said for some more hard to find used items I have definitely used a friends Facebooks account to contact people because there are some real deals on FB marketplace comparatively.
ryanbrunner 4y ago
Facebook also does aggressively fuzzy searching. I was in the market for a sailboat last year, and knew pretty specifically what I wanted. Facebook would always be about 50% what my specific search term was, and then 50% barely related bullshit (wrong brand / size, sailing accessories, powerboats) I've also found Facebook exceptionally flaky from both the seller and buyer side. I don't usually expect responses on half the stuff I'm interested in on Facebook, and it's almost impossible to even give stuff away with the flakiness of people actually showing up to pick it up.

jrnichols 4y ago

it seems to, but sometimes getting the seller to ever reply is a herculean feat. people regularly fail to remove items they've sold, or they literally just never ever reply. hard to tell if it really has that much more to choose from.

asdff 4y ago

seems like when there are no local results they just flood it with global listings