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Craigslist is an example of the strength of network effects. It’s succeeding despite its user hostile design because it has no incentive to change. Using it as

by gpt5 3y ago

Craigslist is an example of the strength of network effects. It’s succeeding despite its user hostile design because it has no incentive to change. Using it as an example for MVP of your design is ludicrous.

blacksmith_tb 3y ago
Hmm, first-mover advantage maybe, but there's no real "network effect" I can see - are all my friends on CL? How would I even know? Craigslist is heroically ugly, but I wouldn't call that "user hostile" - the only obvious dysfunction I can see are the usual gaming of listings a la eBay etc., from local car dealerships spamming keywords, etc.
- toast0 3y ago
  Network effects in a marketplace are clear. Buyers go where the sellers are, sellers go where the buyers are, etc. Craigslist networking is mostly local, so some places there's not much in the way of listings (for jobs, services, marketplace, etc) and some places only one category is popular and some places you would find your job, your apartment, your furniture, and before personals went away, maybe your spouse.
chomp 3y ago
This is definitely a take. Can you explain the network effects and user hostility?
bityard 3y ago
I've used Craigslist for, what, decades and I never found it to be user-hostile. If I owned it, I would probably make a few tweaks here and there but I have no trouble at all placing an ad or browsing the listings. It's a very honest design and I think that speaks to people. Contrast that to the thing that is replacing it: Facebook marketplace. It's beautiful, but, the barrier to entry is high, there is no practical way to browse specific categories, search shows tons of irrelevant results, there is no way to set up keyword or category alerts, and it's riddled with scams and flakes. The entire object of FB is not to get anything done, it's to keep you scrolling for as long as possible.
derefr 3y ago
What's user-hostile about Craigslist's design? Do you think Windows 95 UX is user-hostile too? Many people would say that having a strict adherence to universal UI conventions such that "your buttons always look like buttons" (Windows 95) or "your links always look like links, and your form inputs always look like form inputs" (Craigslist) is more usable. (Also, if you think Craigslist "has no incentive to change", you probably haven't used it in a while. It was rebuilt — 5+ years ago now! — as a modern HTML5 website that only vaguely resembles its previous HTML4 minimal-CSS no-JS approach. But even that old design was extremely usable.)
giantrobot 3y ago
In what way is Craigslist "user hostile"? Craigslist pages are information dense but hardly hostile. They don't waste 75% of the screen on whitespace. That's not hostile.
SPBS 3y ago
1. Craigslist is only used as an example. It could have been any other minimalist website. The post is not calling to imitate Craigslist because it is successful, it is calling to use minimal design (like Craigslist) for your MVP because if it has any real value-add, your users will love it anyway. 2. Like others have said, Craigslist's design is not user hostile.

by gpt5 3y ago

blacksmith_tb 3y ago

Hmm, first-mover advantage maybe, but there's no real "network effect" I can see - are all my friends on CL? How would I even know? Craigslist is heroically ugly, but I wouldn't call that "user hostile" - the only obvious dysfunction I can see are the usual gaming of listings a la eBay etc., from local car dealerships spamming keywords, etc.

toast0 3y ago
Network effects in a marketplace are clear. Buyers go where the sellers are, sellers go where the buyers are, etc. Craigslist networking is mostly local, so some places there's not much in the way of listings (for jobs, services, marketplace, etc) and some places only one category is popular and some places you would find your job, your apartment, your furniture, and before personals went away, maybe your spouse.

chomp 3y ago

This is definitely a take. Can you explain the network effects and user hostility?

bityard 3y ago

I've used Craigslist for, what, decades and I never found it to be user-hostile. If I owned it, I would probably make a few tweaks here and there but I have no trouble at all placing an ad or browsing the listings. It's a very honest design and I think that speaks to people. Contrast that to the thing that is replacing it: Facebook marketplace. It's beautiful, but, the barrier to entry is high, there is no practical way to browse specific categories, search shows tons of irrelevant results, there is no way to set up keyword or category alerts, and it's riddled with scams and flakes. The entire object of FB is not to get anything done, it's to keep you scrolling for as long as possible.

derefr 3y ago

What's user-hostile about Craigslist's design? Do you think Windows 95 UX is user-hostile too? Many people would say that having a strict adherence to universal UI conventions such that "your buttons always look like buttons" (Windows 95) or "your links always look like links, and your form inputs always look like form inputs" (Craigslist) is more usable. (Also, if you think Craigslist "has no incentive to change", you probably haven't used it in a while. It was rebuilt — 5+ years ago now! — as a modern HTML5 website that only vaguely resembles its previous HTML4 minimal-CSS no-JS approach. But even that old design was extremely usable.)

giantrobot 3y ago

In what way is Craigslist "user hostile"? Craigslist pages are information dense but hardly hostile. They don't waste 75% of the screen on whitespace. That's not hostile.

SPBS 3y ago

1. Craigslist is only used as an example. It could have been any other minimalist website. The post is not calling to imitate Craigslist because it is successful, it is calling to use minimal design (like Craigslist) for your MVP because if it has any real value-add, your users will love it anyway. 2. Like others have said, Craigslist's design is not user hostile.