Craigslist is a classified advertisements website that hosts listings for housing, jobs, items for sale, services, and personals in over 450 cities worldwide. It aims to provide a helpful, non-commercial platform for users to connect locally. Postings are free to create and browse, and the simple, utilitarian design focuses on community contributions. Users act as watchdogs by flagging posts as helpful, miscategorized, spam, or prohibited. Craigslist emphasizes community spirit and avoiding commercialism in line with its founders' values.

1. How Craigslist Works
• Craigslist.org, originally a San Francisco
community electronic newsletter, is now one of
the most visited English language Web sites,
with local classifieds for more than 450 cities
worldwide. The site's main function is to host
classified ads that cover practically every
category you can think of, including housing, job
postings, items for sale, services and personals.
There's also a forums section that allows users
to discuss topics on everything from gardening
to the Linux operating system.

2. How Craigslist Works
•
Craigslist's founder Craig Newmark and CEO
Jim Buckmaster aim to provide users with a
helpful, noncommercial way to connect with
other people in their communities [source: New
York Times]. Posting for most classifieds
categories on craigslist is free, and it's also free
to browse and respond to ads. The Web site
doesn't have any flashy animation or graphics --
its value comes from its utilitarian design and the
contributions of its users.

3. How Craigslist Works
• Craigslist users act like the site's watchdogs by
monitoring the content that gets posted. Users
flag posts to draw attention to those that are
particularly interesting and those that detract
from the site. The tags that can be applied to
posts are best of craigslist (a funny or effective
post), miscategorized (a post placed in the
wrong section of the site), spam/overpost (a
generic post or one that has been posted
multiple times) and prohibited (a post that
directly violates the site's terms of use).

4. How Craigslist Works
• The team believes that craigslist gives
users a place to communicate and help
one another, fostering community spirit.
The site's emphasis on community reflects
its founder's and CEO's values -- Craig
Newmark and Jim Buckmaster try to avoid
commercialism and corporate culture in
their company [source: craigslist.org]

5. How Craigslist Works
• instead of a flashy
office in a building
made of glass and
steel, craigslist's
headquarters are
in an old Victorian
storefront in San
Francisco

6. How Craigslist Works
• One of the biggest challenges for the craigslist
community is weeding out scam artists. The site
has a section describing common scam tactics
and what users should do if they come across
them. Scams might involve fake money orders
or checks, bait-and-switch schemes (in which
you think you're getting one thing but end up
with another), phishing schemes designed to
obtain personal information, identity theft
schemes and other unethical and illegal
activities.