Craigslist is a classified advertising website that began as a community newsletter in San Francisco and now hosts ads in over 450 cities worldwide. It allows users to post classified listings in categories like housing, jobs, items for sale, services, and personals. Craigslist relies on community moderation to review posts and reports of abuse, which allows a small staff to focus on coordinating transactions for high-priority listings and resolving user issues. While Craigslist founders Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster have non-traditional titles and roles, Buckmaster played a key role in designing the site's architecture, forums, moderation system, and search engine. One scam sometimes seen on Craigslist involves a buyer overpay

2. CONTENTS
Introduction to How Craigslist Works
The Craigslist Network
Craigslist Financials
Craigslist Controversy

3. INTRODUCTION TO 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.

4. THE CRAIGSLIST NETWORK
Community members largely moderate
the sites, craigslist employees can
focus their attention on coordinating
transactions for job and housing
posts, helping members troubleshoot
problems and responding to reports
of abuse or illegal behavior. Without
communal moderation, the craigslist
staff would be severely overworked.

5. CRAIGSLIST FINANCIALS
Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster aren't your
typical corporate bigwigs. Even though
Newmark is the founder and chairman of
craigslist, he states his title as customer service
representative. Buckmaster is not only the CEO
but also a lead developer for the site. He helped
design the homepage, Web architecture,
forums, community moderation system,
personals category and search engine.

6. CRAIGSLIST CONTROVERSY
One scam that has popped up in several craigslist
communities involves a buyer overpaying for an item. In
this scam, an innocent seller advertises an item on
craigslist for a given amount -- say $1,500. An interested
buyer contacts the seller and says he'll send a check for
the item, but when the check arrives, it's written for a
much larger amount. When the seller contacts the buyer
to inform him of the difference, the buyer apologizes and
explains that he wrote the wrong amount after confusing
it with another purchase.