moving: Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam…
I know that craigslist is supposed to be the savior of apartment hunters, but I swear it’s giving me a headache.* I can deal with ads for apartments out of my price range, even one in my own building for a smaller space than mine asking $400 a month more than I’m paying. I can deal with the ads for amazingly renovated properties that are in unfortunate areas of town that no one’s going to initially want to live in. I can even deal with the ads where people seem to have all their ducks in a row, yet completely fail to include: location, contact information & price!
But y’know it’s craigslist, I can’t really hold it against property owners/managers when the situation is that I’m in need, not them. But what’s really annoying me is that at least 2 out of every 5 ads I click on are spam.** Some of them are obvious:
- $1400 / 1br – Five room Northwest apartment, utilities included – (Northwest)
- 2br – Six room Foggy Bottom home, utilities included – (Foggy Bottom)
Others, not so much. Almost any ad advertising space in Ivy City is still posted by Locators, Inc. And ads like this, that are titled innocently enough but link to generic “Great Apartment for Rent in Your Area” sites.
I’m fine clicking through the ads and I’ve sent off some inquiries, unfortunately with no responses, but the constant spam and over-posting of ads gets my blood pressure up! Once again, any apartment hunting mojo is much appreciated. I think I’m gonna go knock back some ibuprofen…
* Seriously, I have a pretty bad migraine† this morning, though I suspect it is only mildly unrelated to the apartment search.
** Both the type that leads you away from the site to more questionable or affiliate pages and the kind that is just relentless overposting of useless information to gain exposure.
† Pretty bad in that it’s just painful so far. It hasn’t robbed me of my sight or other senses… yet.
I hate craigslist. It’s not even worth the trouble anymore.
And this is from someone that found many of his first apartments and at least two full time jobs through the site back in the late 1990s in SF.
But it’s all unfiltered spam and overposting.
If this is what’s killing newspapers, they are in worse shape than we thought.
christopher
.-= latest entry: Perspectives on mood boards from Viget =-.
I wish I knew of a decent real estate alternative to Craigslist. And the free Apartment Books at the checkout counter don’t cut it as “decent” to me.
.-= latest entry: 4:00! Time for Twits. =-.
Reminds me of job hunting as well.
Oh to want for the craigslist of old. Everything is like that anymore on there. Even the furniture, which takes you to link after endless link to furniture consignment stores, etc. … yuck – fooey!
Where are the baked beans? I’m disappointed.
.-= latest entry: not gonna lie, if this were real I would go see it… … =-.
Craigslist has become worse than MySpace. At least people have ugly websites to show for getting involved with MySpace. Selling or responding with Craigslist seems to just result in spam. People could easily collect information on both sides of the transaction. That website needs to evolve or die.
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