Craig & Me Japhy's brief encounter with the Craig Newmark: craigslist founder, geek politico and chill guy. In my Inbox this week: An email from Craig Newmark. Any semi-savvy young metropolitan knows about craigslist, the free community meeting ground where you can meet the love of your life, get a new apartment together, find a free bed to shag on and then find jobs to get away from your new found love. Craigslist has cultural cache up the whup-ass, partly because it's free, partly because it' so "community-oriented" and partly because there's no ads and almost no design (in fact, Japhyjunket's design aesthetic stems from craigslistian utilitarianism) and so it goes without saying that the "craig" in craigslist, Craig Newmark, is a pretty important guy. He's also been sued by Hollywood. This all begs the question: Why is he writing me? I had tried posting a casting notice for my Othello video project in the film/TV/radio classifieds on craigslist, which seemed a pretty good place to put it. The site warned that only paying jobs would be accepted, so I listed the compensation as a reel of the shoot to use on auditions and $1.00. Five minutes later I get an email from Geoff Flemming (geoff@craigslist.org) telling me that I can't put up non-paying jobs, but try again if you think there was a mistake. I try again. No luck. I write Geoff and ask him what the deal is. He writes back, "If you are paying $1.00 then you man [sic] *NOT* post this here." I write back to him and ask what the minimum amount is and why this pay minimum is not listed. Geoff replies: "Minimum wage. It's the *LAW* We shouldn't have to list it. It may be the industry standard not to pay people, but it is NOT acceptable in our[sic] job categories." I then write him back explaining that in the theatre/TV/film industry nobody works on an hourly wage rate. It would be cost prohibitive to do so and that offering a reel is kind of a standard student film thing to do and point out a similar ad on the same board I am trying to post to that offers the exact same thing, except with a $25.00 fee attached. I ask again what the minimum is and if I can talk to someone besides him. Geoff replies: "Japhy, I will respond one last time to your email. We do not accept unpaid jobs in th ejob [sic] categories. We are not talking about any other post but *YOUR* post. You are welcome to post in the artists category. If that's a problem then I suggest seeking out another FREE resource for your ad. Thanks." Now, I'm a little miffed. This bozo still hasn't answered my question and he's being pretty haughty about it. Whatever happened to "the customer is always right"? I'm even more miffed because this is craigslist, a community striving ever towards greater perfection. Partly I just wanted to get my classified up, but I also thought the wording on the site was vague, and like a good democratic craigslist member, I wanted to improve the system, but here I was being harassed. I reported the whole incident to abuse@craigslist.org. Five minutes later I get an email fro, you guessed it- Craig Newmark. "Japhy, I have complete trust in Geoff, and I suspect you might have been overly persistent. Is that a possibility? Craig" Amazed as I am that the Craig Newmark has written me it's not quite what I expected, so I email Craig the whole email exchange between Geoff and me and add that I only bring it up because of how utterly pleased I am with craigslist usually. A minute later, from Craig: "Japhy, thanks, but I'm no big deal. It looks like Geoff was really patient to you, particularly considering we're all very badly slammed. Maybe wait a day, ask him again, patiently. thanks! Craig" Now I'm sitting here at my desk and thinking, "Craig Newmark is a communist". My illusions are so utterly shattered. I had always imagined craigslist as this mutual community and Craig as a deist deity watching over us all. I had to fight off my Gothamite urge to sneer at what seemed to me an utterly flaky San Franciscan thing to say. "Maybe wait a day, ask him again, patiently."? Was there really so deep a cultural divide? New Yorkers are always accused of being rude, but I was simply trying to get an answer and Geoff kept using ALL CAPS and *asterisk* around his words. He made it a totally emotional issue and Craig seemed to agree. Are New Yorkers from Mars and San Franciscan from Venus? The other question raised by this whole encounter is exactly what are Craig Newmark's responsibility to craigslist. Sure, it's free and he created it, but it's become such a staple of the internet, like Google, that the question arises: How much accountability does Craig have to those who use his eponymous list? Is craigslist really Craig's or does it belong to everybody? Robber baron's once invited workers to their mines with the allure of opportunities and created whole villages for the workers to live in, and yet, they had no voice in public affairs or even what kind of bread they could buy ("You will buy Westinghouse bread!"). Craig Newmark has, for far more altruistic purposes created a community that now reaches across the globe. What has made craigslist great is not Craig Newmark, but the people who have posted on the site. Does the town belong to the people or to the mayor, even a feel good San Franciscan like Craig Newmark? For such a New Economy kinda guy, Craig's list sure looks like a company town.

posted by Japhy at 10/09/2003 12:02:00 PM || #