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Craigslist A 'Cesspool Of Crime'? Or Are Bad Reporters A Cesspool Of Repeating Dubious Research?
from the i'll-take-the-latter,-jim dept
Slashdot points us to an article at the "International Business Times," that reports on a study from the AIM Group which claims that Craigslist is 'a cesspool of crime.' Interesting claim. What seems to be totally missing from the IBTimes report is the fact that AIM Group works for Craigslist competitors and, in this case, the "research" was funded by Craigslist wannabe-Oodle. That's not mentioned in the IBTimes report at all. In fact, the only mention of Oodle in the article is a quote by the CEO of Oodle mocking Craigslis and playing up Oodle... but never mentioning that he paid for the research in question.
As for the actual "research," it seems laughable, at best, and should immediately raise questions about any AIM Group research. The "research" basically scoured news reports and found a grand total of 330 "crimes" in the past year that have some sort of loose connection to Craigslist. I have a hard time seeing how that makes it a "cesspool" of crime. That's a very small number, especially considering the hundreds of millions of posts and transactions that take place via Craigslist. This seems like a massive cheap shot by both Oodle and AIM Group, and it's sad that a reporter would repeat the claims without noting the obvious problems with it. That's not journalism. That's being a PR service.
Meanwhile, looking at the "details" from AIM Group make the results even less compelling. They play up that 12 murders had a loose connection to Craigslist, but a bunch of those appear to be from one deranged individual. It seems pretty ridiculous to blame Craigslist for that.
As for the actual "research," it seems laughable, at best, and should immediately raise questions about any AIM Group research. The "research" basically scoured news reports and found a grand total of 330 "crimes" in the past year that have some sort of loose connection to Craigslist. I have a hard time seeing how that makes it a "cesspool" of crime. That's a very small number, especially considering the hundreds of millions of posts and transactions that take place via Craigslist. This seems like a massive cheap shot by both Oodle and AIM Group, and it's sad that a reporter would repeat the claims without noting the obvious problems with it. That's not journalism. That's being a PR service.
Meanwhile, looking at the "details" from AIM Group make the results even less compelling. They play up that 12 murders had a loose connection to Craigslist, but a bunch of those appear to be from one deranged individual. It seems pretty ridiculous to blame Craigslist for that.
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"Sponsored by Oodle"
That tells you all you need to know about this researcher and his report.
-->Pre-directed custom conclusions for sale.
I suppose however that its also good to know that there were 16,204 murders in the US in 2010.
Considering the millions of Craigslist transactions, and considering the fact that Craiglist has become a dominant method of selling used good throughout the US, the fact that only 12 out of the 16,204 murders were associated with Craigslist makes it very easy to draw the exact opposite conclusion from the assertion stated in this smear attempt by Oodle
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Re: "Sponsored by Oodle"
Here is a better source for the most up-to-date information available -- 2009, in which there were 13,636 murders in the United States
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Re:
If I was Mo Bigsley, my wang would be 18 inches and I could lean forward and turn myself into a tripod whenever I was tired.
I'm not Mo Bigsley, however, and you apparently don't steal stuff for a living. Nor do most people. Nor do most Craigslist users.
So what was the point of your comment?
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Re: I am not a bag-man!
Meh, disregard that. As long as you're stealing non-valuable things which are generic enough to not be particularly recognizable and do not have serial numbers I'm sure you'll do fine. Have fun.
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Re:
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Re:
Oh and phones since *vastly* more crime is done via phone than computer.
Oh and cars.
Oh and [insert any multi-use device here]
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Excellent response by Craiglist
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Re: Re:
More crime get committed via legislation than any other method!!
That Science-Damned legislation crap oughta be outlawed!
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Not very good..
Not even remotely close to Craigslist as far as quality of ads. CL might have it's scammers, at least they do not live in the past.
here is the link for a Digital Print Specialist,
http://jobs.oodle.com/r_srxx_/1575184195-11078u577,20/www.hrglobe.info___R406scnyCz S_3gbDS9NtteNKfjd9RtMwJoN6o38hf13mL4qTFbRgRHxrxCVGZ2VV2_9TtBFbTioiCfQqu95MGg,,
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lets apply murder stat to facebook
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Re: Hatchet Job Listings?
Seriously, what is the difference between classified online ads and classified print ads?
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Nuke the sun
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Nuke the sun!
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Re: Re:
Personally, I would fence things in a more traditional manner that required less of a trail.
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PR Service
There is a book by a UK Journalist called "Flat-Earth News" which addresses this issue. The recycling of PR into newspaper copy is endemic these days as journalists churn out stories as quickly as they can. Very little gets checked and obvious things are missed in the rush.
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Re: Re: Hatchet Job Listings?
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Re: Re: Re: Hatchet Job Listings?
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Re: Nuke the sun!
* Looks up *
AAAAH! MY EYES!
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The actual crime rate on Craigslist...
Taken from this Awl post:
http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/craig-newmark-will-murder-you-in-your-sleep-says-his-competitor
I'm sure most of us would love to live in such a "cesspool."
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Statistics
In all seriousness, why is society doing this? Why cant people blame the people who did something, instead of what they used to do it?
Back in the day, if you killed someone with a hammer in a hardware store, you went to jail.
Now try killing someone in a hardware store with a hammer. The store gets sued for leaving out hammers, the manager gets sued for not preventing such an issue, the hammer company gets sued for making a deadly hammer and not including a "WARNING, BLOWS TO THE HEAD MAY CAUSE INJURY OR DEATH"
Makes no sense to me.
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My two cents
Oodle's argument that they're somehow safer than Craigslist is
"When people post or respond to a listing on Marketplace, they use their real identity on Facebook".
Huh? Someone can make a fake Facebook account in less than a minute. This is a pathetic attempt to make Craigslist into the boogieman when they're just as susceptible to crime.
I'm blaming the victims... I think the problem is going to get a lot worse than it is now, and maybe police depts around the country should make an attempt to educate the public. It's really not the fault of the services that crimes are happening to these people.
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Re: My two cents
Yes it's easy to create a fake account in FB even though that's actually a violation of FB's TOS. But it's also easy to identify a fake account in FB.
See the difference now?
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Re: Re: Nuke the sun!
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wrong Email address
Agin my request to unsubcribe "etterus@hotmail.com" from
my account is important. I listed 40 emails with CL and thier still going to "etterus@hotmail.com etterus is my name SURETTE backwards ETTERUS. Pull etterus@hotmail off my
account & change to bombey@verizon.net. Thats why no replies. going to a dead account
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Feb 25th, 2011 @ 7:28am
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Response to: Anonymous Coward on Feb 25th, 2011 @ 7:28am
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cautious
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milwaukee band saw
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