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June 25, 2009
Frustrated by Craig’s list flagging system
CraigsList has what is called a “user moderated” system. Users can flag listings in any number of categories, the results being the listing gets removed. Their site boasts “millions of inappropriate listings removed every month”. It further claims that “98% of the removals are for violations of Craigslist TOU”. I don’t know how they can say that since there is no company oversight. Any user of any reputation with or without an account can flag anything for any reason. The owner of the offending post receives a mail saying their post has been removed. No repost button. No explanation other than a link to the standard explanation of the flagging system. No knowledge of who flagged it, how many times, for what reason. Nothing. Zero transparency.
In my personal experience zero of my posts have been removed for actual CL terms violation and 100% of them have been flagged by haters. There are competitors on CL that can flag your posts with impunity and no repercussions. I have a friend in the rental business and this is a constant war between her and competitors flagging her listings. Her listings have about a 2 hour life on CL. Today I posted a “Gig” for some BRoll video footage. Completely a valid job paying $2K. I received a stock email from a video production company which was basically spam and did not address any of the specific needs of my project. I replied that I thought it was unprofessional to respond with a form letter and please address my RFP directly. Five minutes later my post was flagged and removed. A hater. “Well if I can’t get the job, no-one will". No visibility for me, nothing.
This system is bad for both sides. The crazy minority can ruin the market for the majority. Craig’s list could really use a reputation system.
Posted by Martin at 1:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 16, 2009
Bezos on kindle/ebooks
They are separate businesses. Very interesting conclusion statement… Simplicity, he suggested, has been a reason that Kindle books now account for 35 percent of the sales of all titles that are available in both Kindle and paper formats. “We humans do more of what’s easy,” he explained. “If you lower friction, you always get more of what’s easy.” On the Kindle, he added, “you can think of a book and have it 60 seconds later. That is driving book sales.” I resemble that comment. I have bought and read 5X more books since I have the Kindle. Also I agree on the lower friction totally.
Posted by Martin at 11:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 15, 2009
Watch the new RePower America ad
About time.
Posted by Martin at 4:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 10, 2009
The sad story of biofuel implosion in the Northwest
Plenty of blame to go around. This Oregonian story captures the lowlights of the story. Industry did it’s part in building the biofuel plants including my part at Imperium Renewables. But the lack of consistent government policy, lack of enforcement of mandates, and shifting commodity markets caused on again off again markets. Without appropriate capitalization of the startups there was not enough money to make it through the bumps to the other side. That is the unfortunate story of Imperium, killed by lack of sufficient working capital.
Posted by Martin at 1:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack