MATCHinform warns against Craigslist

MATCHinform.com, a website dedicated to increasing safety and efficiency when using the internet as a venue for meeting others, has received many complaints regarding the personals section on Craigslist.

The personals section on Craigslist appears to have become a venue not suited for those looking for any sort of an acceptable relationship and, in our opinion, is reducing online social networking back to the time when such methods were generally regarded as only acceptable to those seeking non-traditional lifestyles.

We acknowledge that many of Craiglist's sections including housing, for sale, and jobs are valuable. As a classifieds resource, the ads in these sections are among the best on the Internet. However, for reasons we do not understand, Craigslist has opted to add and maintain a personals category which, upon perusing one will discover immediately has become a venue for sharing pornography, offering illicit drugs, solicitation of prostitution, and under the rants and raves sub-category, the defamation of character and libel.

Some users of Craigslist have published ads on the website that are clearly personal attacks, and many of these posts include personal information about the victim. Proper names, social security numbers, telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, places of work, etc. should never be acceptable postings on any website, unless permission has been granted by the individual to whom such information belongs. In our opinion, Craigslist has done nothing to curtail these practices, and by providing the personals section on their site, has actually promoted this activity.

Craiglist is easy to use and allows almost total anonymity for its users. While this might be attractive to those selling or buying used goods, we feel it might also prove very attractive to those with less than noble intentions. Because there is no registration process or user name attached personal ads on Craigslist, individuals posting ads are seldom, if ever, held responsible for its content.

We hope now that Ebay has taken a 25% stake in Craigslist, Ebay will pay attention to this rotten apple in what is otherwise a useful barrel. Until Ebay and Craiglist develop a solution to this problem, MATCHinform cautions individuals about the potential danger associated with using the Craigslist personals section to meet someone online and seriously recommends NOT using Craiglist for the purpose of social networking at any level.