apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I emailed Ryan, the guy who created Listpic, and he said that he was willing to pay a fee to Craigslist for bandwidth etc, and said that Craigslist refused to even talk to him.

It's a shame.

I think Craigslist is a little to anal for their own good but that's just my view, I know I'm in the minority on that one.

Hopefully they'll get their act together and come up with a modern graphical interface soon.

Personally I think they should just license the Listpic code.

It makes more sense than re-inventing the wheel.

apparently ryan is willing to pay craig because he's making money off of craig. craigslist was never set up as a commercial venture--it was meant for the little guy (or gal) who's cleaning out the garage & needs to get rid of some things, and the little guy (or gal) who's looking to pick up a snazzy garage sale find.

instead what the world is trying to morph craigslist into is ... another ebay.

you want ebay, go to ebay.

i am seriously crazy not only about craigslist (and craig!), but about the craigslist community. i wish people wouldn't try so hard to reinvent craig's wheel, and then bitch & moan when he refuses to adapt to their demands.

I support Craig on this 100%. It's like Ryan created an enormous Xmas display for his house that earned him money from advertising or whatever -- all while stealing 95% of the electricity for the display from Craig.

Now he's outraged that Craig decided to pull the plug and doesn't want to make a deal with someone who should have gotten permission first. Please.

I also read a number of comments that not only was band width being eaten up, but there is a perception that resellers were using listpic and it was causing problems for non-reseller users. That "they" (craig and staff) felt that the main user of listpic were resellers. Well I love listpic and I'm just a regular schmoe looking for a damn range for my house or something weird/funky. I'm really not sure the majority of listpic users were looking for things to turnover, like ebay users.

I definitely would pay a small fee to have access to listpic and CL inventory. It just made looking for stuff easier. period.

my $.015

How prescient were Pat and Alex in October.

I also agree with Craig and Doublejack. Putting ads on listpic is antithetical to the foundation of craigslist, not to mention that he is siphoning money from a brilliant idea that was not his. I think craigslist will learn and provide a similar interface, but if not, you know what? We were fine with it before, we can do it again.

Making a profit off of someone else's work is how the real world works, folks. Get used to it.

And no, putting pictures on it isn't making into "another ebay".

Ebay is about bidding. Nothing Listpic did invited or encouraged bidding. I go out of my way to get any ads even hinting at bidding removed from Craigslist.

It simply gave people an EASY way to browse ads. Period.

For example I'm pressed for time.

When I look for say "antique table", the *last* thing I need is a list of a hundred entries that I have to click on one at a time as if it was still 1980s BBS technology.

As to the ads on Listpic, I could care less. The guy made something innovative, he deserved to make a buck off of it.

As to "community" - it's a classified ad service. Not some social group.

I hope Craigslist will soon have a more graphic interface. Listpic made browsing easier especially when things were mislabeled. I bought a credenza that I found on the site, it was labeled dinning room buffet table. I would have never looked at it without browsing the pics. I think its Paul McComb or a good knockoff. Bargain of the century.

Bah, humbug Craig! I'm done with you until you modernize. Be sure to let Apt. Therapy know when you do.

Wow, lisa, it's like you never read this thread on AT:
http://chicago.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/news/listpic-blocked--024399
If you had, you'd have seen Boomer's informative post about Ryan's reaction to Craig's cut-and-paste response sent to you and posted above. Shouldn't you contact Ryan to get the other side now?
http://forums.sandiego.craigslist.org/?act=Q&ID=65326082

Ryan's contact info is here : http://www.freestylelabs.com/

I do think there's more to the story that neither side is willing to talk about...

Boomer, clearly you don't live in San Francisco, where craigslist HAS created a community. How many of us are united by the fact that our jobs, apartments, roommates (and often thereby, best friends), pets, and concert tickets and partners were found only by craigslist? I have acknowledged that my life is easier and richer because of it.

And in my pre-craigslist life, I never said any newspaper name with a smile when someone asked how I found my apartment or job.

Well, I shop at Target. For example. Sometimes.

Does that mean I'm part of the "Target community"? Please...

Hey if that's what makes you happy... ;->

I went to the listpic site just now, as linked in the post, and was able to see many postings. Are these not from CL? Do I have access to secret content? Was the data feed never pulled, or maybe it was reinstated?
Never been to listpic before, looks neat, but I still prefer the original. text is best.

>Making a profit off of someone else's work is how
>the real world works, folks. Get used to it.

So in the "real world" I could scrape data off of Apple's iTunes store, aggregate it and re-display it and then sell advertising on those pages without paying Apple a fee?

I don't think so . . .

If a non-profit like Craigslist doesn't want for-profit enterprises scarfing their bandwidth and scraping their data, that's their right, as the for-profit enterprises don't own the data and aren't paying for the bandwidth.

Hate to burst your bubble Sunspot.

Craigslist is *not* a nonprofit.

They make millions of dollars a year in profit.

CL is the best and everyone knows it.

Shutting down stuff like this is what keeps them on top. :)

Are you going to remind people next that the AT community is not a community but "just an internet blog"?

Now you're just being nonsensical.

There's a huge difference between a classified ad service and a blog. :->

By the way: E-Bay owns 25% of Craigslist.

>Hate to burst your bubble Sunspot.
>Craigslist is *not* a nonprofit.

Well then, the analogy to Apple and their iTunes Store I made up above is even stronger. Businesses cannot steal information from other businesses without permission. One would think our resident libertarian would know that . . .