[slay2k]

No disrespect towards you, Jeremy, you're pretty awesome in my book (literally.. my High Perf MySQL book).

But with Craigslist being the most closed-minded and developer-hating organization I've ever come across, I don't particularly give a rat's ass what it's built on.

I wish it wasn't so, because I generally love posts like this, but if a dictator's employees start giving tours of the mansion, you certainly won't find me dazzled by the motion-sensor water fountains..

[jzawodn]

Uh. What happened to evoke this response?

You can email jzawodn@craigslist if you don't want to say so in public, but we're not anti-developer. We are anti-abuse (which we see A LOT of) and anti-TOS violations.

So I'm curious to understand your position.

[slay2k]

Thanks Jeremy. I'll choose to post here as I didn't intend for my original comment to come off hostile, so I'll try and clarify what I meant.

The comment stemmed from frustration at the fact that, for a very long time, CL has been killing all creative efforts to improve or build on it. Mature sites used by millions shut down after years of operation, despite loud user protests[1][2], and those killed in utero[3] have been the norm. I realize that it's easy to point to the TOS and call it a day, but the TOS is neither consistent[4] nor clear.

Friends of mine are running startups that get some of their data from CL, and try to stay under the radar because of fears and uncertainties. They aren't doing anything remotely shady. To them, CL's decision to kill a site comes on a whim, and nobody really knows what's considered okay WRT the TOS and what isn't. I mean, if Craig himself can't provide a definitive answer[5], then surely you can see how this could become frustrating for developers.

I'm not used to any kind of openness coming from CL on the dev front, and your post has been the first one I've seen in that category, so I want to apologize if you caught the brunt of my frustration.

[1] http://blog.claz.org/#post-94

[2] http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2007/06/08/jim-buckmeister...

[3] http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/01/craigslist-yahoo-pipes-flip...

[4] http://www.housingmaps.com/ -- one of several that has been up since 2005

[5] http://romy.posterous.com/dont-be-evil-craigslist

[apu]

WTF is this? I can't decide if this is some personal beef, trolling, or something else.

[lug123]

Looks to me like a pretty heartfelt opinion on the state of affairs at CL, likely by a developer scorned. Wouldn't be the first time this happened.

[icey]

Ugh, I accidentally upvoted this. At least it made me remember how to find the flag button on comments.