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by creat0
5010 days ago
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I would expect that many users would feel this way. I can guess why. But could you tell us specifically? Assume for the sake of the question that whereever the data may appear on the web, it would always have a "Source: " line to indicate its original source, i.e. the site to which you submitted it. Assume that the integrity of the data could also be verified, e.g., through a digital signature. |
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Of course, I realize that this must be tempered with the realization that there are situations where scraping CL and re-posting the information on another site may make sense for the original poster (e.g., a hotel ad).
Here are a few of the negative items that come to mind for just classified ads:
- When I complete a transaction and delete a CL ad, I do not want other interested parties calling, texting and e-mailing me hours, months or years afterwards
- I already dislike the 10-to-1-ish ratio of SPAM/scammer/nutjob banter to communications from legitimately interested parties. I suspect any proliferation of my postings beyond CL will only tend to increase this ratio.
- The text and images within my classified ads may be more easily accessible to scammers who just need some content to farm and post elsewhere (e.g., other classified forums, eBay, AirBnB, etc.)
- Sites which do the automated scraping of CL can directly be or can become a target and/or searchable repository for intelligence gathering and source for creating new or expanding existing personal identification databases
There are countless other scenarios ranging from good to bad regarding this subject. For now, I'm convinced that the potential for the bad, the incompetent, the annoying, the negligent, the criminal and other negative scenarios outweigh the good. This is really meant to apply to how I use CL. As I mentioned before, there are undoubtedly specific scenarios where many of the potentially negative items would be moot for specific CL users.
Obviously, there are other factors here too such as the commercial viability/legality/precedent of allowing non-CL entities to use CL resources with or without restriction to directly or indirectly profit. From my perspective as a user, it's not really that important other than an arguable matter of principle.