Read this "Best of Craigslist" post.

Then tell me that this somehow, in some way, doesn’t constitute "community".

Even if it’s odd. Even if it’s different. Even if it’s online and anonymous.

This is why I love Craigslist. If you are intrigued, check out more entries that are both similar and absolutely nothing like the post above. Oh, and there’s a documentary too.

Okay, done, topic over. Mouth (or rather mind/fingers?) zipped. Ziiiiiiiip.

There’s been some high profile commentary (or whining, or critical analysis, depending on your viewpoint) regarding Craigslist these days. Start here, with San Francisco’s Tim Redmond who is clearly not a fan of "the Craig". Then, move on over to Buzz Machine by Jeff Jarvis for his take. Also spend a minute reading the comments, they’re very interesting and offer a lot of different stances on what Craigslist really is, what it has accomplished/demolished and whether or not there is a community going on there. Finally, we end up where I started, on The Post Money Value, where Rick (if I can be that forward…) relates the discussion about Craigslist to a proposed shake up in the VC world.

I’ll stick with what I know, and merely take a moment to ponder my own experiences and issues with Craigslist. First of all, I love the site. I usually visit it a couple of times a week, and in particular can be found in the "pets" section more frequently than others…why? I certainly have no shortage of animals, and I can just imagine the snarky (but possibly well founded) smart alec-y remarks ending up in my comments section. Nope, I’m not searching for a pet - I’m perusing because every once in a while there’s someone I can help.

A person will post a "I want to adopt a kitten - anyone have one?" or "I want a free kitten pleeeeeez…" note. My little contribution to the betterment of society is to point these individuals to Petfinder, mention why free is not always the best option (especially since no animal ends up being free to take care of anyway…) and what kind of experience they might expect going this route. Maybe one in three people will write back thanking me. That’s a rough estimate, and probably a wee bit high. Mostly, I never hear from these people, and never really give it a second thought. It’s just something I do. But in doing that, I am a part of the "Craigslist Community".

Well, based on that, it seemed appropriate that when I had a presentation to do for class on a "social change website" I’d take up Craigslist. Not one person other than the prof had heard of the site. One week later, when people were asked if they’d go there again, probably 80% of the class raised their hands. For jobs, for housing, for free stuff…yeah. But also to find out about volunteer opportunities. One girl has gone on to get involved with a program in Toronto for at risk youth (here’s the Craigslist ad).

Fine, it’s not a perfect system - not everyone has access to a computer, not everyone knows about it…but not everyone can afford to place a newspaper ad. Not everyone can afford to buy a newspaper, let alone buy one every day in order to check for new job listings/apartment openings/other opportunities. There are computers at libraries. There are free email accounts that can be checked at these libraries. There are ways.

It is true that when "Craigslist Comes to Town" it will change things. Well, sorta. There are many many cities and regions around the world that have a craigslist site…which is barely used. If people want to use it, it’s there. My only real big question (or rather raised eyebrow) is the fact that Craigslist in China, Japan, Paris, Madrid (anyone notice a trend yet, anyone…?) are all structured in English. Yeah, the percentage of people who do not have English as a first, second or any language is obscenely low…but this isn’t exactly doing anything to change that, is it?

Yep, they’re making a great deal of money off of the few places where they actually charge anything. But they could be making a LOT more.

I don’t think it’s time to label ol’ Craig a sellout…yet. We’ll see what happens in the future, and if everyone’s worst fears regarding eBay being invested turns a grassroots movement into…a steely, cold corporation. It’ll just take time to see what happens; my bet though is that if Craigslist did become a commercial enterprise, there’d be someone else out there more than willing to fill that crater like void.

A website I’ve been using for a while now to test out my playlists and the mixes at least partially produced by MusicMagic is FIQL. It’s not huge yet, which means it’s pretty easy to get in touch with the guys running the show. And it’s actually pretty fun to see what playlists get bumped, comments, and lots of page views while others kinda drift along. I like how they have some members who have "Buzz" playlists; a few have been really helpful for expanding genres I love from the foundations up for me (my personal suggestions are BritPop: a primer for yanks, College Rock: 1981-1990, and Best Live Albums).

They introduced a new feature that allows me to take a snippet of code and post my playlists on my blog. So, here we go - these are the seven playlists that have thusfar been chosen as "picks" (Interesting to note that this is not based on the quaity of the music - they’d rather leave that up to the users. Instead,  whether or not your playlist gets picked has to do with the quality and depth of the description you provide for your mix.)