The volunteers would flag posts that looks like scams or inappropriate and when the post gets enough flags from the other volunteers then it gets removed from the site. With a huge site such as Craigslist, even if you set up rules for the posters to follow, it still becomes a never ending challenge as some would still break the rules and scam people.

It is inevitable to find scam posts or spams and inappropriate or vulgar posts being posted on Craigslist and this is when the volunteers come in and it is their job to flag those they see are inappropriate. Without the volunteers, Craigslist would find it hard to detect the legitimate posts from the inappropriate ones.

It was Jim Buckmaster who started the idea of a flagging system that utilizes people power. It became quite a success and now millions of volunteers are checking out the site and flagging the inappropriate posts which is very effective and does not cost the site too.

With the aide of the people-power volunteers, we get to enjoy Craigslist even more. Although there are still some inappropriate ads getting through every once in awhile but it’s already minimized. Without the volunteers, Craigslist could be a scam/spam haven.

Craig Newmark answered questions about what is in store for Craigslist. To sum it all up, he said that there is no point in using client-side javascripts for Craigslist because people want it to be simple and fast. It doesn’t need to be fancy as it actually turns people off. Also, he has no plans about a mobile version as Craigslist already works well on smartphones.

So, pretty much Craigslist will stay as it is in the future. Of course we can’t say for certain but Craigslist is great just the way it is and people love it. Data shows that over 50 million unique visitors check Craigslist every month with over 13 billion page views!