Startup Chatter by Donna Bogatin

As those who know us best will recognize, every measure we have taken has been for the sake of protecting the long-term well-being of the craigslist community.

The so-called craigslist community is comprised of hordes of anonymous, self-promoting Internet posters hawking all manner of human and commercial activity, including solicitation for unsavory encounters and illicit profiteering off of the private property of others.

Buckmaster on the purportedly non-”community” eBay:

Sadly, we have an uncomfortably conflicted shareholder in our midst, one that is obsessed with dominating online classifieds for the purpose of maximizing its own profits.

eBay has nevertheless provided its own unique “community” platform which fuels the livelihood of legions of self-employed individuals, while craigslist has its particular dominant classifieds mission that it steadfastly protects and pursues, no matter who attempts to cross its path.

Buckmaster derided Monster.com as “getting desperate” at the craigslist blog:

A large, tacky Monster.com truck has parked in front of our SF office, and proceeded to blast loud music, to the point where our front offices were rendered unfit for working…Is it possible that Monster is “green” with envy now that our job boards alone receive more employment -related traffic than all of monster.com?

Not a very “unusually idealistic” craigslist public retort to a “competitor” to the craigslist multi-million dollar money maker: Employment listings.

Buckmaster proudly hails just how big craigslist is, and how it keeps coming:

Search rankings for March list craigslsit as the #8 search company overall in terms of serach volume, with the highest growth rate in searches.

Craigslist finds itself in this unfortunate eBay minority shareholder position because namesake Craig Newmark was “unusually idealistic” before he had any inkling of just how widespread and powerful his “little” list would become.

Craig Newmark in 2004, following eBay’s purchase of shares in craigslist from a former member of the craigslist team (as cited by the Wall Street Journal):

When he originally gave a stake in Craigslist to the executive that sold his shares to eBay, Mr. Newmark said, he never expected them to be worth anything. “I made a gift of some equity in craigslist to a guy who was working with me at the time,” Mr. Newmark wrote on his Internet blog “I figured it didn’t matter, since everyone agreed that the equity had only symbolic value, not dollar value.

Newmark said in a message posted on the Web that he never imagined a stake in Craigslist ending up in the hands of a publicly-traded company.

Craigslist has learned its gifting lessons the hard way. First, “get a good lawyer,” Newmark has remarked to prospective entrepreneurs.

Now, craigslist is apparently not in a very generous equity gifting mood. It’s own help-wanted ads don’t specifically mention equity as part of its benefit package which it nevertheless characterizes as “better than those offered by most large corporations.”

One of the core “benefits” of working at craigslist cited is “the chance to work on one of the highest traffic websites in the world.” eBay, however, can also claim such a “benefit” to its potential hires!

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