Craigslist used to be a marvelous meeting place for us all here. I have found a number of really good deals there over the past few years. But due to continued flagging, I have stopped attempting to post any ads there of any kind. Especially in either the Pets, or Farm and Garden. I have brought this topic up before but it bears revisiting because it is completely out of hand now. It's stupid, petty, and a real shame.....nary a horse ad can stay up, or hay, or goats, sheep, chickens, eggs, anything at all. I watch people keep putting their ads up and see them flagged off within hours, sometimes even minutes. I really feel for them, as I have been targeted also.
This morning I checked to see if any of the ads were still up, and nope-around 90% have been flagged down-nearly every one of them completely within the CL TOU. Then I clicked on this one, due to the title. OMG.....it's a HUGE post, but worth the read!
Horse Fodder (Big Lake)
Reply to: sale-1024688707@craigslist.org [?]Date: 2009-02-07, 7:01AM AKST
Nazi Flagger Witches Exposed (See What The Witch Hunter Bagged!) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply to: see below Date: 2008-11-30, 11:39PM AKST Nazi Flagger Witches Exposed by Witch Hunter Sponsored by No Flag Nuts! I learned from some network analysis that I performed here recently on Craigslist that there is a relatively small group of Nazi Flagger Witches, who have self-appointed themselves to what they believe is the highest, most important position in all of Alaska today--"Craigslist Pet Section Monitors." For the most part, as it turns-out, it's only four people (using the term loosely) who are continuously making life miserable for the unfortunate few here in the Pet Section who are unlucky enough to find themselves caught in their cross-hairs. Whenever these witches spot an ad they don't like (for whatever arbitrary reason), they will all jump on their broomsticks en posse to conjure their evil magic, and flag the ad off of Craigslist.
My analysis showed that it was a group of just four witches who are responsible for most of the terroristic Pet Section flagging here in Alaska: one who works at Chevron, one who works at Providence; one who works for the State of Alaska DOT and the other who is apparently just a private ACS user who sits at home all day, policing Craigslist along with the aformentioned other three, who actually do this from their workplace computers during weekdays, and then from their homes when they're not at work. (See My Witch Hunt Results below for more details). You'll see their rants throughout the day, harping endlessly, and belittling users about certain puppy ads, certain business ads, certain dog house ads, certain dog walker ads, certain pet sitter ads, certain dog training ads, etc., ad nauseum, and then go "on and on" in their posts about how certain advertisers have rehoming fees that are "too high," or admonishing people that the Pet section of Craiglist is "for SPCA/PETA-recognized organizations only."
That's all just a smoke screen, folks. First of all, they don't seem to really care whether the ad is a business ad, or not. You'll see ads that they never flag throughout the Pet section that are posted by a wide variety of businesses (some with links to full-blown Web sites) that offer things like "pet insurance," "pet clothing," "pet-sitting," "specialized dog collars," "tear stain remedies," "cat boarding," "oral health products," to name only a few. It doesn't really seem to make any difference whether an ad is a "business ad," or not. What seems to matter most to these witches is whether it's a business that they (in their sick minds) "approve" of, as opposed to all others. In my opinion, they definitely seem to apply what amounts to a "double standard" when selecting which ads of the "business" type to flag, or to gripe about. Secondly, they seem to zero-in on ads that feature certain breeds of dogs (Pitt Bulls, Ridgebacks, Rottweilers, Bull Mastiffs, etc.) and leave ads that feature other (less intimidating) breeds alone, when there's not even any discernable difference in the nature of the advertisement--except for the breed. They also seem to pick on people trying to find good homes for just about any purebred litter of puppies, whether they are of the guarding variety, or not. These fraudsters even go so far as to call and/or email people who are advertizing puppies, but don't post a price, pretending to be potential buyers. Then, in their infinite wisdom, if they decide that the advertiser is asking more than what the non-profit rescue businesses are selling their dogs for ($150 and up), will post rude admonishments aimed at embarrassing the poster, and then flag the ad off of the site.
(suvalley back in-I am having to copy and paste, so paragraph breaks are not in the correct location, sorry about that!)
Suspiciously, I've also noticed that cat, and cat-related ads never seem to get flagged. Has anyone else noticed this? Additionally, they are always sure to post reminders to people giving away cats, warning them to "carefully check the background" of whomever they give the cat to, so as to ensure that the "poor creature" doesn't become "snake food." I wonder why it is that you never see them posting the same warning to folks giving away small dogs. It seems to me that a Boa Constrictor or a Python wouldn't care whether he's eating a cat or a small dog for dinner. Just an observation.
Anyway, these decrepit old losers seem to be quite "unjust" in choosing which ads they target for flagging. This is exactly the kind of behavior you might expect from a group of people (if you could call them that) who have no greater purpose in life than to sit at their computers all day in order exert what amounts to their delusional and narcissistic notion of power over the users of the Pets section here at Craigslist. I bet it energizes them, and makes them feel so GOOOOOOOOOOD to make life so miserable for so many people, and to do it anonymously (or so they thought). I believe it actually gives their sad lives some sort of perverted meaning. Well. You know what the Hindu say about "Karma" don't you? The payback it promises is inescapable.
(Here's the main point.....please keep reading!)
My Witch Hunt Results During the afternoon, on November 25th, I set-out a series of Nazi Flagger Witch Traps aimed at identifying the IP addresses of the Nazi Flagger Witches who continue to spend way to much time conjuring their evil magic here at Craigslist. Now that I'm done, you'll find everything you need to identify and shut 'em down right here! Obviously, Nazi Flagger Witches aren't a very smart group of people. They apparently don't realize that you can't remain anonymous on the Internet when someone with the know-how and the proper network tools wants to discover which rock it is that snakes like them crawl-out from under.
Don't worry, this didn't involve doing anything illegal on my part, and all of the information I gathered is already publicly-accessible to you, me, and everybody else on the Internet, for that matter. You just have to know where, and how, to look for it. You also need to know how to set a workable trap which allows you to capture the IP addresses of the witches you're hunting.
I won't tell you how I did that though, but I will say this: Craigslist makes it SO EASY that any of you could do it. Truly, it's so simple, I have a hard time believing I'm the only one who's ever figured-out how to do IT. Suprisingly, it only took four people to flag my Nazi Flagger (Witch Trap v 1.0) ad. Five users, including the same four from my first trap, participated in the flagging of my second trap (Witch Trap v 2.0). I would have thought that it would have taken more than four, but it didn't. What you end-up learning from these two trappings is that it only takes four witches to ruin things for everybody in Alaska (at least during the early afternoon hours), and that Craigslist should definitely raise their Flagging Threshold for Alaska during this time period to a much higher number. Their programmers probably thought there's wasn't enough users up here to justify a higher threshold like other places (outside) I'm sure enjoy. You can tell Craigslist as much by clicking here...
Even more suprising was the fact that three out of the five flaggers were people who were at work while they were flagging my ad: One at Chevron; one at Providence Hospital; and the other at the Alaska Department of Transportation. I'll bet their bosses will be glad to find-out how they spend their days at the office. The other two were private ACS customers: one with a cable connection, and one with a DSL connection. No doubt. Those are the ones sitting home all day, surrounded by 20 cats in houses that reak of urine, policing Craigslist for the SPCA and PETA. On November 26th, someone posted an ad claiming that it was "just baloney"--that "nobody could see your IP address while you're flagging ads at Craigslist," so I answered the challenge, and set-out my Nazi Flagger (Witch Trap v. 3.0) in order to demonstrate just how ignorant that poster was. For Pete's sake, he couldn't even spell "balogna" correctly. What the !@#$ could he possibly know about IT. This time, it took a total of eight users to flag my ad, which stayed-up on the site for less than four minutes before they brought it down. What really gets me is that the imbeciles ACTUALLY AGREED to have themselves "publicly-identified as Flaggers" by clicking on my (Witch Trap v 3.0) link. What total !@#$%ing idiots!
Strangely, even though it was after 6:00PM here when I set the trap, the Chevron employee, the Providence Hospital employee, and the Alaska DOT employee were all snared yet again. Wow! No wonder they have to work so late. They must spend all day, and the evening too, policing the Pet Section here at Craigslist. When do they ever find time for work? You can add both of the aforementioned private, ACS users to the list too, plus a new one this time, as well as two GCI users who weren't caught in any of my previous traps. What I encourage everybody to do now is to use the contact information I provided below, along with the witches' IP addresses, in order to send an email (or telephone) message to their Network Administrators. If enough of us complain, their Network Administrators will HAVE TO take some sort of action against them. I've even provided a copy of the e-mails that I eventually sent, so that you could get an idea of what might be a useful way to approach the matter. At the very least, their Network Administrators will pay a LOT more attention to what these jackals do at their computers all day. I can promise you that. Most companies like Chevron, Providence, and certainly the State of Alaska, often have really strict Internet Usage Policies that often forbid employees from even visiting sites such as Craigslist (for personal purposes) via their networks. Believe me, as someone who knows the biz, companies, state governments, and private ISPs all take a very dim view of people who use their network to harass other people, which is exactly what these Nazi Flagger Witches do to so many people here at Craigslist every day.
If you take the initiative (like I have), these witches may just lose their Internet access, and, in the case of the Providence employee, the Chevron employee, and the Alaska DOT employee, maybe worse. Don't feel bad about it though, folks. WE are the victims here, and any action we may take aimed at stopping the harassment we are forced to endure here daily at the hands of these witches can only be viewed as "self defense," and therefore "completely justifiable." You know. If they'd of just left that poor dog house poster alone, I probably wouldn't be doing any of this, but when people start picking on kids like these witches do by flagging their ad all day (every day), and others too, (especially the lost dog ads), good people like us have a duty to step forward and do something in order to put a stop to it. You have to draw a line in the sand somewhere in life, and that's exactly what this Alaskan is doing right now. Are you with me? If you are, then happy hunting, my friend. Together, we can burn some witches! (metaphorically, of course)
suvalley back in here-the point here is this: Even flagging on CL is not anonymous. You can, and possibly will be identified, if this keeps up. I have flagged just a few things-the moron who keeps posting the impossibly cheap newer tractors (obviously a scam) and a couple local people who were posting in blatant disregard for the TOU, like super long rants or a bunch of website links, things like that. I flagged two people selling hay: The person from the L48, and one local guy who posts every single stinking day-you have to wait the required time before reposting-which he would know if he bothered to read that TOU he agrees to, but I only flag him if it gets annoying, like ten or more in a single week.
I don't mess with anything else, and reading the ads is always interesting and educational. If the small business section was not such a cesspool of junk, I might put an ad there. Instead, I use the newly formed AlaskasList, where you get 30 days for free and no flagging or other BS going on. They have pretty tight content control, so you don't have to endure this endless series of attacks, flags and rants. Naturally you can find my ads in the Alaska Horse Journal....where I am told they get 200,000 hits a month-superior exposure for the cost of the ad.
It is too bad that just a few rotten apples are going to spoil this barrel. I hope they are feeling proud of themselves....but if I ever find out who they are, I am going to out them HERE. Enough is enough!
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