JSchneier
08-28-2009, 01:36 PM
Gary Wolf’s recent piece in Wired Magazine “Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess (http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/17-09/ff_craigslist)” has stirred up the blogs in the past week. Some commentators took the bait of the piece’s provocative title and were dismissive. But several others also acknowledged this irritating paradox: Craigslist is a highly profitable company with a staff of 30 that gets by just fine with a user interface stuck in the 1990s. It gets more hits than Amazon and eBay combined. It is the ultimate WYSIWYG site, with no ads and nothing else visually clogging your experience — and millions of people like it that way.
Oddly enough, Craigslist follows an old credo of another eccentric innovator profiled by Gary Wolf, Ted Nelson (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.06/xanadu.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=):
A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds.
While he is no fan of WYSIWYG, HTML, and other accepted conventions that define today’s online experience, Nelson’s comment applies directly to Craigslist. Forget its antiquated look — the site is simple to navigate, requiring little more than a few seconds to sort out. And it works very well without the bells and whistles, thank you.
Pretty much the same could be said about forums. Configured for easy navigation, forums provide a seamless experience. Even with banner ads, the structure and layout of a forum focuses attention on the users that contribute to and monitor the site.
Forums are also an essential part of Craigslist’s culture, with 74 represented at last count. Now a site that makes it money through paid listings for jobs and real estate wouldn’t necessarily have to include forums in the mix. So why do they do it? Because their relevance as a site is not based on the paid services they provide but on the communities they foster.
It is precisely this reason Craig Newmark remains as a customer service rep for the company he founded. He understands the critical role of making sure Craigslist stays out of the way of the user’s that benefit from the site. And while those “benefits” recently landed the site in front-page news stories focused on the seedier aspects of human encounter, it hasn’t scared people away from Craigslist because of years of good will they have behind them.
It would hard to imagine today’s Craigslist existing without the contribution of forums. Newmark himself sees his role as less an owner than a contributor, helping more to facilitate that to direct the course. This spirit of a shared knowledge base is fundamental to what forums are today and also informs the choice of simple interfaces that both Craigslist and forums use today.
Forums like Craigslist have a specific community ethos at work. Instead of seeing their form as a liability it is valuable to look to forums as instructional models for healthy, thriving online communities. Communities where we listen to what the users need and want.
Oddly enough, Craigslist follows an old credo of another eccentric innovator profiled by Gary Wolf, Ted Nelson (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.06/xanadu.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=):
A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds.
While he is no fan of WYSIWYG, HTML, and other accepted conventions that define today’s online experience, Nelson’s comment applies directly to Craigslist. Forget its antiquated look — the site is simple to navigate, requiring little more than a few seconds to sort out. And it works very well without the bells and whistles, thank you.
Pretty much the same could be said about forums. Configured for easy navigation, forums provide a seamless experience. Even with banner ads, the structure and layout of a forum focuses attention on the users that contribute to and monitor the site.
Forums are also an essential part of Craigslist’s culture, with 74 represented at last count. Now a site that makes it money through paid listings for jobs and real estate wouldn’t necessarily have to include forums in the mix. So why do they do it? Because their relevance as a site is not based on the paid services they provide but on the communities they foster.
It is precisely this reason Craig Newmark remains as a customer service rep for the company he founded. He understands the critical role of making sure Craigslist stays out of the way of the user’s that benefit from the site. And while those “benefits” recently landed the site in front-page news stories focused on the seedier aspects of human encounter, it hasn’t scared people away from Craigslist because of years of good will they have behind them.
It would hard to imagine today’s Craigslist existing without the contribution of forums. Newmark himself sees his role as less an owner than a contributor, helping more to facilitate that to direct the course. This spirit of a shared knowledge base is fundamental to what forums are today and also informs the choice of simple interfaces that both Craigslist and forums use today.
Forums like Craigslist have a specific community ethos at work. Instead of seeing their form as a liability it is valuable to look to forums as instructional models for healthy, thriving online communities. Communities where we listen to what the users need and want.