Mystery Flagger/"Hater" on Craigslist

Hello Industry Friends,

I have a community who is utilizing Craigslist as a form of their marketing. Over the last few weeks A LOT of their well written posts are being flagged. Today we get an email from some girl saying (be warned):

STOP POSTING YOUR BULLSHIT ALL OVER CRAIGSLIST.

NO ONE WANTS TO LIVE IN YOUR LITTLE GHETTO, EVERYTHING SMELLS LIKE PISS IN SHIT IN THE TOWERS, ITS OVER RAN BY COLONIES OF MEXICANS, AND YOU ARE WAY OVER RPICED FOR THE CRAPPY APARTMENTS. Hire quality employees for a change maybe then that place wouldnt be such a shit hole.
but what do u kmow sittingon your ass in that expensive club house.

KEEP POSTING SPAM ON CL & I WILL REPORT YOU EVERYTIME!!!

Now, we have checked our system to see if someone with that name lives at our property or if we have any issues with this resident. No one in our system with her name (gooooo figure...) and we have NO idea why she is doing this. Her e-mail is attached to a room for rent ad from about a year ago so it's at least a semi-valid email. I told my leasing agent do not respond, we will have our lawyer send her a cease and desist as it is disrupting normal flow of business (Craigslist is HUGE for that property). How do other marketing manager deal with residents or just over all crazy people who constantly flag posts by your leasing staff?

Kindest Regards.
JL

JL,

Usually one person flagging an ad is not an effective objective as there needs to be more than one person to flag a post before it is taken off Craigslist. From what I know (not a lot, admittedly) it takes several in an organized manner to have a post deleted. However, for housing ads, I beleive it can take as little as 2-3 people from different IP addresses to flag a post and get it deleted.

I would have that manager email the administrator at [email protected] and file a complaint. I don't know how receptive the admins are on CL, but at least it is worth a try. Then I would check the ads and make sure they are following the posting rules/terms of service. I know I inadvertantly posted a web address on an ad and it was flagged right away. Kind of embarrassing mistake .... I think I would try to post a similar ad but at a different time of day (like early morning or evening and skip posting all throughout the day for a couple of days.) I've been told that if you post your ad and then remove it right away, it won't show up in your list so that after a couple of hours you can repost it. I am not sure how the attorney can write a cease and desist letter - where do you send it? If this disgruntled individual is sitting at home all day with nothing better to do but flag your posts, I am not sure what you can do about that. It does happen - usually I see this in the Pet postings when people try to sell puppies. Are you sure this is not a disgruntled former employee?

Good luck and let us know what happens. Maybe someone else has some other ideas?

I realize that the OP stated that Craigslist is a strong marketer for them. It works for different people in different places around the country. To me (and I have used it somewhat on both marketing and personally) but I have never gotten anything much from it except quite a few responses to my ads that I could have sure done without. People are just downright mean spirited on CL and very rude and obnoxious.
But in the current time of history, that seems to be par for the course.
Actually, I equate CL to the same quality of advertising as the "Star Shopper". The "Star Shopper" is usually going out and pointing at a somewhat undesirable class of people in this area. I don't know why that is.

I always find it interesting when I hear from people in other areas that Craigslist doesn't work for them.

I'm in the Craigslist Charlotte, NC market and it helped me lease-up a troubled property two years ago.

It is still my number one traffic generator. I believe I get a better prospect with a better ad.

I have nice photos I took myself, use Postlets for format and put a lot of information in it.

I have also found that adding "credit and background check required" and several other common questions I get from prospects cuts down on the calls.

Some advertisers like to put less information to generate more calls. I don't have time for that. I put as much as possible in the ad to pre-qualify them.

I love Craigslist!!!

You might try to get friends and staff to flag the ad for you, too. That will get more flags and maybe Craigslist will notice. I've tried contacting them before without any luck, but I flag when I think it is necessary.

deleted

Why do people post all their bad karma on craigslist anyway? I have personally seen several posts about various companies and I think it's just a way for people to bash others and then try to hide behind CL! Why are you bashing on CL? Grow up! If you have a legitimate and valid issue you will take the necessary steps to alleviate and fix your issue. Why bring the whole world into YOUR ISSUES! That's not what craigslist is for. People are taking the time to look at what they think are service ads or employment ads and housing ads and instead find themselves in the middle of a bashing session of some company or individual. Don't believe everything you read on CL! If everyone started suing for defaming of character on the internet this drama would stop!

This is a way of life we have to live with now. It's not just CL. You've seen the news stories of teen bullying on Facebook and Twitter, and there are many websites where you can post about your ex "cheating" or whatever. Only with a paid service like Angie's List can there be very tight controls, and that's a difficult business model to emulate. Any passive-aggressive person out there can have their merry way on the internet bashing other people anonymously.

It's too hard to sue for defamation of character--that's why the madness continues. Yes, one can track IP addresses but it's expensive and some perps can even dodge that.

One just has to be ready with a plan of defense. Taking regular, knowledgeable steps to control your social media presence is the only way to protect yourself.

An interesting side note: you actually used the ability to remain anonymous to post here!

join our craigslist flagging exchange group! we've got about 3500 members! facebook.com/groups/craigslistflaggingexchange/


MODERATOR NOTE: We were originally not going to allow this post, but frankly, we thought you all might be interested in how groups like these operate to flag other people's posts.

Regarding the remark "interesting side note, you actually used the ability to remain anonymous in your post".
I might be confused here but it looks to me like the first post from the person who has/had the mystery flagger/hater, has a picture and her entire name.

You are wrong. It only takes one.