Jewish egg donors. Blind subjects with sleeping problems. Pretty girls with pretty feet.
All of these people have one thing in common: they are all needed and wanted by people who post classified ads at one of the hottest Internet sites, www.Craigslist.org. While these particular ads were posted in New York City, places like Westchester County, New Haven, and even Fairfield County itself have separate, free listings for sexual partners, roommates, help wanted and even items for sale.
“People want the weirdest things,” said Craigslist user Mary McConnell, a Fairfield senior. “If you look under the ‘et cetera’ category you can find just about anything. I swear I once saw an ad posted by someone who needed toenail clippings.”
The website prides itself on being a down-to-earth and cost-efficient way to “get the word out about everyday, real-world stuff,” according to the site. Yet, it seems that Craigslist is more out of this world than down to earth.
Some of the most bizarre Craigslist stories are related to housing situations or roommate searches, according to Megan Griffin ’09.
“My brother posted a classified ad on Craigslist to help him find a roommate for an apartment in New York City after he graduated from Georgetown in D.C.” said Griffin. “He was hoping to find somebody his age looking for a place to live, but instead he got a reply from a 17-year-old guy in India hoping to move to America and start a new life with his wife and kid!”
Craigslist.org is a modern Internet version of newspaper classified ads, broken down for your local area. The international website offers free classified postings and forums in practically any field.
It provides listings for jobs, housing, social activities, a girlfriend or boyfriend, goods ‘ services, information, advice, and just about anything else. And with the exception of some major cities, it’s all for free.
Developed in 1995 by Craig Newmark, the site has grown exponentially over the past few years, now receiving over 5 billion hits per month. It is now the seventh most popular English language website on the internet, beating out both ESPN.com and Amazon.com.
Craigslist.org has reached this popularity status due to many factors, according to Fairfield communications department professor Dr. Gisela Gil-Egui, an expert in new media technologies.
“The internet provides such an overload of information that people are just searching for ways to filter it all. Craigslist gives them a way to do it,” she said.
The website has also become a brand name, said Gil-Egui. “In the same way parents trust that Disney will make a movie they won’t have to edit for their children beforehand, people trust that Craigslist as a brand will not let them down.”
However, it is not uncommon for Craigslist.org to post false information. In the housing section, the replies to ads aren’t the only strange thing that can happen. Often the renters themselves try to cheat their hopeful tenants by posting false information.
“I was so sick of finding an awesome, decent costing 2-bedroom apartment and then going into the city to find out it only had one bedroom and a tiny closet,” said Fairfield grad Jennifer Gumpert ’05. “So I took a job in Boston!” she joked.
And it’s not just the actual posts that tend to be creepy or false. The people behind the ads are who you need to worry about, said McConnell.
“I used Craigslist to try and find a summer job as a nanny outside Boston, but even though I got tons of replies, I was too scared to take any of them up on their offers because I didn’t know who exactly was advertising for what,” McConnell said. “I never thought I was afraid to get a job over the internet, but you just don’t know how many crazy people are out there.”
Crazy? Maybe. Lonely? For sure. Craigslist.org is also one of the largest online singles websites in the country. In the Fairfield County section alone there are more than 80,600 single people looking for companionship.
“A man I used to baby-sit for always used craigslist.org to post personal ads. I think he used the title, ‘single, hair-challenged dad looking for love,'” said Fairfield senior Meredith Fredyna.
About a year ago, Fredyna and her friends decided to make a singles profile on Craigslist just to see what happened, she said. “We got all kinds of responses, but the best was this guy in Norwalk named Barry who said he was a black belt in Karate, collected action figures and needed a date to a ‘Lord of the Rings’ convention!”
However, Fredyna thinks that maybe Craigslist isn’t so bad after all, claiming “if there’s hope for Barry [on Craigslist], then there’s hope for me!”
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