If I told you Craig from Craig’s List Agreed to an Interview..
Would you believe me?
Author: Amy Armitage
There are certain personalities who have created a name for themselves in CyberLand and beyond who have my respect and admiration. One of these people is Craig Newmark creator of the infamous Craig’s List! Yes.. that’s right.. we talk ;)
*snaps fingers over shoulder
When I replied to his email this morning [he was seeking my advice about how to create a multi billion dollar empire] I hit him up with some confronting and hard hitting questions..
He chose to ignore those and went for the fluff option, and it is with great pride and pleasure that I welcome Craig to Lunartics.
How many servers are used to run Craig’s List and for the geeky readers, tell us about the OS you use, coding languages you use or prefer.
Around 120 generic pc servers running suse linux, mysql, apache, and modPerl
I was at a conference last year where Craigslist.com was mentioned as an example of an ugly website, yet it is hugely popular and successful. Do you get upset when you hear this said about Craig’s List?
Some described our look as the visual equivalent of a pipe wrench, intended and taken as a compliment.
There are some people who make judgements, not knowing much about usability, etc., no big deal.
What’s more important in your opinion? Usability or design?
Usability.
Is Craig’s List designed with SEO or user experience in mind?
Not SEO, but very much usability: keeping things simple.
I was reading an interview with you where you mentioned your role in customer service consistently. Do you still work in a customer service role at Craig’s List on a daily basis? Why do you love it so much?
I do full time customer service, and more. Needs to be done, and I owe it to our community.
I also noted you moderate and manage your forum community. What are the biggest challenges you have faced running busy community forums?
When people bicker constantly and get nasty, particularly regarding animal sales.
Social marketing seems to have a lot of influence over the last 12 months on natural search engine rankings. Blogs particularly seem to be a wonderful resource to communicate and get indexed ;) I noticed you have a personal blog. Do you write this for SEO, to keep in touch with your community or for another reason?
To connect with community, and to indulge myself.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I don’t plan to grow up.
Your music interests range from Leonard Cohen to Kinky Friedman. If you were locked in a room with no electronic stimulation and only a choice of listening to Marilyn Manson or Hansen (mmm bop) which would you choose?
Probably Manson.
For our budding webmasters out there, what’s the best advice you can give them on running a profitable and high traffic web site?
Treat people like you want to be treated.
When you started out and were examining web hosts closely, what were the major factors that influenced your choice of web host?
Do they support user CGI? (big issue back then)
Customer service?
Imagine overnight the internet is gone. OMG what would you do?!
You’ve blown my mind.
* Yes.. a lot a lot of people say that to me Craig ;)
Of all the people you correspond with online, if you had to choose 1 person only you could keep in touch with. Who would it be and why?
Maybe Jimmy Wales, wikipedia, or Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation.
Imagine all the spammers in the world were in one [massive] room and you could choose the best punishment or death for them. What would it be?
They could only read their own stuff.
What’s your favorite made up word?
kweejibo
Damnit I should have asked him what kweejibo means..
Thanks Craig!! You are so awesome :D
January 6th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Effing right!! Craig I love you! I love the fact that I can find women willing to come help me with my needs on your site!!! Way to go buddy! good interview as well!
January 6th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Very nice interview amy. Its interesting to hear what kinda setup such a successful website is using. Craig your a pretty funny guy. WTF is kweejibo dude. You can’t leave us hanging like that bro its just not fair. Wait I need to google this.
OMG, keewijibo means this = urban dictionary
Ok thats kinda gross.
Amy great job on the interview again and thanks Craig for doing it. Hey I am just curious what you feel about people spamming craigslist. How do you fight it and whats the biggest problem with it.
January 6th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Oopsy .. Guess I should Google b4 I post.
Thanks Joe. My interview is better than yours ;)
January 6th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Whoa..
Cool interview Amy!! I love the spammer question and answer. Welcome to our community Craig!
January 6th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
I’m a big fan of craigs list. I think it is amazing that you still work there full time Craig. From what I have read and heard, you could retire very comfortably and never work again. I also really respect your charitable contributions and grounded attitude.
Nice job Amy :)
January 6th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
That question is just cruel Amy! No internet? I’m already having panic attacks just thinking about it.
January 6th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
hehe.. I bet Craig was expecting an all techy type of interview. That is why I enjoy your writing Amy. You mix it up every time and inform and entertain :)
January 7th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Hi Amy!
re: “I hit him up with some confronting and hard hitting questions…
He chose to ignore those and went for the fluff option”
now, why doesn’t that surprise me…
Delia
P.S. Please let me know if you *ever* get him to answer the non-fluff stuff and take care! D.
January 8th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Folks, thanks!
1. for the meaning of “kweejibo”, look up its derivation by a B. Simpson, although I identify more with H. J. Simpson.
2. Delia’s my stalker, not a problem.
Craig
January 8th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Delia – Craig was fantastic and very responsive. That first paragraph was written tongue in cheek.. i.e “[he was seeking my advice about how to create a multi billion dollar empire] I hit him up with some confronting and hard hitting questions..”
Last thing I want to see here is anyone reading anything negative into this. It was all positive.
January 8th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Amy,
Sorry I took it literally… (I actually thought you meant it that way) No big deal… If you personally believe Craig is fantastic, I don’t see anything wrong with that! I would just suggest that you don’t allow that to blind you to the facts of the issue when you write about craigslist. Having said that, it seems to be a wide spread problem… so no need to be too tough on yourself!
Delia
P.S. As to *my* stalking Craig… somebody tell this guy to stop reading my comments if he feels “stalked”! (he’s got much much worse problems to deal with…) D.
January 8th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Loved this craigslist interview! I don’t think there is ever a day that I don’t visit craigslist for one reason or another.
I love Craig’s philosophy as well. “Treat people like you want to be treated.” Definitely something that should be implemented in our daily lives.
Kudos Amy!
January 8th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Craig List rulez! We use them all the time. I find it very interesting that Craig keeps emphasizing his focus on Customer Support. In the new web 2.0 social networks world, it’s all about reputation and all about customer service.
Rock on
January 10th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
kweejibo is from an episode of the Simpsons: A big dumb balding North American ape… with no chin.
And a short temper.
January 11th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Cool to learn more about the CL mastermind.
All hail the great kweejibo. What a freakin’ sweet word.
My fav made up word was quetzal but that is not even made up (I know now). I thought it was but then someone recently used it vs. me in a hot game of Scrabble. I challenged them, lost and looked it up.
QUETZAL -
quetzalkĕtsäl′ or quezalkāsäl′ , common name for a magnificent bird of the family Trogonidae (trogon family), found in the rain forests from S Mexico to Costa Rica at altitudes of up to 9,000 ft (2,745 m). It is strikingly beautiful, with a crested head, bronze-green back, and crimson and white underparts. Quetzals nest in holes, and lay from two to four eggs per clutch. The male shares incubation duties with the female. The nesting hole has a single entrance, not two as was once believed. The Aztec and Maya used the 2-ft (61-cm) shimmering green tail plumes of the breeding male ceremonially and worshiped the bird as the god of the air, associating it with the god Quetzalcoatl. The quetzal, Pharomachrus mocino, is the national bird of Guatemala, and a monetary unit of the country is also called a quetzal. Quetzals are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Trogoniformes, family Trogonidae.
Anyhow, welcome to this awesome panel Craig.
Everyone bow and curtsey.
Booyakasha!
February 3rd, 2007 at 5:53 am
[...] You can’t mention Lunartic’s interview with Eric without seeing Lunartics other interview, this one with Craig Newmark, founder of the now-very-famous Craig’s List. This guy is rich, and owns one of the most successful (and, as much as we hate to throw this phrase around,) “Web 2.0″ sites around. Yet reading through his interview, you would never know: What do you want to be when you grow up? [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 6:04 am
[...] Amy: Brian.. Thanks for being so brave and agreeing to an interview. Past interviewees like Eric Meyer CSS Guru and Craig from Craig’s List are still recovering so I’ll try and be gentle, but let’s face it… We love controversy and public humiliation here at Lunartics ;) [...]
July 10th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
[...] for being so brave and agreeing to an interview. Past interviewees like Eric Meyer CSS Guru and Craig from Craig’s List are still recovering so I’ll try and be gentle, but let’s face it… We [...]