ghosted on craigslists... experiences anyone?

[spunky]

so... for anyone (like myslef) who lives in a smallerish city, the variety offered by traditional escorting websites (rentboy, m4r, etc.) is somewhat limited. so i got creative and decided to start posting on the casual encounters section of craigslist offering to be 'generous' for the night (who am i kidding, for the hour only). things turned out to be MUCH, better than expected in this the "most expensive city of North America" (<--- sounds like BS but google can back me up ;-) and life was good for a few weeks until craigslist gave me the kiss of death: i was ghosted.

 

now, what is ghosting? it's an annoying bitchslap move craigslist came up with a few yrs ago where instead of mannig up and sending you a nasty email telling you you're banned for being a perv everything goes through with your posting, you sit back happily waiting for replies to your ad... but no replies come. and once you start inspecting the casual encounters and m4m boards you realise your ad was never posted. so time to get tech savvy...

 

(a) has anyone being ghosted before on craigslist and did you find a way to get around it? i tried the usual tricks already like create a new account with a diff email, refresh my server to get a new IP address, change the MAC address on my computer, etc. no luck so far. the only thing that seems to be working is to use my cellphone's network and a different account every time to create a new posting. it works... but it is hella annoying.

 

(b) i'm suspecting that using the word "generous" or variants of such is what's getting me banned. does anyone know if the lingo has changed recently? something people look for to imply 'generosity' which is not necessarily well... "generous"? i was able to find out that waaaay back when it all started, "roses" used to mean "dollars" when posting a price on your ad, but i don't think people use that anymore (i was personally unaware that that expression even existed).

 

ThAnKs!!

[tyro]

I see "roses" and embedded dollar signs on "casual encounters" postings.

T

[+ Travis69]

One person I saw from Craigslist used the words "assistance" or "help". People who use Craigslist for non-monetary encounters flag anything that suggests escorting so they can keep their website from being shut down by the prudes. I would assume them constantly flagging your postings got you in trouble.

[fedssocr1]

can you just use a different email address?

[Zapped]

I would bet a LOT of money that CL has a program that gets rid of any post in the personals sections what has "generous" in it. They had to take town the "adult services" area because they were getting heat for facilitating prostitution.

 

Have you tried posting an innocuous ad just to see if it shows up? Then you could know if it's you or what your posting. If you're getting a "generous" post through with a new account, though, I'm puzzled.

 

So that was entirely unhelpful . . .

[spunky]

thank you all for replying.

 

well, actually Zapped's suggestions turned out to be VERY helpful because i don't know why i hadn't considered posting something normal and seeing what happened. the post went through without any trouble so i kept on trying back and forth with different accounts and different edits to the posts until i got to the crux of the issue: part of my posts appeared as if i'm selling something, so i'm guessing that whichever natural language processesor they're using to block posts caught on some combination of words i was using and banned it because it thought i was selling something on the casual encounters section.

 

curiously enough the word 'generous' is still not banned. but if you try to include it in the title of any listing they'll flag the crap out of you.

 

oh well, at least that is settled.... for now, lol.

 

thank y'all!!

 

(ps- my grammar's awful but it's really late here so...

[operalover21]

One person I saw from Craigslist used the words "assistance" or "help". People who use Craigslist for non-monetary encounters flag anything that suggests escorting so they can keep their website from being shut down by the prudes. I would assume them constantly flagging your postings got you in trouble.

 

In a lot of the smaller markets (and I suspect the bigger ones too) there are lots of "people" -- I'm being generous here -- who have a lot of time on their hands and go through and flag everything they don't like. But it takes multiple flaggings to get a post removed and they have to be by different posters. But once you've been removed it becomes easier for others to have your posts removed in the future. It's all a big game.

 

On a brighter note, I found a guy on Craigslist last week (Hamptons) who needed help with his cable bill. $85 was what he wanted. He was 22, in college, 5'10", 175, muscular fit body, gorgeous as hell ... I said yes, he came over, stayed several hours, and it was one of the best experiences I've had in a while. And he was smokin ass hot.

[Zapped]

OH, that was helpful after all? Then glad I posted it anyway!

[spunky]

On a brighter note, I found a guy on Craigslist last week (Hamptons) who needed help with his cable bill. $85 was what he wanted. He was 22, in college, 5'10", 175, muscular fit body, gorgeous as hell ... I said yes, he came over, stayed several hours, and it was one of the best experiences I've had in a while. And he was smokin ass hot.

 

craigslists is filled with hidden gems at quite reasonable prices!!! (plus the given psycho every now and then but i guess that's a risk we're implicitly willing to take as soon as we try and meet strangers on the internet)

[spunky]

OH, that was helpful after all? Then glad I posted it anyway!

 

it worked wonders! i guess you helped me approach this problem from an angle i hadn't considered yet :-)

[+ azdr0710]

went and looked at "casual encounters" for my area and am now seeing a phrase I don't recognize from before: "hmu with pics and stats".....what is "hmu"?....thanks a lot

[spunky]

what is "hmu"?

 

hmu = Hit Me Up

 

i know that one gets thrown around grindr or when txtin'... or at least i use it oftenish...

[fedssocr1]

The fuzz still likes to use CL for their little stings though too. So you have to be a bit careful.

[+ azdr0710]

hmu = Hit Me Up

 

i know that one gets thrown around grindr or when txtin'... or at least i use it oftenish...

 

 

thanks, spunky....appreciate the reply.....

[operalover21]

craigslists is filled with hidden gems at quite reasonable prices!!! (plus the given psycho every now and then but i guess that's a risk we're implicitly willing to take as soon as we try and meet strangers on the internet)

 

You just never know. You can reply to hundreds of ads before hitting one. It's mostly flakes. And oddly, I found this guy in the CASUAL ENCOUNTERS section under MenforWomen. You just never know.

[geoffk]

in a yahoo group i belong to i was involved in long string of messages about hiring guys for sex. seems many guys believe that since "prostitution" is illegal it is their inherent right and job to report anyone who posts as being generous since they are just trying to buy sex. these guys were quite proud of their actions and removing generous people from the craigslist postings.

[operalover21]

in a yahoo group i belong to i was involved in long string of messages about hiring guys for sex. seems many guys believe that since "prostitution" is illegal it is their inherent right and job to report anyone who posts as being generous since they are just trying to buy sex. these guys were quite proud of their actions and removing generous people from the craigslist postings.

 

I guessing there's a nice lovely corner of hell for those people.

[cany10011]

Part of the thrill for me is meeting someone who isn't really a pro but is tipping their toes into the pay to play arena, or looking to make "rent". Usually, it involves multiple rounds of emails and pic exchanges but you never know what treasures you find. I've just met a hot AF dancer and he's only here for a few weeks but boy, it's going to be fun

 

 

 

You just never know. You can reply to hundreds of ads before hitting one. It's mostly flakes. And oddly, I found this guy in the CASUAL ENCOUNTERS section under MenforWomen. You just never know.

[+ FreshFluff]

In a lot of the smaller markets (and I suspect the bigger ones too) there are lots of "people" -- I'm being generous here -- who have a lot of time on their hands and go through and flag everything they don't like. But it takes multiple flaggings to get a post removed and they have to be by different posters. But once you've been removed it becomes easier for others to have your posts removed in the future. It's all a big game.

.

 

I'm guessing the flagger/flaggers are people who answered the ad but received no response. There are tools available that can make it appear that a post is being flagged from multiple IP addresses. They are mostly used by commercial posters looking to block competitors' posts, but they're widely available.