My Opinion Regarding "Spamming" On Classified Ads Site

I heard that there's a lawsuit that involves a classified ads site and a ticketbroker, but I'm going to consider this a rumor since no names will be mentioned. However, I searched "craigslist lawsuit" under Google and didn't see anything related to what this one person brought on one of the forums.

This is what I know about spamming. The CAN-Spam Act is a law that prohibits spam as in sending email to list who did not double opted-in (click here for more info). I don't know if this applies to free classified ads site since nothing is mentioned in that law.

If you double opted into getting updates to let's say something like my blog, i get to send you an email until you decide to unsubscribe.

However, there's no law that prohibits you from sending multiple ads on a free classified ads site or as many of us would say, Spam. The only thing that stands in our way is being compliant of the terms of use and violations of that would result in your account being removed from the system. A judge may try to make a ruling against those who try to post excessively, but it's most likely that they will leave it up to the classified ads site provider to decide on what to do about the poster.

Because most classified ads site is a public site, the only limit you will have is be subjected to the terms of service or terms of use of their service. If they say that you can't bad mouth a particular person, then you can't do that or you'll be in violation of the terms of use. These classified ads site may not limit you on what you put on that site, but remember, they have rules on what you do when you join their party. That means you have to do it under their terms. Otherwise, you will get kicked out of the party.

Note that the CAN-SPAM Act applies only to email. It doesn't apply to posting on public web sites like forums, classified ads site, etc. If a judge tries to rule that you can't post excessively on a classified ads site, he must cite which law does that apply to. As far as I know, he would have to site the 1st Amendment. However, the classified ads site provider has the right to protect their sites from excessive posting through the use of the terms of service, but it must not conflict with what may be offensive to users, posters, and others alike.

The above is based on my opinion. Your opinion may be different and I'm always open to change that stance as it's deemed necessary.

The Impact Of Craigslist Implementing A Different Captcha System

Sometime last week, Craigslist has implemented another captcha system and it's called reCaptcha. This has created problems for those who use auto-posters to post ads on Craigslist automatically instead of doing it manually. What this does is it renders most automation of their Craigslist posting virtually useless.

The reCaptcha module that Craigslist deployed was started in the Los Angeles area in the Jobs category, but it eventually spread out throughout all cities. Craigslist advertisers then rewrote their ads and put it in either the Service or the For Sale categories. About a week later, it went to all categories.

Recently, they included the reCaptcha challenge in the creation of the Craigslist accounts. Thus when you either post an ad or need to create a Craigslist account, you would need to answer the reCaptcha challenge to be successful.

For those of you who still post on Craigslist manually, there is no impact. However, if you're blasting 400 ads a day, there is a definite impact since the new captcha challenge requires you to enter two words instead of one. Because research shows that there's only a 15% success rate at the most, it makes it difficult for computer programs to recognize the new method that it's now using and even a human being has problems reading the captcha image being displayed.

Does that mean that your auto-posting days are over? Probably not. It becomes more challenging though. Programmers have modified their software programs to allow their users to enter the answer to the reCaptcha challenge. I'm sure there's a way around it because someone will eventually find a way around the reCaptcha function that Craigslist is now using. Google has tried it with their Gmail captcha challenge but others have already solved it. The answer to the reCaptcha challenge would be a matter of time. But some programmers have conceded that it's unsolvable at this time.

Note that Craigslist encourage you to market your products and services locally and if your answer to the reCaptcha challenge is close enough, you've pretty much answered it successfully.

For example, if the reCaptcha challenge shows the words "We're Successful", you can type the following answers and you have basically answered the challenge:

• weresuccessful
• we're successful
• were successful
• Or any combination of upper or lower case characters since the reCaptcha challenge is not case sensitive.

But I tell you, programmers who sell autoposters are scrambling to find a solution and the closest they get to is do some recoding so that it gives them an interface to type in the answer to the challenge.

Another solution is to contract the function to have someone else enter the answer to the captcha code. That means that someone at the other end must have the program that interacts with the autoposting software that you use. That means you pay for that function and it won't be cheap.

Nevertheless, autoposting continues unless Craigslist comes up with another snag.

However, if you're still posting on Craigslist and you have trouble getting your ads up, we at Classified Ad Masters have an answer to your problems. We also have a way to keep you posting effectively as possible.