Anyone Else Missing Craigslist Personals?
- Thread starter Bbclov3rboy
- Start date
so true
Are you finding just as much success on there as in the past? I had some luck on there recently posting a missed connection, Had a real couple respond for once lol.
For me, It's not the same. You can still get around it, but it's not like how it was back in the day. I have to imagine, most people think its completely gone or don't want to deal with the constant flagging that occurs now.
I miss CL here in the Destin Fla area
bet you had a line out the door for that ass!
so there is this site, fetlife (takes work not efficient but useful), sdc (quality people but expensive), double list, and certain pages on craigslist (i dont know which ones). can anyone elaborate if theres anything that works as efficiently or close to craigslist? I missed that time
Yea its a mess right now. I've tried Doublelist.com but it's TERRIBLE. 99% fake ads and I also read on REDDIT that it's run by mostly gay men. Your straight men ads and messages are heavily filtered/ blocked and most of the ads are recycled and very fake. You will never get a response if you are a straight male. You can see ads for women wanting "BBC" in the ad list, but if you enter it as a search filter "0" ads come up...
Even when you try to post anything on CL as a "missed connection" or "platonic" it gets flagged and immediately taken down by jealous and angry trolls. Same goes for Calssifedads.com . You can never seem to get any messages or responses...and when you do they turn out to be from men, men pretending to be women/ couples and just Russian ****** troll bots.
With all of the trafficking and baby safety concerns, no one is willing to take on the legal and finaincial liability and risk anymore like old school CL and Backpage.com did before the Feds cracked down on them and blamed them for those ads ( which i think was very heavy handed and wrong). So now we're stuck with these forum-like sites and bad dating apps with more bots, gay men and fakers. No place for a straight guy to go to meet ladies online anymore without so much hassle and fakery. So here we are...COVID need to go away to make social gatherings happen more again.
Even when you try to post anything on CL as a "missed connection" or "platonic" it gets flagged and immediately taken down by jealous and angry trolls. Same goes for Calssifedads.com . You can never seem to get any messages or responses...and when you do they turn out to be from men, men pretending to be women/ couples and just Russian ****** troll bots.
With all of the trafficking and baby safety concerns, no one is willing to take on the legal and finaincial liability and risk anymore like old school CL and Backpage.com did before the Feds cracked down on them and blamed them for those ads ( which i think was very heavy handed and wrong). So now we're stuck with these forum-like sites and bad dating apps with more bots, gay men and fakers. No place for a straight guy to go to meet ladies online anymore without so much hassle and fakery. So here we are...COVID need to go away to make social gatherings happen more again.
The thing is people just need to move to Doublelist at this point and they don't want to make the change. Sure there's not alot of people and you have to search by major metro areas, but the more people actually decide to use it the more cities they'll put in if people demand it.
The interface is much simpler and (lord knows) when they put that filter option in, it'll be much smoother to sift through (you can ctrl+f to search your city as well).
Southern Oregon is pretty much dead and people use Eugene as the nearest city... it's 150+ miles from Southern oregon and there's quite a bit of listings scattered in the different towns. I just met a couple early this morning and played while their ******* were asleep. It was impromptu 20 minute drive, but she was a freak!
It just takes a little more work to get someone. You still have flakes but it's something we're all used to. I currently found another personals site called wickedlist. Can't vouch for it though, but it seems that you're out of luck if you're not in a major city there.
The interface is much simpler and (lord knows) when they put that filter option in, it'll be much smoother to sift through (you can ctrl+f to search your city as well).
Southern Oregon is pretty much dead and people use Eugene as the nearest city... it's 150+ miles from Southern oregon and there's quite a bit of listings scattered in the different towns. I just met a couple early this morning and played while their ******* were asleep. It was impromptu 20 minute drive, but she was a freak!
It just takes a little more work to get someone. You still have flakes but it's something we're all used to. I currently found another personals site called wickedlist. Can't vouch for it though, but it seems that you're out of luck if you're not in a major city there.
Craigslist was very accessible. Doublelist doesn't share that same level of accessibility. You can't look for a car and a bootycall on doublelist. I have to imagine a significant portion of people coming across Personals or Casual Encounters weren't even people looking for sex. Just people curious and went down that rabit hole. That's how Most people started using craigslist, if I had to guess.
Doublelist isn't accessible. Especially not to 2020s standards. CL was more 2012. There's no app for doublelist(not that I'm aware of). They're not doing a good job of putting it out there or improving the experience. I think partly because their hands are tied with the restriction laws. They don't want to get their site taken down. So they're kinda walking on egg shells.
Last year when I first started using DL, I met 2 women, but we didn't click and we went our separate ways.
Then after 1 month, I started getting nothing but MEN responding to my very specific ads requesting " no men please" - even though I specifically posted in M4W.
Since then, I've seen the same ads posted on Doublelist for about a year now in San Diego...literally, the SAME ads - dozens. At first I responded to ads by "W4M", but realized I was never getting any responses to a simple "hello" and even filing out the exact description the ad requested.... So I started posting my own ads to test this theory. Then even TESTED my own ads to see if I would get notified via email: I never got a notification...nothing.
Per the conversations on reddit about it seems they are even blocking IPs and accounts at times, but it makes no sense. I'm not sure what the purpose of the site is, honesty, as it it doesn't seem to be bringing people together much, given the complaints. At least, not in any significant way. They must make a lot of ad revenue based on traffic alone...The theory: and I have no solid proof - is that doublets (DL) is really meant for men on the "DL" ( Down Low/ gay) and those are the personal ads they let get through...
This could all be part of "internet lore", but my own personal testing showed the site is not really working for me as a straight man anyway.
The last response I got to my M4W ad on DL was in November 2020. It was from a man....sigh.
I miss CL personals.
Then after 1 month, I started getting nothing but MEN responding to my very specific ads requesting " no men please" - even though I specifically posted in M4W.
Since then, I've seen the same ads posted on Doublelist for about a year now in San Diego...literally, the SAME ads - dozens. At first I responded to ads by "W4M", but realized I was never getting any responses to a simple "hello" and even filing out the exact description the ad requested.... So I started posting my own ads to test this theory. Then even TESTED my own ads to see if I would get notified via email: I never got a notification...nothing.
Per the conversations on reddit about it seems they are even blocking IPs and accounts at times, but it makes no sense. I'm not sure what the purpose of the site is, honesty, as it it doesn't seem to be bringing people together much, given the complaints. At least, not in any significant way. They must make a lot of ad revenue based on traffic alone...The theory: and I have no solid proof - is that doublets (DL) is really meant for men on the "DL" ( Down Low/ gay) and those are the personal ads they let get through...
This could all be part of "internet lore", but my own personal testing showed the site is not really working for me as a straight man anyway.
The last response I got to my M4W ad on DL was in November 2020. It was from a man....sigh.
I miss CL personals.
DL should really stand for Down-Low. The site is rife with harassing homosexuals.
I have nothing against gays, homosexuals or bi men. But On that website especially they don't respect anyone's sexual preference there. It's really just predatory men looking to prey on other men or collect pics.
CL had this issue too, but at least the ratio of women were there. In my area, its the same 3-4 guys posting the same ******* all the time looking to collect pics or trick men into coming over. That's why I believe what made CL work was that it was so accessible. Women who probably never been on that site until they had to look for a car or a job, browse that site and stumbled across the personal/casual encounters section.
I can't tell you how many women or couples tell me that they didn't even know CL had a personal/Casual encounters section until they used the website for something else. Those type of people aren't going to be on DList. They're not looking for sex like how we are. They entertain the possibility of a fun time, but they're not outright seeking sex.
That's what I felt about CL. But then I hear so many say it worked for them. Maybe it varied by geography? I know all that I saw was ads and bs content.
So very true. And it is a numbers game right now also. There are so many more (mediocre) choices now - not all of them good, including dating and poly/ swinging/ lifestyle apps so the people are read across all of these places and missing each other. I had hoped that this site would be a place where more would come together and consolidate and then be able to meet in real life.
It is true to some extent, and the numbers by state/ region are difficult. I've met some great people/ couples here that are so far away that its impossible to do something regular or more than 1-2 times a year at most.
Got get my ass to the midwest and south, that's for sure - LOL. Those ladies are fire and ready( Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Florida, Texas)
But the bottom line seems to be if you aren't in a major metropolitan area, it's going to be very difficult but the numbers.
This past year has had another bunch of compounding factors making meeting, travel and trust more difficult.
The best scenarios is a party or club event with like-minded REAL people in YOUR area. Otherwise, you are going to spend a lot of time on a keyboard getting nowhere...
I can't speak for others' experiences on DL, but we've had ads up for guys and couples and have received quite a few legitimate responses.
But DL still isn't as convenient and spontaneous as CL was.
Haven't seen the conspiracy theories about DL, but I'd have to wonder why the admins/creators of DL would undermine the success of their own project. Doesn't seem to make much sense to do that
There's no real stigma or shortage of guy/bi hookup and dating sites, so if that is their goal why wouldn't they just make it a site dedicated to that? Personally I think that is just someone trying to start some drama 
What we have personally found troublesome is that their "vulgarity" filter seems a bit liberal. We've had ads that on one day pass muster, then on another get flagged and removed. It does seem quite variable and unpredictable. That is very inconvenient, and we had similar issues at times on CL too actually where others randomly "flagged" posts.
I like the idea above about everyone who misses CL just go jump on DL and fill it with legitimate ads, which may bring more people and make it more useful. It is free after all
But DL still isn't as convenient and spontaneous as CL was.
Haven't seen the conspiracy theories about DL, but I'd have to wonder why the admins/creators of DL would undermine the success of their own project. Doesn't seem to make much sense to do that
There's no real stigma or shortage of guy/bi hookup and dating sites, so if that is their goal why wouldn't they just make it a site dedicated to that? Personally I think that is just someone trying to start some drama What we have personally found troublesome is that their "vulgarity" filter seems a bit liberal. We've had ads that on one day pass muster, then on another get flagged and removed. It does seem quite variable and unpredictable. That is very inconvenient, and we had similar issues at times on CL too actually where others randomly "flagged" posts.
I like the idea above about everyone who misses CL just go jump on DL and fill it with legitimate ads, which may bring more people and make it more useful.
It is free after all I enjoyed CL. There is a semi workaround for it to work but it’s not the same at all. Have not done DL so can’t really say. Its still enjoyable here in Destin FlaI can't speak for others' experiences on DL, but we've had ads up for guys and couples and have received quite a few legitimate responses.
But DL still isn't as convenient and spontaneous as CL was.
Haven't seen the conspiracy theories about DL, but I'd have to wonder why the admins/creators of DL would undermine the success of their own project. Doesn't seem to make much sense to do that
What we have personally found troublesome is that their "vulgarity" filter seems a bit liberal. We've had ads that on one day pass muster, then on another get flagged and removed. It does seem quite variable and unpredictable. That is very inconvenient, and we had similar issues at times on CL too actually where others randomly "flagged" posts.
I like the idea above about everyone who misses CL just go jump on DL and fill it with legitimate ads, which may bring more people and make it more useful.
I'm with you on conspiracy theories. Im a big fan of "Occum's Razor" and "Hanlon's razor" theories when analyzing a problem.I can't speak for others' experiences on DL, but we've had ads up for guys and couples and have received quite a few legitimate responses.
But DL still isn't as convenient and spontaneous as CL was.
Haven't seen the conspiracy theories about DL, but I'd have to wonder why the admins/creators of DL would undermine the success of their own project. Doesn't seem to make much sense to do that
What we have personally found troublesome is that their "vulgarity" filter seems a bit liberal. We've had ads that on one day pass muster, then on another get flagged and removed. It does seem quite variable and unpredictable. That is very inconvenient, and we had similar issues at times on CL too actually where others randomly "flagged" posts.
I like the idea above about everyone who misses CL just go jump on DL and fill it with legitimate ads, which may bring more people and make it more useful.
This mainly seems like a poorly run website and it really depends on the region. DL seems to simply recycle old ads when they don't have enough people posting ads...Again, Ive been seeing the SAME ads for MONTHS. Many of them. Maybe this isn't a problem in NYC, LA, Chicago, Miami...but maybe in Omaha...
My experiences are purely anecdotal and personal. But having run a few experiment, I can tell you there are some types of filtering going on (I've tested my own very clean, simple personal ads FOR WOMEN from a different IP and email and never got a notification at all...).
But somehow notifications from men come through...
Remember, in 2021 world of tech, it doesn't take a dark room full of cigar smoking guys watching the Zapruder film to make something happen... it just takes a 28 year old tech in, say, San Jose to flip a switch or hit a single button to filter things out...Yes, it is interesting that you got plenty of responses from MEN...that has been the point that straight men seeking women are making.
Yep, depending on location, that does sound interesting. We are in the Raleigh area, which seems to have a lot of unique ads.
We have received replies from both men and couples based upon our ads
We have received replies from both men and couples based upon our ads
I miss it too, had some great success after weeding through all the posers
The missed connections thing on CL may actually turn out to work for me. lol. At first, I thought it was a gay guy looking for pics but the dude seems like a good dude and his wife is genuinely interested. We spent weeks trying to plan something out of how to have me come into contact with her and flirt her up. That's never been my strong suit, so he just told her straight up, he found somebody and we're supposed to meet soon.
Wild to think it may happen this way. Never been in this scenario where something I thought was so fake ended up to be so real.
definitely listen to @
Stag/Vixen and keep posting. You just never know.
Wild to think it may happen this way. Never been in this scenario where something I thought was so fake ended up to be so real.
definitely listen to @
Stag/Vixen and keep posting. You just never know.Similar threads
