Craigslist has been *the* place for casual encounters for quite some time. Today’s New York Times Recklessly Seeking Sex on Craigslist features interviews with people looking for sex on the venerable online community.
Ads in the Casual Encounters section account for 2 percent of all Craigslist postings, according to the company. It also says that traffic to all the Craigslist personals sites — which include a separate one for romance and one for “missed connections,†where people try to find the cutie they flirted with on the L train — is higher than for any other online personals site, including Match.com, eHarmony and Yahoo personals.
Craigslist charges a $5 fee and require a phone number for people posting “erotic services.†A company statement said the move led to an immediate 80 percent drop in postings to that section.
Lots of stories about the online (and off) sexcapades of people looking for very specific types of intimacy and thrills. Pretty racy stuff for the NY Times.
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Anecdotally — based on personal experience and talking to people who have used Craigslist for hookups — the site gets substantial page views from the drive-by traffic. It’s the closest thing online to reading the entre nous section of the classifieds in an alternative newspaper.
It’s the stuff of fantasy and imagination more than it is an actual hookup site … though it is the latter as well. But you’re comparing it with the wrong sites, perhaps. How many hookups daily start on FaceBook and MySpace? Answer: Probably most of them.
I am in favor of craigslist. It has made me a millionaire.
I don’t know about anywhere else, but I live in the Los Angeles area and most of the postings on CL are camgirls and for other sites. You’ll write someone and get a message back to see them on a pay adult personal site or on a camsite. Sometimes you’ll get a message asking to chat on Yahoo messenger and they’ll try and talk you into viewing their cam.
Years ago it was better and I actually met someone, but now its more like a portal to other sites.
Advertising erotic services on the net is amazingly and so obviusly risky. It is beyond me how these young nice looking ladies some of whom are college students are willing to take such chances. What happened to the young girl in Boston is truly tragic. I hope her death is not in vain and people learn something from it.
And how is advertising erotic services on the ‘Net riskier than advertising them in a magazine, in a bar or on a street corner?
What happened is appalling, of course. But I would say the Internet and good telecommunications services have probably made such work safer.
The victim was not necessarily offering erotic services, either
You are correct. My comment didn’t come out right. I didn’t mean that the Net makes it riskier and you are correct in that the victim wasn’t necessarily offering erotic services. What I find risky is the general idea of giving out phone numbers and meeting with a stranger alone without having any prior knowledge of who they are. I just subconsciously associated that with offering erotic services on the net since that is where I have seen most of this carelessness. However, it could be done via other means and for non-erotic meetings too. I just hope that people become a little more careful about such risky meetings. Craigslist is a fantastic tool and I have used it many times. It is not the site that is at fault but the predators who commit the crimes.
Of course they were offering erotic services, read the story. Some people get off on the risk associated with online hookups, most people don’t. The guy is obviously deranged, glad they caught him.
David: I read more than a few of the many stories. Massage services are not necessarily erotic services. I’m not making any assumptions, not even that the guy they arrested did it, as likely as it now sounds.
The adult/erotic aspect of CL has been known forever, it’s just becoming news now with the murder. I would say that 95% are erotic services on CL.
You can assume what you like, they traced the emails back to his house which is all I need to hear. I feel badly for his fiancée though.
Some people come away unscathed – http://www.thingsmymothershouldntread.blogspot.com
I have met about 20 women on CL, If you are attractive it works. They were all attractive women from 19 year olds to ex-model 38 year olds. i have had a lot of fun on CL. its more fake then ever before now, and that cl tragedy i think turned women away. now if u put up a post its all spam and scams, w4m section is all fake too
hopefully someone puts up a sight thats totally free, for disease free people to have safe sex ….why is this hard to do?
even in these harder times on cl i still do get responses….and laid. but you have to look good in a genuine way to actually make it work. i have had amazing experiences from cl with women of all different races and looks that i could not have ever come across in real life, who are going into the situation just wanting to have fun and have safe sex, its great. but you have to deal with so much fake bullshit from spam and the awful men that pose as women…do u really think someone who is in m4w want to be with a man? sooo dumb!!
32 m NY
ladies dat want to have fun hit me up
Exactly. The internet has improved personal interactions for business, traveling, etc… so why shouldn’t it be used to meet people? Even if it’s just for a fun encounter? It takes the time and inability out of having to visit fifty bars.
They should just make it a felony to post fake ads on craigslist. That would stop all the BS.