They aren't trying to use Craigslist to jumpstart their own business - they are simply offering a service to users, so CL is fine with them.
CL isn't opposed to these services existing on top of CL, it's opposed to them using CL to jumpstart their own business that is supposed to _replace_ CL.
Padmapper's eventual goal is to destroy CL - which, of course, CL is not going to go out of its way to enable.
Are you seriously telling me that you're not trying to compete with Craigslist in the Apartment Listings space?
All incentives, evidence, and your actions point in this direction. The only dissonance is with what you're saying, not with what you're doing.
Even if you mean it now (in context, this seems unlikely), incentives have a way of wearing down your resistance. If PadMapper actually succeeded in supplanting Craigslist as the primary destination for apartment ads, you'd be outright foolish to not start accepting ads directly yourself ... ___which you already do, through PadLister.___
So how are you not aiming to surplant Craigslist, exactly? There's nothing wrong with competing with them, but it's insanely disingenuous to claim that you aren't.
Yeah, that might be the issue, and I'd strongly consider shutting it down if that would make working with CL possible. I disagree that competition is inevitable, though.
> Yeah, that might be the issue, and I'd strongly consider shutting it down if that would make working with CL possible.
Carrot and stick. That's not a highly principled stand.
> I disagree that competition is inevitable, though.
You're doing this out of the pure altruistic goodness of your heart?
All the incentives point in a single direction. There's nothing wrong with competing with Craigslist. You'd be foolish to not take a piece of the pie -- if you can. Likewise, Craigslist would be idiotic to give away the valuable data that you need to take a piece of their pie.
I'd need to be able to talk with them to see if it's actually the thing they have an issue with before I would nuke that project. And yes, I started and continue this project because I wanted to solve a problem, and I find it fulfilling. Money isn't a strong motivator for me.
Please don't say that - it is disingenuous. Money is a strong motivator for 99.99999% of the world. Money lets you do things you otherwise could not do without that money. It's reasonable to say things like, "Money isn't the only motivator for me."
Sorry, that wasn't specific enough, money past my current point isn't a strong motivator for me, since I have relatively cheap tastes and low expenses. Even below market salary for an engineer, being childless, I have such low expenses that I can afford to go on trips and do the other things I want without needing to make more. Obviously, if I couldn't afford good food, I would care a lot more about money and less about doing stuff I enjoy doing. And of course, that might change over time if I ever wanted to buy a house or car or had kids.
The whole notion that successful competition ends in destruction is pretty...wrong. This isn't a football match where team A needs to lose in order for team B to win. Competition is healthy and normal, and multiple organizations can thrive in the same space.
Networks effects suggest the market will coalesce around a single free provider of classified listings. If (when?) Craigslist goes down - it will be fast, and very, very destructive. One moment they have 99+% of the Bay Area rentals, a month or two later they'll have close to 0%.
unavoidable? It would be very easy for padmapper to be successful and not destroy CL. If padmapper continues to pull search engine cached listings from sources that don't increase CL bandwidth, then displays them in a really nice UI and also links them directly to the CL listing page... that is successful. And CL is no worse off. CL is being a jerk about this. This Chrome extension is just going to increase CL bandwidth and probably get people IP banned... and very likely further piss off an already irrational entity.
If Padmapper succeeds in becoming the primary target for traffic, and Padmapper has the ability to post listings (which it already does!), then Padmapper will innately be supplanting Craigslist.
It's unavoidable because the incentives are extremely strong, and doing so would be a natural, easy progression. That's just how humans work.
well... technically it is PadLister that has the ability to post listings. Yes... same guy but different site. I would imagine that PadMapper runs PadLister listings along side CL listings. Which is a smart move for any aggregate service like PadMapper. PadLister is really the CL competition.
Housing Maps doesn't have any intention of replacing CL. CL is required for Housing Maps to exist. Padmapper was very clear in its intent to eliminate craigslist eventually, even if they made no explicit statements stating that was their goal. Anybody with even the slightest modicum of business development experience could explain what the eventual trajectory would be for these two organizations.
HousingMaps has zero desire to be anything other than a Google Maps interface to craigslist. That's it. Nothing more.
The instant they start moving out of that space (going commercial, accepting rental submissions, etc...) - they'll get shut down and/or hit with a C&D just like padmapper.
CL isn't opposed to these services existing on top of CL, it's opposed to them using CL to jumpstart their own business that is supposed to _replace_ CL.
Padmapper's eventual goal is to destroy CL - which, of course, CL is not going to go out of its way to enable.