The Craigslist Experiment: The Setup

For those unfamiliar with craigslist, it’s basically a catch all for useful things and the scum of the planet. It’s a site that can go from SFW to NSFW with one click. You can adopt a pet, find a job, hire a hooker, sell your car, find an apartment, and rant about your hatred of the traffic in your hometown – all in one place!

Craigslist personals are a special combination of sad and hilarious, with a pinch of normal and a BIG dash of creepy. I won’t totally discount their personal ads – my brother met his fiancee through craigslist! – but 99.9% of the time, unless you’re looking for a hookup, it’s best to only read it for a laugh, not a date.

To give you an idea of what girls get in response to ads, I posted the following fake ad, complete with random pictures courtesy of Google. Local info and identifying info from emails will be blurred to protect the not-so-innocent.

Optimized for Maximum Vagueness & Perv-a-bility

• 18 – the “optimal age” for a girl if you’re a less-than-honorable guy
• Vague photo – can’t see much of eyes, face, body
• Poorly written, list-of-stuff-I-like personal ad text

Let the Emails Begin!