Geebo.com CEO and friend of the site Greg Collier issued the following response after this blog post at Switched.com appeared…
As an avid user of social networking sites, and a firm believer in their powers, I am pumped to challenge Craig, the founder of Craigslist, to a Twitter-off. Now I don’t doubt that a dance-off would have been more entertaining to watch, and laugh at, the message Geebo is looking to spread is definitely more serious than popping and locking.
It is funny to me that Craig has chosen to block me from sending direct messages to his Twitter account, instead of addressing the truthful allegations of Craigislist’s gross, and deadly, practices. Don’t worry though; Craig is still able to read my Twitter messages challenging him and Craigslist to clean up their act. With his decision to block Geebo, he has chosen to spend his time viewing my recent Twittering by searching Twitter directly. The irony is that the amount of time it takes to search for my recent Tweets, is equal to the amount of time it would take to remove the Erotic Listings section on Craigslist. Who would have thought that saving a life could be done in a Tweet? Well…Geebo did.
Unfortunately, Craigslist prefers a don’t ask, don’t tell policy. If people don’t ask for added security and privacy, they don’t tell them that they are risking their property, identity, savings and life. Such a policy is apathetic, dangerous and irresponsible. Posts go live on Craigslist within 15 minutes, leaving zero room for Craigslist management to review and revoke possible illegal or dangerous postings. This oversight, or rather laziness, is largely to blame for gross amounts of child pornography, prostitution, human trafficking, drug sales, stolen merchandise, identity theft, real estate scams and murder taking place across the United States.
Craigslist lacks a system of checks and balances that provides users with the degree of safety they deserve. Flagging, Craigslist’s joke of content monitoring is nothing more than a feel-good tool for the site’s management to claim that they are taking precautionary measures. Obviously, they have failed. More times than not user complaints are answered by an auto-responder, not a staff member. Conversely, those posts truly in need of flagging and removal go undisturbed.
At Geebo we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We pride ourselves in our humor and humility as we build, maintain and enlarge our online classified site. The only time we turn serious, however, is when the safety and security of our users is in jeopardy. In staying true to our goal of positively influencing and impacting the physical communities in which we serve, we have opted not to allow erotic services postings on Geebo. We don’t believe that there is an adequate way to regulate such a category that provides the necessary degree of privacy and security our users, and any users, should be afforded. So we don’t do it. Additionally, Geebo personally reviews each and every post submitted prior to publication. Taking user safety seriously isn’t a point to be mocked…it should be applauded.
If I were MySpace or Facebook friends with Craig I would trust that I would be de-friended shortly. After a Twitter “block” additional social networking embargoes typically follow suit. We aren’t friends on MySpace or Facebook, though I am not too concerned. I don’t need, much less want, friends who put their friends, clients or the public at large in harms way.
Again, in the interest of transparency I have no personal stake in Geebo.
