Backpage.com "Community" censorship
 

Anyone regular post on Backpage.com and familiar with their new and abusive "community" moderation? This permits any visitor to Backpage to "flag" an ad. I'm not sure what, if any limitation/criteria, Backpage has on that (e.g., is a single flag enough, or does it take multiple? Is there any review by Backpage staff?). My experience is that there is no limit (a single flag is sufficient) and there is no review by Backpage (as evidenced by the randomness of PAID ads that are removed by the "Community," and how the identical ad posted in one city remains while in another City the "Community" has flagged it and it gets deleted).

Of course, to anyone who regularly posts to Backpage.com and sees their money thrown away on ads that are immediately deleted by the "Community" it is evident that it is the competition that is trying to shut you down, by deleting your ads that compete with theirs!

Of course this is all great for Backpage.com as they can claim that this form of moderation is completely out of their hands, they are not in any way responsible, it is up to the "Community" to set and enforce standards, and finally ... of course ... it means Backpage.com can rake in even more money as advertisers are forced to keep paying to repost deleted ads if they wish to keep using Backpage.

It happens, but rarely for me.

Sometimes you just have to take the loss. It's just a couple bucks. If it happened often then I'd think more about it.

I'm inclined to say that the setup it ripe for abuse (competitors trying to kick the competition's ads off) and Backpage is aware of it, but permits it as a means to boost their revenue. It is in keeping with a variety of abusive tactics that Backpage.com engages in and, so far, has gotten away with.

I've thought perhaps I'd prove a point to them by contracting out to some cheap foreign IT/data contractor in India, or such, to have a team of 5 - 10 people flagging random ads (thousands/daily), rotating IP addresses if need be, to - perhaps - cause such a flood of complaints from customers that Backpage will be forced to turn off "Community" moderation.

Sometimes it takes a heavy hand to make a point, especially when dealing with fraudsters like those who operate Backpage.com.

I should NOT have to take any loss in a situation such as that which I have described. It is not remotely what one could argue would be a legitimate cost of doing business. It is abuse and conspiratorial on the part of Backpage.com.

drriley, good to see you are still around. Long time no talk!

I really don't think it takes one or two flags. I mean it's only happened to me like 2 times in a couple years. If it's happening to you a lot, then of course you have reason to be concerned. With the rate it happens to me, I have to believe that a lot of people for whatever reason on that particular day got together and flagged my ad. Dirty bitches.

I don't think you are single highhandedly going to force backpage to take away their community flagging. But I'd be all for it if you could. :)

Does it work for placing ads for say webcams?

Now I know what you're talking about. I personally have not been flagged but many of my salespeople have had their ads flagged out the wazoo.