Have you ever been banned from craigslist?

For some reason, I haven't been able to access craigslist for two days now. I read somewhere that they sometimes ban people for three days, or thirty days for infractions.

I can't imagine what would be my infraction. I did have an email exchange last weekend with some nut who had been emailing my disabled niece and found her home location via craigslist because we were participating in a neighborhood garage sale. I told him if he contacted her again I would notify the police.

Maybe he made up some sort of bogus craigslist complaint against me?

It's a pain not to have it, as I am apartment hunting.

log in with a different email

But you should be able to browse the apts without logging in (?)

Just trying to browse. Can't get there. Have tried both IE and Mozilla.

The web address you entered is not available

You were trying to go to www.craigslist.org

It appears you have been universally banned from their network.

You need to let them know by some means what this guy did.

Get his sorry keester banned!

what could meet banning requirements there. Things that make you go hmmm...

And I have seen some doozies on there.

I think the guy must have lied something about me. Very weird.

Have you tried going to it from a different computer?

...although wouldn't that be a different ISP addy??

www.craigslist.org references to local Craigslist pages.

(Based, it seems, at least in part on the user ip address; I clear cookies on exit, so unless they're using some clever trick, they don't know my craigslist id until I log in; plus, it directed me to a local site that isn't the one I've used (fruitlessly) in the past.

Maybe they're screwing up your redirect for some reason.

Here are a couple of direct references.

Hostname: seattle.craigslist.org
IP Address: 208.82.238.130

Hostname: portland.craigslist.org
IP Address: 208.82.238.129

And here is a link to the US cities list.

http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us

If you are having a DNS problem, using the ip address should at least get you to the first page.

If it's an account issue, deleting the related cookies should hide who you are (as a general guide; there are also issues with flash and static user ip addresses, and there may be tricks I'm not up on).

PS: There also seem to be other factors like history that feed into how a user is redirected from www.craigslist.org . So maybe bookmarking/using specific locales is best.

but when I click further into craigslist, get that same "not found" message

(or otherwise reach craigslist), record the prefix (like here, portland.craigslist.org -- portland) of the local site you reach. (It seems that craigslist likes to send you to the last locale you've visited when you use www.craigslist.org (or .com), and if there's an issue with that (redirected) link, you might keep getting sent back to it.)

It's worth trying to delete the cookies for craigslist, to see if that could be the issue; but this deletion process varies by browser. (It might be that the cookies are corrupted, record bogus data.)

Craigslist's redirecting seems a little weird and maybe inconsistent. (I got redirected to sfbay.craigslist.org once, when trying various names for seattle.craigslist.org ... like www.seattle.craigslist.org; the "www." sometimes seems to screw things up.)

Try these (they should show as links):

http://seattle.craigslist.org

http://seattle.craigslist.org/atq/

http://portland.craigslist.org

http://portland.craigslist.org/app/

http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us

Record outcomes.

PS: I just caught the "fine from another computer" reply. So it doesn't seem like a network issue (provided the network is shared), but rather a particular computer issue (cookies, settings perhaps... there are a lot of the latter).

And if you can log in from the other computer, then you aren't banned.

I'm not using an account. You don't have to with craigslist unless you are posting on their forums or selling certain things. You can list things like garage sales, and reply to listings without any account.

I'll try the cookies.

third click, on actual listing, same old message "not found"

I also deleted temporary internet files and cookies. I did not see a craigslist cookie in the list of cookies.

I'm having issues with loading cookies from craigslist; another browser shows cookies whenever I access the site; my default browser seems (repeatedly) not to show cookies with the initial site load (like http://portland.craigslist.org) -- and this tracks with the file holding the cookies. (A reload or movement to another page seems to load cookies... but I get anywhere from 1-3 cookies.)

However, after playing around with the site, rejecting cookies doesn't seem to interfere with just browsing. So I suppose you could try not accepting cookies for a time to see if this makes a difference.

But if you have the same problems using different browsers, then it doesn't look to be a browser issue (you might still try not accepting cookies for a time... I don't think it'll work, but it's a data point).

As a guess, there's some security(?) setting (on your computer) that's blocking you...

I'm still trying to figure out how they could be blocking you. That is, what data is it that you're sending them that they could be using to block you? Chances are good that, using a home router (which could be built into your modem), both computers would show the same ip. And without cookies, they couldn't be getting any stored data from there.

I mean, I've read about rumors that more-or-less distinct system ids can be forged from the system parameters available to a browser (and what it loads); but this seems a little sophisticated for craigslist.

Is the error message the same as you get when trying bad addresses?

(Personally, I sometimes get different messages (from my isp which redirects me to different places) if I try badly formed versus nonexistent addresses.)

Your system's been rebooted since your problems started, right? I just assumed...

Like, say, your hosts file?

I'm not a techie, tho.

...are you trying to get to it from home, or work?


If at work, the company's internet firewall may not let you go to that address. They often block distracting or dangerous sites.

firewall not a problem

You've got me stumped. It works for me... in fact, I have an ad on there now.


Maybe your ISP doesn't do craigslist anymore.

...through AOL, through IE, through Mozilla. The other computer here is connected to the same broadband provider, and there's no problem with craigslist.

I would try to contact craigslist but I understand that getting through is impossible.

The only thing I can think of is your anti-virus software might also have a firewall that's blocking something.

:shrug:

I wish I could be more helpful!

So I guess I was given a 7 day time out or something.

Just glad to have it back. Thanks for your ideas.

I bet if you were on suspension or something, if you had erased the cookies from your computer you could have viewed the site anonymously.

Ah, well... hindsight is 20/20

i was unable to post for a time but it was a glitch in their automated program that was removing my posts

i was always able to log in however

if you are in new orleans, as i assume from the fleur de lys as your avatar, i just checked and the new orleans site is up, can you link to the apartment page by clicking here?

http://neworleans.craigslist.org/apa/

they do seem to "crash" a lot but i can find them again a few minutes later

Your side of the story. The police do pay attention to those who have used Craigslist improperly. They may have banned both of you, just a blanket protection of themselves. If you were abusive in your emails, that may have gotten you banned. I don't use them except to sell things occasionally, although I peruse their rentals. I'm not moving but like to see what the prices are, just curious in case I ever need to make a change.

The guy was clearly over the line, using craigslist as a way to locate my disabled niece, with whom he had been emailing for a few weeks after communicating on a message board. I read his emails to her; he was nosy and pushy, and said some very negative things to her. She mentioned that we were having a garage sale; he asked her what we were selling so he could search for such a sale. Then he was able to communicate with me on craigslist email. He said some very personal things about my niece. I told him that I didn't know how he knew things about my family, but that if he ever contacted her in any way I would report it to the police. He is the one who was out of line.

I'm not using an account. On craigslist, you can post listings and reply to listings without an account. And as recently as last Sunday I was able to do so.

(No, I'm not in N.O. That avatar was just in solidarity with that city's suffering.}

I'm just going to have to assume that I am being blocked for some reason.

My parents got warning notices and nasty emails.

They wanted a dog, so they posted that they wanted a dog.Charmingly naive they even publicly posted phone numbers and whatnot.

Apparently there are a group of people who spend their time trolling CL for people looking for pets to alert on, because they feel that there are enough pets posted that its unforgivably lazy to post a pet wanted ad?

It's a used astronomy equipment for sale website. I used some very mild "foul language" and got automatically banned for a month. When I complained, the owner said to watch the language because "we have children on Astromart." So I wrote back saying "Really? How much are they?" And then reminded him that they hear what we arbitrarily call "foul language" every day from their friends and relatives. So, banned.

So I guess I was banned for a period of time, for no infraction.

they may have realized on their own they made a mistake

I was looking for a place to stay in Denver for the Democratic Convention, and everything was
either booked out or over $1000 a night. I found a student apartment for $450 for the whole
week. I have no idea what else it's good for, but that one time, it was VERY good!

to access the website at all. All I got a blank screen. Then, this morning, it was just like normal. Don't know WTF is going on but it absolutely is not just you.

http://craigslistpostingsecrets.wordpress.com/2008/03/08/ghosting-on-craigslist/

Go there for information on Ghosting. Basically when you are ghosted, craigslist will let you access the site, and post ads, but the ads never appear for other people to find. Basically its trying to trick you.

I don't know why I have been ghosted, because I've only sold two things on it, a TV and a video game. I think both of them were in the rules of the site. I didn't spam the site. I'm guess I got ghosted by a computer glitch, but I don't know what to do now, and no matter what I try, I can't get any ads to appear on the site.