#craigslist: doing well by doing good vs #enshittification

At the end of 97, I was still running craigslist as a hobby by myself.

Late that year, the folks from Microsoft Sidewalk, long obsolete, ask me to run banner ads on their behalf. I'd make enough money from that alone to live comfortably.

I decided that I knew when enough was enough, by virtue of the lessons from Mr. & Mrs. Levin in Sunday School,

So, I turned down that offer, in favor of an approach of minimal monetization, the idea that people trying to put food on the table needed the money more than I did.

I didn't know it then, but that defined my business model as doing well by doing good.

Later on, when I decided that craigslist had to be a real company, and when VCs and bankers offered billions, I remembered the Levins teaching me to know when enough is enough, and committed to minimal monetization.

This is not altruism, nothing noble about it, it's just a matter of following through with what I believed, even if at that point it was an internalized lesson, made only explicit by later reflection.

The effect is that #craigslist has maintained these values, doing well by doing good, for nearly 28 years.

As a result, I think the company has managed to avoid what Cory Doctorow talks about as #enshittification in a really good article talking about what happens with companies that feel they just can't make enough money.

I guess I'm saying that the craigslist DNA, starting in 1997 has helped the company avoid the trap that other companies have fallen into. Nothing noble or altruistic about it, just being basic.

It's worked out pretty well for me personally, maybe too well, that's why I have committed to things like pushing almost all may income generation into a 501c4 to give away.

Not altruistic, not noble. Just basic.

After all, a #nerd's got to do what a nerd's got to do...