Occam's Razor

(Warning: This post is rated R.)

Every couple of weeks I log into Google Analytics and check out my blog’s web statistics. A fuller report will come in 2010 but I have noticed a few trends. Visits are down by about a quarter and page views are down by about a fifth. This is not necessarily bad. In the past, my page views were artificially inflated by the less than one percent of my blog entries that discuss pornography, particularly this one and that one. Thankfully, page views for those posts are receding at last.

What is increasing? A simple eulogy I wrote and published when my mother died back in 2005 has received twice as much traffic as the year before (over 4300 page views, averaging twelve page views a day). However, my fastest growing blog entry is one in wrote in late 2005 on the Casual Encounters section of Craigslist. Interest in this topic is up 127% from a year ago and averages more than fifteen page views a day. While I have nothing more to say about pornography, in the interest of getting more traffic I could find something more to say about Craigslist.

So over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I put on my dark glasses and revisited Washington D.C. Craigslist Casual Encounters to see what was new. When I reviewed it in 2005 it was a pretty crass place. I am sad to say that four years later the situation is much worse, which I did not think was possible. If I were Craig Newmark, who founded Craiglist way back in 1995, I would be too embarrassed to host it anymore.

At least Craigslist will take the time to warn you that most of the postings in this area are fraudulent.

SCAM ALERT – scammers posing as potential romantic partners are directing CL users to age and identity verification sites, dating/adult/cam sites (where you can see their “pics” or chat with them), even sites designed to deliver malware — all in hopes of earning affiliate marketing commissions at your expense.

In response to the high volume of spam, Craigslist has taken some steps. It has made it harder to post ads, in that you have to go through the open source reCaptcha system first. (I am using it too to filter comments.) The good news is that this means that whoever posts to Craigslist is a human, rather than a robot. The bad news is that it does not appear to be deterring spammers in the least. There must be enough money to be made trying to sell sex as a “casual encounter” on Craigslist to go through the bother anyhow.

Also in response to the high volume of spammers lurking in the Casual Encounters weeds, Craigslist has provided tools to “vote a poster off the island”. If enough people say that an ad is spam, it is marked as spam and shortly prohibited from display. Craigslist then sends the poster an email, which apparently contains a convenient link which if you click on it lets you repost the message. The result is that it appears that Craigslist Casual Encounters is now largely a flame war between people pissed off by the spam and the spammers.

What is getting lost? Well, casual sex connections on the site, which were probably largely an illusion anyhow. However, there a number of ads that appear to my untrained eye to be wholly legitimate. At least I assume that is true of the many ads posted by “BBWs” (Big Beautiful Women, or judging from their pictures when they post them, morbidly obese women) looking for a good time. Whatever, they are likely to be quickly voted off the island as well. Maybe the BBWers are in reality spammers. Or maybe the Craigslist men just hate fat women. The result appears to be a toxic mess of spam and vindictive people willing to flag everything.

Perhaps you read about the murder that happened in Boston in May to a woman who advertised in Craigslist Erotic Services. Since then Craigslist has tightened up its Erotic Services board, apparently charging anyone a fee to post, and prohibiting ads that suggest you will receive actual sex. The result of this policy seems to be to move the whores into the Casual Encounters area instead. As was true in 2005, there appear to be plenty of “women” whoring over there. Certain words though must be getting flagged because these “women” have developed a whole new vocabulary for asking for money. Mostly they want “roses”. Men are not beyond asking for “roses” either, particularly when they are advertising for their own gender. The typical ad is like this one:

I could use your help with bills. If you could use a good bj, let’s help each other. 100 roses for bj. I can host. Must be clean/ddf.

There are even people out there selling manufactured group sex. If I were interested in group sex, I suspect I would find a local swingers group where, presumably, you can swing safely and with people who are not psychos. I sure would not expect to pay for the privilege, particularly when multi-partner sex with complete strangers can kill you. Moreover, who is to know if you go to some stranger’s apartment you will not end up robbed or worse?

hot gangbang 2nite only!!!! 46DDD, big nipples, wet pussy. horny. TIGHT ASS HOLE 5’8 black I CAN HOST TONIGHT ONLY. $

Even if you can find a legitimate poster for a gangbang, do they want you? No, apparently they are into fantasy, which means you must be very well endowed, not Mr. Six Incher. With our African American president, black must be the new “in” color. Well-endowed black men seem to be in great demand, particularly for group sex.

Seeking 4 to 5 more Black males to join our GB grp.. Requirements is as follows.. Must be clean and dd free. Able to perform in a grp setting. 8′ or better. Must be in shape. Must not be camera shy.

8 feet or better? Good luck with that. Okay, well, Craigslist posters are not exactly known for their spelling skills and can’t seem to be bothered to reread the posts before the make them.

In short, if you want to waste your time, want to catch some sort of deadly social disease, want to get robbed, are into hugely obese but possibly horny women, want to have an encounter with a woman who turns out to be a transvestite or love flagging spammers then Craigslist Casual Encounters is your perfect destination.

To the many horny men out there, I am sorry, but if you want to get laid, it’s time to start frequenting bars and clubs again. At least you can see what you are getting in a bar. Good news: most are non-smoking these days, so it’s easier to discern the good looking women from the not so. I cannot see how you can possibly find what you are looking for on Craigslist.

Back in 2005, I said that surfing Craigslist Casual Encounters was like rubbernecking past an awful accident. In 2009, I can say it does not even have the appeal of rubbernecking. It is the definition of a complete waste of time.