Craigslist Toronto is quiet. Too quiet. I thought I’d give it a little boost here.
“What is Craigslist?” you might ask. While many starry-eyed people will give you answers involving “online community”, “connecting people in a way that wasn’t possible before the internet” and a lot of hand-waving, I’ll put it a little more simply: it’s an online classified ads site that’s non-profit, completely free-of-charge and on occasion very, very entertaining.
Craigslist’s classified ads are divided into several categories:
Craigslist also hosts a thriving discussion section (San Francisco / NYC / Accordion City) covering a very extensive range of topics.
It may be old hat to a lot of people who hang out in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the site got started back in 1995. It may be not-as-old hat to other cities across the US when it branched out in 2000. However, to us, the citizens of Accordion City, it’s only been around since April.
When I lived in San Francisco, I found that Craigslist was an institution. In fact, it’s so popular that so popular that someone’s decided to make a movie about it. Many people treated it as a sort of eBay with a local scope, a place to buy and sell stuff with people a short trip away. I bought my bike and a few other household goodies through Craigslist, and I knew at least a dozen people who found their apartments that way. It also provided some very entertaining reading — my firend and I would often email each other choice Craiglist personal ads from their “someone seeking someone”, “missed connections” and “rants and raves” sections. Others have made the discussion groups part of their Internet life in the same way that some people have made discussion fora such as Slashdot or MetaFilter part of theirs.
I’m sad to report that Accordion City’s activity on Craigslist, given our fair metropolis’ size, is pretty sad. Take a look at the number of postings in cities much smaller than ours (keep in mind our population is 2.48 million within the city borders, 5 million within the Greater Toronto Area):
- Portland, OR, 2000 population: 529,121
- Vangroovy, BC, 2001 population: 545,671
- Minneapolis, MN, 2000 population: 382,618
- Denver, CO, 2000 population: 554,636
- Chicago, IL, 2000 population: 2,896,016
(We’re beating the pants off Pittsburgh, for which Toronto acts as a stand-in in the American version of Queer as Folk, and Cleveland. We’d better be beating Cleveland — I went there on business and couldn’t leave quickly enough.)
Give Craigslist Toronto a look, and if you’re looking to buy or sell something in the city, use it!
And now, some recent ads and rants from Craigslist Toronto that I found amusing…
Looking for teeth…
Not the ones you are currently using of course. I’m looking for teeth that may have, through some misfortune, been knocked or pulled out. I’m doing some project that I can’t really tell you about but I’m not a ghoul. Not really. And just to be sure you understand where I’m coming from…
- I’m not looking for teeth that are currently part of any body, dead or alive
- I’m only interested in teeth that you legally own. If you don’t own these teeth, you shouldn’t be offering them to me
So if you can help out… just shoot me a message and we can arrange tooth or teeth pickup.
Thanks for your time.
The Women of Toronto thread
A snippet from the post that started it all:
I just wanted to write a not to all who use the craiglist. My rant is about the Women of Toronto and their lack of heart. I have read alot of these rants and raves as well I have looked at the men searching for women articles. Its sad to say that most women in this city are Cold, they appear to me to be looking for someone who is “Sucessful” or someone who is on the cover of the latest GQ Magazine. Can’t people just be real anymore?? Is it to much to ask for Women to smile at a guy if he shoots you a smile??
[The full post is here]
Here’s the main point of the first response:
So you see, it doesn’t pay to be vulnerable or nice to guys on the street because even if you aren’t particularly warm or friendly, they will try to cop a feel. Still wondering why women are so cold?
[The full post is here]
A bit of another response:
they will not go out with you because your superficial desires betray the fact that you are shallow and do not in fact have any substance. You get back to me the next time you see a couple where he’s hot and she’s not, where the guy is way out of the girl’s league. and in the mean time, check your expectations. choose someone real. check out our personality before labeling us. The next time you get out, that is.
[The full text is here]
Ooh, chilly.
This guy seems to be embracing the “women are nothing but superficial gold-diggers” theory that you’ll hear from the bitter guy at the end of the bar in more than a few drinking establishments:
Perhaps you’ll have to go out sometime and see the people I do in a Day. more times than none that woman has gone for the guy in the GAP add or the one with the right shoes , clothes, haircut ect. Try living in reality for a while, however it may be a shocker to you. I work in the business world and the women that I work with ARE hung up on all of these things. In fact they know better than I do what store that guy shops in and how much he paid for those florshime shoes. Not to mention what hes pulling in on an annual basis. To tell me that women are not concerned with the almighty pocket book is a flat out lie. Furthermore Im not sure what social mileu it is that you might acquaint yourself with, but in the business world He who drives that Beemer wins what ever is his heart’s content. Lets be real here and dont try to feed me those replies that one would find within the pages of a Chatelain magazine. I would love to see where it is that you hang out and who it is that you hang out with because im sure their eyes are on that guy with those new Guess jeans!!
RIGHT BACK AT YA
The guy sounds as though he might need a hug and some spelling and writing lessons.
And on it goes. If you want to see the rest of the responses, they’re in the Rants and Raves section of the Toronto Craigslist.
I’ll end with this cute little essay I also found this in the Rants and Raves section of the Toronto Craigslist.
The size of your TV
A friend came over for supper yesterday. A male friend.
When I asked him to move a table he tripped and broke the legs of a nicely restored old walnet butler tray table that I had just bought from an antique-furniture-hobbyist last week. One of the first things that came out of his mouth was: “All I could think of when I fell was – ‘don’t fall on the TV, don’t fall on the TV'” Now what is it with guys and TVs? It doesn’t even have to be theirs, but as soon as they go into someone’s apartment, they take personal offense if SOMEONE ELSE’S TV is according to their personal size preference. They even go as far as protecting SOMEONE ELSE’S TV at all cost!
I used to have a 13 inch TV. Every male who entered my place would comment on how small the TV was and that I needed a bigger one. Excuse me? Who are you to tell me what size my TV should be? One friend even went as far as bringing his own (bigger) TV whenever he came over to watch a movie or TV. I had an ex offer me his parent’s old (bigger) TV. At the beginning of our dating! My guy and I have come to a compromise – he brings in his 27 inch TV and hooks up surround sound, and in return, he can’t bitch about anything else in the place.
I love my cute 13 inch TV. It went through thick and thin with me, and it still works, even though I dropped it twice. It needs tender care and a bit of time to warm up to show brightness and a pat on the side every now and then to get rid of snow on the screen. I am looking for a new owner who will take loving care of it and appreciates its unique charm.
