Craigslist got a dressing down in a local paper recently. Rich Skrenta disagrees with the premise. Well said!
But the the real problem with these sour-grapes articles is that they don’t shed any real light on why Craigslist has succeeded, where so many other similar efforts have not. Over-analyzing Craig’s personal habits makes for catty reading but isn’t going to help us understand his takeoff curve in new markets.
To understand how and why something works, study the thing itself, not the maker.