What To Use (And Not Use) SF Craigslist For
I happen to be one of those people that loves Craigslist. I use it for everything. Craigslist was the way that I found my apartment, all of my closest SF friends, and the guy that I’m seeing along with some casual dates, some tickets to stuff, rides to different cities and information about area events. I’m a firm believer in the thought that if you know what you want and you can articulate it clearly, you can get it on Craigslist, at least in San Francisco. But not everyone agrees with me. Some of my good friends say that it’s great for getting certain things and not so good for others. Here are some of the things to use Craigslist for:
- Jobs. As a freelancer, I check the gigs and writing jobs on CL every day. I check other cities as well as SF. I also regularly check the creative gigs and I contact other artists through posts in the community section for collaborative work. But I’ve heard rumors that CL isn’t so good for getting work that’s more “normal” or “steady”. Apparently this is because the jobs posted there are highly competitive so people use bigger sites like Monster.com to get jobs. So they tell me.
- Rides. Many people I know say that they feel safe using CL for things like renting an apartment but not for getting rides from random strangers. I successfully used CL to get rides to other cities and states, but I’m fairly cautious about who I meet and how I screen them. I’ve found that it’s basically normal people just like myself on CL in San Francisco which may not be as true of others areas where online interaction isn’t as common. So I think it’s fine to get rides here if you’re safe and sensible about it but I don’t know that I’d do it everywhere that CL has a portal.
- Friends, casual dates, hook-ups and relationships. Worked for me on every level. Again, I screen carefully, make common sense choices and try to be very clear about what I’m seeking and what my boundaries are. And again, I think it’s common in San Francisco for a wide range of people to be on CL.
- Apartments. I actually don’t even know how I would go about trying to get an apartment in San Francisco other than by using Craigslist. It’s how everyone does it here.
- Tickets. I actually don’t think this is the best thing to use CL for. But I know people who do it. For me, I’d rather just buy my tickets to events straight out, rather than trying to scheme for a discounted rate on anything. But that’s just a personal preference.
- Free stuff. This one is hard for me because I don’t have a car in San Francisco and anything I’d want would be big enough that I’d need a car. I wouldn’t be opposed to doing a rideshare post to get a free item that I really wanted. For people who have time and transportation, the amount of free stuff you can get is endless.
What else do you use CL for?
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