Ask HN: How to setup scaled-down Craigslist for my struggling rural area?
My hometown is a small city in north Georgia; less than 15,000 people or so. There isn't even a section of Craigslist for the surrounding area. I'm in town from Boston for a month or so, and while I'm here, it was recommended to me ( http://ask.metafilter.com/141621/How-to-help-rural-hometown-friends-survive-in-this-economy ) I setup a local version of Craigslist.
Do any HNers know of a white-label platform suited for this kind of purpose? I'd like to keep it simple; especially for getting a community started, there won't be enough volume of posts to fill up all the sub-sections Craigslist has, and thus make it worth checking them out. Community events, jobs, and a marketplace of some sort would probably be the basic sections needed.
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[ 1.1 ms ] story [ 67.6 ms ] threadhttp://classifiedstheme.com/ http://wpclassipress.com/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-classified/ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/another-wordpress-classi...
I don't think it's too hard to set up your own domain and transfer it, there's a 'powered by ning' option or similar if you want to host offsite, as I recall.
For another, Ning's design and community management backend is oriented to getting you to add more stuff. It's not at all intuitive (for the community manager) to create an interface and section architecture that'll be intuitive to visitors.
I'd like to hand this site off to someone who lives here, who isn't as web savvy as your average HN member, and not worry about the service they're using making it easy for them to decrease usability and usefulness of the site.
Get something up and running fast... a modified blog as simonk suggested might be a good way to get it up quickly. Craigslist started as a mailing list of sorts among friends.
www.nefertiti-egypt.com www.royal-egyptian-cotton.com www.nefertiti-jp.com www.nefertiti-egypt.co.uk www.wholesaleantiquereproductionfurniture.com
My recommendation: Wait for Craigslist to come in.
> less than 15,000 people or so
If 1% of people used this, that's 150 people. You might want to start with a simpler email group instead. If you can get 150 using an email list, then make a website to accompany it.
The hard part isn't the software. In fact, it's 1000x easier to get the software going than to get people to use it.
I definitely understand the software is the easier part -- that's why I'm getting started with it and looking for the simplest option available. I understand the basics of building community sites:
* seed content, and seed interaction with a small core of dedicated users.
* setup natural flows from existing online communities serving portions of the same audience. Facebook communities, Hiawassee's Topix forum, etc.
* Reward action, and encourage sense of belonging in a community.
I would go door to door if I have to and tell people "I want to create a classifieds for our community, can I add your email address?" (Then ask them for their neighbor's emails too)
To post, people can send you an email and then you can compile it.
Do this for 1 week and see if you can get 100-500 people this way.
Then create a simple 1 page site that just reposts the emails. Then create a simple form that allows people to post directly. Then add categories.
I wouldn't skip any steps.
Especially since craigslist will come in eventually and so your fix will be temporary if it's only aiming to be like craigslist.
Hey, you could even write Craig and ask him to include you. I know places in rural California well-served by craigslist.
1) To clarify on the purpose a bit, it's aim wouldn't be to be just like Craigslist. Craigslist is good, but has plenty of room for imrpovement. And the unique characteristics of a local community make a more customized solution (church sections, farming & agriculture sections, different job categories as a few possible examples) a better option. While this may start by being a simple classifieds Craigslist-like, it could evolve into something very different.
2) One of the main points of what I'm looking for is the ability to setup a simplified Craigslist-like site. Craigslist has too many subsections to make it easy to show activity in a newly active area.
3) It's always easier to promote, and gain buy-in, for a more specific (in this case, local) solution.
None the less, thanks for the comment, and idea of writing Craig directly to ask for an area section to be created.
We use it in Jamaica for stuff there. http://www.brawtalist.com
Dependencies? * Ruby on Rails * Redis
jay [.dot.] neely [@at@] socialstrategist [.dot.] com
There is no point in applying more technology -- all the value will come from the users (if you can get them).
Here is a screenshot of the categories that were created for us: http://client.palmsdevelopment.com/frontporch.png
I would also look at Vanilla forums as an alternative to phpBB: http://vanillaforums.org/
Hope this helps!
1. choose a canned forum package,
2. install and configure it,
3. find some moderators; show them how to admin the site and make backups
I've never used phpBB so cannot recommend it.
Edit: maybe have a look at [mwForum](http://www.mwforum.org/).
Sent you email. I may have something for you.
Anyways, since I am here and I work at CL: can you send me (email on my profile) information about your city and what would you specifically need on a new geo? (specific categories/forums).
I can't promise anything (I don't have the last vote on the decision of whether to launch a new geo or not) but it looks like it may make sense to launch a new geo for your area at least at county level.
The area I'm in is Hiawassee, GA. Craigslist has a Northwest GA section, but could really use a Northeast GA section to cover Union, Lumpkin, White, Habersham, Rabun, and Towns County. Each has several small-ish mountain towns, but no central metro area, even in neighboring states.
We usually open new areas when people request them. I will see what I can do.