Can't see my ad on Craigslist

[frosty]

What's up with CL. I know it's free but this problem has happened too mnay times. I've been trying to sell my car and everuthing seems to go through. I get the confirmation e-mail and when I go to my account I can see that my ad is active. However, when I go to find my post in the auto/trucks section, it's no where to be found. I'm sure it wasn't flagged, as I didn't get an e-mail saying that my ad was flagged and my account page shows it being active.

Anyone experience this? Three times it's happened.

[Aquaticedge]

try searching for the title? car ads are always kinda hard esp if you dont filter out the cars by dealer

[jt20]

if it doesn't show after 20 minutes, then have comfort in your confusion.

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by frosty

What's up with CL. I know it's free but this problem has happened too mnay times. I've been trying to sell my car and everuthing seems to go through. I get the confirmation e-mail and when I go to my account I can see that my ad is active. However, when I go to find my post in the auto/trucks section, it's no where to be found. I'm sure it wasn't flagged, as I didn't get an e-mail saying that my ad was flagged and my account page shows it being active.

Anyone experience this? Three times it's happened.

I had a very similar experience recently listing an item on CL. I had put together a nice, legible ad in HTML format, with externally hosted small pictures that were links to larger, higher-quality versions of the same pictures (easy enough to do, as I already use that approach when building eBay listings).

Everything went exactly as you describe. I received the message that my ad had posted, and it continued to show as active on my CL account, but didn't show up in the index. I eventually deleted the ad, then tried again a couple of days later, with the same results.

I did a little web research, and found some sources that claim that Craigslist 'bots will "ghost" an ad if it they think that the ad is likely to be from a scammer or spammer. Some of those sources also give tips for how to avoid such "ghosting".

I deleted the ad and tried again a few days later with the ad purely in plain text (no extra HTML formatting) and with only pictures hosted on Craigslist (no pictures hosted elsewhere; no links to larger pictures hosted elsewhere).

My plain, no-fancy-stuff ad made it into the index with no problems.

[kerry]

When you get the e-mail from Craigslist, you have to click on the link in the e-mail and then click again on 'Publish'. Did you do that? If you didn't, that's why you're not seeing it.

[79Mercy]

Originally Posted by kerry

When you get the e-mail from Craigslist, you have to click on the link in the e-mail and then click again on 'Publish'. Did you do that? If you didn't, that's why you're not seeing it.

Thank you, i was having the same trouble as the OP.

[4x4_Welder]

Set yourself up with a Craigslist account, it's free and makes posting easier.
I frequently post ads with pics linked off photobucket, and have had no issues.

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by 4x4_Welder

Set yourself up with a Craigslist account, it's free and makes posting easier.
I frequently post ads with pics linked off photobucket, and have had no issues.

When it appeared that my ad was being "ghosted", the ad was being posted from a Craigslist account.

All I know so far is that my fancy HTML ads wouldn't show in the index, but my "bare bones" ad would. I haven't experimented further to find out just how much fanciness I can get away with before a 'bot thinks that I'm a bad guy.

[4x4_Welder]

As long as you do most of the text in their text editor window (even copy and paste from Word/Open Office), then a few embedded html pics wouldn't upset the system. I've done up to ten pictures in one ad without issues.