I had an ad flagged by CL not long ago, so I tried to find out why, which led me to the Craigslist Flag Help forum. I still don’t really know why my ad was flagged, and on reading the forum, you’ll see that’s not unusual. The forum is staffed by volunteers because Craigslist is”community moderated.” If you are planning to post there, please take the time to research first. Read through many requests for help and all the replies. Bear in mind the phrase “community moderated” and adjust your expectations accordingly.
If a post is flagged on Craigslist, it cannot be seen, but when you copy the flagged post in the help forum to find out why it was flagged (mandatory,) your post to the forum cannot be removed.
Be sure to read the Top Reasons Posts are Removed page, but know that in addition to software moderation, according to one reply, an ad can be flagged because someone didn’t care for it emotionally.
“For many readers, flagging is a visceral reaction to how an ad makes them feel.”
The “Help” in the forum, likewise, can generate “help” like:
Simply reading to forum until you find someone with an analogous will problem will probably deliver your best answer, while sparing you having to actually post there.
Ultimately, if the reason isn’t one of the common problems, it’s likely how your ad made some people feel, and that is unpredictable. For example, apparently no one has flagged this, probably because cancelling the holiday pandemic orgy is horrifyingly funny, in a laugh-of-the-damned kid of way.
