After ads seeking nude models started disappearing off the Seattle
Craigslist website, a number of “erotic artists” are starting to
complain that it’s because of the nature of their work. “There’s been
some wholesale censorship going on on Craigslist,” says Rene, a Seattle
photographer who would only give a pseudonym. “Craigslist has been
completely negligent in dealing with this. They’re taking away people’s
livelihood.”
Rene, whose work appears on Met-Art.com, and a number of other local
artists say their advertisements for nude models started disappearing
from the “adult gigs” section of Craigslist in January, and the purging
has only gotten worse since then. Rene and several other photographers
claim that while they’ve sent e-mails, written letters, and left
messages with Craigslist, the company hasn’t done anything to prevent
the mass deletions of their ads.
While “erotic art” may seem like a not-so-subtle code for porn, Rene
insists he shoots tasteful “colorful [and] carefree” pictures of solo
models, who make between $75 and $100 an hour for their work. “I’m not
in the porn business,” Rene says earnestly. “I’m in the pretty girl
business.”
Since Craigslist was created in 1995, the message board has expanded
into a
modern-day flea market. You can find just about anything on
the site, from free piles of dirt to pay-by-the-hour companionship.
Users on the site, who can flag ads for removal, vet most of the
free-to-post online ads; once an ad is flagged a certain number of
times, it comes down. This community-driven but unmoderated monitoring
system, the erotic
artists say, may be the problem.
“If you put an ad up, within 15 minutes it’s flagged,” says another
local artist, who photographs nude models under the name Donatello.
“Nobody knows what’s going on. Most people think it’s some far-right
religious cult that’s just policing the section and making it
inoperative.”
While it’s clear someone’s taking issue with artists’ ads on
Seattle’s Craigslist, nearby cities don’t seem to be facing the same
purge problem. A quick check of the Vancouver and Portland message
boards yields dozens of posts advertising nude modeling jobs. But on
the Seattle site, depending on the time of day, there are anywhere
between 2 and 10. While some of the deletions of artists’ ads could be
chalked up to “community standards,” it seems strange that so many
escorts would be able to post ads on Craigslist unchallenged.
While the Craigslist ad purge has mostly affected photographers and
artists, one Seattle-based porn producer says he’s having trouble
finding models and has had to start looking outside of Seattle for his
productions.
“When I post ads in Portland, they stay up,” says Rodney Moore (not
his real name), producer of the Top Heavy Tarts, Scale Bustin’ Babes,
and Horny Hairy Girls websites, among others. Moore says things have
gotten so bad on Craigslist, he’s been considering legal action against
the site’s owners for restraint of trade.
Moore says he’s hoping to get a group of photographers and artists
together to help pay for legal fees. “Even if… a letter from our
attorney gets Craigslist’s attention, it’s going to cost [us],” he
says. However, the short-term financial costs from hiring an attorney
could help Moore and others in the long run. “[The purge] makes it
almost impossible to attract new talent,” Moore says.
Craigslist did not respond to requests for comment. 
It all depends on weither there is money involved in flagging down the ads. All to often people can make money by flagging down others stuff, then they go find sites like craigs hitmen,at craigshitmen.com to do it for them and keep a cut, I read about this on another blog, but can’t even remember where it was