Shlok Vaidya

Idea: CraigsBlackList

A layer: a parasitic website that is underpinned entirely by another, that allows functionality that is not in the host.

For predators that otherwise may be easily targeted (such as say drug dealers on Craigslist), a layer would allow an avenue of approach that the host would be unaware of or unable to cope with.  This strategy is more likely to take hold in situations where the underlying site is an open platform.

Consider a layer, call it CraigsBlackList, that essentially modifies the way you look at and access Craigslist (among the flattest, most robust platforms on the internet).

You open up CBL, and it looks exactly like CL. Once you login however, (a login you received from a friend – fellow predator – via an invite only, reputation based system normal, seemingly benign ads for legitimate goods – vehicles, fruit, apartments – transform into the thriving black market ecosystem. (System-handled codewords reveal drug sales, prostitution rings, weapons trades and the like.)

Meanwhile, users of Craigslist see the CBL ads as well, but to them, the ads are benign legitimate market items. To CL administrators, the illicit ads are impossible to distinguish from legitimate without penetrating the predator social network. (Unlikely given gang/cartel/mafia enforcer involvement.)

Essentially, CL was just parasitically absorbed by CBL.

-Shlok
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31. March 2009 by Shlok Vaidya
Categories: Thinking | Tags: Black Market, craigslist, idea, platform thinking | 6 comments