grep for craigslist?

[Ted Roche]

On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 5:21 PM, David Rysdam <david at rysdam.org> wrote:

>
> Do TOSen apply to non-logged-in users? What are they going to do? Revoke
> my account?
>
>
No, I agree we've got a bit far afield. The TOS concern is valid if you
were to make this a publicly-available service.

As far as consuming your own CL reading into a database or through regexs
to filter what you want, I don't really think it applies.  IANAL, of
course, but I wouldn't worry.

Dave Taylor's site suggests a recipe,
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_automate_craigslist_site_searches.html,
but I think your observations are apt: sellers are unpredictable in the
terms they use and the classifications they select.

If I were shopping for an inexpensive vintage Schwinn, I might bookmark and
revisit this page:

http://nh.craigslist.org/search/bia?zoomToPosting=&altView=&query=Schwinn+Vintage&srchType=A&minAsk=0&maxAsk=250&hasPic=1

But it would miss the people who can't spell Schwinn correctly, or think
the 1980's qualifies as "Antique" or "Old" -- similarly, it would miss the
"like new!" or "mint" optimistic claims.

CL search seems to support simple OR with pipes, and "exact phrase" with
quotes (ref:
http://liquidparallax.com/2010/04/07/optimize-craigslist-with-boolean-search-operators/)
,
but I haven't found a wildcard character or regex support. Considering the
variations of spelling, grammar and mis-characterization I see, perhaps
that's all for the best. Like the old chestnut about the difficult of
creating idiot-proof systems because the idiots are just too darned clever,
it may be that the only filter suitable for finding what you want on CL may
be your own eyes.

-- 
Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com
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