We are going to use Craigslist as one means of getting our Appleseed Shoot schedule out there in cyberspace for the curious to see. There are seventeen locations that have dedicated cities or populated areas represented on Craigslist for Texas. I will take Fort Worth. Who from the other areas will step up and volunteer to take a few minutes 30 days before the nearest Appleseed Shoot is happening to list it on Craigslist for those hungry patriots out there on the internet to find? I would be more than happy to give a tutorial and will be posting my version in this thread to allow others to use as a template.
Abilene
Amarillo
Austin Scuzzy :)
College station
Corpus Christi
Dallas
El paso WestTX :)
Fort Worth Bigiceman :)
Galveston
Houston CaptG :)
Killen/temple/ft hood Scout :)
Laredo
Lubbock
Odessa/midland WCMartin1 :)
Tyler/east texas Councelor :)
Victoria
Wichita falls Lex T. Concord :)
So here is my listing on Craigslist for the Dallas area. It was for the Davilla shoot in January, but I have blanked out the specifics so that you can insert your city of choice. Please feel free to plagarize, edit, add, subtract or improve at will. This is just an idea you can use, but you don't have to. Everybody should put a little difference into the mix. This will help to ensure that the Craigslist people don't recognize the entries as duplicates.
Date: Date of nearest Appleseed within 30 days
Posting Title: Rifle marksmanship, rifle safety, and history clinic (would love to make this longer, but 45 charecter limit)
Specific Location: NEAR YOU, Texas)
The Revolutionary War Veterans Association (RWVA), a nom-profit organization, is providing one and two day clinics in rifle marksmanship and rifle safety. There is a nominal fee for this instruction and it is free of charge to all women, young people (under 21) and all military, both active and reserve.
This clinic teaches the six steps of making a proper shot with a rifle. Each participant will receive individualized coaching from instructors and feedback on their progress as the clinic progresses. By the end of the clinic each participant will have made real progress toward consistently placing a shot in a 20 inch square at 500 yards without the aid of a bench or sandbags. During the course of the clinic instructors will also illuminate some history of our Revolutionary founders and how the skill of rifle marksmanship played a part in the success of our American Revolution.
The clinic will be held rain or shine on the specified dates. The clinic starts at 8:30 in the morning and runs until around 5:00 in the afternoon with a break for lunch.
To sign up for a place at the clinic, to get directions, or just to get more information, please visit www.appleseedinfo.org, and follow the register for an event link.
keywords: firearm history shoot patriot gun target ammunition marksmanship rifle revolutionary free instruction military
That template works. I'm going post that to the Killeen/Ft. Hood CL right now. I did Austin but it wasn't as good as your template. My Austin post is below. One thing I noticed is that even though I entered the event date as '01/10/2009' to '01/11/2009' that it wouldn't show up unless I clicked on 'Show all events.' It looks like when someone clicks on 'Events' that only events that begin/end close to the current date are listed.
I suppose in addition to events I should also post under 'classes, activities, and politics.' Wait one, forget the politics, at least for the Austin crew. If ya wanna get a load of the Obamites, click on Austin politics. Maybe I ought to post there anyways? Naw, probably not.
Title: 1/10-1/11: Learn to use your R I F L E on Jan 10 and 11, 2009 (Davilla, Texas)
Come join the RWVA (Revolutionary War Veterans Association) for an Appleseed Project shoot. Learn how to improve your shooting skills and learn about the history of this country during the Revolutionary War.
I guarantee that even the best shot will learn a thing or three.
See our website at appleseedinfo.org for more info on the coming get together as well as others coming in the future.
See ya there.
Good job, y'all! O0
I've got El Paso.
Add Killeen/Ft. Hood, Waco, San Marcos, and Bryan/College Station to that now. Also, CL will try and keep you from posting the same event more than once, even if it is in another locale. You have to change to wording a bit in order to get through.
Quote from: scuzzy on December 22, 2008, 10:18:07 PM
Add Killeen/Ft. Hood, Waco, San Marcos, and Bryan/College Station to that now. Also, CL will try and keep you from posting the same event more than once, even if it is in another locale. You have to change to wording a bit in order to get through.
That is one of the reasons I want to see if having a different person in each area will overcome their duplicate entry challenge. That is something to add to the post though, just as a routine. Everybody add a little of their own flair to the message in each town.
Bigiceman
Put me down for Houston, it's done. http://houston.craigslist.org/cls/967731929.html
Already noted in the How to use craigslist thread.
G
Way to go CaptG. Now we have 4 of 17 covered in just one day, the rest should fall into place fairly quickly. If not, you guys get out there and find some volunteers.
Ice,
Check your roster, you've got me down for Galveston.
I'd do more than one location, but the site says not & I'm afraid they'd pull all of the posts if they catch me cheating.
G
Quote from: CaptG on December 23, 2008, 01:43:05 AM
Ice,
Check your roster, you've got me down for Galveston.
I'd do more than one location, but the site says not & I'm afraid they'd pull all of the posts if they catch me cheating.
G
Got it fixed. Not so good at following lines any more. :-[
Okay, there posters, I am going to put a couple links in the second post on this thread from WebDancer. He made a great tutorial for the posting and a great letter. I think I actually like his beter and will personally use it in the future. Might change the one in my first post.
Here are the links.
Tutorial http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4922.0;attach=5401 (http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=4922.0;attach=5401)
Webdancer's add http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/cls/966858633.html (http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/cls/966858633.html)
BigIce, Thanks for taking this and running with it. Grets Job! I put myself in for the Temple area. We have used it here for events and selling stuff.I don't think it will hurt toget some duplicates if they let us do that.
bigiceman,
Great job in taking over and following through on the coordination of our Craigslist promos here in Texas, Sir.
Odessa/Midland is done here - http://odessa.craigslist.org/cls/968744697.html
BBB
Quote from: Scout on December 24, 2008, 08:59:17 AM
BigIce, Thanks for taking this and running with it. Grets Job! I put myself in for the Temple area. We have used it here for events and selling stuff.I don't think it will hurt toget some duplicates if they let us do that.
Okay, that was cool. I forget what admins are able to do. Went to modify the post to put your name in and it was already there. :))
As state coordinator, got any volunteers in mind for some of the other cities?
Quote from: bigiceman on December 24, 2008, 01:25:01 PM
Quote from: Scout on December 24, 2008, 08:59:17 AM
BigIce, Thanks for taking this and running with it. Grets Job! I put myself in for the Temple area. We have used it here for events and selling stuff.I don't think it will hurt toget some duplicates if they let us do that.
Okay, that was cool. I forget what admins are able to do. Went to modify the post to put your name in and it was already there. :))
As state coordinator, got any volunteers in mind for some of the other cities?
Actually I do ;) so let em PM them to you and you can shanghai them into
this program. You are doing such a bang up job and you obviously have much more power to persuade people to get behind a certain program than I do with my pleading :(, so I am sending you some more tasks we need done in this same manner. If you can slip one in after this gets going, and use that same BigIce charm ;), you might get them to jump on the wagon for it also. Maybe I can get you to be the "Job Boss" or "Job Czar" for the Texas Program. Would you mind doing that? ;) ;D ;D
I will do whatever I can for you Scout.
Quote from: Scout on December 24, 2008, 02:51:55 PM
Maybe I can get you to be the "Job Boss" or "Job Czar" for the Texas Program. Would you mind doing that? ;) ;D ;D
Second.
Those in favor... ;D
Quote from: bigiceman on December 24, 2008, 03:41:10 PM
I will do whatever I can for you Scout.
That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. O0
bigiceman,
saw no one else was taking College Station, so I changed the Houston ad up a little & put it up. We'll see if it flies
G
Mine didn't go up, but someone else already had one posted.
Okay CaptG, we just have to watch out. The Craigslist people watch for duplicates, we will see what happens.
How is this looking? Do we have all the current shoots listed so far? Thanks guys for taking this and running with it. Good crew BigIce ;). Let's get them on listing in community calendars now!
Now why didn't I think of this? I even know how to do it already!
Great idear!
I was able to do Austin, Killeen/Ft. Hood, Waco, San Marcos, and Bryan/College Station for Davilla in Jan 2009. However, my CL signon has now been flagged as a 'spammer' and I will have to create another signon using a different email address for the next go around. Guess will have to create some throw away email addresses using some of the free email services.
As for different wording on the CL posts, yes, you do have to use different wordings on your post or you run the possibility of being flagged.
Scuzzy and everyone else, this is why we need to have someone, one, take each individual market they have in the state. That way we are not spamming, even if we are promoting the same event. At least that looks like the way it works to me. Or we may have to list them differently. Some as classes some as an event.
Let me get in touch with a few others and see if we cannot get volunteers for the different areas filled in.
Put me down for Tyler, East Texas area, since I am only 35 miles west of Tyler.
Plus, I am already registered with Craigslist.
Counselor
You got it Councelor. PM if you need any help or advice.
Way to go BigIce, rope that team in! ;D
For anyone that is interested in how many hits (people looking at your post) your CL post is getting you can register with http://www.statcounter.com (http://www.statcounter.com) and get some code you can copy/paste into your CL post. This will display the number of people that click on your post.
During the registration/hit counter creation process make sure you select "OPTIONAL - HTML Only Counter" checkbox or the counter won't work since CL won't allow Javascript. If you don't know what Javascript is don't worry, just make sure you use the HTML only counter checkbox. This will give you an idea of how well the AS post is doing.
Thanks Scuzzy. That will be a good piece of information to tell us if it is working or if we need to direct the effort elsewhere. O0
Hope to have some more help with this soon.
Please put me down for Wichita Falls.
THANKS!!
Lex T. Concord
Got the Feb Davilla AS posted: http://houston.craigslist.org/cls/1004578071.html Made a few changes to the last one.
Guy
Good job, thought I would have to wait a few more days. Now I gotta post mine.
Okay, just a reminder that your event listing will expire 30 days after posting. That means that everyone posting for Midland and El Paso should have already posted and that those posting for Davilla should be posting about now. 30 days before is the perfect timing, that will get last minute people who are looking on Thursday or Friday for something to do on the weekend.
Posted Davilla on Austin, Waco, Killeen, and College Station on CL Events a few days ago. The Austin post has already been deleted. I guess some liberal is flagging the post as inappropriate or something. I could post again there but it will just get deleted. My hit counter shows that about 30 people have checked out the ad in the last few days, and that is for all cities I posted to. The counter actually shows 121 but it was at 90 when I did the new posts. Next time I post I will create hit counters for each individual city to get a better idea of how this is working out, and also zero the counter each time I do a new post.
Scuzzy, one of the reasons you may be getting pulled is the redundancy. That is why we need to recruit others to fill the empty slots.
I think I got past the CL redundancy issue. Each of my event posts is worded a little bit different, just enough to slip by the CL post monitor. When I was posting last month, a redundant post would get a message during the posting process saying 'Possible Spam' or something like that. Both my current and previous Austin posts were there for a few days, but then deleted. When viewing posts a person can flag as ' please flag with care: miscategorized, prohibited, spam/overpost, or best of craigslist.' My other posts from Waco, Killeen, and College Station I just did are still there. While I can't say positively that my posts are being flagged, and deleted, but I will keep an eye on the Austin situation. Maybe someone else could post Austin again to see what happens?
We can have someone else try and post from Austin. Try and see if you can ask the Craigslist people why your event was pulled. They have real issues with cross-posting and some have experienced additional scrutiny of their posts or events because of it.
Reposted Davilla Feb 22-Mar 1, 2009 on Austin CL.
I did find this information on CL about posting:
QuoteOur flagging system allows craigslist users to mark inappropriate postings for speedy removal, while preserving everyone's ability to express themselves freely and in a timely fashion.
By using the flagging feature located at the upper right corner of each post, you can take action if you feel a posting is inappropriate, by clicking on:
* miscategorized - wrong category/site, discusses another ad, otherwise misplaced
* prohibited - violates craigslist Terms of Use or other posted guidelines
* spam/overpost - posted too frequently, in multiple cities/categories, or is too commercial
If a post receives enough negative flags it will automatically be removed (only one flag per person per post is counted).
Posters whose postings are repeatedly flagged are subject to staff review and additional remedial measures.
After reading the above I found a forum the dealt with flagged posts and I found the following:
Quoteweapons & weapons-related items prohibited ยง < chez_moi > 01/25 09:12:49
The above quotes was from the Austin forum. Reading through the 'flagged posts' forum I got the distinct impression that you can get flagged for just about anything. All it takes is a few people that don't like your post. Heck, there were people flagged for dog ads that seemed to be OK, at least to me.
I just searched the terms of use and found no such restriction. I am sending a question. It really sounds as though it is over-zealous gun haters trying to police the service.
as far as I have ever seen, all firearms related posts are disallowed on CL and if they get placed in through the filtersets, they get actively sought out and flagged by the few mods working that role. Additionally, there are always the firearms haters that will flag them if they see them. That all being said, it didn't stop me from picking up a 10/22 via CL in my area last year that had not yet been flagged or removed. It was shortly ousted after my purchase though. :P
I know what you are saying, but I don't see that anywhere in the terms of service listed on their site. I especially don't see how classes would fit into their way of thinking about it. That being said, not all people care if they are doing what is right, just what they want. Craigslist may not work out for us as an advertising means, we will see what they respond, if they respond.
Okay, Wichita Falls is posted for the Davilla 28 Feb - 01 March shoot.
However, I am confused. I have rarely ever gone to Craig's List, so maybe I am doing something wrong...???
I go to "texas", and click on CLASSES and it sends me to EVENTS, wherein my listings does not exist.
I go to the SEARCH function higher up on the page and search specifically in CLASSES, and all is well and good - it is there.
How come the main page, with 'texas' and 'classes' mis-directs me to EVENTS, where it is NOT listed?
How will anyone find it?
Also, did we find out if all of our listings are being pulled and sent to oblivion?
Thanks!
Lex
I sent an e-mail to Craigslist and got a non-commital form response. It said to check the forum. What it really looks like is if the people on the forum think it is weapons related they can tag it for removal. It seems that in the Austin area there are enough gun-haters to keep that area cleared out. I have not had trouble with mine in Fort Worth, yet.
Don't know what to say about the item showing up. I think we need to work on our key words or something. I am not savy to this kind of stuff so I am not sure.
Well, I am REALLY not savvy... are the 'keywords' supposed to be in the text of the listing?
I looked and did not see a separate place to post the keywords... how does that work?
Thanks,
Lex
You got me too. Hey Scuzzy! Chime in, you seem tech savy.
Greetings Lex,
There is no keyword field, just put a couple of blank lines after the text of your ad and enter your keywords all on the same line. You can look at my ad
here (http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/eve/998166481.html/) to see what I mean. Keep up the good work!
Quote from: Lex T. Concord on January 30, 2009, 06:17:00 PM
Well, I am REALLY not savvy... are the 'keywords' supposed to be in the text of the listing?
I looked and did not see a separate place to post the keywords... how does that work?
Thanks,
Lex
Thanks Webdancer! That is what I did, and now - thanks to you, I know I did it right.
However, my earlier confusion on the listing still exists:
"However, I am confused. I have rarely ever gone to Craig's List, so maybe I am doing something wrong...
I go to "texas", and click on CLASSES and it sends me to EVENTS, wherein my listings does not exist.
I go to the SEARCH function higher up on the page and search specifically in CLASSES, and all is well and good - it is there.
How come the main page, with 'texas' and 'classes' mis-directs me to EVENTS, where it is NOT listed?
How will anyone find it?"
Sooooooo, what is up with that?
Lex
QuoteHow come the main page, with 'texas' and 'classes' mis-directs me to EVENTS, where it is NOT listed?
How will anyone find it?"
Sooooooo, what is up with that?
The classes/events seem to be related in some way so that they are tied together. There is nothing we can do to control that.
I'm not sure why CL is programmed to act that way. I think it is a little messed up the way it functions. I usually click on 'View All Events' to take a look at things though. I added hit counters for Austin, Killeen/Temple, College Station, and Waco. There is a small hit count of people, anywhere from 10-30, for each city listed. Austin keeps getting pulled so I will just post once and it will get deleted. No way to control that, it only happens in Austin. But if it gets even one person out it is worth it. That one person will then tell a friend and so on.
Maybe I ought to list an AS as a group touchy/feely hug session just to get some Austinites out?? Ha. Then the post wouldn't get deleted! Just kiddin.
Thanks Scuzzy!
BTW - Heinlein is one of my Favorites!
Lex
A little bit behind. I just posted the March 14-15 Davilla event. All of you north Texas posters should be doing the same if you have not already. Those doing the 28th to Mar 1 events wait a few days then get your new postings up.
My stat counter showed 15 visits to my posting and it made it through the month.
Don't be discouraged. It only costs us a little time and if even one American comes to one of our events and learns to be an awake citizen and rifleman I will count myself as having done little and achieved much.
April 18-19 - Midland, TX Appleseed posted here http://odessa.craigslist.org/cls/1047356702.html
Quote from: wcmartin1 on February 23, 2009, 05:29:30 PM
April 18-19 - Midland, TX Appleseed posted here http://odessa.craigslist.org/cls/1047356702.html
You may have to post this again WC. The Craigslist postings only appear for 30 days.
Ice,
Got the Mar Davilla shoot posted on Houston CL. So far they seem to be staying up there.
Guy
Sorry to be tardy,but here are the directions:
From College Station proceed south on US 6 to hwy. 159 south to Millican. Follow 159 south 2.5 miles to four way stop in Millican. Continue straight 4.2 miles to Cawthon. Turn right on crushed limestone road just before Cawthon sign by red building on right . Proceed 1.5 miles to range.
From Navasota proceed north on US 6 to F.M. 2154. Turn left and go 5.1 miles to four way stop in Millican. Turn left and go 4.2 miles to Cawthon. Turning right as above.
From Brenham proceed east on hwy. 105 to hwy. 159 just past Brazos river. Turn left on hwy. 159 and proceed 9.5 miles to Cawthon. Turn left just past Cawthon sign and red building on left.
Thanks,
steve
Time for everyone to post the April 18-19 events.
Iceman,
I'm going to see if I can post Davilla & College Station on CL Houston. I'll just put them both up for location on the same listing. Is the Houston event also on? If so I'll include it.
Guy
EDIT:
Posted Davilla and College Starion (put both on location). Jazzed up the description a little for the Apr 19th aspect. I couldn't find any info about a Houston AS although I've heard rumors. If it's on, I'll go back & try to add it.
G