Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

39 pointsby argee33 comments

Discussion summary

Craigslist's front page now features emojis, which some users noticed recently. Changes include URL redirects and category reorganizations. Reactions to emojis vary, with some seeing them as normal and others surprised.

What the discussion says

Some users are surprised by emojis on Craigslist.
Changes in site structure, like URL redirects, are noted.
Reactions to emojis range from acceptance to annoyance.

“Emojis are normal now. They’re here to stay, forever.”
— mock-possum

“I will never understand this visceral reaction that emojis provoke.”
— didntcheck

Comments

Hacker News

Phew been a minute since I've been on craigslist!

by idiotsecant

Maybe it is from a coding agent. And the maintainer has no reason to remove it as it looks ok.

by jw-open

oh, it looks like they changed the URLs tool. I used to be able to go to a subdomain like boston.craigslist.org. Now it redirects to www.craigslist.org/area/boston

by loughnane

nah the worst part is they moved boats from for sale -> auto. threw off my whole flow

by willcmcc

What’s your flow, if you don’t mind? Are you often looking at boats? Just curious

by dgellow

“Emoji Fatigue??” It’s a little late for that. Emojis are normal now. They’re to be expected. They’re here to stay, forever.

Language has shifted. It’s ridiculous to try to pretend it’s upsetting it even novel at this point.

What’s really odd is places that specifically don’t support emojis nowadays.

by mock-possum

> how do you feel about the entire thing?

I feel about as strongly as I do about the font that Google use

I will never understand this visceral reaction that emojis provoke in some people

by didntcheck

This prompted me to check out rental rates in my old haunt of Inner Sunset. I remember the Craigslist offices on 9th and Judah...

It's shocking that a 1 bedroom apartment now rents for $4-5k/month....

by pcrh

I noticed emojis in the top-right corner the other day; I thought, “oh, that’s interesting”, and continued browsing – even though Indeed has more jobs, like Marketplace (1) has more for sale, I far prefer Craigslist for being simple and easy-to-navigate.

1: How many people don’t delete Facebook because of it? When I left Facebook for good, losing access to Marketplace felt like a real sacrifice.

It was worse in a rural village here in Alaska, where everything was on Facebook, much to my dismay. But the upside of a small community is that I heard about things anyway via word-of-mouth.

by 0x38B

You’re completely over reacting and might need to spend some time relaxing with other humans

by dgellow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A...

by sunaookami

I am going to start using "might need to spend time relaxing with other humans"...brilliant.

by digitaltrees

Would have been nice when they had casual encounters - eggplant, water droplets, tongue peach.

by comrade1234

> people are beginning to feel emoji fatigue

Are they? News to me. I like them. Do they show up in Lynx or whatever terminal-based browser the hip kids are using these day are using?

by K7PJP

Lynx won't render the page. Links doesn't show them.

by kevin_thibedeau

As long as emojis are used as an _addition_ to text labels I think this is a good thing. The problem arises when they are used _instead_ of labels, although that’s a problem that predates emojis, it’s common with normal icons.

If you design an interface when some actions are only behind icons/emojis (no text, no hover title), expect users like me to click on them just to see what they do.

by hk__2

Yeah just as an adddion to the main groupings it's not terrible. The actual emojis used are not very good. It's unclear to me what several of them are or why they represent the group title.

by SoftTalker

Interesting, it even uses the clippy emoji for resumes!

I think OP is reading into it too much , it seems like a minor embellishment and I never personally correlated emojis with LLMs.

by dieselgate

I wouldn't find it remarkable anywhere else, but Craigslist has built a reputation on not doing this kind of thing.

by argee

Yup, the association with LLMs is a bit odd, since there's emojis everywhere in mainstream digital comunication way before the big hit of the ai stuff.

Without seeing how it looked before I think this just gives a little bit more of clue about what each category is about. They are still being used sparsely.

The only thing where it irks me to find emojis is in cli apps. They use to not be the same character width as the monofont I use so they either look chopped or they displace their nearing text.

by Gualdrapo

I like it.

Good user experience isn't about dogmatically sticking to "text only", but about making a useful, understandable, navigable site.

Emojis seem to help section the dozens of links on the homepage without adding unnecessary visual distraction or page payload.

by xnx

> unnecessary visual distraction

I think I personally see emojis used in this manner as unnecessary visual distraction, because it detracts from whatever self-consistent design system you had going on (when used for high visibility items like front page headings). Emojis don't even render the same on every platform, so its a move that dilutes your design language.

Even if it's a useful visual guide, I would wager nine times out of ten you'd be better off with a self-consistent icon set...depending on what you're going for, of course.

by argee

Based on https://web.archive.org/web/20260618001349/https://washingto... and https://web.archive.org/web/20260621034150/https://washingto..., it seems like they were added at some point between the 18th and the 21st. I definitely think it helps navigating the site, and it's a nice compromise between Craigslist's text-first style and a nod towards usability.

by nightpool

Nice sleuthing! So it's quite a recent change. It stands out to me that the items up top (faves, acct, etc.) which already had icons also got emojified.

Prior to that, they had already introduced emojis to draw attention to their Craigslist charitable fund: that probably made this a much easier decision.

by argee

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Hacker News
Phew been a minute since I've been on craigslist!
by idiotsecant
Maybe it is from a coding agent. And the maintainer has no reason to remove it as it looks ok.
by jw-open
oh, it looks like they changed the URLs tool. I used to be able to go to a subdomain like boston.craigslist.org. Now it redirects to www.craigslist.org/area/boston
by loughnane
nah the worst part is they moved boats from for sale -> auto. threw off my whole flow
by willcmcc
What’s your flow, if you don’t mind? Are you often looking at boats? Just curious
by dgellow
“Emoji Fatigue??” It’s a little late for that. Emojis are normal now. They’re to be expected. They’re here to stay, forever.
Language has shifted. It’s ridiculous to try to pretend it’s upsetting it even novel at this point.
What’s really odd is places that specifically don’t support emojis nowadays.
by mock-possum
> how do you feel about the entire thing?
I feel about as strongly as I do about the font that Google use
I will never understand this visceral reaction that emojis provoke in some people
by didntcheck
This prompted me to check out rental rates in my old haunt of Inner Sunset. I remember the Craigslist offices on 9th and Judah...
It's shocking that a 1 bedroom apartment now rents for $4-5k/month....
by pcrh
I noticed emojis in the top-right corner the other day; I thought, “oh, that’s interesting”, and continued browsing – even though Indeed has more jobs, like Marketplace (1) has more for sale, I far prefer Craigslist for being simple and easy-to-navigate.
1: How many people don’t delete Facebook because of it? When I left Facebook for good, losing access to Marketplace felt like a real sacrifice.
It was worse in a rural village here in Alaska, where everything was on Facebook, much to my dismay. But the upside of a small community is that I heard about things anyway via word-of-mouth.
by 0x38B
You’re completely over reacting and might need to spend some time relaxing with other humans
by dgellow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A...
by sunaookami
I am going to start using "might need to spend time relaxing with other humans"...brilliant.
by digitaltrees
Would have been nice when they had casual encounters - eggplant, water droplets, tongue peach.
by comrade1234
> people are beginning to feel emoji fatigue
Are they? News to me. I like them. Do they show up in Lynx or whatever terminal-based browser the hip kids are using these day are using?
by K7PJP
Lynx won't render the page. Links doesn't show them.
by kevin_thibedeau
As long as emojis are used as an _addition_ to text labels I think this is a good thing. The problem arises when they are used _instead_ of labels, although that’s a problem that predates emojis, it’s common with normal icons.
If you design an interface when some actions are only behind icons/emojis (no text, no hover title), expect users like me to click on them just to see what they do.
by hk__2
Yeah just as an adddion to the main groupings it's not terrible. The actual emojis used are not very good. It's unclear to me what several of them are or why they represent the group title.
by SoftTalker
Interesting, it even uses the clippy emoji for resumes!
I think OP is reading into it too much , it seems like a minor embellishment and I never personally correlated emojis with LLMs.
by dieselgate
I wouldn't find it remarkable anywhere else, but Craigslist has built a reputation on not doing this kind of thing.
by argee
Yup, the association with LLMs is a bit odd, since there's emojis everywhere in mainstream digital comunication way before the big hit of the ai stuff.
Without seeing how it looked before I think this just gives a little bit more of clue about what each category is about. They are still being used sparsely.
The only thing where it irks me to find emojis is in cli apps. They use to not be the same character width as the monofont I use so they either look chopped or they displace their nearing text.
by Gualdrapo
I like it.
Good user experience isn't about dogmatically sticking to "text only", but about making a useful, understandable, navigable site.
Emojis seem to help section the dozens of links on the homepage without adding unnecessary visual distraction or page payload.
by xnx
> unnecessary visual distraction
I think I personally see emojis used in this manner as unnecessary visual distraction, because it detracts from whatever self-consistent design system you had going on (when used for high visibility items like front page headings). Emojis don't even render the same on every platform, so its a move that dilutes your design language.
Even if it's a useful visual guide, I would wager nine times out of ten you'd be better off with a self-consistent icon set...depending on what you're going for, of course.
by argee
Based on https://web.archive.org/web/20260618001349/https://washingto... and https://web.archive.org/web/20260621034150/https://washingto..., it seems like they were added at some point between the 18th and the 21st. I definitely think it helps navigating the site, and it's a nice compromise between Craigslist's text-first style and a nod towards usability.
by nightpool
Nice sleuthing! So it's quite a recent change. It stands out to me that the items up top (faves, acct, etc.) which already had icons also got emojified.
Prior to that, they had already introduced emojis to draw attention to their Craigslist charitable fund: that probably made this a much easier decision.
by argee