That Golden Rule Thing

raigslist founder Craig Newmark turned an online forum of ads and discussion boards into a virtual community. He believes its citizens are trustworthy and usually abide by "that Golden Rule thing."



Welcome to This I Believe, an NPR series presenting the personal philosophies of remarkable men and women from all walks of life.

I believe in figuring out my own way to do things;
I believe in the power of numbers;
I believe in barbeque;
Well, I believe in friendliness;
I believe in mankind;
This I Believe.

Our "This I Believe" essay today comes from Craig Newmark of San Francisco. Newmark describes himself as the customer service representative for Craigslist, the enormously popular classified website that he founded in 1995 as an e-mail list. Today Craigslist has sites for every state and over 50 countries. Here is our series curator, independent producer Jay Allison.

Craigslist fans like the site for its no-frills appearance and function. It is direct, spare and straightforward. Not so different from the way its founder approaches his beliefs. But its ideals and his are ambitious. Newmark says he wants his site to (quote) "restore the human voice to the Internet". Here is Craig Newmark with his essay for This I Believe.

I used to share the cynicism common to many of my fellow nerds: that people were frequently malicious and opportunistic. But, of course, you don't get treated well wearing a plastic pocket protector and thick, black glasses taped together, and now, I get that. Years of customer service has changed the way I think about people.

Now I believe that people are overwhelmingly trustworthy and deeply okay. I don't wanna sound sanctimonious or syrupy, but for the past seven years, I've been doing full-time customer service for Craigslist, interacting with thousands of people. I see that most people share a similar moral compass. They play fair, they give each other a break and they generally get along. I see that pretty much everyone operates by that Golden Rule thing.

When Katrina hit, for instance, people figured out what other people needed. They didn't ask for permission to re-purpose our New Orleans site. They just turned it into a bulletin board for people to find friends and loved ones. Others offered housing for survivors, and soon, jobs were being offered to survivors.

Many of us have lost a sense of neighborhood and community, and we really crave that. In today's culture, sometimes we can find that on the Web. Like, it's easy to connect with someone who's just trying to sell a used sofa, and it's really hard to hate a person who's trying to do that.

To be clear, there are bad guys out there and they're drawn to any trust-based, democratic system, like our site. For example, you spend a lot of time dealing with just a few apartment rental brokers in New York who might be, let's say, ethically challenged. A few seem to feel that if others are being sleazy, it's okay for them to do the same. Under pressure from the Craigslist community, though, they are forced to behave. We reason with brokers, explaining our principles, and that usually works.

I started our site to help people help each other. I created the original platform and then I got out of the way. The people who run our site really are the people who use it. They are worthy of trust, and I believe in them.

Craig Newmark with his essay for This I Believe, Newmark says he lives by what he calls "nerd values"----make it a comfortable living, then make a difference. Tell us how you make a difference and what you believe. Find out more and see all the essays in our series at NPR.org. For This I Believe, I'm Jay Allison.

This I Believe is produced for NPR by This I Believe Incorporated at Atlantic Public Media. For more essays in the series, please visit NPR.org/thisibelieve.