Kijiji Outrage!

As has been profiled here several times in the past few months, Kijiji has removed its Personals categories -- or at least the dating, casual encounters, phone sex and animalfucker ads. And as we've seen, everyone complaining about the removal is a desperate, illiterate tool.

Except ... for this guy.

Trevor from the Trevor Says blog wrote a fine piece, reproduced below.



I have been on break from annoying people on personal ads. Yesterday, I went back to see how the vibrant and retarded community of desperate people was handling without me. I was shocked and horrified to find this:

Kijiji has closed all personal categories?! I cannot believe my eyes. I checked the calendar to make sure this was not a cruel April Fool’s joke. Unfortunately, this was not a joke at all. Not only did Kijiji feel the need to shut down such a vital service without asking me, they furthered the blow by placing an large inline ad for Lavalife. I feel that the trust between Kijiji and myself has been shattered. Kijiji further added insult by suggesting a pay service as compensation. I find this highly offensive. The least they could have done was called me before the break-up.

“The decision was based on feedback we’ve received from our community of users.” I am appalled that Kijiji thinks they know better than I do. If Kijiji knew my community, they would understand that the personals section was vital to our economy and society. Being that the Albertan economy is based upon oil field workers and old people in minivans, many people live secluded and lonely lives. Old people and rig pigs need love/one night stands too!

Kijiji was launched in 2005, making Kijiji just a child in starting kindergarten. No one would trust the judgment of a kindergartener, especially me. The most active users of the site often single losers, which will already have suffered enough. Now that the least intimate way for the desperate to get down and dirty is gone, all sorts of side effects will now happen. People will have more time to commit crimes, go to public places (and bother me) and worst of all, use other online services (possibly ones I use). The personals section are vital to many people, especially myself. Now I need to find other places to annoy people.

I am going to tell a secret that Kijiji doesn’t want you to know. Kijiji was created and is run by eBay. eBay is buying ad sites around the globe like they were endangered species and wants to create an endangered species Technicolor dream coat. eBay already has a monopoly on auctions, now they want a monopoly on free ad listings. A couple of other competitors exist for free online ad listings, the largest is Craigslist. However, Craigslist does not have the global presence that Kijiji does. Kijiji is already well established in over thirteen countries and eBay has bought more existing companies that serve many Commonwealth countries as well as a couple of countries in Africa. eBay is a shareholder in Craigslist, which I find rather clever –direct insight to the enemy.

While I understand the need to dominate free ad listings worldwide, I can think of better things for eBay to greedily squander money on such as voice over Internet provider (Oh wait, that didn’t go well). I have personal issues with eBay, and how they treat auction sellers. At this time, my opinion will remain neutral because eBay is treating Kijiji as an independent brand. By the way, this is not a secret; however you are not a total idiot for not knowing this.

I think the people running Kijiji need a reality check. The personals section was among the most interesting and unique part of Kijiji. Not only did the personals allow societies rejects to connect and find and make love, it brought me countless hours of making fun of those users. As well, I had a great time trolling and ruining the already sad lives of the users of the personals section. Most ads are very rarely funny in the slightest. How am I supposed to get to entertain myself with used shelving, DVD’s and timeshare ads?

I find this to an atrocity and insult to the human race as a whole. As for a break-up story, this is a cruel and harsh one. Kijiji breaks up with us without not even warning or talking to us. Then after, Kijiji decides to leave the phone number of their slutty friend to “make us feel better.” I think I am going to be sick. I will not suggest a boycott of Kijiji because I still like wasting my time looking at things I can’t afford or don’t need. There will always be Craigslist.