Craigslist uses a 2-way mail relay, which hides the actual email addresses used during an email conversation.
However, anything that is in the body of the email, as well as the "real name" field is passed to the recipient. For example, if you have any personal information in your signature, such as a phone number or email address, obviously that is going to be passed to the recipient.
I have a couple of email addresses that I use for website registrations, others that I use for Craigslist, eBay, etc. I get spam on the "registration" email addresses, but the Craigslist and eBay ones have stayed clean for years. None of those email addresses have any personally identifiable information, not even my real name.
My son is a professional truck mechanic - suspensions. The hardest use. Fire, garbage, crane trucks. All of them. He uses a lot of HF Pittsburgh wrenches on a daily basis. And HF prybars. And HF impact sockets. They replace the ones he breaks. He buys some Mac and Snapon from the truck occasionally, when he needs a certain tool - impact wrenches eg. They are rebranded Ingersoll Rand. I only have a multi-tool from HF. It works well, but doesn't have much working history. My hand and power tools are mostly Craftsman. I have a Milwaukee Sawzall. Ridgid pipe wrenches. I've bought maybe 3 sets of Craftsman wrenches in my life - when they were on sale and came with a good tool box. If the HF wasn't 20 miles I'd shop there for some tools. Just have to select the right ones.
I have a set of their SAE ratcheting box wrenches . I try not to overload them not because they're HF but because I want them to last . My toolboxes are a polyglot of metric and SAE , Chinese and Craftsman , stuff my dad had and stuff I bought for a specific task .
That's about it but I did buy a small bench vise that I took back the next day. All I was asking of it was to hold a sear I was stoning but the jaws were too sloppy and out of parallel to even do that. I went down the road to the ranch supply and got another cheap Chinese version that was usable.
I lived in a small Maine town two doors down from the police station. They had a big lot and didn't mind me parking there. Then one night the locals rolled one of the cops personal ride over because they were pissed at him. I wasn't so confident after that.
Stephen King novels set in southern Maine aren't really novels, that's just how it is.
For years, I've been telling myself I should get a decent bench vise. But, each time I *think* I *really* need one, I manage to come up with a way to NOT need it. This is A Good Thing because finding a place to *mount* one would be a real chore! :-/
Using their relay puts another dependency in your email exchanges; i.e., both parties rely on CL's servers being up and accessible (they've been hacked in the past).
But, it also leaves your "means of communication" subject to article expiration *and* cancelation! So, if the item you are opting to sell, ISO, etc. doesn't see any action in the "expiration period" (varies by type of post), CL takes itself out of the "loop".
So, if someone saved (printed, etc.) your CL post but didn't immediately act on it at that time, there is a risk that they may not be able to respond when they want to respond.
And, if folks "prohibit" your post (because you are competing with their post *or* because they want to take advantage of your post and prevent others from seeing it), then the linkage disappears.
Finally, the sites that "harvest" CL posts (sort of mirroring) don't always successfully preserve the CL links (esp see above).
Putting a (disposable) email address *in* the post (even if trivially disguised) allows anyone who sees the body of your post to contact you UNTIL *YOU* CANCEL THE (disposable) EMAIL ACCOUNT!
[This is a huge advantage over telephone contacts -- where you can't easily change your contact number!]
Actually, I think if you use the relay, CL checks the message body for email addresses and won't accept the message with that content. (I'd have to double-check that)
I routinely create and discard email addresses. Where possible, I'll try *truly* "disposable address services" but those are becoming too well known and many sites will scan for their attempted use, and blocking them.
I read the Freecycle mailing list, and when I reply I always give my phone number. When I offer something, I give my phone number if they let me, and certainly in my first reply to anyone who answer. It takes so much less time by phone, but only one person has ever called me.
One woman insisted on meeting me in a shopping center. First she offered to drop it off at my house but when I lived 3 miles away that was too much, so i had to meet her near her. 10 emails back and forth to pick the time, and after all that, she didn't tell me what her car looked like. I drove all over the big lot and then waited near the entrance.
I was supposed to get a 9" and 14" tv, but it was a typo and I got stuck with a 19" tv. I had no choice but to take it.
Then she said she had some remotes, and she also said she thought she recognized me. We agreed that I used to run the outdoor club she was a member of, 20 years ago. I emailed, well, since you've known me for
20 years, maybe you could leave the remotes outside your house and I could pick them up. No. Or you could drop them off. No. They weren't for the tv's she gave me so I gave up on them.
I did about 20 events a year for 8 years and I don't actually remember either her or her name. She must have been a lot younger and cuter then but I still don't remember her. And she thinks I will attack her now? Gimme a break.
Most other people are far less scared, say where they live, let me come over at night even. Although I had a guy who gave me a water-immersed camera who was practically naked when he answered the door. He didn't do anything untoward, however. I coudl have fixed the camera except they no longer make the cell battery that was inside it. The replacement is probably too big to fit.
20 yeas ago I bought jack stands from Western Auto. 4 or 5 years later, a friend was using them to work on his car and one of them partially collapsed. He wasn't under it though. Just the Plymouth ewquivalent of a LeBaron, nothing heavy.
when I took it back, I didnt' want to spring for the next higher price, so I took another pair just like the ones I had. So far they haven't broken but when I worked on my car the last time, I used 4 jack stands and two jacks at the same time. I was still scared.
The problem with things like jack stands is they *seem* to fit the criteria of "simple, no moving parts" -- sort of like autobody tools, anvils, etc.: "Can't *possibly* be anything 'wrong' with something as simple as this!"
But, few folks can look at a casting and determine if the metal is brittle, porous, etc. I.e., will it actually support the expected load or will it fail. How thick does that thing REALLY need to be to meet it's stated characteristics?
I was replacing all 4 rotors this weekend and wanted to take the old rotors off while waiting for the FedEx truck to deliver the new parts. I only have
2 jack stands, so I used those for the front and then built "cribbing" with some PT 4x4's for the rear. Once I had all 4 wheels off the vehicle, I realized that the cribbing was way safer than the jack stands, so I probably should have used the cribbing under the front. Oh well. I used my floor jack to take a little pressure off of the jack stands, just in case.
(I was actually hoping the parts would be there in time to finish the fronts before jacking up the rear, but that didn't happen, so I kept going with the take off.)
Anyway, I got the fronts done first and then put the wheels back on as a
3rd layer of protection.
The FedEx driver laughed when he pulled up to the house. As soon as he saw the van up in the air with the wheels off, he said "Well, that explains why these boxes are so heavy!"
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