Sketchiest CL ad ever?

[moominmolly]

I'm willing to be dissuaded, with evidence, but I think that this is a pretty good candidate.


servalence photographer needed
servalence photographer needed
Reply to: gigs-473604350@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-11-09, 1:37PM EST


Short term servalence needed for photograps. call for details. 919-559-5750




* Location: jamaica plain
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: no pay


PostingID: 473604350

Comments

[aerynne.livejournal.com]

I had to stare at it from several angles to determine what the heck a "servalence" was. Some kind of lens? A certain king of photographer? Developing chemicals?

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Do they mean "surveillance"??

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure they do. For no pay.

[moonshadow.livejournal.com]

... for no pay?

Yeah, that's sketchy.

Although the ones I've seen (multiple ones!) that say "My bf cheated on me, so let's hook up, he's got it coming!" may out-sketch it slightly.

[cos]

No, those are mostly just straight-up commercial spam, lame but not that high on the sketchy scale. They send a delayed auto-response to each address that responds, usually to try to get them to a web site. Mixed in among them are probably some prostitute solicitations but probably a small percentage.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Took me awhile to figure out what "servalence" was.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I knew right away. I don't think I'm proud of that. :)

[bluepapercup]

I knew right away too! yikes.

[harlequinaide.livejournal.com]

I parsed that one, but photograp got me. Is it the act of trying to catch light in one's hand?

I mean, "photogrep" would be the text command to find light. That I get.

I did think for a minute that a "servalence" was a kind of D/S relationship I'd never heard of, though.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I did think for a minute that a "servalence" was a kind of D/S relationship I'd never heard of, though.

That was exactly my first reaction!

[bluepapercup]

Y'know, I'm not even sure WHAT they want! Do they need you to come and take photographs of someone? (creepy) Do they need to come and surviell [not a word!] you so they can take pictures of you? (even more creepy!)

Highly sketchy, I agree.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I think the thing that makes it sketchy is that it's so FLEXIBLY sketchy. And for no pay!

[bluepapercup]

Yeahhh...some things in life are cheapened by the involvement of money...this is not one of them.

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, "surveil" is a real word for "keeping someone under surveillance.

[artricia.livejournal.com]

Hmm. . . it's not just "survey?"

I knew what servalence once sheerly from grading so much college writing. I once came across the word "ritious" in an essay exam. Five minutes later, I realized, "Oh, that's the same as righteous."

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

And here I would have assumed "riotous". Huh.

Grading a stack of college Roman history exams with the other TAs and a lot of pizza...good times, good times. Did you know the First Triumvirate was Caesar, Cato, and Catiline? Trust me if you don't know any Roman history -- this is hilarious. (And alliteratively delicious!)

[artricia.livejournal.com]

the First Triumvirate was Caesar, Cato, and Catiline?

Yes, and in eighteenth century plays, sometimes the characters lied about their genitals!

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

You may want to copy the ad to this post, as I suspect that'll get flagged for removal soon. (Most CL pointers I see are already gone by the time I look)

[palmir.livejournal.com]

I just flagged it as "best of." Because it's the sketchiest of sketches!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

HA!

[cos]

I shall do the same!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Copied! Fair enough. But it's not SPAM, or ILLEGAL, or anything... just sketchy!

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

This looks so sketchy, it's meta-sketchy.

[veek.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's great. Seconded.

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

If they have so much trouble with English, it wouldn't surprise me if they had trouble with the Craigslist site. So the "no pay" might just be the result of screwing up a web form, not anything deliberate.

As to sketchy, there are lots of reasons to hire private detectives.


My vote for sketchy goes to men who try to entice attractive young roommates with offers of low rent.

[cos]

I think that's only truly sketchy if they hide their motives.

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

That's fair, I'd agree there. Transparency matters.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm jaded about sex-sketchiness. I agree with cos about transparency. I hadn't thought that the "no pay" thing could just be a screw-up, though. True! Alas. Sketchiness is way more interesting than lack of comprehension (for whatever reason).

[rosif3r.livejournal.com]

My vote for sketchy goes to men who try to entice attractive young roommates with offers of low rent.

nonono, what was really sketchy was after Hurricane Katrina, when there were a bunch of ads offering rooming for people made homeless by the hurricane, but only if they were young women and (implied in the wording) would sleep with the person providing the housing.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I find the stuff listed in their personals and under "erotic services" far scarier:

massage
ladies over 34 need not apply
meet me in my hotel, married
He'll rake your leaves in exchange for sex
swm wants it bareback

...but then, perhaps that's the nature of it. I also see stuff for "photographers" looking for nude models pretty regularly, though not currently. And the ongoing drama on the personals about some really sketchy guy named Brian and his hapless victim Megan... Yeesh. Much twitching.

[rosif3r.livejournal.com]

i remember seeing one once in CE where some woman ws like "i'm not really pretty or skinny, but if you'll shovel the snow off my driveway i'll blow you"

um, wtf? whatever happened to paying a teenager 20 bucks to do this?

[cos]

Maybe she enjoys giving a blow job more than she enjoys giving someone $20 ?

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Craigslist missed connections, via my friend eirias, ftw:

"We met for a drink and you caught me making out with a man - m4w - 25 (Upper East Side)
I'm sorry. You were taking so long in the bathroom and this guy was looking at me. Next thing I knew we were making out and you came back and stormed out of the bar. I just want you to know that I really liked you and I'm not gay, I just have gay experiences sometimes. You are a beautiful girl and I'm glad that you came on date with me. I would like very much to try again. This time I will give all my love to you."

[cos]

I hope all of you nominated that for "best of"! Is it still around?

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

My guess is that it's just poor command of the English language. My take on the ad is "I can't afford a private detective or to take the time off work, so I need someone to shoot photos of the person who shows up at my apartment/house to proove that my spouse is cheating on me."