Craigslist Missed Connections: It's A Data Mine
As you know, there's a strict quota on mentions of Craigslist per quarter. Not too many, not too few. Our longtime favorite CL section is the Missed Connections (not altogether unsimilar from the Stranger's I Saw U ads), for their mix of inept stalking, momentary erotic yearning, and occasional literary gems.
However, in comparison to San Francisco (where we first discovered the CL MC), Seattle appears painfully shy. Still, we wondered, where is Seattle's MC action really happening? So we did some unofficial data mining on the current numbers by neighborhood. Downtown, Capitol Hill, and Queen Anne lead the frisky online pack, with randy West Seattleites making a strong showing. (Starbucks is naturally a favorite location, with 7 mentions, while Wal*Mart was the location of 3 more far-flung flirtations.)
Ballard - 6 posts; Belltown - 4 posts; Capitol Hill - 9 posts (including variant Capital Hill spelling); Central District - 1 post; Downtown - 12 posts; Fremont - 4 posts; Greenwood- 2 posts; Greenlake - 1 post; Leschi - 0 posts; Madrona - 0 posts; Magnolia - 3 posts; Queen Anne - 9 posts; University District - 4 posts (with variant U-District spelling); Wallingford - 0 posts; Wedgewood - 0 posts; West Seattle - 7 posts
Further explorations: 17 posts are bar-related, while only 5 include "restaurant." 28 posts refer to coffee, while just 5 mention beer. 15 posts have to do with people described as "hot," 36 "beautiful" and as the bell curve flattens back out, 3 were "stunning." (Seattlest believes that here, "hot" is more likely to refer to the MCer's casual response, while "beautiful" is a more complex, aesthetic judgement.) Finally, in a sad commentary on our carefully cultivated outdoor persona, "climbing," "hiking," and "kayaking" turned up nothing at all.


