Solving the Sorry Something went wrong error on Craigslist
February 1, 2020
Craigslist
As error messages go – sorry something went wrong is not the most descriptive or helpful piece of information. However it’s actually linked to a fairly specific cause, it’s just that Craigslist doesn’t really want you to solve it. It’s deliberately vague as it’s not really a problem at all.
Craigslist is probably the biggest classified directory in the world and many people spend a huge part of their lives using it. It’s not quite as big in the UK but for US citizens for example, it’s the ‘go to’ directory for goods and services. One of it’s biggest advantages is that it is a local directory and you won’t end up buying things from factories in China or half way across the world. For anyone who wants to access a remote market though it’s incredible, opening up sales opportunities in distant countries. I know several software developers who’s biggest markets are on Craigslist, selling their products in places they’ve never even been to.
Sorry Something Went Wrong!
The directory is perfect for anyone who is supplying digital products or services like this as delivery is simple and virtually zero cost. Yet Craigslist does not encourage this ‘global marketplace’ in fact it actively deters these sort of sellers. Which leads us back to the error message – sorry something went wrong and what you can do about it.
The most common cause of this error is not a problem at all, it involves the Craigslist Servers deliberately blocking the IP address you’re using! The block will have been implemented by the Craigslist security system which has been designed to restrict access in a variety of situations.
Here’s some of the actions which might cause this block –
Unwanted Behavior (anything which contravenes their ToS)
Illegal Actions like fraud, adverts for criminal activities etc.
Placing too many adverts too quickly.
Placing adverts on directories not local to you.
Placing the same adverts on different directories
Overtly Commercial Behavior
Unfortunately for any internet marketer or small business operating online, some of these are essential to reaching these markets using the Craigslist platforms. However if you do try this, then your IP address is likely to get banned and blocked. This is where you’ll encounter the ‘sorry something went wrong error’ which is usually accompanied by the HTTP forbidden error 403. So it’s not really an error but just a warning that your IP address is blocked. It will be returned after performing some sort of action, for example trying to reply to an advert or placing one of your own. Any non-passive action will usually result in this error once your IP address has been blocked.
So you might think that if this is actually a physical block against your IP address then there’s nothing to be done. Fortunately this is very far from the truth, and thousands of people use Craigslist local directories from all over the world. The trick is to take control of the main identifier on which most of the blocks are instigated – your IP address.
The solution is to use proxies to hide your location. You can then connect via safe, unblocked addresses in the right locations assigned to the proxy instead. You’re not unblocking the IP addresses that are blocked merely using others which aren’t. When you connect via a proxy, then it’s only the proxy address that is visible (as long as it’s set up correctly).
This has huge potential to unlock the incredible potential of Craigslist which is what loads of people do. However you do have to be careful about which proxies you use – most won’t work. There’s some very important factors that you need for Craigslist proxies that work properly –
Correct location – the IP address much match the location of the directory. So use a Chicago IP for the Chicago Craigslist directory and so on.
Residential address – there are different classifications of IP address and commercial ones will get blocked by Craigslist. Look for proxies which use residential IP addresses.
Proxies which aren’t blocked – a simple requirement but an essential one! If an IP address is already blocked it doesn’t matter with who or where it’s registered.
There are a few providers who provide these sort of proxies but be aware that most can’t supply residential addresses, so you need to check carefully. There’s several listed on this site but one which works particularly well with Craigslist is called Luminati. It’s one of the very few providers which allows you to select specific city IP addresses from residential ranges. Most providers simply don’t have those sort of numbers to provide coverage to that level. They’re not that expensive if you use your proxies properly with the proxy manager. Ask for help, they’re consultants are excellent and don’t be worried about using them for posting lots on Craigslist, they’re fine with this and can help you.
Help me with this f**king “sorry something went wrong” reply …
I encountered the same issue last week. After working through a number of suggested options, it came down to an IP block by CL. I have had the same CL account for years with no issues. For me, the problem was my use of the free VPN option in the Opera browser. If I turn off the VPN option, the “sorry something went wrong” error is eliminated. As a side note, I didn’t need to clear my browser cache/cookies. It’s a simple matter of turning off the VPN has been targeted by law enforcement for various reasons. In order to have a better working relationship with the Feds, CL has implemented various ways of eliminating anonymity. Blocking IP addresses of VPN’s is part of CL’s law enforcement cooperation program. This includes both free and paid VPN services. As time goes on, CL will continue to identify and block anonymous IP sounds as though your goto VPN/IP address was added to the blocked list. When you encountered the error, you tried various other VPN/IP addresses. However, those were already on the CL blocked, you start the post with, “Guys I tried almost everything. Free proxy, vpn, various anonymous browsers, even VPS from Amazon with pure chrome. WTF? “OP, you jumped past the obvious:(1) How did you determine that the error was caused by an IP issue? (2) Why didn’t you consider using your regular old IP address? Answer: You knew it was an IP address issue as you are banned on being banned on CL, you began using a work around VPN. However, that VPN’s IP (range) is now on the CL block list. Now you are in a quandary as you can’t find a working VPN/IP address. I’m not judging you for the CL ban. However, it would have been helpful to know this. People on Reddit are kind, generous and helpful with their time. Full details of your problem and resolution steps would be the most considerate option.
Craigslist Sorry Something Went Wrong ! – ISGMLUG
January 16, 2020
Technology
Last Updated on January 16, 2020Most error messages that you get from websites when something happens are very little use. Behind the scenes though there will be a lot more information and it will be usually quite straight forward. In many situations, the error message are deliberately vague especially when the problems are not really problems at all!
Craigslist is one of the world’s biggest classified directories, loved by many and used by millions of people every day. As such it’s a fantastic place to sell goods and service in remote markets that would normally be completely inaccessible. A friend of mine sells some very specialised computer software from his bedroom in North Manchester, United Kingdom on Craigslist. His biggest market this year were from two cities in the United States – New York and Chicago, reaching customers here would be impossible without Craigslist to help him.
If you’re looking for a place to make your living online then you could definitely do worse than start here. It’s a gold mine if you know how to use it properly and of course have something that can sell to a global market. Yet there are challenges, especially if you want to utilize more than just your local directory.
The challenge is that to make real money you have to unlock all these remote directories and place adverts on them too. My friend wouldn’t get very far just placing adverts on the Manchester directory, but Craigslist doesn’t want you to do this. It’s a local directory and they want to limit the scope for global marketing and sales.
Many marketers and entrepreneurs will see this message and be completely unaware of what’s happening. It’s largely designed to be that way, as often there’s actually no error but the site has simply decided to block access. Craigslist has an extremely sophisticated security system which looks for patterns of behavior which contravenes their Terms of Service.
Here’s the sort of things that can cause you to be flagged by the Craigslist detection systems –
Placing too many adverts in a short period of time
Placing the same adverts on multiple directory sites.
Placing adverts on directories which are not local to you.
Obvious commercial behavior primarily when placing adverts.
Illegal behavior
Unfortunately they’re all the sorts of things that you need to do to reach customers for your product or services at least in any volume. Any of these will result in both your IP address and account being flagged and eventually banned.
If you have been flagged then initially it doesn’t always look like anything is wrong but you’ll get frequent errors like this and related ones like ‘something went wrong’ or ‘an error has occurred’. Eventually you’ll probably get one which mentions your IP address too. What is happening is that your IP address has probably been banned and likely your account too. In order to continue to use Craigslist you are going to have to do two things (and it’s not ringing the Craigslist error phone number! )
Change your IP address.
Create a new account
However it’s important to do this in that order, if your address has been banned then any subsequent account created using it will suffer the same fate. Don’t try and recover your account, it’s almost impossible and not worth the effort.
How to Unblock Your IP Address on Craigslist
In reality this is not really possible, at least the only real solution is time and eventually your address will drop off the lists if it’s left unused. What you need to do is ensure you use a new IP address whenever you access the site, which can be done by using a proxy server. This is a server which you can use to act as an intermediary whenever you access Craigslist, the site will only see the IP address of the proxy and not your real address.
This has huge potential especially when you realise that many proxy services allow you to access thousands of different IP addresses all over the world. Here’s one of my favorites that works extremely well with Craigslist for reasons detailed below.
Now there are many proxy services available online but unfortunately 99% of them are not suitable for use with Craigslist. Their security system has several key indicators it looks for which will block the use of most them.
One of the key requirements is to ensure that each IP address you use is from the correct location – i. e. you must use an address from the same location as the directory. Trying to place adverts on the Chicago directory using a Canadian IP address is going to result in another ban very quickly. Secondly the IP address must be clean and not detectable as a proxy or VPN server. Unfortunately most proxies use IP addresses registered in datacenters which will often be flagged as potential proxies. You need to ensure they are classified as residential IP addresses registered to normal home users.
It is these requirements which narrow the field down considerably especially as residential IP addresses are very hard to find. Basically you want the ability to switch to a residential IP address that matches the directory you are posting to. So a Californian proxy server for a Californian directory, then perhaps a New York one and so on. There’s only small number of companies who have access to sufficient residential addresses to enable this sort of activity.
Which is why my friend uses a SmartProxy subscription to sell his software all over the world!
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