Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Making the world a better place

Hello from Kansas, loyal and neglected readers.

Look for a large update soon. The move from Felton (and Albany) to the Smoky Hills has been quite disruptive and this blog, among many things, has suffered. In the meantime, here is a letter to Craigslist on a very important issue.

Dear Craigslist,

I am a huge fan of your services, having lived in SF during your start and watched you go world-wide. Hurrah for you.

I have since moved home to central Kansas to start a restaurant, and one of the filters for your posts has become a seemingly unnecessary impediment to my usage.

As you move into less populated regions, like the Great Plains, the prohibition on posting to multiple cities, or to cities other than where the job is located, becomes seriously detrimental. (Most services in this part of the world operate at least state-wide for this reason.)

In my particular case, I am looking for a trained chef. There are not many, if any, candidates to be found locally. In Wichita and Kansas City my chances would be better-- but it is doubtful any applicants would even look at the Salina postings.

Rural areas rely on importing talented people from other places and often offer opportunities those more crowded markets cannot.

If you simply added a section to your job listings marked 'out of town' or 'relocation opportunities' or something similar, it would greatly enhance the utility of your site for rural America-- and trust me, we need all the help we can get.

Thank you,
William E. Justice