Way back in March, I wrote a blog post about Tom Dart, a sheriff in Cook County, Ill., who referred to Craigslist as the largest source of prostitution in the United States. Sheriff Dart held a press conference and laid out his argument, citing Craigslist’s “erotic services” section as the main culprit.

Craigslist required a nominal fee from a valid credit card from anyone who wished to post an ad in erotic services. This not only helped cut down on spam, it also created a trail that Craigslist could trace if lawmakers protested over a particular ad. But that wasn’t enough to stop the tide from turning against Craigslist.

Jenn Abelson of The Boston Globe reports that the erotic services section is no more. In its place is a new “adult” section. Craigslist promises that a human being will review each and every ad placed within that section to ensure that the ads aren’t violating any laws. The fee for posting an ad in the adult section will be $10 for the first appearance with a $5 fee if the person posting the ad wants it to appear again later.

According to the craigslist fact sheet, the organization employs 28 people. And according to Abelson’s article, ads in the erotic services section accounted for about one percent of the 40 million ads posted to craigslist each month. Once the organization began to charge for ads in those sections, posts dropped by 90 percent. So let’s do a little math. That would mean that in an average month, about 40,000 posts go up in the erotic services section. That averages out to about 1,333 posts per day. I suppose we can assume that the $10 fee will discourage more people from posting to the adult section. But that still means a human being will have to review hundreds of posts every day. Yikes.

Will Craigslist hire more people to scan ads? Will it outsource the job to someone with an unflappable attitude and an excess of time on his or her hands? And will this new policy finally mollify the people who view craigslist as a wretched hive of scum and villainy?

Now that your interest is piqued, I suggest checking out these articles at HowStuffWorks.com:

How Craigslist Works
How Flirting Works
How Women Work
How Men Work