CL page layout defaults to gallery each time

mikus

• February 24, 2023 14:35

Hi - love your site, thanks for it!

Minor recent inconvenience observed, and I'm wondering if you have any insight or tips.   My search results keep defaulting to gallery view, regardless of anything I try.

Behavior notes

• I run searches (direct).  Results default to [gallery].   I change the first page back to [list], close it all, run it again, and it works as [list] for all pages.   Then, after some time (an hour, a day, etc) if I run again it's back to [gallery]

• This is a recent change.  It used to stick to [list] reliably

• I've cleared all history/cookies/cache, I've tried various scenarios of opening a CL page directly and setting it to [list].  Can't find anything that works.

• My last page is Ventura CA, my first page is Chambana IL, if that might matter.

 

1

• Official comment

  

  Nathan Stretch

  • February 25, 2023 00:38

  First, thank you for including such a detailed explanation.

  It sounds like somehow the cookie that craigslist sets to remember your sort preference is getting cleared at some point in the period before you return.  Are you by any chance using something like container tabs or a privacy add-on that automatically clears cookies or other history after a period of time, or when you close a site or the browser?  If not, perhaps it's a bug on craigslist's end where the cookie doesn't persist in some circumstances.  Do you get the same behavior in other browsers or on other devices?  I also assume you'd see the same thing regardless of whether you use searchtempest or browse craigslist directly and then return later.
• 

  mikus

  • March 15, 2023 15:50

  Hi Nathan - appreciate the reply - here's my theory, no reply needed, sharing only as it's relevant to the site's usage.

  • I feel fairly confident I've eliminated unassociated variables (no containers, extensions, yada yada)
  • I have observed that Craigslist recently introduced variability in layout, within region. 
  • >>>I cite this both anecdotally (I use your tool daily and visually see small differences) and explicitly, just now I ran a saved search and see that yakima.craigslist defaulted to [GALLERY], when roswell retained [LIST]   

  My standing theory is that 1) gallery is the default for any CL page, 2) there's some sort of superseding effect between these page layouts such that cookies that would be retained for users in a single market, are overwritten when multiple markets are used.  

  Current workaround is, when I queue up a full US run (27 tabs) I first open 1st market in list (Chicago for me) and reset it to [LIST].   Then all markets will generate as [LIST].

  Curious stuff.   I'll post here again if any new observations.  thanks again, love the site and tell people about it regularly

  1

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