It's like Craigslist all over again, complete with the huge emphasis on underage... Though I didn't think Backpage was that big of a success. In fact I'd still figure it quite possible that more people find prostitutes via CL to this day than in Backpage's actual forums for that purpose...

You're probably right however in a few cities Backpage has been fairly popular.

Kristof won his renown through admittedly valuable firsthand reporting on human rights outrages in Darfur and elsewhere, and through such as repeatedly calling out the Bushies on their pending and then enacted follies in Iraq, etc.

But his dedication to cause-oriented reporting looks here as though it has made the data of secondary importance to him. In the Backpage piece, he cites just one source -- AIM -- for market share estimates (if you read AIM's own reports, note they do not even measure gay male ad sites except the partially relevant bareback.com). And he accepts "27 state attorneys general" charging child trafficking as damning, without questioning it much further.

And then banging on the populist hate-Goldman line for its barely relevant, practically inadvertent ownership stake.

Man on a mission. And now, as you say, child trafficking is the meme du jour in this domain.

A deeper critique of Kristof's approach, and how it cuts against his ostensible goals, reinforcing structural problems he (thinks he) aims to remedy:

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/be-aware-nick-kristofs-anti-politics/

Seems to well characterize his treatment of underage trafficking (and his sotto voce distaste for of-age sex work) as well as much of his other reporting.

Story momentum continues to build (cross-file under Brain-Dead Reporting Fuels Fire):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/04/03/ann-romney-trust-goldman-sachs-backpagecom_n_1399204.html?icid=hp_politics_art_more

Still one has to admire anyone who with a single article manages to embarrass the good folks at Goldman into frantic damage control mode. Generally they just snort and continue counting the greenbacks.

Fully agree. Kudos to him for that.

...Illuminating how truly relevant criticisms roll off the backs of GS et al. whereas this thing, a red herring but with third-rail potential, makes 'em jump. A lesson or three in there somewhere.

I never thought Backpage caught on in SoCal anyway, so I rarely looked there anyway.

I never thought Backpage caught on in SoCal anyway, so I rarely looked there anyway.

There's been more guys of late, but double not much is still not a large selection. And the selection is strangely skewed too, it's like all the black guys of the CL heyday found their way to Backpage but everybody else found a better way... still trying to figure out where they all went...