Talk:Craig Newmark/Archives/2021

Early life rename and rewrite
Folks, this is Craig Newmark. I'm here to suggest further edits and updates to this page. I have confirmed my identity with the Wikimedia Foundation (see my Talk page for details). As the subject of the page, I will continue to only make suggestions here on the talk page and will not directly edit the article myself. My goals here are to offer updates and changes that improve the value of this article to the encyclopedia.

I understand that Wikipedia is not a repository for every detail of my life, and I trust editors to make the right choice when choosing what content to add or change.

Today, I'd like to propose a rename and rewrite of the Early life section. The draft I am submitting below includes more details about my high school and college experience, so I am proposing the section be renamed to Early life and education.

Newmark, the son of Joyce and Lee Newmark, was born in 1952 in Morristown, New Jersey. As a child, Newmark liked science fiction and comic books, and wanted to become a paleontologist. Newmark's mother was a book-keeper and his father an insurance and meat salesman. When Newmark was thirteen, his father died from cancer. His mother then moved him and his younger brother, Jeff, to Jacob Ford Village.
 * Early life and education

As a teenager, Newmark attended Morristown High School, where he became interested in physics. He wore taped together, black-rimmed glasses and a pocket protector. In an interview, Newmark described his high school self as "possible nerd patient zero". During high school, he sang in the school choir, joined the physics club, co-captained the debate team, and was in the honor society. Newmark graduated high school in 1971.

During his freshman year of college, Newmark began studying computer science. He earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in computing and information sciences from Case Western Reserve University in 1975 and 1977, respectively.

I am open to comments and questions from editors. Thanks!Cnewmark (talk) 15:06, 16 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you for disclosing your identity here. I don't see any issues with the content you proposed above, so I'm going to go ahead and implement it. Marquardtika (talk) 15:45, 16 February 2021 (UTC)


 * I really appreciate your kindness and help, not only regarding my bio, but also work re Women in Red, I'm supporting such efforts, including a similar one via the Smithsonian. Many thanks! Cnewmark (talk) 12:07, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

Career section rewrite
Folks, Craig Newmark here. I have a draft here of the Career section updated and rewritten. If any editors are available to review, I'd appreciate it. My hope is to build up the section with additional appropriate context and sourcing.

Since you reviewed my last section draft, I thought you might be interested in taking a look at this one, as well.

A couple of things to note:
 * 1) I've actually retired completely from craigslist and no longer respond to Customer Service inquiries. That hasn't been reported yet, so I have not included it in the draft. my profile on craigslist does mention this. Do you think it is reasonable to add this information? I understand if the answer is no.
 * 2) Should there be additional boards I serve on mentioned? There are others that I have primary sourcing for, such as the Bob Woodruff Foundation and The City. Do you think these, or others, are appropriate to include? Again, I understand if the answer is no.


 * I think the first modification is appropriate. Adding more boards would probably be worthwhile as well. Dwightny7 (talk) 17:00, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

Below, draft of rewritten Career section:

Career
Newmark is best known as the founder of craigslist. Prior to establishing the website, he worked as a contract computer programmer for companies such as Bank of America, Sun Microsystems, and others. His first job out of college was with IBM, where we worked for 17 years as a programmer and systems engineer. During that time, he lived in Boca Raton, Florida, Detroit, and then Pittsburgh. He moved to San Francisco in 1993 after accepting a position with Charles Schwab. There, a coworker introduced him to the World Wide Web— which at the time was still relatively free of commercials.

In 1995, Newmark started emailing a list of upcoming events to a few friends to "cultivate a bit of community". Other people asked to be included on the list and as members grew, so did the kinds of information on the list. Newmark launched craigslist.org in 1996, as a place where people could exchange information, mostly without charge. He operated it as a hobby while continuing to work as a software engineer until 1999, when he incorporated craigslist as a private for-profit company. In her book An Internet for the People: The Politics and Promise of craigslist, Jessa Lingel described the website as "the internet ungentrified". In 2000, Newmark stepped down as chief executive officer and handed off the role to Jim Buckmaster. Since then, Newmark has not been involved in the "day-to-day operations" of craigslist. As of 2018, he continued to respond to craigslist customer service inquiries, primarily dealing with spammers and scammers.

In 2005, Time magazine listed Craig Newmark as one of the 100 people shaping the world.

Newmark serves on the board of several non-profit organizations such as CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Girls Who Code and Vets in Tech, among others. He also holds roles on the advisory boards of 18 other non-profits.

Send me any questions or comments here or on my Talk page. Much thanks, Cnewmark (talk) 19:15, 24 February 2021 (UTC)


 * After a thorough review, these edits look accurate. Going to go ahead and make them live. Thanks for the updated info. Dwightny7 (talk) 16:57, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

Personal life rewrite
Folks, I'm here with my next draft, this time the Personal life section section. As with other rewrites, I've tried to improve sourcing and add some additional details where relevant. It seemed like there was not enough content to support the Net worth and Politics subsections, so I've incorporated those into the general Personal life section.

Much thanks for your work on the Philanthropy section. If you'd like to take this one on as well, I'd appreciate your help.

Cross-checked these new edits, looks good. Dwightny7 (talk) 15:14, 21 April 2021 (UTC)

Personal life
Newmark married Eileen Whelpley in December 2012, and they enjoy birding together. He splits his time between a house in San Francisco's Cole Valley and an apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village. He flies commercial, does not own a car, and prefers using public transport.

Newmark describes himself as a non-practicing, secular Jew, joking that his rabbi was the late singer Leonard Cohen. He is also a fan of Tori Amos, Lou Reed, and the TV shows Pushing Daisies and The Simpsons.

In May 2017, Forbes estimated Newmark's net worth to be $1.3 billion based on his ownership of at least 42% of Craigslist, which was made public just before the company purchased back the shares it had sold to eBay. In an interview published by Nieman Lab in 2017, he called a prior $400 million Forbes estimate of his net worth "bogus" and said that "by monetizing Craigslist the way I did in 1999, I probably gave away already 90 percent or more of my potential net worth."

Newmark opposed the Iraq War and believed White House journalists “failed in their jobs” and did not "speak truth to power". In 2014, he was one of 60 Democratic Party donors who urged the creation of a system of public election funding. In 2016, Newmark joined with the progressive RAD Campaign and Lincoln Park Strategies to commission a poll examining user perceptions about social media conflicts during the 2016 election.

Newmark supported former President Barack Obama, volunteered for him on the campaign trail as "official technology surrogate", and praised Obama's use of technology to promote grassroots democracy. In the 2020 election, Newmark supported President Joseph Biden's campaign, citing Biden's "commitment to fighting corruption" and "record of standing up for our veterans".

Comments and feedback welcome. Thanks, Cnewmark (talk) 14:30, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

Updates to introduction and infobox
Folks, with the article body updated, I'd like to suggest some additions to the article's introduction, and a couple of infobox updates.

Many thanks for continuing to collaborate on these article updates. If you've got time, I'd really appreciate a review this next round of changes.

Some notes about the introduction and infobox updates:
 * I listed "Philanthropist" as my occupation. I've fully retired from craigslist and focus entirely on Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
 * Added Craig Newmark Philanthropies as an organization, to connect with the occupation update.
 * Expanded the current introduction to capture a few additional key points from the article.

Introduction and infobox
Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website craigslist. Prior to founding craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for companies such as IBM, Bank of America, and Charles Schwab. Newmark served as chief executive officer of craigslist from its founding until 2000. He founded Craig Newmark Philanthropies in 2015.

I'm open to comments and suggestions from editors. Thanks, Cnewmark (talk) 15:09, 27 April 2021 (UTC)

These edits make sense. Thanks for tweaking. Dwightny7 (talk) 19:55, 11 May 2021 (UTC)

A couple of small requests
Folks, thanks for all the help building out my article and getting it up to date.

I've noticed one small typo in the article and have a question I'd like some feedback on. Happy to hear thoughts and feedback, and appreciate the help. I know the typo is minor, but as the subject of the article I want to strictly follow the conflict of interest rules and avoid making any direct edits. Dwightny7, you've been very helpful. Thank you for all the time you've spent reviewing. If you have time to implement any of these changes you agree with, please feel free.
 * 1) Career says "...was with IBM, where we worked for 17 years as a programmer..." would someone be willing to change "we" to "he"?
 * 2) Would it be appropriate to add a link to Craig Newmark Philanthropies in External links?

Like I say, "Wikipedia is where facts go to live."

Many thanks, Cnewmark (talk) 13:01, 24 May 2021 (UTC)


 * , very reasonable requests, these are fixed now. You may want to consider creating a separate Wikipedia page for your philanthropic organization. Dwightny7 (talk) 13:29, 24 May 2021 (UTC)