创业成功人士访谈录 第106期:我们不需要花哨的外观(2)

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　　1995年后期，我想起我是个程序员，

　　and that I could turn code into HTML, so i would be able to do instant publishing.

　　可以写超文字标记语言，我可以将这些列表即时发表，

　　It suddenly occurred to me that I could write code and that I could make Craigslist into a Web site

　　忽然间我觉得我可以编写一些代码，可以把Craigslist做成一个网站，

　　where the code would do most of the work for me.

　　在网站上代码可以替我做大多数工作。

　　Was making the move from the listserve to a Web site a big transition for you?

　　从列表服务到网站是一个大转变吗？

　　Not much at first.

　　一开始不是。

　　People started using the site, but the mailing list was still the big deal then for users.

　　人们开始使用这个网站，但那个时候，大量的人们在使用邮件列表，

　　In a sense, back then it was not much different than it is now.

　　从某种意义上讲，在那个时候，二者之间的差别不像现在那么大。

　　At that point, the mailing list was still more popular than the Web site, but I have no idea when the crossover occurred.

　　那时邮件列表仍然要比网站流行，我也不知道真正的转换是从什么时候开始的，

　　I’m guessing in the early 2000s.

　　我猜想大约是2000年初。

　　You began this on a whim¹.

　　你心血来潮做这个，

　　Was leaving your job at Schwab a risky² thing or are you a person who doesn’t have such fears?

　　那么离开嘉信理财是一次冒险吗？或者你是不是一个对此并不畏惧的人？

　　The first three years of Craigslist I ran this by myself and it somehow built critical mass.

　　头三年我自己做，那时是最关键的时刻，

　　At the end of 1997, there were three milestones⁴ hit:

　　1997年底，遇到三个里程碑，

　　hitting a million page views a month; then the folks from Microsoft Sidewalk wanted to run banner ads on the site.

　　第一，月浏览量超过100万；第二，微软想在Craigslist 上放条幅广告，

　　And at market rates, that would be all the money I needed to live.

　　从市场的角度，那些钱正好可以帮助我发展下去，

　　So I figured, hey I’m an overpaid programmer, I don’t need the money,

　　但转念一想，我写程序赚得已经不少了，我自己并不缺钱，

　　and many banner ads are pretty dumb, so I decided⁵ not to run them.

　　而且那时的条幅广告都是无声的，于是我决定不放广告；

　　And the third milestone³, [occurred when] a few people approached me about running Craigslist on a volunteer basis.

　　第三个里程碑是，几个人找到我，要义务加入到Craigslist的运营中，

　　I tried that in 1998，where we would all work together on a volunteer basis.

　　我1998年尝试那样做，那时我们都是义务去做，

　　We tried it，but it failed.Things just didn’t get done.

　　我们努力了，但失败了，那样行不通。

　　It just started slowly dying.

　　Craigslist开始露出衰亡的迹象。

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