Tim White, the operator of Craigslistblog.org, an unofficial blog about the free classifieds site, is throwing in the slightly soiled towel. Craigslist, which launched its official blog well after White launched his in March, threatened him with legal action over its name in April. Craigslist's lawyers and White have been going back and forth since then. White tells Valleywag Craigslist has now offered him a settlement: If he agreed not to sell the domain name or run advertising, they'd let him keep the site. Instead of agreeing to it, he's shutting down the site."That particular blog was never about the money, but it definitely makes things more difficult if I have no chance of paying the writers," says White. "I’m torn because there’s so much news every day about them and I’d like to see someone cover it closely." We'll do what we can, Tim. The site's disappearance is disappointing. But the whole episode served to reveal Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster as a control-freaky jerk who's sensitive to criticism, and not averse to litigation when he doesn't get his way. That's good information for people to have — and we wouldn't have learned it without White.

Starbucks has an unofficial blog, as do Apple, Google. But Craigslist has not had a blog, unofficial or otherwise (unless you count Craig Newmark's thoughts on national politics). That changed last month when Tim White launched the unofficial Craigslist Blog. Now White's blog has been countered with an official one, written by CEO Jim Buckmaster. Between posts, Buckmaster decided to threaten a lawsuit. Chilling Effects suggests Tim White, the blogger behind the unofficial site, might have a case for saving his site's domain name. Buckmaster's letter, and White's feisty response, after the jump: