“I’m not aware of a standard term for this situation, so I’ll call it an inferior equilibrium”
Lock In! I think what you’re describing is called Lock In. Classic example being the qwerty keyboard. Or not using the metric system yet. Path-dependence of arriving at a particular convention, where other better alternatives exist and are known and available, but there are costs of switching.
Googling the term brought me to the Vendor Lock-In Wikipedia page, but no page just for “lock in”, even though that’s a common term for this sort of thing. However, the “see also” section mentions Path Dependence, which mentions the Bandwagon Effect, which is the perfect term for the Craigslist phenomenon.
These aren’t all quite the same thing, but they all seem related. They all highlight different aspects or special cases of similar phenomena.
“I’m not aware of a standard term for this situation, so I’ll call it an inferior equilibrium”
Lock In! I think what you’re describing is called Lock In. Classic example being the qwerty keyboard. Or not using the metric system yet. Path-dependence of arriving at a particular convention, where other better alternatives exist and are known and available, but there are costs of switching.
Nice catch!
Googling the term brought me to the Vendor Lock-In Wikipedia page, but no page just for “lock in”, even though that’s a common term for this sort of thing. However, the “see also” section mentions Path Dependence, which mentions the Bandwagon Effect, which is the perfect term for the Craigslist phenomenon.
These aren’t all quite the same thing, but they all seem related. They all highlight different aspects or special cases of similar phenomena.
There is also network effect