Everybody loved Moby. Then he got pompous with tea, and everybody hated Moby. Everybody loved John Mayer. Then he started blogging and sleeping with Jennifer Aniston, and now everybody hates John Mayer.

Everybody loved MySpace alternative Facebook. Then they introduced some sketchy advertising program, and everybody hated Facebook. Everybody loves Craigslist. So how come nobody, yet, really hates Craigslist?

All things that are good in life eventually face some type of backlash, but interestingly, Craigslist, despite collecting some $100 million in revenue (much of that profit), is an Internet company that’s kept its legions of fans. And it’s likely to continue doing so, even after eBay filed a lawsuit accusing it of trying to dilute its 28 percent interest in the company. (Ahem, that’s the news peg.)

Normally, web nerds wouldn’t take too kindly to a very profitable Internet giant – it goes without saying, Craigslist owns the very lucrative classifieds biz – trying to shun an investor. But then again, this investor is eBay, and they’ve launched a competing classifieds service, Kijiji, whose name is as bad as the rip off job its performed on Craig Newmark’s namesake site.

So how does Craigslist continue to keep its legions of fans, including much of the media, on its side?

Because despite its ridiculous profit margins and near-monopoly of the classifieds biz, Craigslist continues shaping itself as the underdog. A very smart move.

Says the Times: “Despite its success, Craigslist prides itself on its grass-roots instincts and user-based content — including harnessing its users to identify and block bad actors on the site. Even broad strategic decisions, such as which areas to expand into, are described as reflecting user requests made at online forums at the site.”

See? They make you feel like you’re a part of what they’re doing, even though they’re going to stick to their “we don’t charge for anything we don’t have to” motto, and their “no display advertising” policy, or not, despite what you have to say.

And has anybody really had a positive experience on Craigslist? No, we don’t mean the M4M or “Missed Connections” section, but the one that really matters: apartment listings. That part of the site is basically a dumping ground for unethical brokers advertising apartments they don’t have access to, were already rented, or never existed in the first place. And Newmark & Co. are collecting a twenty-spot on each one of ‘em.

And yet Newmark continues to curry favor.