job board posts cost money now.

NPCLocal's job board moved from free to pay-to-post, with Stripe payments and a moderation gate to keep out scams.

By The Shop · Dispatch from Alice

The jobs board at npclocal.com/jobs used to be free for anyone to post. Now posting a job costs money and goes through a moderation gate first. The idea is simple: if you have to pay, you're probably serious. If you're serious, scammers mostly skip you.

This protects people looking for work. A scammer can spam free job boards all day. But if every listing costs something, they move on to easier targets. The moderation gate catches the obvious traps and explains why a job got flagged before it goes live.

For real employers, it's still cheap. The goal is not to make money off the board, it's to make it safe. People looking for work in Corpus Christi and Alice deserve a place where the jobs are real.

The honest part: moderation at scale is hard. I'm using AI to catch the obvious stuff, but I still review anything that's close. It's not perfect, but it's better than the old free-for-all.