Craiglist has removed its adult services section after an impressively long tenure as a business that served both mainstream and adult sectors. With most businesses, as soon as you dip a toe in the warm, wet waters of sex, histrionics ensue and you either have to jump in all the way or run back to shore with many apologies. But Craigslist seems to be able to shrug and say “we do what we want, take it or leave it” — and what it wants this time is to let go of an increasingly problematic section.

At least temporarily. To make a point.

Meanwhile, PinPointsX (PPX) is putting on its hip boots and wading into the rapids. PPX describes itself as a “location-aware social networking platform that provides direct access to all imaginable erotic resources around the user.”

It also claims to be an improved substitute for Craigslist and invites all legal adult service providers, venues, entertainers, adult online dating customers, and other dating- and sex-related businesses to sign up.

I don’t know if PPX will have a better chance at avoiding legal threats (“prostitution! human trafficking! sex crimes!” cry the attorneys; “whatever” sighs the general public). It might, as it is already set up as an adult business, connecting people with erotic partners, places, and products. Whether those people are amateurs or professionals is up to the users, not the platform.

Although if I remember right, that was the original intent of the Craigslist adult section — to divide the sex work from the personal ads, making it easier for users to filter.

But isn’t it comforting to know that someone will always step up and try to replace an online service, the moment an opening appears? I wonder what will take the place of Facebook, when the time comes?