nextdoor.com

[Midpack]

Anyone here use this private neighborhood forum, looks like a good resource to me?

My sister who lives in a large metro area swears by it, she is a member of the forum for her neighborhood - not the whole city (that's key IMO). A way to share with your neighbors, with common interests, most of whom you may never meet in person. Neighbors use it for contractor recommendations, local services, lost pets or other items, crime watch, etc.

Unfortunately no online community in my little berg yet, but I'd use it if one ever forms.

https://nextdoor.com

Nextdoor is the private social network for you, your neighbors and your community. It's the easiest way for you and your neighbors to talk online and make all of your lives better in the real world. And it's free.

Thousands of neighborhoods are already using Nextdoor to build happier, safer places to call home.

People are using Nextdoor to:

• Quickly get the word out about a break-in
• Organize a Neighborhood Watch Group
• Track down a trustworthy babysitter
• Find out who does the best paint job in town
• Ask for help keeping an eye out for a lost dog
• Find a new home for an outgrown bike
• Finally call that nice man down the street by his first name

Nextdoor’s mission is to use the power of technology to build stronger and safer neighborhoods.

 

[braumeister]

Be very careful with it.

A friend who lives in another state recently sent an invitation to his mother, who lives next door to him. But the Nextdoor system sent the invitation to everyone in his email contact list, all over the world.

OTOH, I also know someone who has used it for some time and likes it.

 

[Whisper66]

We use it in our neighborhood. As with any forum, it's as good as it's members and it's moderators want it to be. Ours is pretty active, mostly for the good. However, we clearly have one or two neighborhood feuds that bubble up from time to time. The tool has the ability for users to flag snarky posts and the moderators can choose to edit or delete them. Overall it's a good tool if the neighborhood chooses to make it one.

Edit: The tool has many of the same characteristics as this ER board. Things like being able to send private notes to other members through the tool, having different topics to post to, getting notices of new postings, etc.... are part of the tool.

 

[VaCollector]

It's an asset in our neighborhood as well...compliments our neighborhood watch and at times is a social site where I have seen others sell cars, advertise their business or hobby and even find an exercise or walking partner nearby.

 

[calmloki]

Have been a member for about six months - some very good local information, but too much community for me. Bickering and bitching about the neighbor whose son has too many suspicious looking young friends or the other guy who was washing his car on a dry day. It floods my inbox with URGENT! messages about a loose brown dog, about 20# in weight, seen in the vicinity of Main and Washington at 7AM.

 

[Marita40]

Yes it is very active in my neighborhood. No feuds yet that I've seen. It is extremely useful for neighborhood alerts like theft or lost pets, for selling items quickly, and for local service providers. I don't post often, however, because unlike Craigslist your real name is used on the listings. At least I don't see any way yet to be anonymous.

 

[Tadpole]

When a site wants address and phone number and email, I just say - not even worth it. Are people really going through all the hoops at the sign up? I just see spam, robo-call, and worse flags going up in my brain.

 

[jazz4cash]

Looks like I must provide my email before I can see if there is an active group in my neighborhood?

We have a Yahoo! Groups community site and it works well but we have too many participants that will not use PM instead of replying on the forum. I thought maybe nextdoor.com might be less cluttered.

 

[Whisper66]

.....At least I don't see any way yet to be anonymous.

Good point brought up by Marita which may turn off some folks. Policy is that members are all identified by name and that membership is limited to your neighborhood. In theory (and I think practice also), that should make postings more civil than your typical internet site. In many typical internet sites, people often aggressively mouth off behind hidden identities, feeling cozy that others don't know who they really are. When snarky comments are made in our Neighborhood posts, we all can see who they are and typically someone confronts them directly.

 

[ChiliPepr]

Looks like I must provide my email before I can see if there is an active group in my neighborhood?

this in one of the reasons I have a "Junk" email address, and often use the temporary email services.

 

[Whisper66]

Looks like I must provide my email before I can see if there is an active group in my neighborhood?

Another good point made. Email is required. But unless you choose otherwise, it is not shared with the community. If someone wants to send you a private message, it goes to your Neighborhood ID and Inbox. You read your message through the Neighborhood application unless you choose to forward them to your email.

The email is not shared outside the application as best I can tell. Have never received any mail/email solicitations or phone calls based on my membership in this application.

 

[ls99]

Aside from all the required info to be a memeber, it seems to presume that folks are tethered to some electronic gizmo to be aware of the latest whatever. No, I would never join such a group.

I recall the most liberating moment when a j*b I quit allowed me to destroy my pager. An early version of corporate tether.

 

[rodi]

I am active on our local neighborhood nextdoor.com. You can tailor it to include just your immediate neighborhood, or adjacent neighborhoods as well.

Our local police department uses it in conjunction with neighborhood watch. They also use it to blast out when a person is missing (usually alzheimer dx). It's also widely used to post about lost (and found) pets.

Finally - it's used for neighborhood activism. For example there's an issue with our city dump not following proper procedures - resulting in significant odor down wind... One of the neighbors impacted organized other neighbors who were impacted to report the problem until the dump had to start following the rules. (Which, apparently, eliminated the problem. But I never noticed the odor.)

Flame wars happen. One very controversial infrastructure problem tends to get snarky and nasty... People are very polarized on it (based on NIMBY reasons.) The moderators have their hands full with that issue.

 

[Whisper66]

Aside from all the required info to be a memeber, it seems to presume that folks are tethered to some electronic gizmo to be aware of the latest whatever.......

I'm curious what you mean by this.

I don't see it as any different than my use of this board. I choose not to get notifications of new posts on either. So I read both just when I choose and can read either on computer or phone.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[harley]

Get off my virtual lawn.

 

[TrvlBug]

... ... It floods my inbox with URGENT! messages about a loose brown dog, about 20# in weight, seen in the vicinity of Main and Washington at 7AM.

Change your settings to get one summary e-mail a day.

 

[Another Reader]

We have a neighborhood bully that thought Nextdoor was going to be his personal platform for dictating everyone's behavior. He subsequently learned that this was not to be. Once his manipulative behavior was observed by neighbors outside his clique, his prestige and credibility in the neighborhood rapidly declined.

The interest in Nextdoor declined significantly since this happened. Some people were put off by the unpleasant nature of the situation. For others, I think the novelty wore off. I get the notifications, but read very few posts because they are of no interest.

 

[big-papa]

Our neighborhood (and nearby neighborhoods) use it extensively. We also had a bully, but ours is moderated and after the complaints, he disappeared. Now it's classified ads, notes from the sheriff, and what seems to be a large number of missing animals or animals that have been seen roaming. I read the summary every day and if there's something interesting, I go to the app and see what it's about.

 

[Another Reader]

Unfortunately, our bully was an early adopter and got himself appointed a lead. He attempted to have people that disagreed with him kicked off Nextdoor. Fun times. The other leads finally told him to stop the bullying. Lots of hard feelings still.

 

[W2R]

My neighborhood already has a Facebook page on which residents can post about topics of interest like lost pets, suspicious strangers, street repairs, houses recently put on the market, welcoming new neighbors, new businesses in the neighborhood, and so on.

 

[Big_Hitter]

it's great - my house got egged two years ago and I posted a rant and four hours later the football coach called me and they were over there cleaning my house

 

[Big_Hitter]

My neighborhood already has a Facebook page on which residents can post about topics of interest like lost pets, suspicious strangers, street repairs, houses recently put on the market, welcoming new neighbors, new businesses in the neighborhood, and so on.

Fb isn't policed as well as nextdoor - you actually have to live in the neighborhood to get verified

 

[Midpack]

Looks like I must provide my email before I can see if there is an active group in my neighborhood?

We have a Yahoo! Groups community site and it works well but we have too many participants that will not use PM instead of replying on the forum. I thought maybe nextdoor.com might be less cluttered.

I thought so too. But if you Google nextdoor with your city-state or neighborhood (e.g "nextdoor Indianapolis IN - there are 566 Indy neighborhoods already online), it shows all active neighborhoods near that city. Pretty complete. They claim there are already thousands of neighborhood forums established.

 

[W2R]

My neighborhood already has a Facebook page on which residents can post about topics of interest like lost pets, suspicious strangers, street repairs, houses recently put on the market, welcoming new neighbors, new businesses in the neighborhood, and so on.

Fb isn't policed as well as nextdoor - you actually have to live in the neighborhood to get verified

Get verified I'm not sure what you mean. I haven't seen a single Facebook post that was made by an outsider, if that is what you mean. My neighborhood is small and extremely stable (most have lived here 50+ years), so that may be why it works for us.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Get verified I'm not sure what you mean. I haven't seen a single Facebook post that was made by an outsider, if that is what you mean. My neighborhood is small and extremely stable (most have lived here 50+ years), so that may be why it works for us.

nextdoor has one or two people that live in the neighborhood verify that you actually live where you say you live before you can join

FB isn't that strict, it depends on the group moderator