I get the feeling most commenters here don't actually use NextDoor, but have plenty of opinions about NextDoor that [Vox | Gizmodo Media | Twitter | etc.] fed t

I get the feeling most commenters here don't actually use NextDoor, but have plenty of opinions about NextDoor that [Vox | Gizmodo Media | Twitter | etc.] fed them. I have been on NextDoor for years and I almost never see frivolous complaints or racism. It seems to me that people get this notion based on hit pieces written by online journalists and by things like the 'best of next door' Twitter feed, which showcases cherry-picked isolated posts. Many of the comments here are alleging widespread racism on Next Door, but I don't agree with the idea that a report about suspicious behavior that involves a POC is inherently racist. Broadly labeling such reports as racist is disingenuous and frankly harmful. OTOH, I see plenty of discrimination in this thread, where people are surmising that NextDoor is "just older white people" (as another comment put it). For those who don't use NextDoor, they have a very well-designed workflow when you try to submit a post about a crime or suspicious activity, where they ask you step by step to isolate what happened, why that behavior was suspicious, and so forth, before collecting details on the people involved. For those saying "I don't see any problems at all, these NextDoor posters are conspiracy theorists or hysterical fear-mongers" - maybe that's true for you but it is definitely not true for me: I've had needles thrown into my front yard by drug-addicted homeless people. I've been the victim of property crime and lost irreplaceable possessions. I've had friends physically assaulted, robbed at knifepoint, caught in the middle of gunfire, and even threatened with murder in front of their children. I've seen needles in front of my workplace, in front of stores I go to, and in greenbelts in parks. I encounter human poop about once a week downtown. These are all real problems that were absolutely not prevalent 10 years ago in Seattle, and have received limited press coverage due to our ideologically-skewed demographics + city council + journalists. Violent crime is still rare here but on the rise in Seattle. Property crime is incredibly common, and a lot of it goes unreported because the SPD is not staffed to handle it and has been directed to de-prioritize investigating it or directed to not enforce certain laws or directed to not enforce laws against some groups of people (i.e. homeless). Both Facebook and NextDoor luckily have given voice to what are very real concerns to law-abiding residents. PS: the level of discourse in this thread is appalling. So many people are using labels (e.g. "NIMBY") or discriminatory remarks ("old white people") to dismiss others' valid perspectives, values, and opinions. I find this ironic considering the same posters seemingly uphold the value of "lived experiences" in other contexts. But more importantly, it seems like lazy comments that aren't making any actual argument or adding any information are garnering votes, which is not good for the community.