5 ms·

Nextdoor seems to be one of those sites that divide people, especially here. I'm more or less on the fence with this one. It seems decent enough in my neighborh

Nextdoor seems to be one of those sites that divide people, especially here. I'm more or less on the fence with this one. It seems decent enough in my neighborhood. Just this week it was the only place I could look to find out what exploded in the middle of the night (It was a transformer). The posts and comments tend to be pretty decent, usually. We seem to be avoiding the things that seem to be a problem in other areas, at least so far. Like the article says "Nextdoor has also been a hotbed of racial profiling and tattling." and I've not seen much of that here. If anything this article says "Nextdoor is doing the same thing as every other company", which doesn't make me less likely to use the site from time to time. I do agree with it though... “You want a police officer who has the best interests of their specific community at heart. You don’t want a police officer who’s brand loyal.”

specialp 6y ago
I found it is most useful to just use it as a "pull" resource and not allow it to push you anything. I don't care about the guy complaining about a neighbor using his leaf blower at 8am, or the person complaining the FedEx driver delivered their package with no mask on (seriously). So I shut off all Nextdoor notifications and only go on there when I am curious about something like you said, A late night explosion, helicopter, or if a business closed. It was good at first, but like every community it seems the later adopters tend to be the worst. Now there are a lot of the types that call the police/town on everything or hold petty grudges against others due to what they view as transgressions. Pretty much always older people. You would think that having their real name out there would increase civility and make people more careful, but no. I just think younger people (people much younger than me like Gen Z'ers) more understand the permanence of interactions online, and just are more tolerant of other people. Whenever I feel myself getting cranky, I remember what it was like to always have "that person" on your block.
- ghaff 6y ago
  >I found it is most useful to just use it as a "pull" resource and not allow it to push you anything. In all fairness, that could be said of approximately 99% of the apps and websites out there.
mc32 6y ago
Mine has been okay. It provides a pulse of the neighborhood. What thieves are up to and a bit of nosiness (should you wear, you must wear masks...). Heads up about people blocking driveways -hey you’re gonna get towed by the city, move it. On the physical description it’s been pretty balanced some people go to lengths to avoid mentioning identifiable ethnicity others mention it even if it’s not clear it would be helpful. It keeps me up to date with the pulse of the community. Oh also a bit of Craigslist in terms of used items for sale.
- ORioN63 6y ago
  I'm sorry, but I laughed out loud and I've got to be honest: This looks identical to a lot of the fake amazon reviews I've seen.
monadic2 6y ago
Who asked for a police officer? They can mind their own business.
briffle 6y ago
We had a pretty epic one about someone posting about a very, very suspicious white car going around the neighborhood at 3:30 am, pulling up to houses, etc. A long list of comments about how everything is going to hell, things aren't like they used to be, this is why you should buy a gun, blaming the local officials and political party, etc. Finally, a post: Hi Tom, that white car is mine. I have delivered your newspaper every day for the last 5 years with it.
- mc32 6y ago
  I think that is an exception. Most of what I see is heads up about people casing houses and testing car doors, usually with a short video demonstrating and backing up the claims. It’s also helped with youth vandalism.
  - nemo 6y ago
    I don't think that we can judge whether that's an exception without going through a lot of data, esp. since different neighborhoods aren't likely to be at all consistent, esp with age and regional differences. I used to see a lot of cases of old racist neighbors jumping to conclusions or confabulating a bigoted story from a few inconclusive pieces of evidence that mostly amounted to "a black person is present in our neighborhood so they're probably a criminal." I don't look at NextDoor anymore.
- Operyl 6y ago
  Hahahahaha, I was imagining it was something like that and it was confirmed at the end. I see posts like this in our Nextdoor too. What's silly is .. the area I'm in forgets this. So it gets reposted probably every 2-3 weeks, sometimes by the same person.
- PunksATawnyFill 6y ago
  We had a similar one in my area that turned out to be a food-delivery guy. In many areas, NextDoor appears to be a glorified, technically-incompetent mailing list populated by pathetic NIMBYs. There was someone on there seriously complaining about a chirping bird outside his window in the morning. NextDoor is also underhanded and thinks nothing of bringing harassment down on its users by 1. Spamming a user's neighbors without that user's permission, pretending that the user is "inviting" neighbors to join NextDoor. 2. Publishing users' addresses by default. This one ranks as one of the most offensive and idiotic privacy violations on a major platform today.
askafriend 6y ago
It's been fine for me as a local news source and great for buying/selling stuff. More trustworthy/reliable than Craigslist or FB Marketplace.
duxup 6y ago
It seems very neighborhood / participant specific. I was in one neighborhood where it as constant panic (mostly from a couple people) about seeing things / people. I don't think it was rooted in racism, just some folks who were jumpy about anything / everything. Another neighborhood it is mostly banal neighborhood type discussion.
SamWhited 6y ago
I'm always torn about Nextdoor as well. On the one hand, I love the idea of a hyper-local social media network that prioritizes civic engagement. On the other hand, such a platform should be a not-for-profit or possibly a cooperative. A company can set lofty goals all they want (and I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they probably actually believe in their mission, etc.), but the pressures placed on a for-profit company are inherently in direct opposition to the goals they state. If it ever comes down to a choice between doing something bad that their investors want to get X more people on the platform and doing something right for their communities, they will have to pick the former under US law. While this is generally a hand-wavey argument and I have no specific example of this to cite, it doesn't become a problem until it does, and it's very likely to become a problem if it isn't already.
affyboi 6y ago
haha I think we might be in the same neighborhood
m463 6y ago
> Nextdoor seems to be one of those sites that divide people I think this is how it works. It divides people up into "us" and "them" to build community. Tribalism. But you have to be cautious because that can be a recipe for bad things.

specialp 6y ago

I found it is most useful to just use it as a "pull" resource and not allow it to push you anything. I don't care about the guy complaining about a neighbor using his leaf blower at 8am, or the person complaining the FedEx driver delivered their package with no mask on (seriously). So I shut off all Nextdoor notifications and only go on there when I am curious about something like you said, A late night explosion, helicopter, or if a business closed. It was good at first, but like every community it seems the later adopters tend to be the worst. Now there are a lot of the types that call the police/town on everything or hold petty grudges against others due to what they view as transgressions. Pretty much always older people. You would think that having their real name out there would increase civility and make people more careful, but no. I just think younger people (people much younger than me like Gen Z'ers) more understand the permanence of interactions online, and just are more tolerant of other people. Whenever I feel myself getting cranky, I remember what it was like to always have "that person" on your block.

ghaff 6y ago
>I found it is most useful to just use it as a "pull" resource and not allow it to push you anything. In all fairness, that could be said of approximately 99% of the apps and websites out there.

mc32 6y ago

Mine has been okay. It provides a pulse of the neighborhood. What thieves are up to and a bit of nosiness (should you wear, you must wear masks...). Heads up about people blocking driveways -hey you’re gonna get towed by the city, move it. On the physical description it’s been pretty balanced some people go to lengths to avoid mentioning identifiable ethnicity others mention it even if it’s not clear it would be helpful. It keeps me up to date with the pulse of the community. Oh also a bit of Craigslist in terms of used items for sale.

ORioN63 6y ago
I'm sorry, but I laughed out loud and I've got to be honest: This looks identical to a lot of the fake amazon reviews I've seen.

monadic2 6y ago

Who asked for a police officer? They can mind their own business.

briffle 6y ago

We had a pretty epic one about someone posting about a very, very suspicious white car going around the neighborhood at 3:30 am, pulling up to houses, etc. A long list of comments about how everything is going to hell, things aren't like they used to be, this is why you should buy a gun, blaming the local officials and political party, etc. Finally, a post: Hi Tom, that white car is mine. I have delivered your newspaper every day for the last 5 years with it.

mc32 6y ago
I think that is an exception. Most of what I see is heads up about people casing houses and testing car doors, usually with a short video demonstrating and backing up the claims. It’s also helped with youth vandalism.
- nemo 6y ago
  I don't think that we can judge whether that's an exception without going through a lot of data, esp. since different neighborhoods aren't likely to be at all consistent, esp with age and regional differences. I used to see a lot of cases of old racist neighbors jumping to conclusions or confabulating a bigoted story from a few inconclusive pieces of evidence that mostly amounted to "a black person is present in our neighborhood so they're probably a criminal." I don't look at NextDoor anymore.
Operyl 6y ago
Hahahahaha, I was imagining it was something like that and it was confirmed at the end. I see posts like this in our Nextdoor too. What's silly is .. the area I'm in forgets this. So it gets reposted probably every 2-3 weeks, sometimes by the same person.
PunksATawnyFill 6y ago
We had a similar one in my area that turned out to be a food-delivery guy. In many areas, NextDoor appears to be a glorified, technically-incompetent mailing list populated by pathetic NIMBYs. There was someone on there seriously complaining about a chirping bird outside his window in the morning. NextDoor is also underhanded and thinks nothing of bringing harassment down on its users by 1. Spamming a user's neighbors without that user's permission, pretending that the user is "inviting" neighbors to join NextDoor. 2. Publishing users' addresses by default. This one ranks as one of the most offensive and idiotic privacy violations on a major platform today.

askafriend 6y ago

It's been fine for me as a local news source and great for buying/selling stuff. More trustworthy/reliable than Craigslist or FB Marketplace.

duxup 6y ago

It seems very neighborhood / participant specific. I was in one neighborhood where it as constant panic (mostly from a couple people) about seeing things / people. I don't think it was rooted in racism, just some folks who were jumpy about anything / everything. Another neighborhood it is mostly banal neighborhood type discussion.

SamWhited 6y ago

I'm always torn about Nextdoor as well. On the one hand, I love the idea of a hyper-local social media network that prioritizes civic engagement. On the other hand, such a platform should be a not-for-profit or possibly a cooperative. A company can set lofty goals all they want (and I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they probably actually believe in their mission, etc.), but the pressures placed on a for-profit company are inherently in direct opposition to the goals they state. If it ever comes down to a choice between doing something bad that their investors want to get X more people on the platform and doing something right for their communities, they will have to pick the former under US law. While this is generally a hand-wavey argument and I have no specific example of this to cite, it doesn't become a problem until it does, and it's very likely to become a problem if it isn't already.

affyboi 6y ago

haha I think we might be in the same neighborhood

m463 6y ago

> Nextdoor seems to be one of those sites that divide people I think this is how it works. It divides people up into "us" and "them" to build community. Tribalism. But you have to be cautious because that can be a recipe for bad things.