6 ms·

I live in an immediate suburb of Boston, and joined Nextdoor and joined to see what features were attracting so many folks to a new social media platform. Wow!

by wespiser_2018 6y ago

I live in an immediate suburb of Boston, and joined Nextdoor and joined to see what features were attracting so many folks to a new social media platform. Wow! Anyone with a tattoo, going to your door for any reason was considered "suspicious" and reported. One alarming thing, is that NextDoor is feeding on our fears about outsiders who look different, and creating a loop out of this for higher engagement when people post pictures and engage their camera feed. It's too bad, I think idea of organizing a social network based on proximity and centered around community information is a viable idea, It's just that NextDoor is doing that with our worst instincts.

heavyset_go 6y ago
This has been my experience, as well. Take this type of echo chamber to its extreme, and you get this[1] kind of reaction from an entire community, where they end up chasing a Hispanic family out of town because someone said they were antifa on Facebook[2]. [1] https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/06/family-harassed-accused-of-being-political-activists-before-being-trapped-at-washington-campsite-authorities-say.html https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/06/fa... [2] https://twitter.com/RandazzoTweets/status/1268608526491910145 https://twitter.com/RandazzoTweets/status/126860852649191014...
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
  Ok, I read both the links you provided, and it would appear your words: > reaction from an entire community, where they end up chasing a Hispanic family out of town Is a drastic overstatement of what happened. Or did I miss something? Are there really only four vehicles in the entire community of Forks?
  - heavyset_go 6y ago
    You missed something, because it was more than 4 cars. Members of the community followed them in, then others approached them at a store and several hours later a larger group chased them out. Among the people involved are city councilmen, the mayor and his son, and several local business owners. Dozens of people were involved in person, and dozens more online. Armed people were mobilized in not only Forks, WA, but Olympia and Port Townsend based on rumors about the Hispanic family. For example, when they were stopped at the store, the family is quoted as saying[1]: > The family had shopped for camping supplies at Forks Outfitters and were confronted “by seven or eight carloads of people in the grocery store parking lot,” Anderson said they reported to deputies. No one in the community is willing to come forward with the names of the guilty parties, however many of them were okay with spreading violent rumors about out-of-towners, both of which are levels of complicity in my book. [1] https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/crime/family-harassed-in-forks-after-being-accused-of-being-members-of-antifa/ https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/crime/family-harassed-in-...
- biscotti 6y ago
  I do not blame people for being frightened, worried or concerned about Antifa. Antifa are dishonest, lack integrity and are not able to defend a robust arguement against them. They and the Hollywood and blue tick classes have validated much of what you're seeing in the destruction of our western civilization and the attacks against "white" people which are shooting through the roof, we just had a mass murder of park goers here in Reading, Berkshire and America had an execution in New York. The burned out businesses in Minneapolis will not be coming back. It seems at least from over the pond, like another Detroit. They are agitating for genocide now. The BLM has received so much money what else could be the objective? They have shown they're not above using cancel culture, doxxing and threatening behaviour and most I've engaged with have no regard or knowledge of history. The African British friends I have are actually turning against Journalists and these "fellow white people" that have used a colour to wage a war of hate to get what they want because even though they control the institutions and the media, they have never had the consent of the demos at large. My Igbo friends even invented a new adjective "Bodeyad" to describe an actor reading from a Hollywood script. I believe the weaponisation of race by foreign money and interests is using black people as a destabilization technique and it seems the emperor is losing his clothes now for anyone outside the hangers on. It is a pretty debased type of psychological warfare and divide and conquor if you ask me. I would most certainly chase Antifa out of my village, or set up roadblocks to assure they are not planning attacks on people they have identified as not befitting their narrative. I have no doubts their groups have drawn up lists of dissidents and targets. The question noone has been able to answer me convincingly, is why wouldn't I?
whymauri 6y ago
We've already seen how these algorithms encourage conflict on Twitter and Facebook. The idea of those paradigms moving to my living community, and by proxy to my real, physical life, is scary.
glitcher 6y ago
> a social network based on proximity and centered around community information is a viable idea, It's just that NextDoor is doing that with our worst instincts I have only seen a little bit of NextDoor, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me to be more of how people are deciding to use the platform as opposed to NextDoor purposely promoting our worst instincts. Do you feel like they really are promoting the most inflammatory posts for the purpose of increasing engagement? (like so many of the other major platforms out there) For me it is sad to see that there are so many people out there too quick to pass judgement on anyone that looks different in their neighborhood. But so far it feels like another example of how web platforms allow people to be more comfortable in expressing their true feelings, and while often disappointing, is a good reminder of the very different views people around us can hold.
- jpindar 6y ago
  It's not Nextdoor, it's their neighbors. My Nextdoor has none of the things people are complaining about. Here, the worst thing is arguments about whether we are taking COVID seriously enough or not, but I suppose that is a natural consequence of discussing which businesses are closed etc.
- duskwuff 6y ago
  > Do you feel like they really are promoting the most inflammatory posts for the purpose of increasing engagement? I don't think it's necessarily intentional, but posts which foster fear (like "I saw a scary black person walking down the street") will naturally invite more engagement from users, and the site may respond to that by promoting those posts over less controversial content (like "my cat is missing").
mc32 6y ago
Yeah it’s a double edged sword. On the one hand you know if your neighborhood is getting hit by package thieves, car-break-in’s, etc., on the other hand people walking disheveled in their sweats can get called out. On the other hand this is a neighborhood app and is used differently in different neighborhoods. Tenderloin vs Nob Hill.
- vmception 6y ago
  ha I just posted about Nextdoor Tenderloin. I live in a different neighborhood now and its a totally different community, very welcoming while also generally empathic to the desperate people doing actual illegal things and redirecting the angst from housed neighbors towards more productive empathy.
notwhereyouare 6y ago
I’m over in Dorchester and holy crap is our next door a mess
cortesoft 6y ago
Similar experience for me... I joined when our cat was missing so I could post to see if anyone had seen him.... this is in Los Angeles, and I have been pretty shocked by the racism and classism... I feel like 75% of the posts are things like "I saw a black man walking!" and "someone was SLEEPING in a car! Someone needs to call the cops!" It is crazy how much everyone assumes all these people are out to get them.
CPLX 6y ago
I live in downtown Brooklyn and I’ve never seen any issues of this kind, like at all, even once. I think at least some of this has to do with the people in the area in question.
Baeocystin 6y ago
I live in Gilroy, a small town in the bay area. I joined Nextdoor for all of two weeks before I quit in annoyance and frustration. A typical post: "OMG Who Is This Suspicious Person!!!" :: watches video, sees rather bored looking person, driving a UPS truck, wearing a UPS uniform, dropping off a package, then leaving :: This was 90%+ of what the posts were like. The rest were 'political' screeds so disjointed they were essentially logorrhea. Something about how Nextdoor has shaped their posting methodologies has made even Facebook posts look sane in comparison, and that's saying something. The added frustration is that real neighborhood watch needs exist. We had some professional thieves roll through our cul-de-sac a few days ago- dozens of people had their cars broken in to, and whatever was in easy reach stolen. The Ring Neighborhood system allowed those of us affected to find who had video of what, and forward it all to the police. That's a real benefit. But it has its own issues. Social media is a hard problem.
- Ghjklov 6y ago
  One human is complex already. People, groups of humans are even more problematic. Social media is a hard problem because people are hard to get a handle on. And I think that's good. People should be allowed to be skeptical, to have anxieties, and to be able to look out for the interests of their people/community. Just because one Karen saw a suspicious person and wanted to let all her neighbors know to be careful doesn't mean Nextdoor/social media is bad. People looking out for each other is a good thing! You see that all the time in high trust societies where you could even safely leave a bike unattended for a few minutes without fearing that it'll be stolen. Don't get me wrong though. Nextdoor's program to forward suspicions to the police is the wrong play. No one should be arrested and put at harm's way just because someone was a bit anxious one day. I just think that we should be nurturing a high trust society, rather than moving to a low trust one where, on the surface everyone is tolerant/accepting but in reality they aren't really thinking about the other people in their community at all. "Not my problem." "Oh no, I can't let myself be bigoted. Who am I to judge the masked man walking around with a chainsaw at midnight? He might just be headed out to trim his garden?"
  - mavelikara 6y ago
vmception 6y ago
on the other hand, Tenderloin Nextdoor in San Francisco is hilarious "oh wow drug dealers in the best neighborhood in the city I can't believe it, but really, did you test the product for accuracy? let us know!"
spaetzleesser 6y ago
In my neighborhood it's quite OK and useful. For example people are exchanging information about internet slowness so you know it's not only you that has the problem. The reports about suspicious activity usually make sense, like videos of people checking out someone's porch.
hombre_fatal 6y ago
> I think idea of organizing a social network based on proximity and centered around community information is a viable idea NextDoor and Craigslist and Reddit's /r/{city} communities just prove that it may be viable but it's pretty undesirable. I think it's best to not give the most neurotic, ill people of your community the loudest voice, but these social networks also create this neuroticism and illness. You also create a scenario (NextDoor especially) where all the sane people are driven out by the crazies. Back when NextDoor was new, after a year it would come up in conversation and sure enough, anyone normal would admit they tried it and had to delete it. Social media is messing us up. I don't think we're missing some new take on it that's going to make it all better. I think the vestigially tribal parts of our brain make it a non-starter. We need to get back to the face-to-face -- it seems to be the only way we keep in mind that there's a human at the other end of the line, not some nebulous automaton that we craft into everything we hate in the world.
- icelancer 6y ago
  >> I think it's best to not give the most neurotic, ill people of your community the loudest voice. People say that it's the outliers but the reality is that in many cases, this is the silent majority driving the behavior.
  - hombre_fatal 6y ago
    Good point. I actually added a sentence to that to clarify: I think this kind of social media only bolsters and broadly spreads (if not creates) that neuroticism and illness. Frankly I just don't think we can handle social media. We're trying to do this whole technological civilization thing and we've made progress that is absolutely mind bending, but it wasn't long ago that we were using fur and bones and would only meet 100 people our entire life. And our brains are still there mentally, lagging behind the rest of our progress.
    - CraigJPerry 6y ago
      IRC, Slashdot, niche communities hosted on phpnuke instances, free/open source software. The early 2000s convinced me the power of sharing knowledge freely online would solve many of society’s problems. I still can’t reconcile just how wildly wrong i was. I didn’t appreciate that it’s not common to want to know truth, common is titillation and tribalism - which always existed anyway, it’s not that the internet increased it or made it more popular, it’s that i was a geek hacking away in my bedroom and didn’t see much of real society. Although my biggest hangup contrasting then vs now is that Microsoft is my favourite tech company these days.
brightball 6y ago
In my neighborhood it’s only been lost pets, HOA questions, neighborhood events and a heads up that people were going door to door in a posted “no soliciting” neighborhood. Also “clean up after your dog” posts. Haven’t seen any suspicious persons type posts, but we did coordinate the entire neighborhood to help the police after people broke into multiple cars in driveways in ours and the adjacent neighborhood. It’s been mostly good with the occasional spammy business posting.
- MiroF 6y ago
  > we did coordinate the entire neighborhood to help the police how did this work? also sounds like a pretty suburban place maybe?
  - brightball 6y ago
    People providing reports and sharing home and neighborhood cameras. Just making everyone aware of what happened resulted in people providing a bunch of additional footage. It’s a neighborhood in a suburb of upstate SC.
axaxs 6y ago
Well, unless it's changed, the big problem is that it seems the first person to sign up is the moderator/leader/whatever. And those are the people with nothing better to do, who subdivide to gain power over some amount of houses. Basically, like the people who try to form HOAs. Most complaints about Nextdoor would be fixed with reasonable moderation. Also: I think a lot of people who complain about Nextdoor need to reflect on where they chose to live. My little city in KY was perfectly fine. People offering help, lost/found animals, events...standard stuff.
TaylorAlexander 6y ago
My understanding is that for this to work everyone has to get in the same room periodically and talk.
Balgair 6y ago
For a larger snapshot ND, the BestOfNextDoor twitter account is solid gold : https://twitter.com/bestofnextdoor https://twitter.com/bestofnextdoor The oft-repeated quote of "ND is just Tinder for old racists" makes it sound so lovely.
duxup 6y ago
What I find interesting is the type of fear that goes around. Almost all the fear type nextdoor posts in the areas I've lived in have involved animals and not humans. Fox, random dog, raccoons and the extremely unlikely but reported none the less....bear sightings.
ab_testing 6y ago
I see that you are blaming nextdoor, when nextdoor is just a symptom. The actual issue is that these people are paranoid and scared and marking anything as suspicous. If not for nextdoor, it will be some other app - but the issue will stay the same.
- wespiser_2018 6y ago
  > I see that you are blaming nextdoor, when nextdoor is just a symptom. I am trying to share my observation, and express my disappointment that a company has created a skinner-box engagement loop based on fear and neuroticism. People will always be afraid, but technology should be used to bring out the best qualities in humans, not amplify the worst.
p2hari 6y ago
> I think idea of organizing a social network based on proximity and centered around community information is a viable idea Shameless plug: We are exactly working on this and want to bring better community information app without other distractions. Currently only in Denmark.Will be updating the details soon. However, I agree that the way NextDoor is handling community interactions is really disturbing.

heavyset_go 6y ago

This has been my experience, as well. Take this type of echo chamber to its extreme, and you get this[1] kind of reaction from an entire community, where they end up chasing a Hispanic family out of town because someone said they were antifa on Facebook[2]. [1] https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/06/family-harassed-accused-of-being-political-activists-before-being-trapped-at-washington-campsite-authorities-say.html https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/06/fa... [2] https://twitter.com/RandazzoTweets/status/1268608526491910145 https://twitter.com/RandazzoTweets/status/126860852649191014...

TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
Ok, I read both the links you provided, and it would appear your words: > reaction from an entire community, where they end up chasing a Hispanic family out of town Is a drastic overstatement of what happened. Or did I miss something? Are there really only four vehicles in the entire community of Forks?
- heavyset_go 6y ago
  You missed something, because it was more than 4 cars. Members of the community followed them in, then others approached them at a store and several hours later a larger group chased them out. Among the people involved are city councilmen, the mayor and his son, and several local business owners. Dozens of people were involved in person, and dozens more online. Armed people were mobilized in not only Forks, WA, but Olympia and Port Townsend based on rumors about the Hispanic family. For example, when they were stopped at the store, the family is quoted as saying[1]: > The family had shopped for camping supplies at Forks Outfitters and were confronted “by seven or eight carloads of people in the grocery store parking lot,” Anderson said they reported to deputies. No one in the community is willing to come forward with the names of the guilty parties, however many of them were okay with spreading violent rumors about out-of-towners, both of which are levels of complicity in my book. [1] https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/crime/family-harassed-in-forks-after-being-accused-of-being-members-of-antifa/ https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/crime/family-harassed-in-...
biscotti 6y ago
I do not blame people for being frightened, worried or concerned about Antifa. Antifa are dishonest, lack integrity and are not able to defend a robust arguement against them. They and the Hollywood and blue tick classes have validated much of what you're seeing in the destruction of our western civilization and the attacks against "white" people which are shooting through the roof, we just had a mass murder of park goers here in Reading, Berkshire and America had an execution in New York. The burned out businesses in Minneapolis will not be coming back. It seems at least from over the pond, like another Detroit. They are agitating for genocide now. The BLM has received so much money what else could be the objective? They have shown they're not above using cancel culture, doxxing and threatening behaviour and most I've engaged with have no regard or knowledge of history. The African British friends I have are actually turning against Journalists and these "fellow white people" that have used a colour to wage a war of hate to get what they want because even though they control the institutions and the media, they have never had the consent of the demos at large. My Igbo friends even invented a new adjective "Bodeyad" to describe an actor reading from a Hollywood script. I believe the weaponisation of race by foreign money and interests is using black people as a destabilization technique and it seems the emperor is losing his clothes now for anyone outside the hangers on. It is a pretty debased type of psychological warfare and divide and conquor if you ask me. I would most certainly chase Antifa out of my village, or set up roadblocks to assure they are not planning attacks on people they have identified as not befitting their narrative. I have no doubts their groups have drawn up lists of dissidents and targets. The question noone has been able to answer me convincingly, is why wouldn't I?

whymauri 6y ago

We've already seen how these algorithms encourage conflict on Twitter and Facebook. The idea of those paradigms moving to my living community, and by proxy to my real, physical life, is scary.

glitcher 6y ago

> a social network based on proximity and centered around community information is a viable idea, It's just that NextDoor is doing that with our worst instincts I have only seen a little bit of NextDoor, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me to be more of how people are deciding to use the platform as opposed to NextDoor purposely promoting our worst instincts. Do you feel like they really are promoting the most inflammatory posts for the purpose of increasing engagement? (like so many of the other major platforms out there) For me it is sad to see that there are so many people out there too quick to pass judgement on anyone that looks different in their neighborhood. But so far it feels like another example of how web platforms allow people to be more comfortable in expressing their true feelings, and while often disappointing, is a good reminder of the very different views people around us can hold.

jpindar 6y ago
It's not Nextdoor, it's their neighbors. My Nextdoor has none of the things people are complaining about. Here, the worst thing is arguments about whether we are taking COVID seriously enough or not, but I suppose that is a natural consequence of discussing which businesses are closed etc.
duskwuff 6y ago
> Do you feel like they really are promoting the most inflammatory posts for the purpose of increasing engagement? I don't think it's necessarily intentional, but posts which foster fear (like "I saw a scary black person walking down the street") will naturally invite more engagement from users, and the site may respond to that by promoting those posts over less controversial content (like "my cat is missing").

mc32 6y ago

Yeah it’s a double edged sword. On the one hand you know if your neighborhood is getting hit by package thieves, car-break-in’s, etc., on the other hand people walking disheveled in their sweats can get called out. On the other hand this is a neighborhood app and is used differently in different neighborhoods. Tenderloin vs Nob Hill.

vmception 6y ago
ha I just posted about Nextdoor Tenderloin. I live in a different neighborhood now and its a totally different community, very welcoming while also generally empathic to the desperate people doing actual illegal things and redirecting the angst from housed neighbors towards more productive empathy.

notwhereyouare 6y ago

I’m over in Dorchester and holy crap is our next door a mess

cortesoft 6y ago

Similar experience for me... I joined when our cat was missing so I could post to see if anyone had seen him.... this is in Los Angeles, and I have been pretty shocked by the racism and classism... I feel like 75% of the posts are things like "I saw a black man walking!" and "someone was SLEEPING in a car! Someone needs to call the cops!" It is crazy how much everyone assumes all these people are out to get them.

CPLX 6y ago

I live in downtown Brooklyn and I’ve never seen any issues of this kind, like at all, even once. I think at least some of this has to do with the people in the area in question.

Baeocystin 6y ago

I live in Gilroy, a small town in the bay area. I joined Nextdoor for all of two weeks before I quit in annoyance and frustration. A typical post: "OMG Who Is This Suspicious Person!!!" :: watches video, sees rather bored looking person, driving a UPS truck, wearing a UPS uniform, dropping off a package, then leaving :: This was 90%+ of what the posts were like. The rest were 'political' screeds so disjointed they were essentially logorrhea. Something about how Nextdoor has shaped their posting methodologies has made even Facebook posts look sane in comparison, and that's saying something. The added frustration is that real neighborhood watch needs exist. We had some professional thieves roll through our cul-de-sac a few days ago- dozens of people had their cars broken in to, and whatever was in easy reach stolen. The Ring Neighborhood system allowed those of us affected to find who had video of what, and forward it all to the police. That's a real benefit. But it has its own issues. Social media is a hard problem.

Ghjklov 6y ago
One human is complex already. People, groups of humans are even more problematic. Social media is a hard problem because people are hard to get a handle on. And I think that's good. People should be allowed to be skeptical, to have anxieties, and to be able to look out for the interests of their people/community. Just because one Karen saw a suspicious person and wanted to let all her neighbors know to be careful doesn't mean Nextdoor/social media is bad. People looking out for each other is a good thing! You see that all the time in high trust societies where you could even safely leave a bike unattended for a few minutes without fearing that it'll be stolen. Don't get me wrong though. Nextdoor's program to forward suspicions to the police is the wrong play. No one should be arrested and put at harm's way just because someone was a bit anxious one day. I just think that we should be nurturing a high trust society, rather than moving to a low trust one where, on the surface everyone is tolerant/accepting but in reality they aren't really thinking about the other people in their community at all. "Not my problem." "Oh no, I can't let myself be bigoted. Who am I to judge the masked man walking around with a chainsaw at midnight? He might just be headed out to trim his garden?"
- mavelikara 6y ago

vmception 6y ago

on the other hand, Tenderloin Nextdoor in San Francisco is hilarious "oh wow drug dealers in the best neighborhood in the city I can't believe it, but really, did you test the product for accuracy? let us know!"

spaetzleesser 6y ago

In my neighborhood it's quite OK and useful. For example people are exchanging information about internet slowness so you know it's not only you that has the problem. The reports about suspicious activity usually make sense, like videos of people checking out someone's porch.

hombre_fatal 6y ago

> I think idea of organizing a social network based on proximity and centered around community information is a viable idea NextDoor and Craigslist and Reddit's /r/{city} communities just prove that it may be viable but it's pretty undesirable. I think it's best to not give the most neurotic, ill people of your community the loudest voice, but these social networks also create this neuroticism and illness. You also create a scenario (NextDoor especially) where all the sane people are driven out by the crazies. Back when NextDoor was new, after a year it would come up in conversation and sure enough, anyone normal would admit they tried it and had to delete it. Social media is messing us up. I don't think we're missing some new take on it that's going to make it all better. I think the vestigially tribal parts of our brain make it a non-starter. We need to get back to the face-to-face -- it seems to be the only way we keep in mind that there's a human at the other end of the line, not some nebulous automaton that we craft into everything we hate in the world.

icelancer 6y ago
>> I think it's best to not give the most neurotic, ill people of your community the loudest voice. People say that it's the outliers but the reality is that in many cases, this is the silent majority driving the behavior.
- hombre_fatal 6y ago
  Good point. I actually added a sentence to that to clarify: I think this kind of social media only bolsters and broadly spreads (if not creates) that neuroticism and illness. Frankly I just don't think we can handle social media. We're trying to do this whole technological civilization thing and we've made progress that is absolutely mind bending, but it wasn't long ago that we were using fur and bones and would only meet 100 people our entire life. And our brains are still there mentally, lagging behind the rest of our progress.
  - CraigJPerry 6y ago
    IRC, Slashdot, niche communities hosted on phpnuke instances, free/open source software. The early 2000s convinced me the power of sharing knowledge freely online would solve many of society’s problems. I still can’t reconcile just how wildly wrong i was. I didn’t appreciate that it’s not common to want to know truth, common is titillation and tribalism - which always existed anyway, it’s not that the internet increased it or made it more popular, it’s that i was a geek hacking away in my bedroom and didn’t see much of real society. Although my biggest hangup contrasting then vs now is that Microsoft is my favourite tech company these days.

brightball 6y ago

In my neighborhood it’s only been lost pets, HOA questions, neighborhood events and a heads up that people were going door to door in a posted “no soliciting” neighborhood. Also “clean up after your dog” posts. Haven’t seen any suspicious persons type posts, but we did coordinate the entire neighborhood to help the police after people broke into multiple cars in driveways in ours and the adjacent neighborhood. It’s been mostly good with the occasional spammy business posting.

MiroF 6y ago
> we did coordinate the entire neighborhood to help the police how did this work? also sounds like a pretty suburban place maybe?
- brightball 6y ago
  People providing reports and sharing home and neighborhood cameras. Just making everyone aware of what happened resulted in people providing a bunch of additional footage. It’s a neighborhood in a suburb of upstate SC.

axaxs 6y ago

Well, unless it's changed, the big problem is that it seems the first person to sign up is the moderator/leader/whatever. And those are the people with nothing better to do, who subdivide to gain power over some amount of houses. Basically, like the people who try to form HOAs. Most complaints about Nextdoor would be fixed with reasonable moderation. Also: I think a lot of people who complain about Nextdoor need to reflect on where they chose to live. My little city in KY was perfectly fine. People offering help, lost/found animals, events...standard stuff.

TaylorAlexander 6y ago

My understanding is that for this to work everyone has to get in the same room periodically and talk.

Balgair 6y ago

For a larger snapshot ND, the BestOfNextDoor twitter account is solid gold : https://twitter.com/bestofnextdoor https://twitter.com/bestofnextdoor The oft-repeated quote of "ND is just Tinder for old racists" makes it sound so lovely.

duxup 6y ago

What I find interesting is the type of fear that goes around. Almost all the fear type nextdoor posts in the areas I've lived in have involved animals and not humans. Fox, random dog, raccoons and the extremely unlikely but reported none the less....bear sightings.

ab_testing 6y ago

I see that you are blaming nextdoor, when nextdoor is just a symptom. The actual issue is that these people are paranoid and scared and marking anything as suspicous. If not for nextdoor, it will be some other app - but the issue will stay the same.

wespiser_2018 6y ago
> I see that you are blaming nextdoor, when nextdoor is just a symptom. I am trying to share my observation, and express my disappointment that a company has created a skinner-box engagement loop based on fear and neuroticism. People will always be afraid, but technology should be used to bring out the best qualities in humans, not amplify the worst.

p2hari 6y ago

> I think idea of organizing a social network based on proximity and centered around community information is a viable idea Shameless plug: We are exactly working on this and want to bring better community information app without other distractions. Currently only in Denmark.Will be updating the details soon. However, I agree that the way NextDoor is handling community interactions is really disturbing.