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Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

onezero.medium.com

111–120 of 136 posts

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a suburban area where you cannot get a house under $2 million. It is extraordinarily safe. Yet if you read the NextDoor it seems like 1970s New York, with crime and danger around every corner. Eyeball-oriented media always algorithmically boosts sensational news, which simply doesn’t reflect reality. Traditional print media, which would be owned by an independently wealthy elitist family, didn’t need those…

But small-town police blotters were (are?) hilarious. https://www.npr.org/2012/04/07/150148340/small-towns-police-... NextDoor is Gladis Kravitz meets Archie Bunker, minus the humorous aspects.

The police blotter for the richest towns in the Bay Area are pretty funny too. It's amazing that the police get called when someone's walking their dog without a leash.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#112

Forgive my ignorance but who uses something like Nextdoor? Is it used mainly in suburban communities? I could never imagine anyone using it in any of the urban centres I have lived in.

In SF, most neighborhoods are very active. It may be because SF is where ND started, but I think ~60% of the residents had accounts as recently as a year ago.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this the same guy that I regularly see skating down Stevens Creek Blvd with headphones on while shouting random stuff while ignoring pretty much every traffic law? Cuz I definitely don't feel safe around people that unpredictable.

But do you want to call the cops on him and throw him in jail, or would you prefer to do something constructive for him and the community?

do you want to wait until he has a manic episode and has a knife for some reason, or rapes someone? There is no "constructive" thing for this, apart form him being forced to get treatment if he won't do so willingly.

Usually if he's there long enough to be "the screaming skateboard guy" it isn't happening.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#114
Given that independent local newspapers are in decline because of Craigslist, FB, ND, and other social media, what could be a good outcome?

Does ND acquire Patch/Hoodline for quality content? This would only work in metro areas they cover.

Or perhaps ND partners with local newspapers and pays them for content? This is more difficult to scale but offers a lifeline to local newspapers who’d otherwise continue to decline in the digital era.

I lament concentration of media, but one can’t deny there are economies of scale in digital media and algorithmic advertising on a national level. It has largely come to pass already in local TV news with Sinclair Broadcasting. I don’t know how these trends can be reversed.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds very judgmental about NextDoor users. They are voicing their concerns about their neighborhood and community. Why do you have to say anything about their community, especially if you don't live there? You also have the right to voice concerns about your neighborhood and community. I would assume you want others to respect your right to voice your concerns, just as they would expect you to respect their ri…

I live in a suburban area where you cannot get a house under $2 million. It is extraordinarily safe. Yet if you read the NextDoor it seems like 1970s New York, with crime and danger around every corner. Eyeball-oriented media always algorithmically boosts sensational news, which simply doesn’t reflect reality. Traditional print media, which would be owned by an independently wealthy elitist family, didn’t need those…

Have you wondered how and why the area is so safe? Have you wondered why houses are so expensive in your neighborhood?

It’s safer because of the vigilant neighbors reporting crime and keeping community engaged. The increased safety increase house values, because people want to live in safe neighborhoods.

Ask yourself or your parents why they chose to move to the neighborhood and still live there? The safe neighborhood is likely the top reason.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#116
post #112

Forgive my ignorance but who uses something like Nextdoor? Is it used mainly in suburban communities? I could never imagine anyone using it in any of the urban centres I have lived in.

In SF, most neighborhoods are very active. It may be because SF is where ND started, but I think ~60% of the residents had accounts as recently as a year ago.

That's quite surprising. I would have thought the utility decreases as population density increases.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a suburban area where you cannot get a house under $2 million. It is extraordinarily safe. Yet if you read the NextDoor it seems like 1970s New York, with crime and danger around every corner. Eyeball-oriented media always algorithmically boosts sensational news, which simply doesn’t reflect reality. Traditional print media, which would be owned by an independently wealthy elitist family, didn’t need those…

Have you wondered how and why the area is so safe? Have you wondered why houses are so expensive in your neighborhood? It’s safer because of the vigilant neighbors reporting crime and keeping community engaged. The increased safety increase house values, because people want to live in safe neighborhoods. Ask yourself or your parents why they chose to move to the neighborhood and still live there? The safe neighborhoo…

It’s safe because everyone who can afford to be anywhere near here has too much to lose to bother getting involved in crime. It’s why this community fought tooth and nail to prevent public transit from reaching here.

It’s also safe because the police know everyone who lives here and keep close tabs on anyone who doesn’t.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds very judgmental about NextDoor users. They are voicing their concerns about their neighborhood and community. Why do you have to say anything about their community, especially if you don't live there? You also have the right to voice concerns about your neighborhood and community. I would assume you want others to respect your right to voice your concerns, just as they would expect you to respect their ri…

> especially if you don't live there I do live in the neighborhood NextDoor area where I speak of, and my experience is not uncommon. I have seen the online NextDoor and have in-person physically walked the lived reality as well. "In Other News", where I live has an outdated reputation. That outdated reputation lives on despite reality and my personal efforts to tell and demonstrate otherwise. Folks on NextDoor tend…

The neighbors sounds like vigilant people that are very engaged in safer neighborhood and keep the community engaged. Most likely, these neighbors are the reason for increase in safer neighborhood.

Why do you choose to live in this neighborhood? People can choose to live in less engaged neighborhood.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#119
Interestingly, I see local journalists occasionally reaching out to people who have posted on ND and writing articles based on what they have posted. It's not the most common thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if local journalists watched ND for trends/topics to cover.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#120

I don't remember local or small-town papers to [generally] being toxic or cesspools of hate. However, one of my True Jokes is "NextDoor: Hate Your Neighbors" just as "Facebook: Hate Your Family & Friends" and "Twitter: Hate Your Heroes". NextDoor sounds good, but it generally proves not. Everything from "suspicious teenagers on the sidewalk again" [meaning: local kids walking to their local home from the local school…

I worked in journalism at the tail end of the local paper era. My first degree is actually an associate’s in journalism and I won several state-level awards for journalism in college in the late 90s. (In fact, my two year college paper swept our category the two years I was there.) Out of the twenty or so people on that staff, all of us started with paying jobs in journalism, but only two of us now work in anything e…

I wonder what the effect of CNN and then Fox News was on paper subscriptions during the 1990s. Wikipedia shows that revenue peaked in 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_newspapers#/media/F... But it looks like circulation began it's decline in 1990: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/01/circulation... Especially with subscriptions declining, I can absolutely imagine newspapers using every trick in the book to keep revenues increasing, until one day they were out of tricks, which ultimately had the effect of accelerating their demise for having cheapened their product.

EDIT: Weird. The Pew revenue graph site (below the circulation graph) has the same shape as the Wikipedia revenue graph, but seems to be shifted later by 6+ years. The Wikipedia numbers are inflation adjusted, so I'm guessing the Pew graph isn't adjusted?

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