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Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

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Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#2
Not sure what to think of this article, as it runs very counter to my own ancedatal experience. I'm a realtor in a 35,000 person town (like described in the article) and I advertise on Nextdoor (or should I say I "sponsor" a neighborhood), but I've never had a lead come in that way and I've never heard anyone locally ever mention using nextdoor for anything. Meanwhile, everyone knows about the various Facebook groups that people use locally for referrals for cleaners, landscapers, local politics, et al.

Again, could be a geographical thing or just my anecdata, so FWIW.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#3
I must wonder whether the misinformation is the excuse and not the reason, as there are plenty of places in America where school funding is a major state issue and that doesn't change a thing.

Oklahoma has a shortage of teachers and election after election, the population collectively shrugs.

I haven't ever heard someone openly oppose education. Privately, I have heard plenty of people say "kids can make do" and "I don't want to pay for other people's kids."

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#4
I tried Nextdoor but quickly closed the app when it was filled with rumors about who in the neighborhood isn't cleaning up after their dog. Maybe I'm throwing away the baby with the bath water, but I don't feel like I miss out on all that much by forgoing yet another social media platform vying for my attention

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#5
If anything it should enable a better small town paper if there is sufficient "throughput". I know in city neighborhoods the volume is ridiculous for a casual user, but for a "neighborhood newspaper" it should be a goldmine for content, leads, perspective, gossip, and things that would make a weekly newspaper a fun read.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#6

I tried Nextdoor but quickly closed the app when it was filled with rumors about who in the neighborhood isn't cleaning up after their dog. Maybe I'm throwing away the baby with the bath water, but I don't feel like I miss out on all that much by forgoing yet another social media platform vying for my attention

I gave it up during the run up to the election. Felt way better off afterwards.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#7
Maybe it is just my nextdoor area but very little relevant community information is found, in fact most all discussions of schools, local politics, and HOAs immediately disappear. Most posts are looking for a local service provider or missing pets. That coupled with the non chronological feeds make me think that Nextdoor only wants to become an Angie's List and not a source of actual good for my community.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#8

Not sure what to think of this article, as it runs very counter to my own ancedatal experience. I'm a realtor in a 35,000 person town (like described in the article) and I advertise on Nextdoor (or should I say I "sponsor" a neighborhood), but I've never had a lead come in that way and I've never heard anyone locally ever mention using nextdoor for anything. Meanwhile, everyone knows about the various Facebook groups…

I think it's very community-to-community. They have hot and influential areas, where the network effect is strong enough to overcome the critical mass required. Also, I imagine they have "bad" mods who kill communities, and "good" mods who don't.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#9
Were small-town papers just as toxic, or is it just my community here in SF?

In the last month, on NextDoor, they doxxed and banded together to get the mentally-challenged skateboarder who’s been my neighborhood for years, and had him arrested because a user felt threatened by him standing around the neighborhood shouting obscenities during manic episodes. (He’s now in jail and this NextDoor thread is trying to make that permanent.)

And today there is a discussion and petition to end the Sanchez slow streets because they are “dangerous” to children and bikers due to cross-traffic and somehow “driving down property costs.”

I suppose all of that can be found on whatever social media site you choose - Twitter, Facebook, etc. But it seems extra pervasive on NextDoor, and I think the internet would be a little better off without the platform as a whole.

Re: Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper

#10
I lasted about one week on Nexdoor. Maybe it's just my neighborhood, but it felt like the weirdest passive-aggressive digital version of everyone peeking out their blinds. Endless worries about someone getting packages stolen, what the city was doing to our park, who in the neighborhood was secretly Antifa or QAnon, and endless screenshots of security cameras. Noped right out.
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