I think this goes in this forum; I’m interested in opinion as well as in facts.
I’d pretty much ignored Nextdoor, in part because I thought there probably wasn’t an active group in this area. But today I got a letter in the mail (yes, paper and envelope; I now notice that the “stamp” is a “mailer’s postmark permit”), addressed to “[Village] Neighbor” on the outside and to “[TheRoadILiveOn] Neighbors” on the inside, saying that a Nextdoor group’s now going in [closest village to me, several miles from my house] and inviting me to join, with an URL and a code to join. The letter says that the code expires in 7 days (it doesn’t say 7 days from when); the URL looks like it would actually go to Nextdoor.
So. On the one hand, I could use an actually local site on which to say things like ‘whose cat is this?’ or ‘anybody know what that big plume of smoke is about?’ On the other hand, I’m dubious about giving not just a batch of my neighbors, but whoever’s running Nextdoor, my IRL name and street address. On the third hand, every time I order something from any company to arrive by mail I have to give my name and street address or it won’t get here; and at least some of the people in the area who I don’t know already know my name, from the planning board or farmers’ market or whatever, and wouldn’t have that much trouble finding out where I live. On the fourth hand, the groups have a pretty dubious reputation in the Wikipedia article; though on the fifth I suppose that must vary by group; and on the sixth while I’ve got a pretty good idea of my immediate neighbors, most of the people who’d be in this are people I don’t already know and/or don’t already know much about. And you can’t browse posts unless you join.
So I would like to help out my dithering by asking for info and opinions from anyone on the Dope who is using, or has used, Nextdoor; both what your experience has been like, and whether you have any particular advice for things I should watch out for in the signup process if I do sign up. And what if anything do they ask in the signup process besides your name and address? And can you quit again, or rather will doing so delete your info?
You don’t have to make your full name or your address available to anyone on Nextdoor. All that shows up in my profile is the name of the neighborhood I live in. No actual address. Some people use their initials instead of their name.
It is good for things like asking if someone else in the neighborhood got your package, or to help find missing pets, or to ask for recommendations for repair people. Some folks will also post about local fundraisers and the like.
There will be some snarky assholes, and people who complain about any and every little thing, so you do have to tune those people out just as on all social media.
We reported a theft (catalytic converter, taken while car parked in the driveway) so neighbors would know on nextdoor.
We found a stolen/abandoned bike in the alley. The owner came and got it after we reported it. Apparently the thieves just wanted the seat. Moral: don’t leave your garage door open.
We were waiting for an amazon package and it got delivered to a similarly named street…the recipient dropped it off for us. We’ve done the same.
True, some of it is BS. It’s good to know if your neighbor got robbed. I think a lot of people don’t know the names of their neighbors etc., so I’m all for it.
I live on a road that has four houses on the entire road, and in a neighborhood with about a dozen houses and no name for the neighborhood that I’ve ever heard of. So in my case it’s probably not going to make much difference whether the actual house number is in there.
If you leave do they delete your info?
– I do know the names of my immediate neighbors (some of whom won’t ever be on Nextdoor; they’re Old Order Mennonite.) I can already call them up about a lost or an extra cat, or to check whether they know that horse van is loading up their horse. (They did.) But this would give me a larger group; it appears to be centered in the village, which is several miles off; but I presume they only sent the mailing to people who’ll be considered to be in the acceptable area.
There are 18 houses in my neighborhood, so not a lot larger here. If someone really wanted to know where I live, they could just go to the online property records and find out anyway. That’s likely true in most places these days.
Deleting your profile removes all your info. You do need to contact Nextdoor to do it, though, according to this.
I followed Nextdoor for about a year. I never posted anything but it kept me abreast of things like utility outages and lost pets and such. But then all of a sudden it became a place to rage against the local homeless population in the vilest terms. I haven’t checked the site in five years or more.
I find it is good for all sorts of extremely local stuff – anybody want all these egg cartons? Banjo music down at the store on friday night! Looking for a teenager who will stack firewood behind my house. Stuff that’s too local for craigslist and too diffuse for Facebook dedicated forums.
Sometimes there’s a flare-up of ranting but it is quickly squelched by the other ‘neighbors’ as nobody wants that crap there.
I doubt they’d even need to do that; they could just ask around. Anybody around here who was seriously trying to find me certainly already could. It’s mostly a matter of making it necessary for them to work a little, which might reduce any spur-of-the-moment hassles.
Thanks. That doesn’t actually say whether Nextdoor keeps your info, though; it just says that you can get rid of both your profile and your posts.
Of course, I suppose there are other people who may be keeping whatever info I gave them in order, for instance, to get a package delivered.
That’s the sort of thing Wikipedia said they’d gotten a bad reputation for. I expect it does vary a good bit by group.
That’s what I would hope for.
(And I do have rather a stock of egg cartons; but I know several people I could ask and at least one store that will take them.)
That was my experience for a while, until some really insistent types wore down the resistance, and the site became a cesspool of misinformation and garbage. Quite a large neighborhood in a large city, so folks could hide behind their anonymity, and there were some who obviously weren’t using their real names. I weighed it up and decided I wasn’t getting as much out of Nextdoor as it was getting out of my participation* so I walked. This was maybe 4 years ago now, or maybe a little less. I’ve gotten along fine without it.
*Under the assumption that they were or soon would be marketing stuff to me based on my location. There was always this assumption that sometime soon they would have to make this free thing pay some bills.
Just using this thread as a place to add a random gripe.
I live in a densely populated neighborhood in a large, densely populated city. My wife and I gave Nextdoor a try as we were looking for some secondhand stuff for our newborn and wanted to keep an eye out for nannies. The biggest issue is that our site is inundated with posts from people who live nowhere close to us. Apparently our neighborhood is affluent enough and well known enough that every single peddler in every single suburb decides that they want to post their junk for sale on our site, probably assuming they’ll get more takers for a higher price. Of course, we’re not interested in driving to bumfuck to pay you $20 for your stupid jacket that your kid outgrew. Sort of makes the marketplace totally fucking useless.
I actually was able to sign up without using my real name, maybe a fluke, but I rarely use my real name online. And no, your address doesn’t need to be shown, just cross streets kind of. And for some reason, I (or my pseudonym) was chosen to be a moderator, which means I get to vote keep, or remove or maybe remove. So don’t post BS about child trafficking or misinformation about the vaccines or I will strike you down! I would say 75% of ours is missing pets, people selling crap and whining about the traffic or dog poop. Mildly interesting.
You are able to sign up with any name, but it violates the terms of service. I had to mod a new neighbour who signed up with the name of his dog. I explained the rule and he quickly changed to his real name.
I also received a NextDoor letter. I looked at the NextDoor site and one of the first things it asked for was my e-mail address, which I provided. After ten minutes I decided NextDoor was not for me and left the site. I did not create an account.
romansgroup says you can leave any time you want to. I’ll accept that to be true but what you cannot do is stop getting NextDoor e-mails unless you have joined (or set up an account).
I have tried unsubscribing a dozen times but each time NextDoor says there is some error and I should contact technical support. No phone number or contact e-mail address is provided. Infinite loop.
Be wary if you provide an e-mail address. I wish now that I have given one of my junk mail addresses.
“What is going on in (neighboring town), I was told it was a satanic ritual!” Includes very blurry picture of some people costumed in red handmaid-looking burkhas and a guy who appeared to be on stilts.
Some jokey comments, some “and what precisely is wrong with satanism?” comments, and the information that it was a climate change protest march, with a newspaper photo of same.
I joined my local Nextdoor but it’s dominated by a single poster who treats it like aceplace57 treats the SDMB, i.e. posts every single thought they ever have and every news article they ever come across. Kind of makes it totally useless.