OK, thanks!
Makes sense.
OK, thanks!
Makes sense.
But they’re easy to grab and relocate with a herpetologist.
I very rarely actually log into Nextdoor and read the threads anymore, but I do still get their emails. Judging by the subject lines it’s a lot of the same stuff the OP was complaining about. And with the increasing popularity of Ring doorbells and inexpensive home security cameras, now it’s a lot of “This suspicious looking person rang my doorbell. They left after a few minutes when no one answered the door, but they were clearly up to no good.”
There also seems to be a lot of posts along the lines of “Warning! There’s a new scam going around…” As far as I can tell the “new” scam is usually just a variation on an old scam with the details changed slightly. But some people think they need to warn everyone about every phishing email and robocall they receive.
A few years ago there was a thread complaining about a volunteer organization that operates a homeless shelter in our town every winter. The shelter doesn’t have its own building; rather, local churches let them use their facilities. The thread started out with typical NIMBY complaints from people who didn’t want a homeless shelter in their neighborhood. But then people started forming conspiracy theories about the organization that runs the shelter. People were convinced that they’re bringing homeless people to our town from neighboring cities, or at least encouraging homeless people to come here, because they get more funding if there are more homeless people here. But if it wasn’t for that thread I never would have heard of that organization; now I make a donation to them every year.
I think I lasted on Nextdoor for about a month before I had to pull the plug on it for the sake of my sanity. Funny enough, I’m the admin for my neighborhood Facebook Groups page (I started the page on a lark about 10 years ago, and now I have like 7000 members) and I don’t even log into that more than once a month as it can drive me crazy. (I have three moderators that take care of stuff, and I respond to flagged posts.) But I just can’t deal with the day-to-day bitching and complaining. (There was a period I was superactive and engaged, and after awhile, it just wore me down.)
Oh my, this. I was just reading a thread yesterday concerning the bills people are getting after a long and highly unusual cold snap we had a few weeks ago. Cries of “I didn’t do anything different! I keep my house at 68 degrees all the time! Light, Gas and Robbery are ripping us off/using our hard-earned money to pay the bills of the moochers”. It really makes me wonder how these people manage to get out of bed.
This is what I usually use it for. My plumber and electrician are rock stars there. Nextdoor makes it so much easier to get my home projects done.
I’ve only made a few posts in my time there and they were mainly to find homes for kittens that had shown up in my yard. And I usually got that done in a day or two.
Mine gets someone posting, “Did anyone hear that loud noise?!”
Then 30 people responding “I heard it too!”
Or, " I just saw someone casing a house. (Or I just saw someone robbing all the mailboxes on the block!) Be on the lookout!"
People responding, “Did you report it to 911?”
No response.
Or someone posting about a theft.
Someone responding, “It’s the liberals’ fault!”
Someone loses or finds a lost pet, but instead of writing that they lost/found a lost pet, they just have a picture of a pet and say to contact them. So if you’re doing a word search for “lost” or “found” pet, you’ll never see it.
Now, after a recent site change some months ago, whenever someone responds to a post, they mistakenly click the button that says “post as a new topic” (or something similar). So there are orphan responses all over with no context.
While you’re in Preferences, change your “Newsfeed Preferences” to “Recent Posts” instead of “Top Posts”. And then remember to do it again in 60 days.
But if you do a search for “fur baby” you’ll have an infinite number of hits. I’ve never heard of that glurge inducing term until I got on Nextdoor, and also Ring. Anyone using should spend a week in the doghouse.
Yeah, I did the first. Don’t know if I’ll remember the second.
I could put it on my Lists, I suppose. But I have too much stuff on my Lists already. And what kind of jerk of a setup keeps resetting your preferences for you anyway?
Oh man, you’re not kidding! I hate that!
What a small world! I’m a mod on Nextdoor! It’s a thankless job, and I still think I must have lost my mind when I agreed to do it. This thread has been very interesting, though, and just supports my theory that one of the reasons Nextdoor is such a mess is that people DON’T report the ridiculous posts that need to get taken down.
So, maybe, all my fellow Dopers who are also on Nextdoor could lend a hand? And when you see a racist, conspiracy theory, spammy post, report it, and make your “neighborhood” a better place!
Good to meet a fellow crazy person, LOL!
PLEASE!!! YES!!! We need your help, we can’t be everywhere at once. Nextdoor can be good, but we need help filtering out the chaf.
My local Nextdoor has been flooded with GoFundMe requests. Some legit, some obviously fake, some just deluded (asking for money for a vacation trip). Actually, I haven’t seen any new ones in a couple weeks; I wonder if there’s been a crackdown?
I use Facebook instead. Yes, the neighborhood group has a few of these, but not too many.
One is reasonable- “why are there helicopters circling overhead” since my area has a low security jail and is prone to wildfire, so choppers could mean an escape or a fire.
We do get “car driving slowly up the street, looking at houses!!!”.
But in general mostly good stuff:
“ISO a plumber who works weekends”
“Lost cat”
“I ate at the local pizza place and it was great!”
“Does anyone have some extra free cardboard boxes?”
Yep. I also listed for free several palm trees i thought were a fire hazard. A contractor offered to take them off my hands, did so, and said he owed me a favor. I texted him back out an old broken hot tub, make out of some foam stuff i needed gone. A few days later- it was gone! Favor for favor.
We get that in the the local Sheriffs page;
Article about a bad person they just caught
comments are either “Good job!”
Or assholes “It doesnt matter Gascon will just let them go anyway!”.
I have no problem with that term- but I do not use it myself. My cats are my buddies, not my babies.
We dont get any racist posts, I mean sure, there will be a blurry frame from a Ring of some dude in a black hoodie walking in places that are a little off but not illegal- but at 3AM? But it’s just some dude in a black hoodie- usually white, maybe hispanic. Okay, 3am is a weird time to go wandering around looking in car windows, and maybe he is a thief, but ??
I had signed up for it years ago but I stopped reading. It’s just old people ranting about crime and the homeless. If you actually read everything people say they saw happen in my neighborhood it would make you so paranoid you’d never go outside.
A couple of people in my neighborhood post stunning wildlife photos also.
Ours is the regular “Is that a gun shot?” or “Someone looked at my house from the sidewalk!!” garbage but my favorite is “my water bill was a $100 this month, they’re ripping us off!!”
No. Your water bill was $30, your sewer charge was $45, there is a $10 storm water charge and a $10 road maintenance fee, all on one bill. Taken separately I think those charges are reasonable. If the city sent 4 separate bills they would complain about that.
The Go Fund Me posts are the worst. Apparently, if you make bad choices in life, I should just send you money? The best one I’ve seen on my feed was a woman who wanted money for DNA testing, so she could find out who got her pregnant, so she could decide how to proceed with her pregnancy. No one contributed.
Wow! I’ve contributed when I was able to verify the stories, but there are some real doozies out there.
Here in NC people get concerned about snakes, too, because copperheads are fairly common and some people are always posting pictures asking for identification of a snake they saw near their house. It’s become a bit of a local joke; recently someone posted a picture of a hawk that’s been hanging around and among all the people debating whether it was a Cooper’s, red-shouldered, or red-tailed hawk someone posted “copperhead”.
I was able to find a ride for an endoscopy last year via Nextdoor. In fact, several people offered to help, and I was also given info on possible local services.