Trying a new online neighborhood tool Around Town, posted by Chris Zaharias, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2011 at 1:57 pm
I live on Kings Lane, and have just recently signed up with a site I read about on TechCrunch called Nextdoor, basically a configurable online neighborhood. I set up Kings Ln as a neighborhood Web Link and then invited some neighbors via email, others via printable flyers the site provides. Neighbors are just now signing up, but it does seem like a great tool to help neighbors
a) communicate around events (neighborhood get-togethers, etc);
b) report lost/found items (i.e. someone stole my plastic pumpkin last night; hey, me too!);
c) ask questions;
I'll go out on a limb and say I think many PA neighborhoods will be using tools like this to mirror our physical 'hoods online.
Have any other PA neighborhoods set up something similar, and if so what ended up being primary uses besides what I've listed above?
Posted by nothing ventured, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2011 at 3:36 pm
I got an email about this "new" service so I investigated. I guess it's great that companies are still getting funding for repackaged offerings. My neighborhood has been using yahoogroups for communicating the same info touted by Nextdoor for years, and that's worked just fine. I wish someone would give me a boatload of money for essentially reinventing the wheel.
Posted by Facebook User, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2011 at 4:23 pm
In my neighborhood, there are oldies who would not be able to figure this out, some don't even have email. Others who are on the same facebook group and can do this without having to start something else to check in on every day.
Posted by Fred Balin, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2011 at 8:09 pm
We're using it in College Terrace; it was initiated a few months ago by some residents.
Seems like a neat tool. I did notice that some items take a several hours to arrive via email, if you choose to be informed that way, but I've just changed all my settings to "Immediate Updates" so maybe that will resolve it.
Right it tells us we we have 87 of 881 households. Will be interesting to see how it holds up under a full house. It is my invitation only, but member can invite any other, so I expect we will significant growth.
If someone knows more about who runs this service, its history, and any safeguards re confidentially of items posted with in a particular Next Door circle, I'd love to know.
Posted by Fred Balin, a resident of the College Terrace neighborhood, on Nov 1, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Let me correct my typos and clearly restate a paragraph:
Right now the directory you see when you log in notes that 87 of 881 households have joined. It will be interesting to see how well the Next Door concept holds up under a full house. One joins via invitation only, but any member can invite any other, so I expect we will see significant growth.
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