Best of NextDoor on Twitter!

[Howl]

Happy day.  As the title of the thread implies, there is now a Best of NextDoor twitter account.  For those of us on a NextDoor list serve, no explanation is needed.  For everyone else (according to NextDoor) 

"Nextdoor is the private social network for you, your [busybody] neighbors and your community. It's the easiest way for you and your neighbors to talk [trash] online and make all of your lives better in the real world crazy because everyone now has has chance to get into everybody else's business... Thousands of neighborhoods are already using Nextdoor to build happier, safer places to call home."

In my neighborhood, it's 90% lost and found pets, with not too much opining or complaining because the crazies get shut down stat, like the guy fear posting about someone dressed in all black walking down the sidewalk of a major street and wearing dark glasses, because, you know, black helicopters.  There are other posts about break-ins, people possibly casing the neighborhood, suspicious cars, etc.   In other nearby neighborhoods, things are apparently much, much worse in terms of people fighting online. Anyway, this was my absolute favorite: 

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Anyway, would I be a bad person if I posted a link to the BestofNextDoor on my neighborhood NextDoor?  I think it would be a public service! No, wait, this is my fave: 

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[CTRLZero]

Ha ha!  I wonder if they were at my house a couple days ago.  I didn't bother to get up to answer the series of loud knocks on my door, but I could hear some folks out there talking amongst themselves, making phone calls, and generally making themselves at home on my front porch.  Move on, people! 

My daughter is on Next Door, and it does come in handy when pets are lost, etc.

[Briefly]

We're on it for our neighborhood.  It seems to be mostly lost dogs and asking for home repair recommendations.  My mother in law just loves it, she is kind of a gossip and she tells some wild stories of things she saw on hers.  I guess it has a purpose, we just joined it a few weeks ago.

[bea]

I’m in Chicago and the app is sometimes a riot, sometimes very depressing. I live in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, and there’s so many new residents who really did absolutely no research on the area before they moved in to be near the upscale whiskey bars and Asian fusion food. New residents who are just DO DISTURBED , you guys, to find that their neighborhood is only half hipster! There are Latino people in HOODIES in the alley! Yes, numbnuts, because they’re your neighbors and they’re taking out the trash.

This is Memorial Day weekend, traditionally the kickoff to the major homicide season (I wish I were kidding, but we’re at over 20 wounded and 7 dead between Friday to Sunday night) and the whining of the new residents is getting on my last goddamned nerve. We’ve been in our house 18 years and the area is “improving,” but still has a significant gang problem and actual crime. The fact that someone might mug you as you stagger home from a bar at 4am is definitely within the realm of possibility.

Oh no, the people next door are speaking Spanish loudly. This is a real complaint from Next Door. “My neighbors speak Spanish really loudly!” Your dumb ass moves to an area that’s still 60% Latino after 8 years of gentrifying development and you’re upset that your neighbors - who have likely lived in that house for three generations- speak Spanish. Oh, now they’re playing norteña (oh my God no it’s not Mexican polka, don’t make me slap you) and it’s bothering you because you don’t feel like you can sit outside? Bitch, why NOT? They’ll offer you a beer and feed you, I guarantee it. Oh, it’s preventing you from sitting on your stoop with an artisanal beer and feeling smug because you’re living in a “hot” neighborhood? Suck it up, buttercup. The cops who show up when you call are going to side-eye you and maybe give you a parking ticket, because there’s actual crime here. Also stop posting “I THINK I HEARD GUNSHOTS” every time someone sets of fireworks.

And the black guy running down the street? That’s the neurosurgeon who lives in the million dollar house two blocks down, he jogs.
[emoji849]

[zeebaneighba]

My eyes rolled SO HARD when I saw this thread.  Our neighborhood is one of the more, erm, how shall I put it? snobby?  full of itself?  Old white fuddy duddied? neighborhoods in the city. We bought here because I hate cookie cutter houses and HOAs and our particular block goes bananas for Halloween (the old snobs in the south part of the neighborhood HATE that.) 

Anyway, in addition to the lost pets and repair recommendation requests on NextDoor, we get a TON of "OMG!  I saw a black man walking down the street!  I called the cops!" posts, mostly from those same south-side fuddy duddies.  One of my favorites was when one of them wanted to ask the city to outlaw parking on the street in the neighborhood because it made it look "ghetto!"  That person got an earful from a LOT of people.  

I check it daily just to see what ridiculous thing people are getting their panties in a twist about today!

[catlady]

a few months ago, we had a guy post a very vague ad looking for a "tenant" who was female, a college student, and a homebody on the weekends.  a dozen people stepped in immediately wondering why he was posting such a potentially discriminatory ad.  turns out he was expecting this prospective tenant to provide in-home care for an elderly relative.  things got a little creepier when it was found that on the same day he posted another ad saying that he was a magician for hire who specialized in parties for preteens.  that one may well have been completely harmless, but his wording was, shall we say a little off, in addition to a weirdly specific age bracket.  he was called out for that too.  after about 6 hours of arguing (well, defensive name-calling) with the replies, he pulled both ads and left the group.  the whole thing was a little unsettling.  

beyond that, our area is mostly home repair requests and reports of kids rummaging around in unlocked cars.

[HarryPotterFan]

I should check out if my neighborhood has one. They’re so fucking entitled. I’ve seen people park in multiple spots outside the grocery store and restaurant. Like parking with the line in the middle of their car or even parking diagonally and taking up four spaces. Because they are super special and no one can park near their car. My dad is protective of his expensive car so HE PARKS FAR AWAY AND ONLY USES ONE SPACE LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!!

Once I parked close to the entrance of the grocery store because I was in a rush and the woman I parked next to was about to leave and bitched me out for parking too close to her when there were so many other spaces for me to choose from. I apologized and offered to move and she ignored me. Or just people stopping in spots to wait for someone and totally blocks traffic (like someone recently was dropping their kid off and stopped their big ass Range Rover SUV on the wrong side of the road and just sat there) because no one else in the world could possibly be trying to go anywhere.

[ViolaSebastian]

I'm on my neighborhood's Next Door JUST for the shits and giggles, but holy crow it can sometimes be racist. There's quite a bit of "I saw a red car going slowly down an alley and there was a brown guy inside it!" In the summertime, from Memorial Day on, it's posts about people lighting off fireworks that can get downright heated--people really hate fireworks, but they also hate the idea of anyone approaching the fireworks lighters or calling the cops.  

[polecat]

My Nextdoor is 99 percent benign -- lost pets, services recommendations, complaints about people burning when they're not supposed to be. 

But oh, when stuff goes down, it's quite exciting. 

There was the lady who panicked and called the cops because some kids walking in front of her house tossed a fast food cup "full of a suspicious liquid" into her yard, and she feared for her life and her picture window. And anyway, you never know! She got her ass handed to her by the neighborhood but also most likely by the police, who have actual policing to do here in a city where we play "fireworks or gunshots?" year-round. 

And the other lady (probably related to the first) who was quite nervous about someone who was parking on the street in front of her house. Yes, they were her neighbor, and she knew that, but was it actually legal to park in front of someone's house on a public street? Because it just struck her as odd and possibly not legal and should she call the police? 

Oh! And the man who was extremely upset when one of his neighbors had the unmitigated gall to ask the man's fiancee to pick up their dog's poop instead of leaving it in the neighbor's yard, as they were wont to do. After all, wild animals crap everywhere. Why shouldn't the dog? WHO DOES THAT, he asked. HOW DARE THAT NEIGHBOR SPEAK TO HIS FIANCEE LIKE THAT?

Thankfully, the vast majority of my neighbors on NextDoor have sense. 

[hoipolloi]

Heh. Thanks for this, @Howl. On Next Door for my area. Being of the get-off-my-lawn generation, I've also risked dislocating my eyeballs at some of the posts. 

I do appreciate the genuine crime alerts -- auto & house break-ins -- which, sadly, seem to be more frequent. Otherwise, it's lost pets, service people requests (e.g., good handyman ref), and community items like park clean-up events.

[ADoyle90815]

One thing about Nextdoor is that you find out where the racists live in the area. Another thing that gives complaints is the fireworks since all kinds are illegal in my city. Basically between Memorial Day and mid July, half of the complaints are of people lighting off fireworks. One local newspaper's columnist has even written articles about the weird things on Nextdoor.

 

Spoiler

https://www.presstelegram.com/2017/12/27/think-your-life-in-long-beach-is-ok-you-havent-checked-out-nextdoor/

This is probably the craziest thing from my local Nextdoor.

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https://www.presstelegram.com/2018/02/14/no-nextdoor-humans-were-not-here-before-coyotes/

 

 

 

 

[SueEllenMishke]

The top 2 posts on my NextDoor  right now are discussing "two teenage males" walking down the street at 11:15 at night (GASP!!!) and complaining about a meth lab a couple miles away and why the cops haven't shut it down. 

Yay for small town North Carolina 

[GreyhoundFan]

6 hours ago, polecat said:

And the other lady (probably related to the first) who was quite nervous about someone who was parking on the street in front of her house. Yes, they were her neighbor, and she knew that, but was it actually legal to park in front of someone's house on a public street? Because it just struck her as odd and possibly not legal and should she call the police? 

I used to be a police dispatcher. I always hated answering those calls. I'd have every road unit busy on actual police work, and some nimrod would call to whine that his or her neighbor parked in the public street. I would explain that if the vehicle had a resident permit, they could park anywhere that was listed for residents (college town, so residents had permits). One man whined so much, I eventually had an officer go out there. The offending vehicle's bumper was less than two inches over the property line, but it was in the public street. The officer told me that the man started crying when told that the vehicle would not be towed and that the officer would not go tell the people they couldn't park legally.

 

My Nextdoor area is mostly lost pets and questions about home improvements, but there is quite a bit of nastiness because there is a shopping center at the edge of the neighborhood. Said shopping center has a large contingent of people hanging out there. The MAGA-morons jump up and down because some of the people are either Latino or African-American. They then stick their noses up and say they go to the "better" shopping center that is two miles away. I just shake my head.

[ViolaSebastian]

Today's offering. If anyone is interested in slightly used lingerie, my Next Door can hook you up.

[apandaaries]

Wow. I'd never think to go to Next Door for used lingerie! 

I used it for recommendations for an electrician. Guess who wound up with a fundie in her household?! He told me his wife homeschooled and he'd caught their fifth-born, a son, at home when the midwife didn't get there on time. Then, I saw his screaming craziness in full force at a Planned Parenthood event (there was a protest and a counter-protest; we were of course part of the "Defend PP" side, which had obtained the permits for protesting directly in front of PP. They had to protest from across the street, but he was comfortable getting up in our faces and screaming). I mean, I know there are plenty of far right religious folks in my area, I just didn't imagine I'd accidentally invite one in and then pay him for work. I'm still bummed that I accidentally funded his insanity.

Lesson learned: get recommendations, and then check into them even further. Had I but known...

[Loveday]

I wonder if Lori Alexander is on Nextdoor in her area?

Silly me. Of course she is. She probably runs the thing.  

[squiddysquid]

My grandma actually uses binoculars to spy on the neighbours.

Thank Rufus she isn't internet savy.

[Georgiana]

Y'all have inspired me to join Next Door.  Evidently my neighborhood has a serial pooper.  You know, exactly like an episode of Bob's Burgers (the mad pooper!), but this is actually for real happening in my life.  

[HarryPotterFan]

I wanna check out my local NextDoor but I don’t feel like entering my email address 

[catlady]

I actually use my work email.  No one has sold me to a spam list, and all I get are six notices per week directing me to new posts. 

[HarryPotterFan]

15 hours ago, catlady said:

I actually use my work email.  No one has sold me to a spam list, and all I get are six notices per week directing me to new posts. 

I used the email address I came up with in middle school. Is hotmail still a thing? Nothing exciting to report. Car-break in a few miles away, babysitter needed, and looking for a mechanic. That’s it.

ETA: Oh wait those are just examples, guess I gotta make an account to see more?

ETA 2: Oh crap, they sent a verification to that email address. I don’t know how to access it anymore. Oops.

ETA 3: Worked on reactiviting that email and found out I don’t need to register to see more. I’m confused. Still nothing interesting.

[HarryPotterFan]

I thought I found something weird and got excited. But no, I just have a dirty mind

Spoiler

 

[front hugs > duggs]

I just signed up with fake credentials (teehee), but my nextdoor is mostly filled with bear and coyote sightings. This exchange was pretty snark-worthy IMO:

"I'm assuming it was kids out on Mischief Night that stole the pumpkin from my front step. But this should be a warning that you can't assume that our neighborhoods are safe.  I hope the young kids that stole my pumpkin don't come back for trick-or-treat. My neighbor actually saw you."

"what is this area coming to? not even plants and decorative squashes are safe anymore :("

 

Listen, if the worst thing that happens in my neighborhood is decorative squashes going missing, I'm counting my blessings.

[keen23]

There's a lot of lost/found pets in my area. The occasional is it fireworks or gunshots. And throw in a "strange/suspicious car in my neighborhood" just for good measure.