Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: nextdoor.com?

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

David and all —

Because a social platform is “for profit” doesn’t automatically make it suspect 
as your posting implies.  I give you Face Book (And altho’ many DO think FB is 
suspect — are you suspending your FB account?)

Any social platform can be used for good or ill.  There are lots of for profit 
dating sites on which scammers abound.  Meetup has plenty of far right and far 
left crazies on it.  Should we not use it for organizing cohousing?

In re: “snarkiness” — ever been on a neighborhood email list?   How about our 
own cohousing community email list? 

I also question this idea that somehow the user of nextdoor.com is indicative 
of the business itself or the business owner(s) or that there is some 
underlying cause the business is supporting.  I used to design and sell outdoor 
adventure related greeting cards.  My buyers were granola crunching 
backpackers, hikers, climbers, canoeists, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, 
hunters, fly fishers and gun owners.  My brother, The Gun Owner, also fished, 
hunted, canoed, backpacked and is a very liberal supporter of environmental 
issues.     Should I have SCRUBBED my list to reflect only my values?

You know … the more I think about this … the more I now see why so many people 
are visceral about cohousing.  “THEY” see us as having an underlying motive.  A 
“cause”.  I think this is the same thing, David, that you are writing about.  
That the platform itself is somehow suspect and it has a mission.

I have no direct experience w/ nextdoor.com.  I have no interest in it 
whatsoever.  But I’m not willing to throw the baby out w/ the bathwater if it 
can be used to connect people.

PS — I’m not clipping any of David’s email because it’s important to those just 
coming into the thread.  But I did clip the rest.

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
703.688.2646

> On Jan 5, 2016, at 3:00 AM, David Mandel <dlmandel [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> I advise being wary about nextdoor.com. For one thing, know it's a
> for-profit social media site.
> 
> It hit our neighborhood a couple of years ago and quickly became a site
> dominated by police and amateur crime fighters, focused on "suspicious
> activity." I quickly dropped off and so did a number of my neighbors. I'm
> sure not all neighborhood versions revert to that, clearly it can depend on
> how it's used in each locale. But I just did a little Googling and found this
> site <http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.nextdoor.com> with lots of
> negative reviews citing a wide variety of problems, including many of the
> type I observed.
> Here's part of the section on "controversies" from its Wikipedia entry:
> 
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextdoor#cite_note-13>
> 
> *Author Pendarvis Harashaw has accused Nextdoor's members of engaging in
> racial profiling <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_profiling>: "While
> Nextdoor's ability to assist in crime-spotting has been celebrated as its
> 'killer feature' by tech pundits, the app is also facilitating some of the
> same racial profiling we see playing out in cities across the country.
> Rather than bridging gaps between neighbors, Nextdoor can become a forum
> for paranoid racialism—the equivalent of the nosy Neighborhood Watch
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_Watch> appointee in a gated
> community."[14] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextdoor#cite_note-14> Sam
> Levin of the East Bay Express did a detailed story of the harm caused by
> racial profiling and problems with moderators on Nextdoor.com in Oakland
> California.[15] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextdoor#cite_note-15>
> Nextdoor has guidelines against postings that are discriminatory or engage
> in profiling, saying, "it's inappropriate to report suspicious activity in
> a way that focuses primarily on the appearance of those involved rather
> than their actions."[16]
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextdoor#cite_note-16>*
> 
> *Nick Wingfield of The New York Times
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times> worried that the site
> may "be used to publicly shame" neighbors or lead to "snarky messages"
> between residents. Nextdoor leadership has maintained that the presence of
> real names helps maintain civil behavior among users.[17]
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nextdoor#cite_note-nyt-17>*
> David Mandel, Sacramento
> :
>