Earlier this week I saw someone forward a notice to a neighborhood listserve which had first gone out over Nextdoor. The forward was prefaced with this comment:
This was on nextdoor. I hate nextdoor, I need another social network like I need a hole in my head.
I responded to the poster, asking her to elaborate. She was happy to do so:
I don’t really want my neighborhood communications shunted off into a stand-alone platform, I thought email worked well for [Belvidere Park – Woodcrest.] When I do get email notifications from nextdoor, I have to click through to see the whole thread, which I don’t want to do on my smartphone. If Nextdoor were integrated into FB, which I’m already resigned to, that would be one thing. I have zero interest in ramping up conversations in a new platform. I felt like I had to join it to stay looped into Oakwood/Mordecai events, where my office is located, because they opted into Nextdoor entirely.
Later, she added yet another comment:
The other thing is that it’s not much an improvement over the email system we have: same wanks about people not curbing their dogs, that’s a sales post, etc.
Late last night, I got an email from Nextdoor’s system, telling me the neighborhood group (Bennett Woods) I’d been trying to set up for well over a year finally has attracted the requisite 10 subscribers:
Hi Mark,
Great news! [Your neighbor] was the 10th Bennett Woods neighbor to verify her address, so Nextdoor Bennett Woods is now ready to start launching to the rest of the neighborhood!
This means that you and your other verified neighbors now have permanent access to the website. Anyone who hasn’t verified their address will need to do so before accessing the website again.
As the person who first introduced Nextdoor to Bennett Woods, you have been named the Nextdoor Bennett Woods Founding Member. Congratulations!
You’ll now have a permanent Founding Member badge next to your name on the website to highlight your important role. Thanks for everything you have done so far to get Nextdoor Bennett Woods
The message certainly doesn’t lack for enthusiasm, does it? I’m skeptical that my enthusiasm for Nextdoor will ever reach this level, “Founding Member” status notwithstanding. In short, the hunt for “Email 2.0” continues.