To be fair, this isn't unique to Nextdoor. My relative is a state police and they get calls for things you can't even imagine, like "my kid won't listen to me, can you scare them straight?" or "the neighbor mowed one strip over the line, make them stop!" It just sucks when companies set out to exploit this human characteristic for profit but hide behind the guise of "open platform". "We're just trying to help build stronger neighborhoods", yeah sure you are.
this is a very strong claim. I certainly see a fair amount of cringy pear-clutching or downright racist posts, but I see a lot more posts that are pictures of cats asking if anyone is missing it. also some women and poc warning others about an individual that actually harassed them. is it possible the the posts are you seeing reflect your community more than the platform?
can't speak to this, as I use adblock when browsing. I don't doubt you, though.
> That's why crime posts are distributed to your whole city while general posts default to your neighborhood.
I don't see this. first of all, I don't actually see a specific "crime" category, presumably this falls under "safety". if I try to add a post to a specific category, I don't notice any difference in the default settings.
as for what I see in my home feed, I only see crime related posts from users in nearby locations (ie, my neighborhood and immediately adjacent ones). I only see city-wide posts from city officials, and these are on a variety of topics.
the maximum scope to which you could post was broadened to include your whole "wider area"
That's why crime posts are distributed to your whole city while general posts default to your neighborhood.
It is easy to make money off fear/hate than love/friendship. Racist people will always be racist, Nextdoor or not. It is just that sites like Nextdoor make it easier to vent and share their "feelings". If Nextdoor goes away, there will be 10 others to take its place unfortunately.
So if you see a black person in your neighrbourhood, they must be poor?
>> Asking what these individuals are doing out of their homes during this dire time for them in the U.S. is a prudent action.
So you know there's no house arrest for the general public anywhere in the US right now, plus social networks exist before & after covid?
>> Don't confuse The desire to protect them with allegations of subtle racism.
Yes - everyone's first reaction to the scenario described is "how can I protect this person from themselves?"
I'll give you the benefit of assuming you're just a really argumentative "debater" or this is a troll, otherwise... wow...
Someone in my neighborhood (in the most white-flighty of white-flighty suburbs, sigh) recently posted a picture from their stupid privacy invading doorbell camera of someone peeking in their front windows and asked if they should call the police, if you see this individual let someone know, etc.… on a house that was empty and for sale. No fucking shit he was peeking in the windows, he was probably thinking about buying the fucking place like everybody else peeking in the windows all damn day.
Similarly I've seen pictures of my own neighbor posted several times and labeled a "suspicious individual" while walking to the grocery or wherever. I walk the same route when I want to go to the hardware store or grocery, and somehow I (as a white dude) have never been labeled a "suspicious individual", and yet these people are still like "oh, it's not because he's black, I just didn't realize he lived here…"
/rant
I remember a Nextdoor post in my neighborhood where the author said they were out jogging and a black man in a pickup truck slowed down and asked for directions.
So many replies along the lines of “did you call the police? he could be casing the neighborhood.”
I’m pretty certain there wouldn’t have been a Nextdoor post made if it were a white guy in a sedan.
Once I lost my key to my bike lock and went ahead and got to cutting it. As I was about to take off a cruiser pulls up and takes my info in case someone reported it stolen. Neighbor called the police.
A while back if you were in a place you might not normally find yourself you were either “looking to score or you were a narc.”
Drive around the block three times in some neighborhoods raise alarms that you might be looking to do a drive by...
That seems very different than the examples you're replying to.
I suggested that maybe he leave traffic enforcement to the professionals, and if he noticed a rash of bad driving to maybe alert the police to step up patrol of the area. He doubled down on the character attacks and while I got a bunch of private messages saying thank you for saying something there was an equal amount of public posts from people thanking him for "keeping them safe". Sigh...
It's not just NextDoor, many areas are on average racist and insular. One time I was strolling my baby, and there was a group of well-dressed, but wrongly colored, people (men, women, and children!) walking down the street. A woman pulled over in her shiny car to ask me if I knew these people, and I walked on and ignored her question. When I looked back, she had pulled over and was on her cellphone.
Good luck wherever you are going.
I sometimes take my mother to go see movies. I'm a fairly tall man, and my mom is a fairly short woman. Anyway, one day after seeing a movie, we had stopped in the parking lot near our cars to discuss what we did and did not like about the movie.
While we are talking, a woman drives up with window rolled down and says, "Is that man bothering you?"
My mom responds, "What?"
The woman repeats, "Is that man bothering you?"
My mom answers, "He's my son! No, he's not bothering me."
They were always there, but now they can talk to you, even if you would shun them in "real life".
I try to remember you can frame what they say in different ways. The "black man walking" post can be seen as "racist" or "badly written" or "someone has an anxiety disorder".
Sometimes, but sometimes they know what they're doing.
Living in a quiet suburb in South Carolina, I got tired of the shit I saw and had to stop using nextdoor.
This is from today, https://imgur.com/T9ILkYE
Some are quick to suggest calling the police, either not realizing or not caring that there's potential for things to escalate, & for someone to lose their life.
EDIT: I should note I have reported the member to Nextdoor Support a few times now to no avail.
An example post on was where someone was complaining about a strange black man walking through their neighborhood.
Of course when you read the post carefully you would then come to realize, that this man was walking down the sidewalk, during the day, not bothering or talking to anyone, just minding his own business.
The reality is there was nothing particularly strange about this black man. Nothing in her description explains what he did that made him strange. She likely just finds it strange that a black man is walking through their neighborhood.
The other thing is these kinds of posts would always be followed up with someone along the lines of "keep an eye out for him" or "don't let him near your kids" or "call the police if you see him again" or that kind of fear-mongering nonsense.
I was honestly downright surprised how racist some of these people are.