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Loura Seif
We believe connecting with others is a universal human need. That truth, and the reality that neighborhoods are among the most important communities in our lives, have been guiding principles for Nextdoor since the beginning.
Neighbors for Hire have the opportunity to build their local reputation on Nextdoor by sharing recommendations from neighbors, promoting their services through Local Deals, and interacting one-on-one with neighbors who send them private messages.
Nextdoor is a futuristic world, for sure. I should have known not to use it for anything more than mechanic recommendations, and for-sale-by-neighbor. I allowed myself to become frustrated by the fact that some randomly chosen leads control what is considered offensive or unneighborly. So if you have a difference of opinion with the wrong one, watch out! I should be glad that I have been suspended, over a purely philosophical disagreement (over animal shelters) with a known-bully lead, who made personal contact with someone I know, just to start spewing the N-word, as if she thought this would be acceptable to him? Nextdoor cares about none of this. It just wants to be able to claim that the guidelines dictate kindness. They could not care less by whom or how those guidelines are interpreted.
Nextdoor attempts to be a message board for a neighborhood to allow neighbors to communicate. You can, of course, blame Nextdoor that some contributors abuse its use by using it for the purposes for which it was not intended but maybe that is blaming the wrong side. Facebook, Instagram and all the others suffer from people who seek to be rude, complain, abuse send insult and Nextdoor like other social media platforms struggles to keep the app civil. Sadly there are always those people who will spoil good intentions. It is, I suppose, human nature which does not mature well over time. Note for fairness sake, I was asked a long time ago to be a lead for Nextdoor, not a job I relish.
Nextdoor Holdings, Inc. is an American company which operates a hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in San Francisco, California. Nextdoor launched in the United States in October 2011,[3] and is available in 11 countries as of May 2023.[4] Users of Nextdoor are required to submit their real names and addresses to the website.[5] However, they do not verify the accuracy of submitted names and addresses.[citation needed]
On May 14, 2014, Nirav Tolia, then-CEO of Nextdoor, was charged with felony hit-and-run for allegedly fleeing a crash on Highway 101 in Brisbane, California that left a woman injured. "It's ironic that the CEO of a company that is holding itself out as trying to promote neighborliness, crime watch and things like that flees the scene of an accident that he caused and doesn't bother to call 911 or stay around to exchange information or see if he caused any injuries," said the woman's attorney, Joseph Brent.[13] On June 12, 2014, Tolia pled no contest and served 30 days of community service in lieu of jail time.[14]
Typical platform uses include neighbors reporting on news and events in their "neighborhood" and members asking each other for local service-provider recommendations.[25] "Neighborhood" borders were initially established with Maponics, a provider of geographical information.[5] According to the platform's rules, members whose addresses fall outside the boundaries of existing neighborhoods can establish their own neighborhoods.[26][27] "Founding" members of neighborhoods determine the name of the neighborhood and its boundaries, although Nextdoor retains the authority to change either of these.[27] A member must attract a minimum of 10 households to establish a new "neighborhood", as of November 2016.[28]
While allowing for "civil debate", the platform prohibits canvassing for votes on forums. The service does, however allow separate forums just for political discussions. According to The New York Times, these discussions are "separated from [a user's regular] neighborhood feeds".[29] The company had established these separate forums in 12 markets by 2018. The company has stated it "has no plans" to accept political advertising.[29][failed verification]
In a 2014 study of three neighborhoods in Atlanta, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology found that Nextdoor users from the study tended to be highly engaged with their respective neighborhoods outside of their participation on Nextdoor. For these users, Nextdoor provided a means of communication with individuals in a geographic area, instead of the topic-specific focuses of mailing lists, Facebook groups, and Craigslist posts. Study participants described Nextdoor discussions as civil, and stated that the website's address verification requirement increases trust among users while also raising privacy concerns associated with disclosing one's location to the neighborhood.[30]
Users can post on Nextdoor about crime and safety in their community.[33] Starting in 2015, media outlets have reported some Nextdoor users have been racially profiling people of color in neighborhoods across the United States.[34][35] In 2016, Nextdoor announced that users would be asked to submit identifying characteristics other than race when posting warnings about individuals or events in the neighborhood.[35]
The Atlantic discussed further concerns over hyperactive "crime and safety" sections of Seattle's private community pages on Nextdoor. According to The Atlantic, "Seattle Mayor Ed Murray derided an atmosphere of 'paranoid hysteria' he'd witnessed on the message boards of some of Seattle's more upscale neighborhoods."[40] The mayor said on KUOW-FM, the local NPR affiliate, that Seattle's wealthiest areas are some of the most active communities on Nextdoor.[41] "The neighborhoods where most of the social-media complaints are coming out of are not even the neighborhoods that have significant crime problems, which tend to be our communities of color in the south part of the city. If it's simply about creating a sense of paranoia or if it's about stigmatizing folks in our city that are struggling, then I have to think about why we're in that kind of partnership."[40]
Nextdoor partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and American Red Cross to help distribute information related to COVID-19 to local neighborhoods.[51] Nextdoor also partnered with Walmart to allow users at risk of COVID-19 complications to request shopping assistance during the pandemic.[52] Walmart locations and store hours were placed on a "Help Map" where users could post to offer help to others in their neighborhoods.[53] Nextdoor reported an 80% increase in user engagement during March 2020, especially in areas most seriously affected by the virus.[54]
The company exchanges services with government agencies such as the California Secretary of State's office and the District of Columbia Board of Elections. These public agencies collect and present voter-education information, such as voting locations and voter registration deadlines. This is offered as a link in the Nextdoor platform for members in those neighborhoods.[56]
Since at least 2019, Nextdoor has used addressed advertising mail to attract new users in several of the countries it operates in, using a form letter referencing the local neighborhood and credited to a local resident.[60][61][62] According to Nextdoor, these letters only use the names of residents who have explicitly agreed to send invitations to their neighbors; however, some users claim to have been named in these letters without their permission, or that they thought they were merely clicking a link for more information about the invitations before agreeing to send them.[60][61][63] On occasion, authorities not familiar with the service have issued alerts suggesting the mailings were potentially fraudulent, which Nextdoor has denied.[63][64]
Nextdoor for Public Agencies, our free government interface, enables law enforcement to build strong ties and trust with the neighborhoods they serve to improve the effectiveness of their relational, community, and neighborhood policing efforts.
With access to Nextdoor for Public Agencies, officers and staff can geo-target messages to specific neighborhoods or services areas, or their entire municipality improving the reach and efficiency of their outreach. Nextdoor members who are verified residents automatically receive communications.
I'm in total shock to the whole situation as I write this... and I am needing a bit of advice. Please don't judge me, I am just looking for a little guidance here.
I have always been more of an old fashioned parent. My kids are homeschooled, so don't have to deal with many of the issues that come about with bullying, but because my son meets friends easily and he has gotten many compliments on how friendly and caring he is, and we have a large group of kids that they have met in our neighborhood that play on a regular basis. The next door neighbor (a girl - 12), and my son - 10, became good friends when we moved in, they played often. I did notice then, that they would bicker at each other every now and then, but nothing major. Then, a new boy moved into the neighborhood that my son started playing with, they became good friends too. I always told my son that everyone can be friends and to include each other when playing, and he would. The girl didn't like the fact that Troy had started playing with the boy and wanted Troy to play only with her, and soon started creating conflict. There have been several statements made by the girl trying to make my son and the other boy to not be friends, such as saying my son was using the boy for his pool and didn't really like him as a friend. As time has gone on, the girl has seemed to start bullying my son. She compares his things to hers and says hers are better than his... he had a birthday party, and when my son asked if she had fun, she said "it was alright, I've seen better". My son got a scooter, and she had to put him down and say his scooter doesn't have the right parts, etc. Each time this happened, my son would come to me and tell me what she said. I just told my son he didn't have to be friends with her, and maybe if he talked with her and told her he didn't like what she was saying, she would stop. It continued, and she started saying things like "nobody likes you in the neighborhood", "I'm not going to be your friend if...", and the latest was when she said she is smarter than him because he's homeschooled.
As for my "old fashioned" values, what ever happened to when parents were trusted and able to look out for one another and their children? Being able to talk to a child that isn't yours about their actions? Sometimes a talk from another parent outside of the family can get through to them more than the parent... especially if the child is denying any wrong doing. I have noticed that our neighbors don't have very good parenting to begin with as the older teen daughter of theirs has many issues, we've heard some arguments and screaming in the house, shaved her head, has a mohawk and is allowed to do whatever she wants and dress however she wants, and I now know that even if we confronted the parents, they would brush it off as typical bickering of kids between my son and their daughter.
If my son were confronted by another parent about behavior it would not bother me, and I would want to know what happened to help my son correct his behavior and resolve the issue, but thankful that another parent was there to help. Isn't that what a responsible parent should do? Maybe I am totally wrong on this and my old fashioned thinking, but the whole situation came about when my husband confronted the girl who was bullying my son about their actions. It was done in a calm manner, not mean, just letting them know that what they were doing was not right. It seems as though parents these days have brought their kids up with a sense of entitlement, making it easier for them to think their actions are ok. When confronted, she completely denied everything, saying she didn't say or do those things. She acted with a very smart-ass attitude and didn't seem to really feel sorry even though she apologized. My husband was only trying to tell her to be nice because if she wants to keep my son as a friend and bullying and talking negative isn't going to help. She did start to cry after my husband was done talking with her, I think she did start to feel bad about what she was doing. She went to her parents, which we were going to talk with as well, but did go to the girl first in this case.
The mother came over furious that we had talked with her daughter and made her cry, and didn't go to them first. When trying to apologize about not going to them first, she wouldn't listen, and continued to yell about how our son was never allowed to play with her daughter again and that her daughter would never act that way. She then left our property. I went back in, and then decided to go back out and try to settle it with her husband who was more calm. When I started to try and talk with him about it, she came out screaming and yelling, and wouldn't let me or my husband explain what was happening or even apologize for that matter. It all seemed very childish to me, especially when the neighbor decided to get in my face, wanting to fight, along with the girl's mother all because I wanted to talk about this calmly and kept asking them to stop yelling. I just kept my calm, and stood there. I kept asking, can't we talk like adults here instead of the screaming and yelling? No... that wouldn't happen. So the biggest question on my mind is, are they more concerned with us not going to them first, or the reality that their daughter is bullying my son and putting him down every chance she gets? Not once did they let me speak about the situation at this point. My husband was finally able to talk with the girl's husband about it, but he just brushed it off as being kids. I can completely understand if this was just a small issue and they were bickering about something that would eventually pass, but this is a form of bullying and my son who comes to me everyday with something else she has said or done, is clearly bothered.
What is the matter with this country today? Why are children given a sense of entitlement and able to get away with more and more wrong behavior? What they did and how they handled the situation, I believe has just solidified in the girl's mind that it is ok for her to act that way and it doesn't matter. All the parents seem to care about is that their little girl was crying and hurt, completely ignoring the fact that her behavior is wrong and needs to be handled because it has been hurting my son.
This is our next door neighbor, so to make it even more awkward, we are dealing with parents who don't even really care to know what happened and why we needed to talk with her or resolving the issue in a civil manner. I know we probably made a mistake of confronting the girl first, and should have gone to the parents, but you would think they would be more concerned with what was happening and the real issue here. Any advice would be great, but please, no judging me. As parents, we only meant well and wanted to resolve the issues my son and their daughter were having.