Why Nextdoor is not an alternative to Facebook
For those that may think that Nextdoor is anything to do with "local" I would suggest that you make an Internet search for them. You will find that they are an international network that was started in San Francisco. THEY ARE NOT LOCAL. It is also suspected that much of the content is automatically generated and you be sent updates that appear to be posts from Nextdoor users that are in the area close to where you claimed to be located.
I created an email address on the Parish Council domain so that I could join. I may have to delete it as I can't seem to join without giving my real name, address and telephone number.
Even though I did not fully join-up Nextdoor still sent me weekly updates of things that supposedly happened in my area. I think that this is is an indication of what they would do with my personal information if I had been foolish enough to give it to them.
My experience with Nextdoor
The reason that I had an original interest was due to a letter I received in the mail. The letter claimed that they were a local "networking" "app" that was setup to allow the communication between people that are in the same area to which I live. There was no mention that Nextdoor were something that could be accessed from many places around the world. There was no mention of their heritage and I was immediately suspicious as I was told that there were already 850 posts from my community on the platform. This was surprising as the community has only just over 300 residents.
Most of these residents if on-line, would be Facebook users and communicating in the manner that Nextdoor were suggesting.
The sitejabber review
It is not surprising that the majority of the comments on the service are from the US. However, it is not long before you get the impression that Nextdoor is less than useful and is in most cases a distorted view of the world.
An interesting exercise is to filter the reviews by 5 star rating. Those that like the Nextdoor service seem to be from those that could appear to be promoting their own business venture. This is one of my main critisisms of Facebook Groups.
The Belchamp Walter "White Van Police"
Although I did not sign-up with Nextdoor they still send me the occasional email to the dummy email address that used to make an enquiry: This week's top stories
I think that their idea is that I will be so intrigued by the nature of the "top stories" I will be tempted to subscribe and participate. The nature of the stories are pretty much along the lines of neighbours complaining about something or other. I have seen one that was complaining about someone allowing their dog to defecate on their lawn in Great Yeldham.
I will log them here:
Dec 11, 2021
Great Yeldham seems to feature pretty high in the "Top Stories", it is also noted that Great Yeldham also have a functional Parish Council website and even publish their Village Magazine on-line.
We in Belchamp Walter do not publish out Village News on-line and rely on the North Hinkford Parishes distribution of a hard copy of the "Parish News". Great Yeldham also have a Planning Application review group and BW were supposed to have looked at their governing document with a view to using a modified version. BW is far smaller than Great Yeldham and it was decided that their document was too complicated for our needs.
Dec 19, 2021
What Village? As far as I an aware we were the only folks with a three legged cat and he is now buried in the back garden.
Dec 25, 2021
The article from the East Anglian Daily Times: Two mega prisons for 3,500 inmates set to be built near RAF base - says that the airbase is RAF Wethersfield near Braintree, Essex.
By the tone of the Nextdoor post, without actually reading it (so I could be wrong), is probably a ruse to stir-up NIMBY discussion. Wethersfield airbase is 13 miles from Belchamp Walter and if the nonsense that was created about a couple of local farmers selling land for a grain-storage barn and for the conversion of an exisiting barn into a dwelling, it is definitely Not in my Back-Yard syndrome.