Recently I was invited to join Nextdoor, a social networking service for neighborhoods. Once you join your neighborhood’s Nextdoor and get verified, you can see posts from your neighbors on your news feed which is similar in look to a Facebook or Google+ feed. Looking at Downtown Nextdoor’s feed, I see posts offering bar stools for sale, asking about a wandering dog on Mud Island, and asking for recommendations for a carpet and area rug cleaner. It seems to be a very useful way to connect with other Downtowners.
The site is still a trial site because we don’t have enough verified members. We need two more verified members in the next 21 days to make the site permanent. Nextdoor wanted me to send out a blanket invite to my Facebook friends, but that seems a little spammy and besides, 70% of my Facebook friends (estimated) don’t live Downtown. However, if Nextdoor sounds like something you would be interested in, hit me up and I will invite you. You can contact me on Facebook if we’re friends there; if not email paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll get you invited. (Allow me until Monday to work on the invites. On the weekend I spend long periods of time away from the computer.)
You have to be verified as a resident of the neighborhood you live in. There are multiple ways to do this, including calling a home or mobile phone registered to an address in the neighborhood. However, current members of the community can verify you as well. If I know you personally and know for a fact you live down here, I can verify you.
In addition to the website, I found a Nextdoor app for my iPhone and downloaded it. I could not find the Nextdoor app in the store for my Kindle Fire. Not sure if that’s because the Fire doesn’t have a GPS, or if there’s not an Android version yet. At any rate, you could still view Nextdoor on those devices via web browser.
So like I say, if this is of interest to you, hit me up; if not, I won’t keep bugging you about it. If you’re here for the Saturday news update, scroll down, because I’ve already posted it.