I signed up for Next Door 2 years ago. I find it very helpful when looking for local recommendations/information without all the hype of Facebook.

My Next Door is growing slowly, but I have seen similar posts. More active are the very local Facebook groups, with lots of good updates, news, information, advice, requests, and offers. Sometimes I see City news there before I see the actual news!

I'm not a FB'er, but I joined NextDoor because someone always knows why the helicopters are circling or why the main road out of town is closed. I only check it when I have one of those types of questions, but I can see it becoming a valuable communication tool in times of social distancing like this when neighbors need neighbors.

I use it but don't like it because it seems to require I use my real name. Haven't figured out how to avoid that but I don't like the local exposure that way. It's worth it at this time.

Our Nextdoor is not as good as our township's "what's happening" and "recommendations" Facebook pages. The Nextdoor takes in large adjoining areas that are in the opposite direction for us, while the township pages are more our neighbors.

(And I say this as someone who hates facebook with a passion, but it has its uses.)

I've also been on Nextdoor for a long time. The postings have been really heartening. People are offering help and/or supplies to those in need.

I've enrolled for Nextdoor for two different locations. I withdrew from the first. For the second, new in the area, I tried a few times to request recommendations for various types of tradesmen and home services. Other than a few "please let me know if you find someone" entries, there were no responses. Lots of unimportant banter, and real estate ads, but nothing useful.

I resorted to cautious Yelp perusals (Surprise!) and found very satisfactory people for what I wanted done.

Yes! We have a wonderful nextdoor community. Very helpful and informative. Of course there's the occasional yahoo that wants to argue with someone about something. But if someone gets out of hand they are quick to close it down. I was very hesitant to join at first but the people that came out and rescued us in Harvey were from my nextdoor. That made me a believer. We do a lot of lost dogs and trying to get them home too. And of course you can participate as much or as little as you want. I have met some very good people through nextdoor. And you can select how large or small an area you want to participate in. If you want only your subdivision you can select that. If you want only areas of homes but not apartment complexs you can do that. It's easy to configure to your needs.

Have you all seen the "Best of Next Door" Twitter account? https://twitter.com/bestofnextdoor

We're fortunate to have a good community - mostly lost dogs, cats, and plenty of recommendations for those looking for contractors, etc. I found an excellent carpenter through Next Door.

bookwoman, my first inquiry was for exactly that - a carpenter. There was apparently one very large builder here that was active over a large area involving thousands of homes 15-20 years ago. Almost all of the homes (judging from photos in local real estate listings) share an interior peculiarity that we dislike. It could be fixed by a carpenter with a few days work.

So thinking this would be a common project many had done, I described the problem I wanted changed and asked what carpenters could be recommended. I got about a dozen responses of the nature of "Oh we hate that. Please tell me who you find, we'd like to do that too". But nothing useful. We've postponed this work for now. An enterprising carpenter could keep busy for many months doing this project over and over in the area.

I wish Next Door were useful, it's a good idea. But I've struck out twice.

My Next Door isn't particularly active. I did sign up, but during a period when we had bears in the neighborhood. Not typical, I had not seen a bear within city limits and only glimpses of them in the woods in all of my adult life.

I've received bear in town and cougar sightings notices, and one from Office of Emergency Management echoing the closing of our schools for Covid19. I haven't seen especially bad advice for services there, but nothing that has really applied to us.

I check mine about once a day. There is some useful information that gets put on there. I've helped get a few lost dogs. It helps to know what is going on in surrounding neighborhoods. I stay away from the drama.

Socks, I think you could set up an entirely separate online identity with another email address and all.

I've been on Nextdoor for years, too. They're taking photos of grocery stores they've been to....giving updates on how stocked the aisles are. VERY helpful!

I was able to join Next Door with a fake name...I don't do FB and someone suggested ND, but I wanted to check it out first. But, of course, you can't. I won't describe how I did it here, but if you want to know PM me.

I found a great young man on ND who posted looking for odd jobs. I needed someone to pull the blackberries that were taking over my lot. I would never just hire someone posting like that, but he used his full name and I checked him out on FB and saw he was a sweet guy, based on the nice posts he had and was friends with some people I know, so I hired him. I also found a great window washer the same way; he was new to the area, but had worked for a company, so I could check his references through them.

I think it's best to just post minimal details about the work you want in order to get recommendations. For a contractor/carpenter, I'd just ask if anyone had someone they can recommend, then flesh out the details with the contacts to determine if they were qualified for the work I want done. And check their license and bond and insurance.

Someone this week posted looking for work for her "cousin" who'd just arrived from a distant state and needed work until he could get his i.d. straightened out (he supposedly lost it). There is no way I'd hire someone like that, but people offered work. And to my dismay, people advertise looking for caregivers for their children. Yikes!!!

olychick, I first tried a bare bones post asking "does anyone know a carpenter for an interior job" and got no responses. It wasn't until I mentioned in an expanded second post the problem I wanted fixed that I attracted attention from people who had a similar dislike of what I wanted to change.

I'm sure this varies from neighborhood to neighborhood. At my primary residence, the main participants are either commercially oriented (real estate) or the neighborhood's busybodies who like to stick their noses where they don't belong.

I only joined Next Door about a year ago, when a friend recommended it. Ours is a real disappointment. Mostly whining about frivolous things. A few lost pets.

Tip: Never, never post the mildest complaint about a tradesperson others have lauded.

I detailed my disappointments, but tried to phrase it along the lines of 'nobody's perfect'. The tradesperson retaliated with hysterics on the forum and complained to me in an email.

(I don't think wailing, "God knows I try my best," is very professional. It doesn't mitigate uncorrectible mistakes -- which the person had acknowledged to me in person. Her diatribe on the forum indicated that she'd done me some special favor by accepting the work -- for which I had paid the full quoted price, just wanting to be done with her.)

Chisue, I always assume that responses that say “PM me”, indicate a negative experience. If I want to know more, I’ll PM them even if it’s not my post.

I think each neighborhood takes on its own "feel" on Nextdoor. I'm involved in 2, because I own 2 homes in different states.

One location is absolutely over-run with people who seem to be afraid of their own shadow and post things tinged with hysteria about whatever seems to be rattling around in their head. I think it feeds/nurtures that kind of posting and so that group is of no use to me. I never log in to that one.

The other one has a small subgroup of people who do nothing but 8itch and moan - but overall it's much more useful in general because people post updates and more factual information. I like that group.

Nextdoor also allows you to hide people who are annoying. It's wonderful feature. If someone is consistently not useful to you...poof, you never see them again. It works like Facebook in that regard and I highly recommend it. :)

I wish the Nextdoor here worked as some of y'all have described! I joined ours about the time it first started, maybe a couple of years ago. The only emails I get from it are questions like can I verify that so and so (usually an unpronounceable foreign name) lives at such and such an address, often an address that i think is one of the college dorms. No, I can't! Postings seem to be limited to complaints about speeding in school zones and barking dogs. And from the school zone complaints, I'm pretty sure the whole town is covered by the one 'Nextdoor', so it's hardly a neighborhood type of thing. Very disappointing!

Rusty

I love Next Door for recommendations - no where else to get really honest answers locally.

I ignore the stuff I am not interested in. That's pretty much how I live my life anyway, :-)

There are a lot of postings of little or no interest, but if one post helps (as it did Raven), it's worth having. Especially in these troubled times.

Our governor just posted a letter on our nextdoor regarding the new regulations issued this morning for our area.