I’ m sure you’ve heard of Nexdoor. Nextdoor started in San Francisco and is now found in several countries. I kinda like the simple logo which features a Monopoly house piece as part of it. It’s a free service that’s actually just an email group of those in “your neighborhood” that have signed up to be part of it. I signed up for it a few years ago. I did so just out of curiosity.
At first, it actually seemed legit. There were people in my neighborhood giving away extra daffodil bulbs. Others were giving away things they didn’t want anymore for free...stuff that was too good to throw out. Many folks were looking for lost pets.
It wasn’t long before the thing got swamped with con artists and folks trying to get others to join their MLM schemes. Our local Nextdoor email list is now mostly a cesspool. Occasionally someone will advertise themselves as a cheap handyman. In this rural community full of older retirees on fixed incomes, getting inexpensive work done around the house is sought after. Later there comes feedback and, from what I've read, these cheap handymen aren't actually that handy. You get what you pay for as we all know.
Then there is the gossip. Oh man. Nextdoor has become a real tool for the gossips. Often they get chastised for spreading garbage without any proof by others. Poisoning wells is a gossip’s only power in the world. They truly are snakes in the grass.
Well, there is a fun Twitter account called: “Best of Nextdoor” and it’s a hoot because it’s a collection of the strange, funny, bizarre and just plain sad posts on Nextdoor from all over the country. I thought I’d share a few. Before I do that, I want to put up a couple local Nextdoor nuggets from “my neighborhood.” (I purposefully used the word “nuggets” as this is gold nugget country after all.) Keep in mind that in a place as small as where we live, our Nextdoor neighborhood apparently encompasses about 1/3rd of the entire town.
Curious to run this by my fellow neighbors: My friend’s dog wishes his owner had a yard. What do you think the chances of this man finding a rental for $550/month (incl. utilities) that would take a smoker with a large dog? The dog is friendly & well-mannered. The man is very honest, respectful, accommodating, quiet. No credit, no money for big deposit or last month’s rent, but good references. Ideal would be a guest house/shack/studio. Does such a place exist in Paradise? He thinks he doesn’t have options but his dog wishes that weren’t so! I’m just checking for the dog.
OK. As you can see, some requests are surely pie-in-the-sky requests. A man is looking for a place to rent (in this case a house, not a room in a house) for $550 a month that includes utilities. Umm...it gets cold in the winter here and hot, hot hot in the summer. I know people who spend $hundreds every month on AC during the summer even in small homes. He also has a large dog, smokes and he’s obviously pretty broke as well. All I can say is good luck buddy because anyone providing you what you want would be losing money every month.
But, being Paradise, there is always the proper response in the comment threads. In this case, I call the one below a “Little Red Hen” response.
There's got to be some Christians out there that can help. That's our privilege and duty commanded by Christ, Amen? I would but I'm selling my home and moving. What about the Churches helping?
There are lots of ads on our local Nexdoor. PG&E (utility company) has one looking for people to sign up for their Ohm Hour program. What’s that? That’s when you agree to leave your home, or swelter if you stay home, for hours every day so PG&E can turn off your power during peak power consumption in the summer. I’m sure they’ll be takers, but around here where temps often are in the triple digits come high summer, those who do so will have to find somewhere with AC to hang out. Maybe that would be a good time to go to Safeway then take in a movie...every single day.
Others try to sell things to people who are naive about what things cost. A person is selling “two plastic gasoline cans” for more than you can buy new ones at KMart. This same person is selling a two-gallon garden sprayer for more than you can buy a new one at ACE Hardware.
Realtors have the site jammed with ads.
Another person is looking for someone to “daycare” her kids at a place that has a big yard and a swimming pool (OK. I’m gonna stop you right there ma’am. Swimming Pool with kids 2-5 years old? You haven’t really thought this through have you?) It turns out she got an answer from someone who claims she does daycare but isn’t licensed to do so. Seems a bit dicey to me.
There are also sad posts. Around Paradise, for some reason, it’s a little bit too common for bad people to poison other’s dogs. It’s not an anomaly. However, some folks are just crazy.
Our Border Collie was poisoned by our neighbors on Xeno Place.
Our neighbor's poisoned our Border Collie while we were at work. He barked thru the bark coller, is what we think. He is trying to survive at the vet's ($2,000 vet bill, too), they fed him CBD that she uses. He was almost dead, but got by us paranoid, and ran so much his paws are a bloody mess. Evil exist, be warned. I have reported this information to the police.
CBD oil dog poisoning? Umm, I’m supposed to 1) believe that and 2) believe that a local, rural veterinarian office can determine “CBD oil poisoning” in a dog? Nope. Not believable. Well, the person who wrote this did let us know they are paranoid.
There were a bunch of responses to this...more than 40. I’ll include four of those responses to give you a taste. And it actually looks like #4 is from someone who knows the person. Oh boy.
#1 Curious as to how you know your neighbors did this. Not trying to disrespect you in the least, so please don’t take it that way. CBD should not have that kind of effect as it has 0 psycho active properties. Maybe something else was used?
#2 One should be very cautious accusing anyone of a serious situation without solid proof. If you have evidence (video) then state so. There is too much going on to accurately understand the truth. Libel, a noun, "a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation."
#3 Please remind yourself of the guidelines for this site"Personal disputes and grievances. Nextdoor is not a place for publicly resolving personal disputes and grievances. Use private messages to resolve personal disputes, or better yet, get together in person to resolve the matter amicably. Remember what libel means. Defamation is an area of law that provides a civil remedy when someone's words end up causing harm to your reputation or your livelihood. Libel is a written or published defamatory statement, while slander is defamation that is spoken by the defendant. I believe it best that EVERYBODY step back and calm down and let the people directly involved solve this. Vigelante activity has been suggested, that has NO PLACE in our neighborhood.
#4 I worked as an RN at Enloe Behavioral Health, an inpatient psych unit, for 4 years. We had many ex-military come in with mental illness due to their time in the military. Also, 'she' was a 5150, I believe, about 3 months ago as a danger to herself and a danger to others. We saw the lights and went out to see. She was obviously very loaded on a substance and was yelling, get me out of here. The paramedics had her strapped down, she was fighting them. Had a big gash on her forehead. The cop entered the house with his gun pulled as he viewed her a danger to others.
OK, let us move on to some of the best Nexdoor posts from around the country.
From Seattle. I would suggest taking a better picture, however:
From San Francisco for the finish:
What do you want to talk about today?
RSVPS
1. bleeding blue, organizer (kosmail him to connect)
2. rb137
3. Tbone Apollo
4. ptressel
5. SninkyPoo
6. FlamingoGrrl
7. Gemina13
8. momomia
9. doingbusinessas
10.
MAYBEES :
Kitsap River and Charles
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RSVPS
1. ChrisLove, organizer (kosmail him to connect)
2. Smoh (meet-up in honor of...)
3. htowngenie
4. Mary
5. Alan
6.
MAYBEES :
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Netroots Nation 2018