NextDoor.com
I came across a new social website this past week called NextDoor.com. I know what you are thinking, “Oh great another Facebook”. Thankfully this one is different. The site is about connecting with your neighbors so you can be social about neighborhood stuff like garage sales, crime, improving the neighborhood, and more. The concept really caught my eye so I decided to try it out.
It is a free service for now. You can signup by putting in your own information or through Facebook Connect. You do have to put in your address so they can verify where you live.They will send you a postcard with a code on it. You then have to key in to the website or you can verify by another way, like credit card or phone number.
If there isn’t a neighborhood already cutout where you live, you can create one by drawing the boundaries on a map. The next step is inviting people to your neighborhood, they have to live in the boundaries of the neighborhood. Which makes sense. But problems start to form from there. While reading up about NextDoor.com the founders talk about how this site gives you the ability to connect with your neighbors, especially neighbors you don’t know, don’t see, or don’t talk to. Awesome, so this would be a good way to connect. Then you realize you need 10 people to signup and verify their addresses within 21 days or you lose you neighborhood, which to total garbage.
If I don’t talk to my neighbors, don’t see my neighbors, or know my neighbors, how am I suppose to get them to sign up for NextDoor.com? NextDoor.com thought of this, you can print up flyers to pass out, email your neighbors (expect if you don’t have their email addresses), or send postcards. I opted to send postcards since I only know about 9 of my neighbors, two of which will never use Nextdoor.com. NextDoor.com allowed me to send out 100 postcards with a personal message to all my neighbors. Now I have to wait to see who signs up.
Besides the snag of only having 21 days to signup 10 neighbors, I really like the concept of this site. I really like my neighborhood. Most everyone is nice, it is quiet, the houses are taken care of, and overall traffic is minimal. So having the opportunity to bring the neighborhood together is appealing to me.
Each year there is a neighborhood garage sale. We get a flyer from one of the neighbors asking if we want to participate. Beyond contacting them there is no way to get updates about the garage sale or know how it is being organize in any way. It would be nice to get on a website and see whats going on. I would also like to know if there has been crime in the area. Or if someone is organizing an event. Maybe some one has stuff to give away or sell. NextDoor.com allows you to do it all. They kept privacy in mind too, only people in your neighborhood can see what’s going on unless you specifically share the information with other neighborhoods.
Overall, I think NextDoor.com will be pretty successful. They seem to be making daily upgrades and are paying attention to detail. It will be interesting to see how it will benefits communities and what awesome things will come from it. If you get a chance, check out NextDoor.com.
Update
I’ve been using Nextdoor.com for a few weeks now. In my neighborhood enough people have signed up that our neighborhood is established. Being able to send out postcards through NextDoor.com really helped, and we found out that multiple people can send out post cards and you can send out posts cards every 30 days. So getting people to sign up wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.
Activity so far has been surprisingly good. I was worried but my neighbors are making an effort to post things about the neighborhood, restaurant recommendations, etc.
I recommend checking it out. If your address isn’t part of a current neighborhood and you start a new neighborhood you will get a $50 Starbuck gift card (I will get one too) if you use: http://nextdoor.com/starbucks/?r=uxaizr
