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Nosy Neighbor: Is the Nextdoor app a little too neighborly?
B. sent a note with a picture of what is clearly a marketing letter sent by Nextdoor, the community bulletin board app: “Received this direct mail piece the other day and I’m curious if you know anything about this? I’m a bit leery of tings like this – feels a bit like passive aggressive surveillance.”
At first I assumed it was a fake person, which annoyed me that Nextdoor would deceive people that way. But I looked up Bradley Schneider on LinkedIn and he is in fact real, and lives on Chambers Street. He was surprised to see the letter as well — since while he had downloaded the app, he didn’t give them permission to use his name to market their service.
“The app actually is a nice community board,” he wrote. “I would not have actively wanted to be part of advertising though. Thanks for bringing to my attention.”
So I contacted Nextdoor, and at first the communications person who replied thought I was asking how to send letters to my neighbors. (Odd, since I don’t why anyone would do that…) And when I clarified, she said: “Invitations are never sent on behalf of a neighbor without their permission. If a neighbor believes they accidentally chose to send invitations and want to cancel them, we encourage them to contact us at nextdoor.com/support.”
I am still not getting it, but there you have it. How would someone “accidentally” send letters?? It is still bugging me, but for his part, Bradley wasn’t phased. “Ha, bizarre. I’m not as influential as they must think I am.”
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11 Comments
Comment:
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One would have to read the terms of service for the next-door app to see whether or not it gives them permission to send these letters
If he felt like it, Bradley could not-nicely ask for compensation. Nextdoor worth billions.
The app can be helpful- like most it can be but also gets completely out of control. Like 100 comments because a take out place forgot to include white rice.
But… the set up can be confusing. Especially is you are an existing user and move. You need a code to join even if you are an existing user.
When I access Next-door from my computer the user name is different than when I use my iPhone. Zero idea why or how to fix it.
I can totally see how someone would try to get a code and “accidentally” send letters. Not saying that’s what happened her but the app really needs some work.
Nextdoor is a futuristic world, for sure. I should have known not to use it for anything more than mechanic recommendations, and for-sale-by-neighbor. I allowed myself to become frustrated by the fact that some randomly chosen leads control what is considered offensive or unneighborly. So if you have a difference of opinion with the wrong one, watch out! I should be glad that I have been suspended, over a purely philosophical disagreement (over animal shelters) with a known-bully lead, who made personal contact with someone I know, just to start spewing the N-word, as if she thought this would be acceptable to him? Nextdoor cares about none of this. It just wants to be able to claim that the guidelines dictate kindness. They could not care less by whom or how those guidelines are interpreted.
It is a cold entity charading as “kind”. They enshrine platitudes about kindness in some guidelines, and then allow random “leads” to decide how to actually proceed, without an avenue for appeal. There’s a recipe for unfairness, frustration, and tensions between neighbors.
Under the “invite” section there is an option to send invitation letters, which Nextdoor will “mail for free”. I suspect Mr Schneider selected that option, perhaps by mistake or perhaps he forgot. I also find the app useful, tho people can be a bit cranky on it, but its easy to ignore those posts.
Super-sneaky, fine print, and questionable marketing practice. I found this app not useful in the way they intend it, and just another source for people to complain for hours back and forth, fight and finger point. It was A time steal for me so I deleted it. Srsly, Put your energies elsewhere. (Nextdoor, feel free to quote me on this in your next mailing from me).
100%. It’s a message board full of complaints and Karen’s. Not worth the time.
NextDoor is an awful vigilante-esque app, at best for complainers with no sense about how to fix problems and at worst for dissemination of misinformation of the most xenophobic sort.
I got the exact same letter up in Northwest CT for the street that we rent on. Very strange.
Nextdoor attempts to be a message board for a neighborhood to allow neighbors to communicate. You can, of course, blame Nextdoor that some contributors abuse its use by using it for the purposes for which it was not intended but maybe that is blaming the wrong side. Facebook, Instagram and all the others suffer from people who seek to be rude, complain, abuse send insult and Nextdoor like other social media platforms struggles to keep the app civil. Sadly there are always those people who will spoil good intentions. It is, I suppose, human nature which does not mature well over time. Note for fairness sake, I was asked a long time ago to be a lead for Nextdoor, not a job I relish.