NEXT DOOR APP - does anyone use this and how useful is it?

[Yankydoodledandy]

Ive never come across this app/page before but a friend told me about it as she uses it to connect with locals as she's got a small bus.

Ive looked at it but you have to enter ALL your personal info including full address etc Only 6 people on mine in my neighbourhood.

Does anyone use it and what do you think to it?

I came off it as no matter how I configured the notifications I still had about a million a day from Joan 3 streets away!

I looked at it once. I didn't want to give all my personal details. From what I could see it was full of people complaining. I may be wrong.

Ours is full of political rants and lost cats. I still get the emails just for a laugh, but it’s basically like the maddest kind of AIBU about the local council’s perceived failings.

I had it for maybe an hour. Local Fb is helpful. This was full of either nimby or whingers. I didn’t like the fact you put in all details and if I remember rightly everyone can see your name and address and photo. Seemed like a privacy nightmare.

Ours is useful for 'lost cats'..... never knew so many went missing, lost.... they do seem to get found thankfully in garages or 4 roads away

Ive had a look and there's only around 6 people in my area - lots of comments, posts and selling add from miles away not really in my actual area.

Also shows your actual name - can you not put in a username like pinkfluffybunny etc!!!!

It's the ultimate in curtain-twitching apps. My local one is very local, and it's mainly full of posts about lost cats (lost of found), arguments about cyclists and the new cycle lanes, people posting keys/wallets/etc they found, messages from the local police, local gossip, people asking for or rcommending cleaners, nannies and builders, and people selling stuff. (I got a spotless as-new ice-cream maker for £5 from someone moving abroad.) I really enjoy it, but the trick is not to go on it more than briefly, a couple of times a week, otherwise its a timesuck not a time helper.

I've been on mine for ages. It does have its uses, but we're rural and I think maybe for connecting villages it's quite good. I have found some excellent tradesmen on there as the word of mouth element is good.

It is, however, also full of Brexity types (I live in one of the areas that voted massively for Brexit) and there is a lot of xenophobic/racist and NIMBY behaviour on there. It's not really well moderated in my experience so getting that stuff taken down is harder.
You can block/mute people on there but if you re signed up to email notifications you still get emails containing these peoples posts.

For my own village it's better than FB which is the only reason I stay.
My address isn't visible though, and I can't see where other people live either other than a village location.

I glance at it from time to time. Lots of lost pets and useless junk for sale, the occasional useful piece of local information, council works that kind of thing.

The privacy settings can be altered, it only displays my first name and the road I’m on, nothing more.

And strangely all the new members seem to post that “it’s great to be here!!!” When in fact it’s pretty dull.

In ours, several of the leads (mods) are opposition councillors or ex-councillors who then start threads with the intention of getting everyone to moan about the council. It's utterly tedious. I'm only there for the lost cats.

I think the idea is to make real life connections which is why it uses your real name.

I use the German equivalent, it's better for buying/selling than Marketplace because you don't have to tramp about all over town picking things up or vice versa.

Me too 😂
I didn't find it useful at all. The "spotted" pages on Facebook are much more user friendly and useful

Ours is mostly moaning and ranting.

I find it useful when I need a recommendation for someone to fix something around the house. I've found good plumbers, handymen etc. whenever I needed something done. Other than that (in our area) it's really just people posting about lost and found cats.

Ours was full of requests for free stuff, CFs. I deleted it soon after I signed up.

I actually find it really useful, not like what people have described here. Much better than shitebook.

No, far too intrusive.

I agree with everyone else, handy for finding tradespeople recommendations. Otherwise it's mainly cats - lost ones and general cat botherers, 'this cat is in my garden, is it lost?’. It's a bloody cat Terry, it's doing cat things, leave it alone. As well as cats it's mainly dog shit, suspicious white vans looking to steal your dog and/or kids, travellers, parking, warnings about scam text/emails and plenty of xenophobia.

Occasionally there's a good spat which is the only reason I stay on it.

I've got it, I hardly ever use it but when I do it's to sell stuff or give stuff away free to locals. The few times I've replied to a comment, it's led to an argument and I prefer my online arguments to be anonymous, not with my name, face and street plastered all over it. I know they have meet up groups to make friends but not interested in joining those.

I joined before we moved to try and see if there were any reports of loutish youths or late night shenanigans.
It's pretty quiet tbh, and mostly filled with newly internet savvy old folks who are jubilant to have a facebook alternative, and want to inform the local world how long they have lived locally!

Generally I see luddites people claiming it to be a spam app on all the local FB pages and then being told off by the aforementioned newcomers!

We have a sad lonely fantasist on ours to whom a really unbelievably bad thing happens on a daily basis. She gets lots of sympathy and offers of stuff from people who fall for it.

Mostly it’s as people say above: ranty opinions, cats and tradey recommendations. Oh, and potholes.

I've come off it. Local FB pages are better and more popular in my neighbourhood so I stick to there

We also have a poet who writes really, really bad poems that go on forever. He's harmless but then there's the antivax conspiracy theorist gobshite that's always spouting nonsense, yet seems to have the same sycophants fawning over him in their responses.

The racism and xenophobia is rife though and it's like whack-a-mole in reporting them. If anyone decent responds about what race has to do with whatever vile comment someone has made, then there's a massive pile on from other halfwits. Plenty of 'ur only sayin wot every1 really thinks hun'.

Loads of Verisure ads on ours, plus the never ending lost cats, some political rants and not much else.