Community pages for neighbourhoods yay or nay

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Social media pages and WhatsApp groups where neighbours get into fights about things like bad parking, poorly painted buildings, badly placed bins etc …. are they a social good or are they really awful?

It occurred to me today that if someone has anxiety and finds themselves publicised online because they parked badly or their garden looks tatty … it could devastate them.

YANBU neighbourhood groups online encourage people to shame their neighbours and are bad
YABU neighbourhood groups online are useful and this matters more than the fighting

Third option. Who cares? Just ignore them.

I wish I'd never accepted an invitation to join Next Door. I've just reported yet another advert posted by someone getting rid of an 8 week old puppy after a couple of days because "I wanted to surprise the kids but they don't like him".

Depends on the group - you wouldn't get moaned at for an untidy garden on ours - but you might for inconsiderate or illegal parking.

Probably best for anyone with anxiety to stay off there I imagine (or park properly perhaps).

They have their place. They can be useful for things like lost/found pets, job hunting general enquires about the area.
The ones that allows shaming and gossip are the worst. If you can take a photo of someone's garden or badly parked car, then leave them a note. No need to take to FB about it.

Ours usually has a bit of moaning about parking (usually on the road near a tourist spot - the shit weather has helped this year 😉) and moaning about dog poo but most of it seems to be...

• a space to advertise community events
• updates from local councilors
• a few local photographers putting up pictures of the area
• people asking for recommendations
• warnings about traffic / roadworks.

There was a bit if a spat lately between one of the group admins and a batty chap who used it as his personal update page - he then took offence at being told not to do that and it all got messy / amusing depending on how close you were to those involved.

On the whole though, I find it really handy.

I like my village group, it's friendly and there has never been any shaming.

I got booted off our local page as I “didn’t give enough ‘likes’ and post often enough”.
The ‘likes’ had to be on specific posts that the senior admin had posted. Sorry Hayley, but if only I knew I had to ‘like’ 10 million pictures of your sad hen laying an egg, I might just be able to tell you who’s car stopped the bin men picking up your bin…

DH has managed to remain a member by just hitting the like button for every post that pops up. Apparently they are mainly posts about dogs, bins and car parking. So no great loss.

Ours is useful. There are posts about parking, pot holes and bin collections of course but also lots of helpful information and the moderators remove anything too identifying, personal or critical. Local businesses can only advertise on specific days. I really like it.

Someone posted on ours about a 'suspicious woman' looking for things to steal or houses to break into with ring doorbell footage and saying keep an eye out for her/does anyone know who she is. Hundreds of comments, some saying they had seen her as well, a few put up doorbell footage. Most were saying how awful the area was now and the whole world is basically a crime ridden hell hole. Two days later the woman posted in the group, people had been shouting names/abuse at her, finally someone answered her when she asked why they were shouting at her so she found the group and shared a screenshot from AREA lost and found group where she had posted a few days ago her cat had gone missing. She was just out looking for it!

Ours is good. Tends to be things like lost cats, found dogs, found property, potholes & ofcourse the regular 'Have you seen my parcel'

It's good for passing info around but we're quite well behaved and there's not much fighting

I am in one for my local area. It’s full of pets being rehoused, advertising local businesses or complaining about bins, dogs barking or being aggressive when walked. Most of the people sound completely unhinged. It’s entertaining to read if you are bored.

They can be useful but also annoying sometimes but the world can't stop because blame anxiety for everything