Kevin L.

One week ago, Nextdoor.com took our neighborhood group away from the people in the neighborhood most motivated to make it succeed, and handed it on a platter to the one individual most motivated to see it fail!

Our neighborhood group was not launched by the Neighborhood Association, nor did it's Founder or any of it's Leads intend that it be directed by them. The $#*!'n use a Yahoo Group, and censor viewpoints they disagree with. They permit their friends to be rude and unneighborly, but are oversensitive to strong replies from others. We worked hard to make Nextdoor a legitimate alternative with an alternate style and assured free speech. Then, our Nextdoor group got popular. In one year, we added more members than the $#*!'n's group added in a decade. I won't say we were an extremely active group, but our posting activity was 10-1 against the Yahoo Group, which has only a tiny clique of friends left posting or following it.

We couldn't keep $#*!'n Officers out, of course. Several joined, and made my life pretty miserable with complaints, petty violations and snark. They created an air of tension, with an eye to keeping within Nextdoor's absurd social rules. Snipe attacks and insincere compliments were the weapon of choice. Every chance they got, however inappropriate, were used to mention the "official" Yahoo Group and another latecomer web page of their own. It intimidated others from posting. They engaged me in weeklong private debates, loaded with traps and mines. Not being an tyrant, I wasn't motivated to crack down as hard as I might, and would have never dreamed they would go so far to undermine us.

The tiny misstep that I took, which Nextdoor capitolized on to remove me, was that I privately cautioned an Officer of the $#*!'n about posting an item of local interest to all nearby neighborhoods. I told him that he was racking up "mutes" and should tone it down. A simple and creative take on the old "I'm responding to complaints" approach to curtailing trolls. He complained, and days later, all other Leads were abruptly wiped from the menu, and he was now the new Lead.

This has got to be a decision of history-making proportions! Now, where can I go, and expect that my forum complaint will net me ownership of it?

Nextdoor told me that they gave him the benefit of several telephone calls, and offered him the position. Despite the obvious conflict of interest, he was eager to accept. Now his household again has a stranglehold on the neighborhood's public discourse. Ultimately, Nextdoor staff took sides and covertly conducted a full regime change. At the end of 2013, this $#*!'n Officer and his wife, also an Officer, were outraged at the proposals of having a neighborhood website or leaving Yahoo Groups for Nextdoor. Since then, they launched a copycat website, calling it "official" by decree. And now they have our Nextdoor community.

Oh, and Nextdoor wrote me last year to assure me that they would never do this. It was in reply to my concern when the first wave of $#*!'n attacks crested.

A member of upper management, let's call him "DORGON ROUST" to protect his identity, personally ended the debate. You can corner these people with their own logic, catch them breaking their own rules, and they just cut things off saying "I think it's best." If you're really lucky, they'll punish you for breaking their strict "always assume good intentions" rule. They enforce this even in private messages with Staff. If someone is endlessly needling you, no matter how obvious, you'll be the one committing the crime if you use the wrong terms when you complain.

Nextdoor Staff do not stand behind their Leads. Nextdoor Staff have gamed the decision by imposing nice-sounding but impossible social rules. If you want a place for free and open discussion, Nextdoor is the last place you want to attempt it.

I have history with DORGON ROUST though. Last year, as I have written here below, I attempted a discussion of Nextdoor's farcical "security" and "privacy" in the secret "National Lead's Forum". He abruptly suspended my account, and also my friend and fellow Lead Sonja Hunter, and told me I had to show him how to create a fake account, or I'd lose my membership. His manner of writing is chillingly cheerful. I refused. He only relented when I pointed out that I was in the middle of organizing a neighborhood event. He reinstated us as plain members for a time, then he restored us as "Leads", in appearance only. Our tools were crippled, our City newsfeeds were removed (lest we use the all-city comments there to alert a large part of the city about what they'd done) and listed additional restrictions like the freedom to appoint more Leads. Some of our Lead tools were partly reinstated, but tellingly, City feed comments always look "closed" to us, though not others.

View my testimony with any doubt as you like. The facts speak for themselves. There's no justification for experimenting with our wills like this. No justification for persecuting Sonja Hunter, who was uninvolved and never part of any conflict. There's no justification for breaking their promise to hand the community over to the $#*!'n. No justification for awarding an indignant troll with the deed to the castle. But DORGON ROUST is an artist at launching the nukes first, letting his victim stew for a few days, and then firing off a series of cheerful rationalizations for what he's done. Read his own words at http://www.dawsonneighborhood.org/save-dawsonaustin/

Nextdoor is being sued by Fatdoor.com for theft of intellectual property. Fatdoor are the founders of Nextdoor, who were booted out in a takeover. Imagine that. Nextdoor's CEO is currently serving prison time, on evenings and weekends, for a hit and run incident. He's known to be a genius at aquisitions, but his personality attracts bitter criticism.