DumbFunnery

Have you heard of NextDoor? It’s a website for neighborhoods. It is something akin to Facebook meets Craigslist meets weird local newspaper ads. I recently signed up and get to keep tabs on what is happening in my neighborhood and nearby neighborhoods. The posts have ranged from: 

• cursing teenagers (don’t worry, someone informed everyone those boys are Mormon and therefore could not possibly have been cursing – turns out they were saying SUCKERS not … well, you can guess)
• stuff for sale
• advice on contractors/plumbers/etc
• someone talking about her single male friend who is a catch (0 replies so far but rest assured I’m watching that one)
• missing pets

Today someone posted, “cat found.” I don’t recall seeing one about a missing cat, so I can only assume someone is posting about their own cat who just achieved a high level of self-awareness and they wanted everyone in the neighborhood to know. (Who couldn’t help but brag about their self-aware cat?)

I wonder, who is monitoring these posts? And, how weird could I get if I was so inclined?

If I post that I’m selling a gently used box of diapers and include a picture of me smiling coyly, what would you think was happening?

How about a post that says ‘Fine China for Sale’ and then I borrow some steamy language from a romance novel to describe some plates. Would that be allowed to stay up? ‘Dang that’s some fine China, ya’ll.’

Or, another thought, how bored am I that this is the kind of thing I’m wondering about? AND, what kind of responses would I get from the neighborhood if I posted this … thing. What amounts to a velociraptor like study of where I can poke the cage to see what I can get away with? (Where my knowledge of velociraptors is, of course, exclusively from Jurassic Park.)

Do you have NextDoor? Do you like to watch people be weird? Or are you one of the weirdos?