Brand New Day
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John Fraim
I’ve been placed in a Quiet Room on the NextDoor Neighbor site. Until 8/31. No big deal as not making any money from it. Just posting as a side to posting to my own site. But getting incredible numbers in respondents to my posts from the NextDoor Neighbor community. And, more than a number of great discussions. Many in my community have stopped and thanked me for doing what I’m doing here in the New Albany, Ohio neighborhood but often posting out to a national audience. Have gotten two awards from NextDoor and am a leading poster from this neighborhood.
Be interesting to find out how my post ranks versus national NextDoor Neighbors branches around the nation. This is something, I’m sure, NextDoor does not want to reveal. Best keep the customers in their own neighborhoods. It might temp customers to unionizing somehow. Charging advertising media rates. But truly, thanks to all my thousands of responses to all my posts. Although it’s questionable whether you’ll ever see it on NextDoor you can always find it on my post below. (Write with you name and email it to me and your on the list)
Can always find us “broadcasting” from https://midnightoilstudios.org. Posts each few days. Many with images and music. Very random. As well as on a number of lists developed. Have not tried Substack. More interesting in continuing to develop and post to Midnight Oil. Now on our 670th post.
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After posting many things that stayed away from politics, I decided to post a few articles about thoughts on the current Presidential candidate. It is based on personal observations more than anything else. Trying to look at things from the perspective of symbolism which I have studied for years.
I wanted to see what type of political discussion it would allow on Nextdoor. Before this, I had posted a number of links to articles on my Midnight Oil site or sent images of my photography (with a friend Rich Yost). The photos use HDR photography I’ve been using for 15 years or so. Perfecting processing photos through the Photomatix Pro 6 software program.
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So, after publishing the two articles below on NextDoor Neighbor, I received the included notice from them. I had appealed the temporary suspension from NextDoor (see below). I get this notice when I attempt to log in to my NextDoor Neighbor Account:
Appeal not Approved: Account Temporarily Suspended
On second review, your account was determined to have violated the community guideline:
Local and national politics/issues
Nextdoor is a place to discuss topics that are important to your local community. We have rules on where members may post about religion, non-local, and political issues.
Content that violated the guidelines:
Politics (As stated on the NextDoor Neighbor site)
Real-world impact often begins in a local community, and Nextdoor is the place where neighbors can discuss these topics in a kind and respectful way. In order to keep conversations local in the main newsfeed, conversations about non-local topics without a local or personal connection, like national partisan politics or international geopolitical issues, may only be discussed in Groups.
It’s OK for neighbors to discuss national and internationally-oriented conversations in the main feed if there is a direct local connection, or if the neighbor is sharing a direct personal experience. These discussions must adhere to all other community guidelines.
| Allowed anywhere on Nextdoor | Groups | |
| Sharing local events, or peaceful rallies or protests that you support or plan to attend | Yes | Yes |
| Sharing a personal experience of how a societal issue affects or has affected you or your community. Please see policies on upholding equality here. | Yes | Yes |
| Stating why you support a particular local cause and/or why you support a local, state, or district candidate running for office.Note: Local candidates are allowed to introduce themselves and their candidacy in the main feed. For more information, see Elections FAQ. | Yes | Yes |
| Stating steps people in the community can take to become involved in politics or causes, including how to vote or support causes. | Yes | Yes |
| Reposting campaign news, such as announcements of endorsements or fundraising milestones. | No | Yes |
| Sharing information about campaign fundraisers, requests for campaign donations or the sale of campaign paraphernalia. | No | Yes |
| Sharing non-local content about national/federal partisan politics, federal legislation or agency work, or international geopolitical issues. | No | Yes |
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I was suspended from NextDoor for reason in the bottom row of the above chart “Sharing non-local content about national/federal partisan politics, federal legislation or agency work, or international geopolitical issues.” I was put in a type of Quiet Room to let me cool down about talking national politics on the site.
NextDoor Neighbor is a privately-held company based in San Francisco with backing from prominent investors including Benchmark, Shasta Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Riverwood Capital, Bond, Axel Springer, Comcast Ventures, and others. They have the right to set rules for content on their platform.
I don’t question this right for them to set rules of content for the site. Yes, the site was all about modern neighborhoods today but what neighborhoods are not interested in national politics. My two posts were meant to offer insight into my view of what I have seen.
On the NextDoor site the two posts I was being suspended for also appeared on my Midnight Oil site like many of the posts to NextDoor do.
Post to Midnight Oil … https://midnightoilstudios.org/2024/08/14/puppet-president-strategy/
Post to Midnight Oil … https://midnightoilstudios.org/2024/08/10/the-hazy-face-of-kamala
The two posts above are based on my observations of the way things have happened before my eyes. I posted them to NextDoor Neighbor National because I thought the post was relevant to not one community but a number of communities around the nation. It was a national post after all and not a local post. (Which we have the ability to choose).
I wanted to write the posts also as just my own observations of the world today rather than that of others. I wanted to write about what I had seen in the current presidency during the past almost four years. I wanted to write about my observations over the past four years and my observations of the current candidate for President by the Democrats.
My appeal to NextDoor was something basic that I wrote a number of times on local politics and did not know of this rule about the “Sharing non-local content about national/federal partisan politics …” It wasn’t more than this.
But on rethinking this all, I think I might write another appeal to NextDoor based on the fact it is impossible to talk about local content (in our digital world) without referring to places non-local places away from local “neighborhoods.”
This is the danger of putting silos around people and penalizing them for reaching out to a larger audience of others who might feel the same. The local communities call out for discussion about political topics on all minds in this election year. It seems an important time for the creation of some super local media idea based on the idea of NextDoor Neighbor but somehow something more.
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As a result, your account remains temporarily suspended. You can sign in again on August 30. In the meantime, please review our guidelines.