The ability of local agencies to just post to your feed has been a feature of Nextdoor for years. They can also close their posts to discussion, which is pretty irritating.
Looks like the feature was just rolled out. It was to reset my opt-out settings for nextdoor emails so that I can now receive "Emergency Alerts" with the first such instance being a road 45 minutes away being closed because it rained.
It might go without saying that I'm slightly even less impressed with Next Door than when I wrote the original comment, but it does make me think: is this product bad because of the people it attracts? Is that its fault, i.e. could it be targeted better or formatted better (think Stack Overflow vs web forums)? How could the problem be solved in a less obnoxious way?
Nextdoor is bad because your neighbors are bad people, and it only takes a few to wreck it. Somewhere on your block lives a life-long racist, a chemtrail crackpot, and an insufferable busybody. Normally these people hide but for some reason they think Nextdoor is their safe space.
It might go without saying that I'm slightly even less impressed with Next Door than when I wrote the original comment, but it does make me think: is this product bad because of the people it attracts? Is that its fault, i.e. could it be targeted better or formatted better (think Stack Overflow vs web forums)? How could the problem be solved in a less obnoxious way?