[mplanchard]

I live in Vermont, and I love FPF. It’s full of typical neighborly posts about lost items, people selling things, announcements about local events, etc. The only time it gets slightly contentious is around local elections, but even that is remarkably moderate.

I think it helps that the groups really are hyper-local, on the order of a few streets, so it’s very likely you’re interacting with one of your neighbors at any given time. My wife and I posted some bookshelves we wanted to give away when we moved into our neighborhood, and the person who responded wound up being our neighbor from less than halfway down the block.

Compared to every other place on the internet, it feels a lot more like the way people are in real life: friendly, helpful, and good-natured.

[mplanchard]

An exemplar local post from my neighborhood recently:

> Hi, has anyone been letting a black cat into their house lately? His name is Indy, he is very friendly and loves people. However, if you let him inside he will likely steal your stuff. He is particularly fond of toys (either for pets or children) and food. For context, he once stole an entire baguette. I don't know why he steals, I didn't teach him to do it, I'm not that smart. If you don't let him inside, he won't break in, he's not that smart. And if you're currently missing a stuffed animal hedgehog and/or a small pillow, please let me know and I can return it.

[Buttons840]

This sounds like it came straight out of Stardew Valley--utopia compared to other social media.

[hasbot]

I'm kinda surprised that a hyper-local forum has enough posts to encourage engagement. I'm subscribed to many city specific subreddits over the years and most have few posts (except for /r/Portland but that's a different beast) beyond "Who has the best hamburgers?" and "Thinking of moving here."

[beezle]

FPF isn't about "encouraging engagement" in the back and forth discussion type. It is more about giving/getting very localized information/resources. Think "did you get my package" "I need someone to put a new culvert in" "lost dog" "hens for sale" "town hall closed today"

[hasbot]

In your neighborhood, how many posts per day (or week) are typical? Are there notifications or is manually checking the forum required?

[beezle]

sry delay - my area is typically 2 email digests a day, each with about 15 posts. Varies a bit by day of week and season.

[mplanchard]

Generally 3-5 posts per day in downtown-ish Burlington.

They come out in a digest once per day, which the app notifies you about or you can get via email

[oglop]

Reddit overall selects for a certain population to use it. I would not use it as a comparison for something like this.

[mplanchard]

As an example of what you’re saying, the Vermont subreddit skews wildly snarky and mean-spirited relative to either front porch forum or actual people in real life

[arresin]

You’re describing every subreddit

[kevin_thibedeau]

My small city's Reddit sub is fairly well managed and has a variety of tame posts on local interests, events, and Q&A. You need to have enough people who aren't stuck on a monomaniacal groupthink to keep things civil.

[everybodyknows]

> I think it helps that the groups really are hyper-local, on the order of a few streets, so it’s very likely you’re interacting with one of your neighbors at any given time.

Are there ever complaints about not being able to reach friends who happen to live just outside the geo boundaries?

[mplanchard]

It’s not really a social network in that sense: posts aren’t directed to individuals but to the neighborhood. If you do want to reach the surrounds, there is an option to make your post viewable to nearby neighborhoods, which is useful when selling stuff or posting about events or lost items

[The_Colonel]

Isn't it the same as e. g. reddit (posting to subreddits, not to individuals) which sits firmly in the "social network" category?