Friendly neighborhood
May. 16th, 2018 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
garoteNextdoor is a site that claims to "bring neighborhoods together" by gathering people who live in the same place up into a social media forum and then blitzing their conversations with barrel-scraping ads and fake "endorsements" by "neighbors" for products Nextdoor has accepted money to advertise.
Here in the East Bay it has become exactly the sort of trench warfare you would expect, complete with land mines and mass attrition. Maybe this was inevitable but I doubt it. It's the classic social media blunder: Growth at all costs, and growth happens via attention, and attention comes from the big three: Hilarious, inflammatory, obviously wrong.
I recently saw a satirical thread that hit all three targets squarely. Hilarious for some, inflammatory for others, and definitely wrong.
-;-;-
(General message to the neighborhood)
Hey folks. Just a heads up - I just saw a dog without a leash go running down the middle of the street, on 52nd towards MLK. Some kind of border collie breed I think, brown and black fur... No leash or collar. If anyone’s looking for a lost dog, hopefully this sighting will help...
(Response 5 minutes later)
Hey man what’s with all You People profiling an ordinary dog minding its own business going down the road, by posting about its activities on Next Door like it’s a criminal??? Someone’s gonna call the cops and that dog is gonna get killed, just because of your speciesist paranoia.
(5 minutes later)
Hey, shame on You Other People for taking this polite status update from a concerned neighbor and turning it into species profiling. The dog was acting suspicious, by running down the street! I for one am glad we all look out for each other! There’s nothing political going on here, and I/we/they are not profiling, so stop jumping down people’s throats!
(2 minutes later)
How would you like it if I called the cops on your dog, for the crime of being a dog in your own neighborhood? I don’t know your dog. Looks weird to me. Must be up to something.
(5 seconds later)
Seriously, if you’re this paranoid, what are you doing living here around so many dogs? I noticed you didn’t stop the dog and try to get to know it. Were you already too threatened by its species? That fear is your problem. You need to deal with it. Don’t blame it on the dog.
(3 hours later)
Hey, whatever, man, I don’t even own a dog!
Here in the East Bay it has become exactly the sort of trench warfare you would expect, complete with land mines and mass attrition. Maybe this was inevitable but I doubt it. It's the classic social media blunder: Growth at all costs, and growth happens via attention, and attention comes from the big three: Hilarious, inflammatory, obviously wrong.
I recently saw a satirical thread that hit all three targets squarely. Hilarious for some, inflammatory for others, and definitely wrong.
-;-;-
(General message to the neighborhood)Hey folks. Just a heads up - I just saw a dog without a leash go running down the middle of the street, on 52nd towards MLK. Some kind of border collie breed I think, brown and black fur... No leash or collar. If anyone’s looking for a lost dog, hopefully this sighting will help...
(Response 5 minutes later)
Hey man what’s with all You People profiling an ordinary dog minding its own business going down the road, by posting about its activities on Next Door like it’s a criminal??? Someone’s gonna call the cops and that dog is gonna get killed, just because of your speciesist paranoia.
(5 minutes later)
Hey, shame on You Other People for taking this polite status update from a concerned neighbor and turning it into species profiling. The dog was acting suspicious, by running down the street! I for one am glad we all look out for each other! There’s nothing political going on here, and I/we/they are not profiling, so stop jumping down people’s throats!
(2 minutes later)
How would you like it if I called the cops on your dog, for the crime of being a dog in your own neighborhood? I don’t know your dog. Looks weird to me. Must be up to something.
(5 seconds later)
Seriously, if you’re this paranoid, what are you doing living here around so many dogs? I noticed you didn’t stop the dog and try to get to know it. Were you already too threatened by its species? That fear is your problem. You need to deal with it. Don’t blame it on the dog.
(3 hours later)
Hey, whatever, man, I don’t even own a dog!
