Yearly Archives: 2021
Recommendations and help from neighbors
Front Porch Forum members share their knowledge and recommendations with neighbors.
“A couple of months ago there was a posting recommending Brian S. to wash windows. It was so complimentary I immediately contacted Brian, who did my windows today. As promised he did a beautiful, thorough job. Which gets me thinking about FPF and the great service it provides to our community. Thank you FPF for giving us the ability to converse as a community and to support each other.“ • Ellen in Ferrisburgh
“Hi Conrad: Thank you for posting the results of your request for dairy farm recommendations! This is very helpful. What a great community we have of FPF members willing to share their knowledge & experiences.” • Madeline in St. Johnsbury
“What an amazing and generous community this is! I’d like to thank all the women who responded to my urgent, pre-surgical need for a house cleaner, everyone who offered help and recommendations. It astonishes me that I found the Perfect Person on the very same day I sent out my posting! As usual with Front Porch Forum, I seem to have found not only a helper but a new and delightful friend. And how many other friends are out there, just waiting to be met! A dip into FPF always reminds me of this. So gratitude to all.” • Tami in Montpelier
“Dear FPF friends, I had asked for an electrician who would call me back. I was overwhelmed by the volume of responses, both privately and on the Forum–far too many of you wonderful folks responded for me to thank you individually. But, I am beyond grateful for your kindness. Thank you, FPF!!!” • Elizabeth in Middlebury
“Thanks to all who sent recommendations for a good HVAC company, it was most appreciated. I love FPF and this is why I contribute yearly.” • Jackie in Williston
Did you find something helpful from a neighbor on Front Porch Forum? Remember to share your findings on FPF!
Cool Finds and Neighbor Connections on FPF
FPF is the place where members can go to call dibs on cool freebies, offer up their surplus zucchini, or ask neighbors if they have an old elliptical lying around that they don’t use anymore. It’s a beautiful give and take, but most importantly it introduces folks to the people who share their community. See some recent exchanges from your neighbors on FPF:
“I just want to encourage folks out there to join the forum. It’s so informative that you want to always be checking on what’s coming next! There is a need for all to join to express your feelings, to want to buy / looking for something or wow didn’t know about that. It’s beneficial, exciting and you want to tell everyone about FRONTPORCHFORUM. When animals are lost I write their names down so I can be on the look out for them. Please if you don’t join you don’t know what you’re missing out on.” · Ellie in Ferrisburgh
“Hello neighbors, I am looking for an old Shepard’s hook (a stake with a hook on the end, and an old metal watering can. While I’m here, I want to give a huge Shout Out to FPF and this amazing community. A few weeks ago, I posted about a lost hoodie at The Grift. It was returned to me from word-of-mouth because someone saw my post. I’m So Grateful” · Gretchen in Mad River Valley
“Guess how many responses I had to my posting looking for a dog crate? Six, plus great recommendations to purchase at the Humane Society and at Recycle North. Amazing. I will definitely post again before running off to buy anything new. Thanks.” · John in Burlington
Connect with your neighbors on Front Porch Forum and you may have some pleasant surprises in store!
FPF to Speak on Panel: Reimagine the Internet
Detail of Civic Logic, by Fiammetta Ghedini, RIVA Illustrations
Front Porch Forum‘s co-founder, Michael Wood-Lewis, will speak on a panel for the virtual conference, Reimagine the Internet, on Thu., May 13 at 12:00 p.m. The event is co-hosted by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the soon-to-be-launched Initiative on Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
FPF will be joined by many notable panelists, including Cory Doctorow of Electronic Frontier Foundation, Evelyn Douek of Harvard Law School and Katherine Maher of Wikimedia Foundation.
Front Porch Forum will be part of Thursday’s discussion:
Lessons from Experiments in Local Community-Building
Thursday, May 13, 2021
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
This panel will focus on lessons learned from local communities and the implications of these lessons for online spaces. Sara Lomax-Reese is the CEO of WURD, a family-owned talk radio station in Philadelphia that serves that city’s Black community. Michael Wood-Lewis is co-founder of Front Porch Forum, an online community of mailing lists that serves every town in Vermont. Individually and in dialog, both will address lessons learned in building hyperlocal media and the ways in which online communities build trusted relationships.
Panelists
- Sara Lomax-Reese, WURD Radio
- Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
Moderator
- Ethan Zuckerman, Initiative on Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
Learn more about the virtual conference or RSVP here.
Our Flowers have Blossomed!
With help from thousands of Front Porch Forum members… we made it! Thanks to everyone who chipped in to reach FPF’s Spring Supporting Member Campaign goal. These dollars will help fund FPF operations in the months ahead.
If you meant to donate to FPF and haven’t yet had a chance, there’s still time. Please give today!
FPF is a Public Benefit Corporation and not a charity. Contributions are not tax deductible.
Lost Home, Found Community
When a tornado struck an Addison County family’s home, so much was lost. In the wake of the disaster, the community came together to help offer support. See this beautiful message of gratitude shared on their FPF, after having shared their initial story:
“My son and I want to thank all the people who read our original FPF posting and responded with such sincerity and caring. Whether offering us a place to stay, coming over to help clean up, letting us know you’re willing to lend a hand down the road or sending messages that continue to lift our spirits, your presence is being felt, and it is comforting and reassuring.
Our deepest thanks to Randy and his wife (of Randy’s Service Center.) One of the first calls I received was from Randy, offering us the loaner car in his shop. He’s given us the gift of ease in the midst of much that is challenging.
I wish I had the capacity to respond to each and every one of you. Your poems, stories and heartfelt words have encouraged us as we get our bearings along a new and different road. We want you to know that your reaching out in these creative and caring ways is quite literally brightening our days.
The further we get from the “event,” the more we’re appreciating that we’ve not been forgotten by the people around us. My son and I are grateful for your continuing companionship.”
As they start to envision their next steps forward, the family reflected on “the new normal” and the transitional state that most in the world are facing. They bring to their community an imagination circle to bring new hope, ideas, and possibilities for the future.
Strength and hope can be found in difficult times when a community comes together. FPF is happy to be a resource where neighbors can connect in times of need as well as in times of hope.
FPF Must Raise $150,000 by Wednesday
Vermonters have put Front Porch Forum to work the past year like we’ve never seen before. New members have joined in record numbers. Posting quantity is way up. Public officials and nonprofit leaders have shared critical information frequently. Local businesses have leveraged their local Forums to find customers. And neighbor-helping-neighbor stories are piling up faster than ever.
To continue working on our community-building mission and providing our essential civic service to every town we serve, we need to raise $150,000 statewide from our members by this Wednesday, April 28. Please donate today.
If you are in the position to contribute to FPF now, please do. We’re eager to keep FPF going strong and vital. We need your help to get there.
Please give today: https://frontporchforum.com/supporting-members
Thank you,
Front Porch Forum’s growing staff
Aaron, Ariel, Emily, Emily, Gisele, Hilary, Jason, Jodi, Jonna, Linda, Lynn, Matt, Michael, Natanya, Nina, Noah, Renee, Sarah, Suzie, Valerie, Wendy, and Zach
FPF is a Public Benefit Corporation and not a charity. Contributions are not tax deductible. Ad sales to local businesses cover most of our expenses, and your Supporting Member contribution helps close the gap.
While we prefer online donations by credit card or PayPal, we also accept payment by check, with gratitude, at:
Front Porch Forum
PO Box 73
Westford, VT 05494-0073
Keep FPF Working During Challenging Times
Today we are launching Front Porch Forum’s annual Spring Supporting Member Campaign. If you are able, please support FPF by donating now: https://frontporchforum.com/supporting-members
With the pandemic and other challenges, more people are using FPF than ever before to stay informed, reach out to neighbors, and get involved. Our workload has expanded considerably since before the pandemic, and our costs and staff have grown accordingly.
We know that many of our members are not in a position financially to make a contribution at this time. If that’s your case, please do not donate, but DO keep using your local FPF. Your engagement makes a big difference — in fact, it is more important than ever for all of us to build community among neighbors.
If you value FPF, please support our work by participating and by donating today by credit card, PayPal or check.
Thank you.
FPF is a Public Benefit Corporation and not a charity. Contributions are not tax deductible. Ad sales to local businesses cover most of our expenses, and your Supporting Member contribution helps close the gap.
While we prefer online donations, we also gratefully accept payment by check at:
Front Porch Forum
PO Box 73
Westford, VT 05494-0073
FPF applauds those who took part in Good Citizen Challenge!
Wow! A number of students and families participated in this year’s “At-Home” version of the Good Citizen Challenge, complete with 40-plus activities encouraging learning in History, Government, Community Service and News Literacy. Many put FPF to work to complete the activities:
Team Tiki in Wolcott organized donations to the Hardwick Area Food Pantry. Blaine, 6, chose the charity. “It was all him,” said mom Laura.
Laura put out a call for donations on their Front Porch Forum, and neighbors they’d never met responded, dropping food off at their house. They’d beep when they arrived, said Laura, and “We’d wave from the window” or help unload the items.
She said delivering the donations was a big moment for Blaine. “I think it was the first time he really had an experience where he could actually feel that he had an impact on the world,” she said. “Things like that really sink in for children. I think he won’t ever forget that.”
Pick up the April issue of Kids VT, which is in this week’s Seven Days to learn more, or read online.
Vermonters take notice of FPF in the News
Front Porch Forum is celebrating the start of spring and lots of mentions in the news recently which our members have noticed!
“A big shout out to let everyone know that the April issue of The Atlantic has an excellent article called The Internet Doesn’t Have To Be Awful. This article mentions our fantastic Vermont FPF as an example of how we can make the internet a space that promotes democratic values by helping to make conversations better to benefit everyone in a community.” • Sandy in Burlington
How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire
By: Story by Anne Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev
Instead of making people angry, participation in online forums can give them the same civic thrill that town halls or social clubs once did. “Elks Club meetings were what gave us experience in democracy,” he said. “We learned how to run an organization. We learned how to handle disagreement. We learned how to be civilized people who don’t storm out of an argument.”
Versions of this idea already exist. A Vermont-based site, Front Porch Forum, is used by roughly a quarter of the state’s residents for all sorts of community activity, from natural-disaster response to job-hunting, as well as civic discussion. Instead of encouraging users to interact as much and as fast as possible, Front Porch slows the conversation down: Your posts come online 24 hours after you’ve written them. Sometimes, people reach out to the moderators to retract something said in anger. Everyone on the forum is real, and they have to sign up using real Vermont addresses. When you go on the site, you interact with your actual neighbors, not online avatars.
Read the full article here.
“Kudos! FPF is showcased in the Atlantic. Upon which Fareed Zakaria (Foreign Affairs Quarterly, Global Public Square) highlighted FPF in his Global Briefing newsletter, “Can Online Politics Be Fixed?” • Alison in Burlington
Can Online Politics Be Fixed?
Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good
In Vermont, a site called Front Porch Forum “is used by roughly a quarter of the state’s residents for all sorts of community activity, from natural-disaster response to job-hunting, as well as civic discussion,” Applebaum and Pomerantsev write. “Instead of encouraging users to interact as much and as fast as possible, Front Porch slows the conversation down
See the full newsletter here.
9 Projects Trying To Build Social Platforms That Don’t Make You Hate Yourself
By: Jeff Link
Now in its third software iteration, Front Porch Forum is a community-based forum where neighbors can share information and local concerns. Active in Vermont and parts of New York, the 20-year-old platform launched by Michael and Valerie Wood-Lewis trades in short posts about locally relevant topics lost pets, cars for sale, plumber recommendations, school budget issues and political protests. The service hosts online neighborhood and small-town forums for registered users.
“Once a day they’ll get an issue that arrives via email or website or mobile app,” Wood-Lewis said of users. “The average issue might have about 10 postings. It’s not emoticons. It’s not LOL-type stuff. It’s more substantive. The most compelling content tends to gravitate toward the top.”
“There’s no anonymity. It’s like wearing a name tag and showing up at a block party with your neighbors.”
Open only to local citizens, officials, nonprofits and businesses, the platform is distinct from several of its larger social-networking competitors.
“There’s no anonymity. It’s like wearing a name tag and showing up at a block party with your neighbors,” Wood-Lewis said during the panel discussion.
In addition, every posting is reviewed by a staff of online community managers before publication.
Read the full article here.
Virus in Vermont: In mutual aid groups, people help one another
By: Nora Peachin
Michael Wood-Lewis, co-founder of Front Porch Forum, says local communities have been weakened as life has moved online, a trend he has been trying to reverse with Front Porch Forum a community bulletin board since its founding in 2006.
“It would be my fondest wish that the social capital, those connections created in [mutual aid] work, don’t dissipate with the crisis,” Wood-Lewis said. “I hope all those mutual aid groups continue to live on, even if only as a social entity so that people can keep those connections in this time of political divisiveness and with all that big tech has foisted on us.”
Wood-Lewis noted a dramatic increase in almost all of Front Porch Forum’s metrics new members, postings, advertisers, clicks on ads during the pandemic. Wood-Lewis’ team set up a special category for mutual aid groups in the online directory and a list of ways to help during Covid.
Read the full article here.
Stay in tune with all the latest FPF mentions on our media page.
About Blog
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more
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