Author Archives: Michael
Expressing gratitude… make it count!
See something you really appreciate in your local community? Post a “thank you” to your neighbors via FPF…
Jay, Anne, and all who contributed to the flowers in the villages. They are soooo nice, well kept, and send a welcoming invitation to anyone passing through, including us locals. Beautiful pots and lovely flowers all summer long. THANK YOU!
• Beth & Jerry, Cambridge FPFI drive through Cambridge Village on my way to work and have been admiring the yellow flowers in the pots. What a lovely welcoming combination of colors. Very unique. I was trying to decide who to send a thank you to and thought perhaps the town clerk . But what a good idea to reach a lot of people here on Front Porch Forum. Thanks so much for the colorful welcome to your village.
• Charlene, Belvidere Center
Carpool forming in the Islands via FPF
Carpools can save money and time, reduce your environmental impact, and help make friendly connections in your community. Many Vermonters use Front Porch Forum to start their carpools, like Anne below…
Just checking in to see if there’s any commuters to Plattsburgh from Alburgh or Isle La Motte area. I drove into work today and there were six Vermont cars going over the bridge to enter New York and we all got off around the same exit towards Plattsburgh. Do you want to save money and share the drive? Just let me know. It can be very flexible on days that people can’t carpool, no worries, but at least you’re saving gas and sharing the driving.
• Anne, Isle La Motte
Stolen snowblower returned thanks to FPF-reading neighbor
AUGH!! My big snapper snowblower was stolen recently from my LOCKED garage. (Thief broke in through the small side door.) If anyone saw anything, knows anything or hears anything please contact the police. I recently moved to Brattleboro – it’s an unsettling ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ to say the least. Thanks in advance for any help that comes my way…
• Susan, Brattleboro FPF
A HUGE thank you to the neighbor who saw my Front Porch Forum posting over my stolen snowblower, took a walk, saw my snowblower in the woods and called the police. I just got it back this morning! I can’t tell you how grateful I am. The police said they hardly ever see anyone get their property back, so I know how lucky I am. A very heartfelt THANK YOU. I’ll be going out to buy a lottery ticket.
• Susan, Brattleboro FPF
59th on the wait list? Ask neighbors instead!
Looking for a hard-to-find item? Use your local FPF to ask your neighbors. Cathy is glad she did!
Hi Neighbors – I am looking for the Book “Where the Crawdads Sing.” I hear it’s great! I have it on hold at our local library, but I’m 59 on the list. Thanks!
• Cathy, Underhill FPFHi Neighbors and friends! Woohoo! I just received a copy of the book that I’ve been looking for. Thanks you all for your time and trouble. I love Front Porch Forum!
• Cathy, Underhill FPF
Vermont Country Stores Reach Customers via Front Porch Forum
From Anne Wallace Allen in VTDigger yesterday…
Jack Garvin, longtime manager of the Warren Store in the Mad River Valley, which sells gifts, housewares, craft beer and other items, said that like every store, his has a group of regulars who meet every morning for coffee. Apart from participating in a huge range of events, Garvin finds it helpful to advertise on Front Porch Forum (FPF), the online bulletin board.
“Regardless of how loyal your customers are and they love the idea of having a country store in their town when it comes to bottom line and looking at your wallet and looking at your disposable income, they’ll by and large go to the better deals,” Garvin said. But he added he can see through FPF analytics that his ads reach people outside the Mad River Valley.
“We don’t know how that translates into people walking in the door, but people are paying attention,” he said.
Fighting Online Bullying
From Micah Sifry in Civicist 1st Post today
Katy Steinmetz reports for Time magazine on how Instagram is trying to use AI to reduce how much the platform is used for cyberbullying, but as she notes, “it’s much easier to recognize when someone in a photo is not wearing pants than it is to recognize the broad array of behavior that might be considered bullying.” Oh, and the person in charge of this whole effort, Adam Mosseri, previously was in charge of the development of Facebook NewsFeed, so this should inspire confidence. (How does your AI read sarcasm, he asked.)
One problem with Steinmetz’s article is that she accepts the frame of all the blitzscaled platforms, which is that connecting the entire world online requires massively open platforms, unfortunately creating massive toxic effects. But cyberbullying isn’t, as Steinmetz writes, “a problem that crops up anywhere the people congregate online.” It’s a problem that crops up wherever a platform has been optimized for engagement over any other value, and where there is limited to no human moderation. For example, a user of Front Porch Forum in Vermont, where each instance is centered on a neighborhood of roughly 1000 households and a paid part-time moderator helps keep the conversation civil, does not experience cyberbullying, as a recent study found.
Help More Vermonters Benefit from FPF… Mobile App on the Way!
Did you know that nearly one-third of low-income Americans don’t have a broadband-connected computer and can only access the internet by mobile phone?
FPF is committed to making it easy for all Vermonters to participate in their local Front Porch Forum. We’re building a mobile app to make FPF even more inclusive. We need to raise $30,000 by next Tuesday to accomplish this. Please help today:
https://frontporchforum.com/supporting-members
More than 160,000 Vermonters participate on their local FPF daily. With your help, even more will be able to join the conversation.
Please contribute $200, $100, $50, $27 or any amount. Credit card, PayPal or check: https://frontporchforum.com/supporting-members
Front Porch Forum
PO Box 64781
Burlington, VT 05406-4781
FPF is a Vermont business, with a staff of 18, that serves every community in the state. We are not a charity and contributions are not tax deductible. Most of our expenses are covered by ad sales to Vermont businesses, and your Supporting Member contribution helps close the gap. Thank you!
UPDATE: We surpassed our funding goal by our deadline! Thanks so much to the many FPF Supporting Members who chipped in. Stay tuned for news about the FPF mobile app launch coming soon!
FPF is Hiring: Business Manager
Front Porch Forum is seeking a Business Manager to join our growing team.
FPF is hiring: Software Developer
Front Porch Forum is seeking an Intermediate or Senior-level Developer to join our team of 17 Vermont-based staff.
Investing in climate change insurance? Try community resiliency
A recent article in New York Times… 
Climate Change Insurance: Buy Land Somewhere Else
In case global warming makes their homes uninhabitable, some millennials have a Plan B: investing in places like the Catskills, Oregon and Vermont.
Buried among several examples of people who think the answer to large-scale catastrophe is striking out on their own is the following gem…
Bruce Riordan, program director for the Climate Readiness Institute at the University of California Berkeley, cautioned that it isn’t realistic to expect to live in a bubble. “Sure, you can grow your own vegetables, but what about wheat and grains?” he said. “And what happens when you need medical attention?”
Mastering surgery would certainly be a lot harder than learning to grow tomatoes.
A better strategy, Mr. Riordan suggested, would be to find a community that is intelligently preparing for whatever climate change may bring. He equated the situation to what California has done about earthquakes: They can’t be avoided, but we can build safer buildings, get better at predicting them and establish systems to care for vulnerable populations when they occur.
This jibes with Front Porch Forum‘s experience. When disaster strikes, the most resilient communities are those full of neighbors who know each other, know what’s going on, and who have a record of helping each other and accomplishing things together.
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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