Local Online | Ghost of Midnight

Do You Value FPF? Become a Supporting Member!

Posted on Monday, October 3, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

#BTV #VT – We’re working hard to improve and expand Front Porch Forum in 2011-12 and we need your help to make it all happen. Please become a supporting member today and help us reach our goal of raising $30,000 by October 30! Contribute here:

http://frontporchforum.com/supporting-members

Every year, members like you help fuel FPF so that we can continue to help neighbors connect and build community. More than 30,000 local households have joined and shared hundreds of thousands of postings with their neighbors through FPF!

Whether it’s flood recovery efforts, group yard sales, car break-ins, sharing perennials, election debates, block parties, town notices, or other topics, our small band of committed staff work day and night to keep this all going.

If you enjoy and value Front Porch Forum, please become a supporting member today at:

http://frontporchforum.com/supporting-members

Your contribution is critical to keeping FPF going strong — and will be enormously appreciated. We look forward to serving you and your neighbors in the coming year.

Your FPF team,
Michael, Nina, Linda, Jamie, Lynn, Gisele, Jeff, Regina, Suzie, and Jan

P.S. We also accept checks, payable to…
Front Porch Forum
PO Box 64781
Burlington, VT 05406-4781
802-540-0069

FPF is not a charity and contributions are not tax deductible. Ad sales to local businesses cover part of our expenses, and your supporting-member contributions help close the gap.

Doesn’t use a computer but depends on FPF every day…

Posted on Monday, October 3, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

#VT – Once FPF reaches a critical mass of people in a neighborhood or small town, it has a way of reaching nearly everyone… even those who don’t subscribe. A member in Middlesex, VT, offered this testimony today…

Front Porch Forum strengthens the whole community it serves, whether every last person is on it or not. People who are on FPF make the community more connected and better informed, and they share information, and that benefits everyone. This was true during the flood [Hurricane Irene], but it’s true all year too.

I know one elderly woman in my town who doesn’t have a computer, doesn’t want one, but depends on her next-door neighbor to tell her the FPF news over the back fence every day. She took me aside at one of our bandstand concerts this summer to ask about the new FPF format, because she was so anxious to make sure there was no break in the service.

Thanks again to e-Vermont for bringing FPF to Middlesex and two dozen other Vermont towns.

DR Power Equipment puts FPF to good use in #VT

Posted on Saturday, September 24, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

Found a gift in my inbox today…

As a Video Producer for DR Power Equipment, I need to find locations to highlight my company’s products. Front Porch Forum makes my job much easier and I get to meet really great folks. Thanks for your help!

I love being an FPF member. A friend recommended it to me and at first I thought, “no way, I don’t want any more emails” but it doesn’t take any time to go through the daily list.

FPF connects me to my community, makes the bond between us stronger, and personal conversations continue due to FPF postings. I look forward to reading it every night. I’m not a Facebook fan but I LOVE Front Porch Forum.

Marianne Eaton
Producer/Editor
Country Home Products

Sometimes it’s the little things…

Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

Thank you to our Grand Isle neighbor for finding our keys and responding to our Front Porch Forum post! It’s been an amazing week of neighbors looking out for us. We hope to reciprocate when the opportunity arises!

Another great posting of neighbors helping neighbors.

Community foundations to meet with journalism and tech experts

Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

Front Porch Forum will be featured at the Knight Foundation Media Learning Seminar 2012 (Feb. 19-21, Miami, FL).

… community and place-based foundations leaders meet with journalism and technology experts… will provide new insights into the changing media landscape and emerging technologies while offering concrete examples of how foundations are helping to fill their community’s information voids…

Screeching like a trapped seagull in #BTV #VT

Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

I think this is a FIRST for Front Porch Forum. Posted by an FPF member in Burlington’s Old North End today…

This morning, at about 1.30 a.m., my husband and I were ripped from coma-like sleep by a loud distress sound. It sounded like it came from about 250 feet away, somehwere on the eastern part of Walnut, up from Dot’s Market. The sound didn’t vary much in pitch. For about 15 minutes, we lay in bed speculating about its its source.

“I think its a possum or something. Perhaps an animal in a have-a-heart trap?,” speculated my husband.

“No, I think it is a seagull. I bet its trapped in a dumpster or garbage,” I offered.

In his boxers, my husband left the house to help the poor animal. He was back shortly after, with the sound was still carrying through the whole neighborhood.

“Not a seagull, Val. A mammal. A **very happy** neighbor.” To maintain the G-rated spirit of Front Porch Forum, I will proceed by referring to the sound sources as the”trapped seagull” and the “seagull rescuer,” who was clearly already on the scene before my husband and I thought to help.

Trapped seagull: I am happy for your late hour pleasure. I know this won’t be an issue in 4 weeks when we have to sleep with our windows closed, but it would be neighborly if you didn’t broadcast your coital bliss over such a wide distance.

Seagull Rescuer: Trapped seagull is not being honest with you. If a seagull were trapped for that long and were forced to give out a distress call at the volume for such a long time, she would, in real life, perish of exhaustion. Only in the movies do seagulls maintain that level of pleasure at that volume for 45 minutes.

Then again, maybe the rest of us are doing it wrong and seagull and rescuer are on to something. Perhaps we can knock on their door and ask them next time we are treated to their pleasure sounds?

Keeping it civil… or not

Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

Local online spaces can build up or tear down the sense of community in a place. Front Porch Forum is full of examples of the former. The New York Times reported yesterday about an example of the latter…

… But of late, more people in this hardscrabble town of 5,000 have shifted from sharing the latest news and rumors over eggs and coffee to the Mountain Grove Forum on a social media Web site called Topix, where they write and read startlingly negative posts, all cloaked in anonymity, about one another.

And in Dee’s Place, people are not happy. A waitress, Pheobe Best, said that the site had provoked fights and caused divorces. The diner’s owner, Jim Deverell, called Topix a “cesspool of character assassination”…

Ouch. More motivation to keep FPF moving in a positive direction.

Block by Block: Community News Summit

Posted on Monday, September 19, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

I’m looking forward to speaking at the Block by Block Community News Summit in Chicago (Sept. 29 – Oct. 1). Sounds like a fantastic gathering of online community news publishers. I’m eager to share what we’ve been learning about community engagement through our work with Front Porch Forum, but I suspect that I’ll learn more from other participants than vice versa. Thanks to the sponsors for bringing this group together.

Guess which #VT neighborhood…

Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

A gem of a posting on Front Porch Forum today…

My Dad was an avid gardener.Vegetables and flowers. I developed an appreciation for gardening from him. Of five kids, I have one other sibling who enjoys it and its a brother. When we moved to [our home], I turned the front lawn into a flower garden. In the beginning it was mostly annuals that reseeded. Over time I added perennials and more gardens. (I’m the one who offers Hen and Chicks- which are still available….hint hint) I also like to put things in the flowers like toys and lawn ornaments, adding stuff over the summer so there is more to look for.

Coming home Friday I spotted two young girls wearing fleece hats with pompoms on each side walking with Mom and a little sister in a backpack. After pulling into my driveway, I decided to wait for them to walk close enough to say hello and let them know I liked their hats. Mom said “We love your garden. There are so many neat things to look for.” I thank her and then offered her some of the sunflowers, knowing that the colder temps would soon kill them off. She was tickled and as she and her three daughters headed down the street, I realized how special this neighborhood is.

North Street in Winooski! Love it.

UPDATE: As if on cue… a neighbor responded to the posting above on her FPF neighborhood forum…

I too love your garden. I remember that your garden was how we met. As I was walking by one day many years ago, while you were weeding, you stood up, said “Hello, and welcome to the neighborhood” and then proceeded to offer me some of your beautiful flowers. If I remember correctly, it was about the same time of year. As I pass your house on my daily walks, I have fond memories of your generosity and mostly your infectious loving spirit. You make our neighborhood a wonderful place to be. I know I don’t say it enough but thanks for being my neighbor.

Posted on Thursday, September 15, 2011 by Michael • No comments yet

This tweet from John Craig (TwoWheeledBeard #VT) caught my eye today…

Enjoying the subtle (and not so subtle) differences of #Cambridge and #ONE @frontporchforum

It’s true! People in Burlington’s Old North End and those in the Town of Cambridge both make extensive use of Front Porch Forum… and in different ways. And that’s true of dozens of different Vermont towns and neighborhoods. I’ll leave it to others to compare and contrast.

← Older posts

Newer posts →

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

Category Archives: Local Online

Vive la FPF diff©rence!

About Blog

Yearly Archives

Post Categories

Category Archives: Local Online

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Search the Blog

Yearly Archives

Post Categories