Category Archives: Local Reviews

Ask neighbors for farmers’ market finds

Posted on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 by • Comments are off for this post

#BTV #VT – Folks in Vermont use Front Porch Forum is lots of ways.  Here’s one from today’s FPF in Burlington’s Old North End by a local newspaper reporter…

Dear neighbors: I’ll be sampling breakfast, lunch and snacks at the Burlington Farmers Market this Saturday… Would love recommendations from ONE East about which temptations I shouldn’t miss, which prices are most reasonable. Any and all suggestions welcome.

How do you find a contractor?

Posted on Friday, May 25, 2012 by • Comments are off for this post

Indeed, how does a person find a home improvement contractor?  From Greg Sterling today, a recent survey found that asking a friend is the top approach.   This jibes with our experience.

“Seeking plumber/mechanic/roofer/electrician/etc./contractor recommendations” is one of the most common postings on Front Porch Forum.

Duping by the crowd vs. building community among neighbors

Posted on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 by • Comments are off for this post

Greg Sterling blogged today (in part)…

The Sunday Times in the UK writes that Yell employees wrote 6,700 reviews for the site (TrustedPlaces) in a month for an internal contest. According to secondary reports:

Staff at the firm’s Reading HQ were encouraged to write reviews for the company’s website Trusted Places – a site boasting user-generated recommendations of places to visit – by the offer of prizes such as an iPad and Amazon vouchers, according to the Sunday Times.

The article and information are presented as something of an expose or scandal. However I don’t necessarily agree. If the reviews are real and authentic they’re not illegitimate in my mind. But it’s a close call…

Well… I’m not sure how 6,700 reviews written by paid staff for some kind of internal contest could be considered “real and authentic.”  More importantly, this fuels a not uncommon suspicion that many online reviews are B.S.  It’s just too easy to stack the deck with reviews from people who have a stake in the business being reviewed or in the host site itself.

We often hear from people who place a high value on reviews read on Front Porch Forum.  They use terms like “real” and “authentic” because that’s what they are… postings from clearly identified nearby neighbors typically offered in response to a request from a neighbor… “can anyone recommend a good plumber?”

Also, each recommendation is seen by everyone in the neighborhood, not just those few who happen to be searching for a plumber.  This leads to  conversation among neighbors… sometimes on FPF, often via email, and even more commonly face-to-face.

So… a huge database of potentially bogus reviews from strangers… vs. a few reviews from clearly identified nearby neighbors that lead to conversations among neighbors on the sidewalk.  Two different propositions.

The neighbors’ “awesome collective wisdom”

Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 by • 1 comment

Greg posted the following as part of a note to his neighbors yesterday via Front Porch Forum.  He’s searching for advice about new windows that are frosting over.

At this point none of experts we’ve consulted can seem to explain what could be happening, so I’m turning to the awesome collective wisdom of FPF.

You know… he’s right.  More than 90% of the households in his particular neighborhood subscribe to FPF and got his message.  There’s more wisdom in this group than in any one store clerk or telephone customer service person he may have consulted.  And more than a few of these neighbors share the same problem and may have already solved this problem.

I see one response already in the queue for the next issue of his neighborhood forum… and I’m sure he’ll hear from several people directly.

UPDATE:  Greg and family are relatively new to the state.  So, in addition to appreciating solutions for the window problem, the conversation with all of these clearly identified nearby neighbors is valuable in of itself.

Angie’s List: “We’re direct marketers at heart”

Posted on Thursday, February 5, 2009 by • Comments are off for this post

Among its many uses, people use Front Porch Forum to find and recommend plumbers and dentists and all sorts of services in between.  This leads others to ask… “oh, so FPF is like Angie’s List?”  Well, yes and no.  Yes, in that both FPF (in our one pilot city) and Angie’s List (in its 250 cities) will help you find a roofer.  And, no, in that we have different missions.

Front Porch Forum’s mission is to help neighbors connect and build community… and we do that by facilitating conversation among clearly identified nearby neighbors about all sorts of topics.

I don’t know Angie’s List’s mission, but here’s a quote from The Local Onliner today…

Angie Hicks, the co-founder and namesake of Angie’s List, said she thinks of her company as a direct marketing machine. Speaking at ClickZ’s Online Marketing Summit in San Diego this morning, Hicks noted that “we’re direct marketers at heart. If it doesn’t perform, it’s out.”

Using FPF to reward good service

Posted on Monday, December 22, 2008 by • Comments are off for this post

Myra Mathis-Flynn reported a story from Front Porch Forum today for the Burlington Free Press…

Michigan family quickly learns the Vermont way
By Myra Mathis-Flynn
Burlington Free Press
December 22, 2008

Much can happen in the process of a move, but when Patrick and Juliet Halladay decided to pack up their three kids and move from Michigan to Burlington, they did not anticipate someone almost losing a finger.

When Juliet Halladay was hired as a professor in the University of Vermont’s Elementary Education program, the family packed its belongings for the trip East. During the moving process, the Halladay’s couch dropped onto Juliet’s finger. The appendage was spared only because of her engagement ring, which took the brunt of the impact. As a result, the ring was a wreck.

Patrick Halladay ventured onto the Church Street Marketplace to find a local store to fix his wife’s ring. Enter Lippa’s Jewelers.

“This is a Christmas of some fiscal austerity,” Patrick Halladay said. “I decided to spend a bit of money to get the ring reshaped and thought that I would like to use someone local. I stopped at Lippa’s because it looked local. They said bring it in, it will be $20.”

When Jeff Berger, owner of Lippa’s came back, he told Halladay he owed nothing for the repair, and to have a happy holiday. Halladay immediately posted a story on the gesture on his neighborhood, Front Porch Forum so others could hear of the good deed.

“What really surprised me is that I have never been to the store; I’m not a regular; he had no idea who I was,” Halladay said. “It made me feel positively inclined to not have a good deed be unrewarded. It’s consistent to what we have found here in Burlington, people have a human aspect of doing business, which is a smart outlook.”

“These are things, you do them because you can,” Berger said. “Sure it’s my time and my expertise, but you just do them. I grew up in this business and one of the things I remember my grandfather telling me: ‘If you do something good for a client, they tell 10 people, something bad and they tell 100.’ They are acts of kindness. It takes a little bit of time sometimes, but that’s OK.”

Eleven years ago, Patrick Halladay proposed to Juliet with that ring on her birthday, Dec. 29. He will give her the repaired ring as a gift on their anniversary.

Lippa’s Jewelers is located at 112 Church St., or call 862-1042.

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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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