Category Archives: Social Networking
Space heater flood in her inbox…
#VT – From Jessica in South Hero today on her Front Porch Forum in response to the request she posted on FPF…
The cause of the flood is an abundance of generous and helpful neighbors living in the Champlain Islands…
Less than 16 hours (half of which we have been sleeping) and I have been offered 12+ heaters already!!
Thank you, Islanders!
Hyde Park launches their Front Porch Forum
#VT – The Town and Village of Hyde Park, Vt., and several local co-sponsors pulled together to bring Front Porch Forum to their community. The official launch is tomorrow, March 19, 2012. Special thanks to…
• Town of Hyde Park
• Village of Hyde Park
• Hyde Park Community Community Circle
• Polow, Polow & Mahoney
• Carolyn Smiles
Front Porch Forum is now available in more than 70 Vermont towns (and one each in New York and New Hampshire!). Please send folks to FPF to sign up!
Seeking roofer recommendation?
#VT – Thanks to you FPF neighbors who sent recommedations for roofers. It’s like having a local “Angie’s List.” (only better).
That was posted on Front Porch Forum by Chris in Burlington’s North End today. We hear that kind of thing frequently. FPF members get lots of good results when they seek recommendations… and, best of all, they get to meet neighbors along the way.
Neighbor Mob… in a good way
#VT #cashmob – Can online communication work too well? Lately we’ve been hearing from Front Porch Forum members with a similar comment. Neighbor response to postings is so strong that it changes the writers’ perceptions of their community. As one person put it… “I didn’t know I had this many neighbors! Now when I drive to work in the morning I see the houses I pass differently.” And here’s a posting today from Middlesex FPF…
I got such a crush of emails in response to the free fridge that I am replying here on FPF to tell you it’s gone… It makes me wonder if there are others with appliances gathering dust. If you do, there are people looking!
A bit like the Cash Mob concept that visited Vermont this month… but with staying power.
Fully integrated in Starksboro
#VT – I thought it was pretty neat that at 15 minutes into the Starksboro Town Meeting, Front Porch Forum had been mentioned 3 times by town officials (Town Clerk, Selectboard Chair, and I think also by the Moderator), with things like, “Watch for updates on Front Porch Forum.”
And the thing that struck me, was that it was always said like everyone would know what they were talking about. Here we are three years after start up there, and it’s a fully integrated part of the way the community interacts (and has been for some time). Pretty cool…
That note arrived today from an observer of Starksboro’s March 3rd Town Meeting… and we’re hearing the same from other towns who met prior to Tuesday’s official Town Meeting Day in Vermont.
Weaving the web of community…
#VT – I signed up for Front Porch Forum about 3 months ago and made first response recently to a neighbor’s request for a place to store her car. I told her we didn’t have one but if she ever wanted to sell it we may be interested.
That started a series of emails and that led to conversations and then a face to face meeting. She understood my being nervous about my 16 year old son spending his entire savings account on a used car. How would we know if the engine or some other big part would need to be replaced soon after we bought it? Turns out we go by her house everyday – we began to trust each other.
She wound up putting in new brakes before we bought the car because she didn’t want my son getting in an accident! We even bartered a little – she needed the use of our truck and we needed a little off the asking price. It was a win win.
We are still in touch and she may be hiring my son for odd jobs. And the car – a Suburu – is still running great. Thanks FPF for connecting us!
Thanks to Pam in Richmond for sharing this today. We hear variations of this tale over and over at FPF. Building real community in a place doesn’t happen quickly and it takes many strands to form strong local webs.
Radio listeners are responding…
#VT – Have you heard FPF‘s ad on Farm Fresh Radio? Give a listen.
Hurricane Irene, Town Meeting Day, FPF, and You
#VT – We learned recently that a group of tech students set out in the wake of Hurricane Irene to pitch-in whatever way they could. The first three Vermont towns they came to turned them away when the local folks, understandably, weren’t yet organized enough to take advantage of the offer. Then the students came to Moretown and were put right to work because the lines of communication were humming, and, we’re told, Front Porch Forum was a big part of that.
More than half of Moretown uses FPF now and people make great use of it. Further, FPF is like fertilizer for local networks, helping book clubs, car pools, neighborhood watches and other local groups grow and prosper. These are the connections that make a community strong and resilient.
As Elga Gemst, a Moretown FPF member said in the days after Irene, “we’ve lost half a house but gained a community. Thank you neighbors for your heart-breaking generosity.”
Help neighbors in your town connect BEFORE the next call to action for your community. Recruit new members to your Front Porch Forum on Town Meeting Day. Contact us and we’ll send you flyers, sign-up sheets and other tips. Act today… Town Meeting is in a few days! Also, consider speaking from the floor of your meeting and pointing your neighbors to http://FrontPorchForum.com
Neighborhood Synchronicity
#VT – Many of the 170 neighborhood Front Porch Forums that we host have 5-10 postings per day on a wide variety of topics. So it’s surprising how frequently we see some sort of ESP at work among neighbors, e.g., “Help! Plumber Needed” might arrive at the same time as “Boy, Do I have a Great Plumber for You.”
Today it happened on the Moretown FPF with these two items coinciding…
“Looking for a 20-40-ish gallon fish tank. Accessories a plus. Thanks.” – Sherry
“Aquarium 50 Gallons – Free! Still in use, excellent condition, external Fluval filter, and 4 fish!” – Norma
I hope those extra 10 gallons don’t squelch the deal!
Neighbors like to talk about real estate
Lots of real estate moves through Front Porch Forum… houses and commercial properties for sale, apartment and office space for rent, families searching for information about neighborhoods, school, homeowners discussing property values and taxes, etc. FPF helps neighbors connect about whatever it is they’d like to discuss… and real estate is a consistent theme.
From Daily Real Estate News today…
There are sites and tools out there that are more directly focused on location: the online places where people talk about their physical places. Some of these are simply Facebook pages. But some are more specialized.
My favorite example is always Burlington, Vt.’s Front Porch Forum,… [which] is broken down by neighborhood. The only people talking on the list are actual neighbors. It’s super useful, but not very common.
Owning a similar social media site like this would be a strategic advantage in towns where it doesn’t already exist. It would be like a newsletter, but instead of being a social product it would be a social activity.
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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