So far the campaign to encourage Cape Meares full-time and part-time residents to sign up for Nextdoor is going well. On Tuesday evening Merilee Sommers invited 140 people from Cape Meares to join with the idea that Nextdoor might serve as a directory for residents and make it easy to learn who your neighbors are and how you might contact them when the need arises. The tally of those who have joined reached 56 after only two days. This represents about a 40% response rate. We hope the number of residents who will be using this resource will continue to grow in the coming days.
If you have not yet been invited to join and wish to contact either Merilee Sommers <merileesommers@gmail.com> or Charles J. Ansorge <cansorge@me.com>. If you are experiencing problems in joining please contact Charles.
Verification
The major problem in signing up thus far has related to part-time residents who do not use their Cape Meares address for bill paying. Some are experiencing problems validating the fact that their name is associated with a local address. Remember, only local residents and part-timers who own property in Cape Meares are permitted to join the “neighborhood.” It is possible for those who experience problems to have their address verified by the person who set up this site. Contact Charles J. Ansorge if you need to be “verified.”
Keeping Messages Private
We are all learning how to use this brand new tool and in the process are making interesting discoveries. One discovery that needs to be shared is related to the Public nature of the conversations we have. There is a news feed for Nextdoor that makes it easy to post information related to a variety of topics. This is very convenient, but be aware of the fact that anything you post and any comments made by others related to the posting become Public for everyone to see who is in the neighborhood. Most often this is fine, but occasionally you may wish to have a private conversation. You are able to do this, but you must click on the link for Neighbors on the site and then locate the name of the person you wish to contact. That e-mail is private and no one other than the sender of the message and the recipient may view it.
How to Post Profile Information
Many have discovered how to share additional information beyond your name and street address. An excellent example of the type of information to share can be found by clicking on the link for Jim Woodle. The screen shot below is only a portion of what Jim has shared.
In the top right portion of the Nextdoor screen you should find your name and a downward pointing chevron that you should click on so you can see a screen where your profile is found.
Click on your profile and add as much or as little information as you please. Be sure to save any additional information. Having access to a telephone number would be useful if there is a need to call you at some point. Likewise the inclusion of an e-mail address is helpful. But you make that decision. There is not a field for putting a second address which is something part-timers may wish to do, but this information could be placed in the Biography section. Perhaps a better location can be found later.
How to Navigate or Use inBox to Control Messages
Something that was discovered after beginning to use Nextdoor was how quickly the inBox can be populated with information from the application. Why is that? If you are someone that prefers not to have your inBox populated with numerous messages there is good news. You can control the e-mail flow by adjusting your Nextdoor Settings. On the menu shown above one is the Settings option. Click on this menu item and see the screen that is produced. Only a portion of the Settings for one of the residents is displayed below.
If you prefer not to receive e-mail regarding any of the posts located on the left side of the screen click in the circle for the appropriate post under the “No Email” column. Presto. You have personalized your account.
in the days ahead you may wish to learn more about the features of Nextdoor. Listed below are categories about which there are often questions that users new to Nextdoor have. All you need to do is click on the links to access information.
Posted by Charles J. Ansorge.