Helpful sites that can be used in lieu of WaccoBB

[Barry]

I am proud to say that WaccoBB.net served many different needs of our progressive community, including local announcements, local political and non-political discussions, events, for sale, housing, services offered, referrals needed, alternative health and medicine, progressive news and politics, conspiracy theories (aka real news ) and of course poetry!

Now that WaccoBB is in its last days, I encourage you to share your thoughts about other sites that can fill some of these same needs, including your comments about the site, and tips and tricks.

Newly formed groups are also welcome to post here.

I'm hoping there will be good information shared about Nextdoor. I've mostly avoided it. I hear some people are very happy with it and others not so much, but I don't know why. I'm generally impressed with their technology and site design. It's been interesting to see how they address the various issues that arise in a hyper-local bulletin board, and generally feel they have done a good job of it. I wish I had the resources to apply to Wacco that they have.

I've recently heard that it is possible not to have your address/parcel listed on Nextdoor. While I generally applaud them for encouraging that level of transparency and authenticity, I can see why some people may not want to disclose that much. So perhaps someone can provide some info about that. And what's the current stat of moderation? Seems it varies from community to community.

I have used Craigslist more recently and have found it less spammy/scammy that it was before. Seems really good for "for sale" and free. I'd be less comfortably using it for housing, especially shared housing. Anybody got any referrals for a progressive housing site?

I'm sure there are many other sites that can serve the needs of our progressive community. Please post whatever sites you think our current members (and future readers after the site goes read-only) might find useful and please include your comments about the site.


Barry

[wildinspired]

I am on Nextdoor and there is a big mix of folks, some not so like-minded with my progressive leanings. I have seen lots of support when there are fires, accidents, lost pets and that has been very helpful. Also fun posts about the critters that roam our country setting over here. BUT I have also seen some very rude responses and threads devolving into a nasty mess! I would like us to use the google group Varda started so we stay together in community or another format that keeps us together. But let's change the name wherever we gather, to honor Barry's request...I can really appreciate it!

[EmeraldMatra]

I don't care what we call it - I just think that we need to transition this group and these folks to a Google group. It would take a small team of people to set that up and invite or transfer everyone on WACCOBB onto a Google group. That same small group could take turns being moderators. If there are objections to Google groups then IO which is similar. We have a unique community here. It would be a great loss to lose that.

[Stargazer]

I would suggest being very cautious using the Next Door site. There's lots of conflict amongst the posters and censorship of free speech. It is probably okay for selling something. I would suggest avoiding having a discussion on controversial issues unless you do not mind being personally attacked by name in a public forum. Your name and address is accessible, so there could be repercussions. In all, I have found the ND site to be an unpleasant exchange amongst neighbors in the SR areas with alot of fighting and name calling on the site. Perhaps it is different in the west county?

[pamelaL]

I will see you on the site Varda recommended. I am on Neighbor next door as well, with similar experience so do not post much at all or even look at it much for the same reasons; too many personal type "attack/defense" responses and closed minds.

[pamelaL]

Barry, are you hoping this wonderful community you started will disburse? Please join the group Varda recommended so we hear your voice once in a while too...

[pamelaL]

because my reply did not include the following, which I found hard to find on this site (unlike others, I'm sure) I want to add Varda's suggestion here again. To help keep us connected online, we now have a new group, [email protected] please join us, it’s free and supportive, email me [email protected] and will add you!

[pamelaL]

who is tech-skilled enough to take [email protected] and make it fly?

A couple days ago, Vara wrote there were already 75 people on the site, and more coming on all the time.

[pamelaL]

well times is wasting if Barry is going to pull the plug here in ten days - so far, one leader clearly took lead to at least form something - if we join there, and it turns out it's not a good fit after all, it's. not like we couldn't migrate again. It might not be my first pick, but big brother Google sees and tracks all anyway, whatever site, as far as I can tell. Sites get shut down unceremoniously if what is written there is too far out of alignment with the military-industrial complex it seems to me... [email protected]

[AJL]

Whatever happened to the wacco-bb@yahoogroups that splintered when waccobb.net started?

Next Door seems to be monitored by the seb police and criticism of police officers that were untruthful and filed false police reports was removed immediately as was any discussion of the Police Officers Union effectively ejecting the Chief of Police when he tried to discipline the lying police officers.
Next Door also banned a very reasonable lawyer friend of mine for making plain explanations that were opposed apparently by the powers that be at Next Door.
No one will admit to being the moderator there that I know of.
The police used a Next door post I made, about my RV, to turn me into the planning dept and they lied to the planning department about someone living in it and about it being parked in a required front yard when in fact it was empty and in a legal driveway.

[Barry]

Whatever happened to the wacco-bb@yahoogroups that splintered when waccobb.net started?

After languishing the last few years, it is now gone along with whole Yahoogroups service.

[Dogenzip]

Google and Facebook vacuums up ALL your information. You and I become the PRODUCT used to develop huge databases which feed the algorithms that continuously become better able to predict our behaviour in order to more successfully pitch us products, ideas, cultural memes, etc.
Have a look at the Social Dilemma on Netflix - a devastating critique of social media’s corrosive impacts on young people, and democracies which is also destroying our collective ability to the discern the facts (vs. customized fake news) needed to resolve urgent issues. The deliberately designed addictive qualities of Facebook have been well-documented.

References which go into this in more detail: Jaron Lanier, Your Are Not a Widget and Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Zuboff’s Surveillance Capitalism, and Cathy O’Neal’s Weapons of Math Destruction.

Perhaps a better solution to Google Groups would be to determine whether a WaccoBB-like site moderated by a small and rotating group of people available for a modest monthly subscription would be viable. Would it be worth $10 to $15 or more per month for us to continue the essential community communication provided by WaccoBB? If there are approximately 14K people now visiting WaccoBB on a regular basis and 10K decided to subscribe for $10 @ month, would the resulting monthly income be enough to keep this conversation going? If you are not paying for an internet based service you are the product.

[pamelaL]

wow! I am sorry that happened to you - that sucks! AND thank you for this additional info about NND - I don't get on it often, but maybe never now. At times I have found it quite contentious with closed minded frightened responses from some contributors .

[rossmen]

If you want to engage locally online nextdoor is better than wacco. I could go on about why this forum has failed. Consider this; why do you want to edit the responses of your neighbors? Accept they might want to edit you. And that the editor's in charge are your neighbors!

This site is an example of failed fascism. The name was stolen from a Yahoo forum and the thief has let it go. Sure it's been a comfortable place to discuss stuff, unless one pushed the owners limits. And if you pushed too hard, you get banned! What's so cool about that? At least on nextdoor the banning is brief and buerocratically stupid.

[rossmen]

I'm sorry aj The spd also has monitored wacco. And yes, they very much want to keep their internal turmoil private. I hope you have resolved with the city, and if not soon. Yes nextdoor lies in bed with government authority, it's the will of the group. The internet was developed by government, business has made it an essential tool, and now all of the data is harvested more and more efficiently. This site has had the illusion of some privacy.

[pamelaL]

I'm already finding the NBayGoogle groups a bit much - hard to control for me, no digest form, no categories, at least not that I have found; not a site I can "dip in and out of" but one that comes at me in singular posts - anyone else have a report on another group besides NNDoor which I am a part of and can "dip in and out of" but rarely contribute because of fear-based, closed minded responses that react to attack rather than inquire or respond thoughtfully. I just assume "Big brother" watches every site on the internet, even this one.

[Goat Rock Ukulele]

I agree. I find Next-door useless for any read discussion. Too many lost cats and a strange man in my neighborhood or did you hear that loud bang on so and so road. As far as privacy issues everything you do online in a public forum is likely run through an NSA snifter program. But at least they aren't trying to sell you stuff. Setting up a message board is pretty easy it's have to moderate it that can be hellish. Don't know how Barry stood it all these years, must be a very mellow guy.

[Barry]

I could go on about why this forum has failed. ...This site is an example of failed fascism. ... And if you pushed too hard, you get banned! ...

You pushed (the boundaries of respectful and factual communication) too hard. And yet, I haven't banned you. (But there's still time!)

I guess you are right... I am a failed fascist!

[Finell]

What do you mean failed? WaccoBB has been a smashing success for 15 years. Ad revenue is down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected lots of successful businesses, some of which gave up and shut their doors—although quite few businesses adapted quickly and have thrived. Some good restaurants have died; other restaurants have increased their profitability by running a lean take-out business.

Barry is tired, and no one can blame him for that, so he is retiring from WaccoBB. But neither WaccoBB nor Barry failed.

Ross, I am sorry that you are so unhappy. But constantly condemning everything is bad for your physical and mental health. Negativity is a viscous cycle. I know it is useless to tell you to cheer up or to think about all you have to be grateful for. Your brain is not wired like that. That advice never helped me when I was depressed.

But you can change some behaviors that feed your depression. Expressing so much negativity about everything is poison for you. It hurts you much more than it hurts the rest of us.

Try reading Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness. Russell is one of history's super-geniuses, at the level of Aristotle and Einstein. He suffered through a very unhappy childhood. In Conquest, he analyzes the causes of unhappiness and the causes of happiness. It might help you. It has helped me. I re-read it a couple months ago. That was the third or fourth time I have read it. A psychotherapist recommended it to me a few decades ago—a cognitive therapist, as you might expect.

I am not telling you to just be happy. You can't change your mood just like that. But you can stop behaviors that make you feel worse, and you can choose behaviors that don't make you feel worse and that might make you feel better.

[Laura Hagar Rush]

Townsy Sebastopol, a locally designed website/web app will be opening a new online bulletin board for west county on Jan. 22. Follow the discussion about this alternative on this thread:

https://www.waccobb.net/forums/showt...273#post240273

See Townsy Sebastopol at https://townsyapp.com , but don't look for the discussion board yet. It's hasn't been built yet.