I’ve seen a few people shit talk discord without expanding, so I will: it’s a proprietary “public space” that’s not web searchable. I don’t mind something like a community/subreddit oriented around a physical place, but I try to avoid supporting spaces that are owned by private capital. Of course that’s nearly impossible, but there are degrees of enclosure.

No, because it’s Discord, no.

I’m not sure but we have a Next Door. I quit that after a couple of weeks because it was just a bunch of people bitching about homeless people being around but not wanting to help or understanding they’re still neighbors.

State communication should not travel over private channels that can arbitrarily limit access to that State’s communications.

My town has one. And I honestly wish it didn’t. On one hand I can see why it’s nice to have something like that: quick communication in case an emergency happens, you can tell people directly about events and such that might be happening around the area, you can get to know some of your neighbors if you so choose.

I don’t like it because the one for my town is just your basic chatroom, except everyone knows everyone else lives within 10 miles or so of each other. It feels gross to me, and I’m not entirely sure why. It’s populated by adults anywhere from their 20s to their 50s and 60s, as well as teenagers between the ages of 13-19. It just gives me the ick when I see someone in their 40s being very friendly to a teen in a chatroom.

I live in a county that is very strongly divided on several issues. Nextdoor has to constantly remove posts for excess intensity. A discord would rapidly devolve into death threats.