Our NR seems to be mostly a place for angry people to vent about traffic, sidewalks, other people’s dogs, etc.

When I’m looking for recommendations, I start with friends, then our town’s Facebook page.

I used to read it, and there were some good recommendations for tradespeople, but now it's 95% ads and lost animals, so pretty useless. I think it all depends on the makeup of your local group.

I would not choose a tradesman from our NextDoor app.

If we can’t find a tradesperson through referrals, we go to our small town’s fire station and ask the firefighters. Most have jobs they do on their off days. We have found painters, window replacement companies, and bar be cue caterers that have proved to be reliable. And we always know where to find them if it was necessary.

I agree with Sue, I would ask neighbors or look on well moderated local Facebook page.

Our NextDoor is also mostly a drama fest.

My trick is that I take photos of contractors' trucks when I see them in the neighborhood. Then I have the name of someone who was presumably vetted by a neighbor.

Can you text or call the retired painter to see who he recommends?

I prefer recommendations from friends/neighbors. Its also a good idea to ask for references.

Our NextDoor turned into such a circus that I left. Am on the local buy nothing and citywide FB groups though.

When it comes to referrals, 90% of them are vaguely concealed self promotion even when you're asking for homeowner recommendations…. like a post from Anne Smith saying she had a great experience with Allen Smith.

Our Next Door covers a lot more area than we use. But our township (pop. 19500) Facebook page is far better. There are actually several FB pages, recommendations (trades, restaurants, nail salons, etc0, general news (lost dogs, reports of misbehaving kids and the like), gardening. I get a ton of local references. Nicest part is that people are very loyal to tradespeople that are actual neighbors, and everyone knows where they live.

I like to look there for recommendations, but I am cautious about believing them. If the recommendations come from the same person, post after post and no one else chimes in with a recommendation, I assume the recommendation is coming from a wife or mother. Some people post asking for help and the same guy will respnd to all requests saying he can do that. But again, no one chimes in saying the’ve hired him, so I would never hire someone like that. I also am wary of anyone who says they are available immediately. Good people are usually booked out a ways.

That said, I once had an urgent plumbing emergency and no regular plumbers would come and I remembered seeing a guy who had posted on ND. I called him, he came right over and spent hours digging up my back yard trying to find the leak. He did and was a great guy. I later learned he trained as a plumber but failed the electric portion of the licensing test twice, so gave up. I suspect he may have a learning disability. Licensed plumbers that he worked with went after him on ND, so he no longer posts. Knowing he was having a hard time, I hired him to do a variety of handyman jobs for me. He was a ND score! I found a great guy to wash my windows, too, and a guy who sawed up and chopped a downed tree into firewood for me now that I can no longer do it myself.

I used it when I moved to SC. I got a lot of good recommendations from people in my neighborhood. It has since become overloaded with ads, self-promotion and abandoned pets. I no longer spend much time there but I have recommendations for just about everything I could possibly need.

I joined when we were trying to catch a stray dog -- who was eventually found miles away after about a month. It was also one way we looked for an owner, but none was found and he went to a local rescue. Other than the tracking of that dog through various neighborhoods, I can't think of anything positive there and it just keeps getting worse. There are always half a dozen people jumping in to come take a look at any work someone is looking for a referral on. I would never trust one of them.

Sounds mostly negative, I think I'll pass, Thanks everyone.

I stopped reading on ND, I could repeat exactly what Olychick said in her first paragraph. I would see these people bragging about how great someone was and every time it was the same woman and her only posts on ND were to sing the praises of this one man's company. You just know it's a wife or GF. Never saw anyone else saying they were good.

Then I noticed that people really started getting on there and ripping companies saying how horrible they were. "DO NOT USE THEM" they would say. They would have a horrible story about how they were ripped off or the work was terrible. Then the company would come on and tell their side of the story. That is when I just stopped going to ND. It turned into a circus!

I used to be a moderator for our NextDoor neighborhood and quit the site completely because it turned into a circus full of ads that could not be removed, and toxic political name calling. In the beginning-- at least in our neighborhood,--it was a great place to get recommendations from neighbors as to good contractors and service people. We got quite a few great people that way. But more recently there were fewer and fewer neighbors posting recommendations and more and more actual service providers recommending themselves. So totally useless now.

I have 2 different Nextdoor accounts, to go with 2 different homes in 2 very different locations. It amazes me how different the tone of each is.

Nextdoor is occasionally useful to me in both locations, so I do swing through there on occasion. You have to wade through a lot of garbage and self-promotional junk, but I do like reading references/reports of businesses at each place.

One place is being over-run with hysterical reports of stupid things - OMG I saw a coyote, watch your pets!! Then they post a picture of a red fox. I was almost bit by this copperhead! Nope sunshine, that's a garter snake. Does anyone know these kids, they seem to be up to no good! Um, they seem to be riding their bikes like every other kid in America, can you be more specific? This guy walked past my front door and walked around the side of my house!!! Yes....yes he did. He's reading the gas meter, hence the HUGE LOGO on his shirt with the gas company's name on it.

You get the gist.

The other place is much more subdued than the above. It's just weird to me how different the vibes are in each.

Our area includes two gated communities and most of the posts seem to be warnings about strangers in the area or lost pets. I joined for about two minutes. Luckily, we have no need for trades referrals.

LOL Ally

We have one woman on my ND who posts crimes from around the country where the perpetrator has disappeared and there is a manhunt underway for him. No mention of any connection to our community, that he might be headed our way, let alone to her rural neighborhood. Seems to be only for the shock value of the crime....I have to wonder where she gets her news and why she feels compelled to inform the rest of us.

There are a fair number of posts about strangers in yards (we have a terrible problem with property crimes used to fuel drug addiction in my town/state), lots of mentally ill people and drug addicts living on the streets, some of whom sometimes wander around with machetes or knifes, sometimes in crisis, and can be very scary. It's almost always women who post to alert others about sketchy people in their yards or coming to their doors Almost without fail, some man or a couple of them will shame these women for not just opening their doors to find out what the guy wants. No empathy for older women living alone, feeling vulnerable in their own homes because people in crisis are not getting help.

I do love when people ask for help with something and others jump in to provide that help - or post resources where help might be found. It's a very caring community here.

Our local 'What's Happening" page on Facebook is very informative. Just now, one post about Starbucks moving to an old bank building that will have a drive-thru. It was planned a while ago, but now it's happening.

Another post asking what's happening at X Dr and B Rd, with lots of cop cars. Lots of follow-up posts and pictures. It was either a stolen car and/or following robbers from a Dick's store about 4 or 5 miles away. Peaceful ending, but there were guns drawn.

Then last March, there was the murder of a local woman, and they quickly arrested her (almost ex) husband, who had just been kicked out and she had a restraining order. We all knew who she was, she had a local dog-grooming business, and he worked there and came/went on an electric scooter. Everyone knew him as Scooter Boy.

Then there are people who find lost keys, post about them and turn into the police station. We get a lot more found cats and dogs than lost, very rare to see free-roaming animals around here. One orange cat needs his own FB page, because every so often, someone will post about the poor thing being out. I'm betting he has 5 or 6 meals a day. There was a discussion about the new Chinese restaurant (verdict: good). Lots of call-outs for "Where can I find...?" restaurants, and assorted stuff.

Folks will post about a pack of kids acting up, and a parent will later post to say thanks, and so-and-so is now grounded. Most people know one another.

It's addictive. Very small-town-ish, even though we are right outside the Philly city limits.

Oh, and there are separate pages for yard sales and the like.

I've been on Nextdoor for literally forever. I like the severe weather warnings the weather service sends me, through them. I also post my husbands company when someone wants a drywall referral. I found a Whipet, a small greyhound, just standing on my lower patio, totally lost, alone, scared. Nextdoor had a post about him. I called, they were desperately looking for him & came right over. He'd run for miles, gone overnight. The grandparents were pet sitting, walking him, when he slipped his halter. They sent me a BIG THANK YOU card with a photo of the whole family hugging the dog. If I just hung out on the forum, no....I wouldn't enjoy that. But...I've found it VERY useful.

Edited to say: I got my dinning room table & chairs off ND....and....the sofa table I just purchased for $60.

Ally, when we were searching for the stray dog and an owner for him, my experience was like your first one and Nicole's. I had been away and went back recently and it was all lost pets and someone walked past my house, came to my door or my neighbor walked in his yard near my garage kind of thing. Another weird thing -- I joined thinking it would be for my neighborhood. I see people in areas that are not at all my neighborhood, but when we were tracking that stray dog. I couldn't see posts for areas near me and someone further away would have to copy and post. It's a really strange set up.