Sarah Wong

That organic growth was key to maintaining one of the key differences between FPF and Nextdoor: proactive moderation. FPF uses a team of moderators that review each post to make sure it adheres to the site’s code of conduct before it’s posted. That helps keep the discussion friendly and constructive. In contrast, moderation on Nextdoor is done... See more

One of the first observations that emerged from these conversations was that people don’t think of their local places and neighbourhoods in terms of political or site boundaries. More often than not, perceptions of neighbourhood borders, and of the elements that fit together to make up a neighbourhood, differ from person to person, and vary... See more

1) Compelling: What is the “hook” that will get people to participate? 

The activities of your community should have a compelling angle that encourages your target constituencies to become involved. In short: you need to offer activities that people actually want to do.

A folk example of helpfulness in the parochial realm is the famous “cup of sugar” that good neighbors supposedly can, but rarely do, borrow from another. Nevertheless, the “cup of sugar” is a symbol for any kind of assistance that does not cost the giver much yet may mean a lot to the receiver because of a particular situa-tional constraint. Actual... See more

The rhetorician Kenneth Burke liked to remind his readers every way of seeing is also a way of not seeing, that our frameworks and analytical lenses can obscure certain details even as they highlight others