“Nextdoor is different from other social networking sites because it was built from the ground up to help neighbors come together in a trusted environment,” Nextdoor board member Bill Gurley said in 2011.
Today, however, many Nextdoor users don’t think the app has achieved those goals. “Nextdoor should be allowed to operate but only with the tagline ‘The Rage Page’ displayed prominently above the typographic logo,” user Lori Hobson posted on the site in 2025.
Over the past 15 years, Nextdoor has grown from a communication platform for tight-knit neighborhoods to a global powerhouse: 45.8 million use the app weekly across 11 countries. In the U.S., over 260,000 neighborhoods use Nextdoor.
One month ago, I posted a message asking for comments on the pros and cons of using Nextdoor. Within two weeks, the post had over 146 comments, detailing everything from elitism and oversharing to a bickering match between two users where one tried to ban the other. Users brought up dozens of issues, falling into four main categories: neighborhood anonymity, extreme responses, excessive complaining, and moderation conflicts.
Anonymity: Are they really your neighbors?
Since its start, social media has provided users with anonymity. When given the ability to hide their true identity, users feel more comfortable berating others, since they do not face any consequences tied to their identity. Cyberbullying is common on most networking platforms, where users can neither see the reactions of recipients nor face social repercussions. Nextdoor’s premise attempts to avoid this culture by creating a “neighborhood community,” but unfortunately, it has devolved over the years into an essentially anonymous platform.
Nextdoor started in 2010, with an original “beta-test” neighborhood less than five minutes from M-A: Lorelei Manor. I interviewed Margarita Mendez, a public school teacher and Lorelei resident who was an original user during the beta-test.
“Our neighborhood was 87 houses, and we were really tight-knit,” Mendez said. “One of our neighbors was friends with one of the engineers of Nextdoor when they were starting, and they were looking for a neighborhood pilot for their original idea. Originally, we had a private ‘only us’ communication, and we thought that’s what it was going to stay as.”
Now, 15 years later, rarely anyone in Lorelei uses Nextdoor. What started as a place for neighbors to share files, pictures and find house sitters was soon overridden with a new—and largely anonymous—network of residents, pushing Lorelei residents away from the app.
Mendez explained how originally, people joining Nextdoor needed to submit an official proof of residence, and could only see and post within a small radius of less than 90 homes. Now, Neighborhood radiuses have grown larger, encompassing entire cities and sometimes more. Users can edit their “radius,” but still often see popular posts beyond their neighborhood. To join Nextdoor today, current users just need to type in an address and share their location to prove they are in the vicinity.
“Now, I see posts from Southern California sometimes in my feed. I mean, it’s just crazy. It’s like Facebook now; it’s like you can see posts from anywhere, even when you try to restrict the neighborhoods, ” Bay Area user and former moderator Katharine Sherwin said.
In a poll of 68 Bay Area Nextdoor users, nearly 70% said they “rarely” or “never” see posts from people they recognize on Nextdoor, and only 7% said they often see posts from people they know. For many users, the setting to restrict your feed to a radius where you know most people is difficult to navigate.
“I only want to see posts from our neighborhood, the closed neighborhood that I signed up for. I tried to select that, and it still gave me posts from outside the neighborhood. I wish the user interface worked better,” Heather Nelson, another original Nextdoor in Lorelai, said.
Now, when signing up for Nextdoor, many use only their first names, opting for virtual anonymity even within their own neighborhoods. All of this creates a breeding ground for the abuse and bullying that plague the platform.
In Menlo Park, prospective affordable housing units downtown have sparked outrage and debate among many users. Mendez, who still occasionally uses Nextdoor, described these comments as concerning and sometimes bigoted.
“Hearing people saying things about our potential neighbors is really disheartening. I saw people talking about people who look like me or have professions like mine and thinking that we’re not worthy. You hear that and you’re like, ‘That’s really sad,’” Mendez said.
“Neighbors are inclined to say things online that they would never say to your face,” user Kevin Kranen commented under the post thread.
Another user sent a post titled, “A Homeless Woman Who Refuses Shelter Has Been Trashing Our Neighborhood for 8+ Months,” ending with “The only invalid answer is, ‘You should be empathetic’. That is no help to her or to us.” The post had 184 comments, largely agreeing with the original poster.
“People have this veil of anonymity behind them, especially if their name isn’t their real name. They just can say whatever they want to, and it’s a really sad commentary on our culture,” Sherwin said.
Polarization and extremity: Suddenly not so neighborly
Nextdoor posts easily get out of control, resulting from the issues above of a wide base of “neighbors” and the lack of filter that comes with being anonymous.
“Somebody will say, ‘My dog died, and I want to get another Labrador Retriever. Does anybody know any good breeders?’ You would think that would be pretty innocuous, right? Well, the next thing you would see is 15 comments from people outraged about ‘Why are you trying to find a purebred dog when there’s all these dogs in the shelter?’ and just lecturing,” Sherwin said.
An original negative comment can quickly spiral into something much more problematic because the algorithm favors popular postings. This generates more and more comments as people engage with the post, and users’ complaints or requests for advice can get hundreds of responses, each more extreme than the last.
Using my own thread as an example, posts at the top of the thread mentioned slow internet speed, too many ads, and being “a negative and problematic place.”
A week later, users were attacking each other.
“Your comment is what is wrong with Nextdoor. Sheesh! Tell me you’re a boomer without telling me!!! You may just keep scrolling and know that there aren’t neighbors reading you as just an old man that found how to use the internet to complain about the things that are just not important (my perception of you now),” user Nina Sarazin commented in response to another user, Matt H, who was asking if I was still accepting responses.
In response, moderator Courtney Mowatt Mitchell commented: “Matt has possibly noticed that she joined Nextdoor about 6 months ago, has interacted with the app (her way of perceiving Nextdoor) a grand total of 6 times, one of those to create this post and only one other in the response I quoted above, and has quite possibly finished her article by now (journalists have deadlines). Given her (lack of) activity on Nextdoor overall and her likely deadline, it’s a natural assumption to make that she’s not monitoring Nextdoor and this is possibly now a creator-abandoned post that just happens to have generated a life of its own thanks to Nextdoor’s activity algorithm.”
To which Sarazin posted: “So what? You’re all over this. You seem to have a lot to say. You want her to close the conversation when I’ve learned so much from many? This is what I took away from your comment, Courtney, you can’t control what I read. Because your needs are met, shut this up because the boomers are mad about the heaviness between the word app and website. Or whatever. Frankly, this part of the conversation is so absolutely annoying that I’m angry with myself for even commenting. I feel it is a waste of my time, personally.”
Posting on Nextdoor instead of heading nextdoor: A replacement for in-person interaction and conflict resolution
When Nextdoor users have problems with their neighbors or the local community, many go to the app instead of facing the conflict head-on. For example, in a popular Nextdoor thread that circulated in Dec. of 2024, a user posted about their neighbors’ early leaf-blowing without ever having a conversation with that neighbor. This led to a 94-comment message stream.
“Back in my day, we had a next-door neighbor. It wasn’t an app, it was called being human, socializing, saying hello, or telling someone to their face that something they are doing isn’t good or fair to the local community,” commented Nextdoor user Johnathan Z.
Nextdoor moderation
Nextdoor invites certain users to become “moderators” based on their activity levels and postings, allowing them to take down problematic content that violates Nextdoor’s post guidelines. Moderators are volunteers and are not paid.
Many users in the comment thread explained how moderation has devolved since Nextdoor’s founding, where it was originally largely unnecessary.
Guidelines include being respectful, using your true identity, and not discriminating or engaging in “harmful activity.”
Katharine Sherwin explained flagging posts that clearly violated guidelines like selling banned items or, until guidelines changed recently, advertising personal services. Other times, she voted to remove posts that were disrespectful and discriminatory.
For example, she explained a reaction to a post about a possible burglary. “Somebody posted ‘Somebody was casing my house last night, and here’s their picture on my ring doorbell.’ People jumped on that, commenting racially and making some derogatory comments about the color of their skin and saying ‘of course, they should be locked up,’” Sherwin said.
For a post to be taken down, moderators—who are often not local—vote over a long period of time.
“I would vote one way, and then I see a list of like 15 other people voting. The post would stay up during all of that time until enough people voted one way or the other. Often, it would be a really egregious post but would stay up for two weeks,” Sherwin said.
Other users mentioned how moderators, who are human with biases and differing opinions, disagree on which posts should be taken down, leading to more conflict.
“Our communities are so divided now on what information is true and what is made up or exaggerated that the moderators have an impossible job. How do you moderate when your neighbors differ on what is real?” Nelson said.
Nextdoor at its best
Tallying up all 146 of these comments asking about “pros and cons,” I had roughly 80 comments that were generally negative, 40 comments that included both positives and negatives, and 25 that were generally positive. While some are unhappy, others enjoy Nextdoor. It has helped them find lost pets, advertise services, and personally, helped me get a tutoring job! The question is: how often is it at its worst, best, or when it is in between? To answer that question, I turn once again to the comment thread.
“I would say it’s probably 30% positive and 70% negative, partially because it includes so many ads,” Sherwin said. “I only go on maybe one or two times a week at the very most, and I used to check it every day.”
Others had a much more positive response.
“I really like it! I don’t always agree with my neighbors, but have learned a lot about them through this app, and have gotten some great advice about local beaches, events, and emergencies. It’s great, almost necessary, for locating lost pets, and also a place to buy, sell, trade, and give things away,” user Joclyn Norris commented.
User Mark Throdson expressed hope about Nextdoor’s potential if there are some cultural changes.
“I think Nextdoor could be a great platform. But too many people use it to post stuff that they should just keep to themselves, or should just talk to their neighbors to resolve. So you have to spend time clicking to find out that someone has decided they’re going to bitch about their neighbor… and yet have not actually even attempted to have a conversation with that neighbor. You have to put up with a lot of crap to also get the good stuff,” Throndson commented.
To view the entire thread of comments on Emily’s Nextdoor post asking for opinions about the app, click here.
