[conspire] (forw) Reminder that we are NextDoor's product, not customers

[paulz at ieee.org]

 Add to the list of misappropriated symbols:  
    88 is an century old Morse code abbreviation for "hugs and kisses".   Now the same people that claim Tyr also have a different meaning for 88.
 Wikipedia says the swastika has been used on the Indian subcontinent for 2500 years.  
    On Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 03:05:58 PM PST, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:  
 
 Back on Feb. 14, 2001, I wrote, about NextDoor:

>  Account temporarily disabled
> 
>  Your account has been temporarily disabled for a violation of this
>  Community Guideline:
> 
>  Be respectful to your neighbours
>  We want all neighbours to feel welcome, safe, and respected on Nextdoor.
>  When conversations turn disagreeable, everyone on Nextdoor suffers.  Our
>  Guidelines prohibit posts and replies that discriminate against, attack,
>  insult, shame, bully, or belittle others.
> 
>  Learn moreabout this guideline and our moderation process.
>  Sign in again in 4 days (Feb 18)

Today, just happened a second time, again no warnings, no explanation,
and this iteration it'll be a 14-day ban.

But I got the most curious ND private message about 1:30pm, today, 
from a woman whose name/location I will omit (to comply with ND rules):

  You are Going way too overboard with your long diatribes. 
  What makes you think your Nextdoor neighbors want your 
  opinions all the.time? It's just too +much and way tooConceded 
  to think so. You need to shorten your opinions and actually 
  stop them if you ask me. It's as if you think you are

I stopped to think for a long while, and also looked the woman
up, finding that she's a "ND Lead" for a very rich community
not far from our house (but not Menlo Park or West Menlo), and
works as a "private chef", i.e., does fancy meals for the super-rich.

So, after some thought, I sent back:

  [Name], I'm very sorry to have rubbed you the wrong way, and will
  certainly try to avoid doing so.  I always try to be on good terms 
  with people in the community, where possible.  

  I'd be delighted to chat over coffee if you ever want to come visit.
  (I'm not a private chef, but people say my coffee is excellent.)

  One thing I'm curious about:  You didn't identify yourself as the ND
  Lead for [very wealthy community].  Are you speaking, in this matter, in 
  a ND Lead capacity, or just as [name]?  Either way, I appreciate the 
  feedback.

(I tried to make it nice, and didn't even make any obvious 
crack about her misspelling "conceited", nor about the irony of her
name-calling, highly opinionated, pushy e-mail telling me I should
cease articulating "opinions" -- and leaving unclear in what capacity
she was speaking.)


My ND login got disabled literally a couple of minutes later.  If
prior experience is any guide, when allowed access again, I'll be
required to acknowledge that I've failed to be "respectful to my
neighbours", without being advised what that was.

I had not "discriminated against, attacked, insulted, shamed,
bullied, or belittled" any individual, though I sometimes make 
pointed comments carefully aimed away from personal criticism.

Through possible coincidence, exactly as during the February banning
incident, I had also _just_ made a public comment impliedly critical of
white nationalists:  

I'd observed a thread for a few days where someone posted a photograph
of a swastika on a car dashboard in the Town and Country Village
shopping centre parking lot, Palo Alto, leading to a number of South
Asian ethnics explaining that it's a traditional good-luck symbol in
their culture that got smeared by Nazi misappropriation.  I posted to
say I sympathise, and that they were not alone in this problem,
describing how we Scandinavians are obliged to avoid using our own
Viking symbols such as the Tyr rune, symbol of the warrior god Tyr,
because both the Third Reich and its latter-day admirers keep stealing
our symbols,  I said this was extra-irksome for my own family, given
that our ancestral town of Kristiansund, Norway had been firebombed and
90% destroyed during the 1940s occupation, but what can you do?

Two bannings in a row immediately following my making very mild critical
comments about white nationalists is not a great look for NextDoor, Inc.
(coincidence though the latest banning may be).

In February, I wrote:

> Anyway, it's good to know that NextDoor's moderators are protecting
> racists and xenophobics against the horror of being told their claims
> are mistaken and consequently feeling bad.  Well done!

Hmm, still looks bad, guys!



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