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Local Facebook Groups

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KINSEY.

On Moderation
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17 May 2021
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29
Location
M19
Is anyone else a member of a local Facebook group where there are endless posts about dog poo, rants about cyclists and of course posts about lost cats!
 
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DerekC

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26 Oct 2015
Messages
2,107
Location
Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
I belong to one - and it certainly features lost cats (and found dogs) and the odd rant about dog poo on the recreation ground. There is also some quite useful stuff about what's on at the pubs round about, forthcoming road works and that kind of thing. We have a whole group dedicated to rants about (motor) bikes and their misdoings - with some justification, I have to say!
 

westv

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Joined
29 Mar 2013
Messages
4,203
We also have the "does anybody know a good.... (insert plumber/roofer/electrician or whatever)..?" type of posts posts on the FB group for our road too.
 

Cowley

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Staff Member
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15 Apr 2016
Messages
15,688
Location
Devon
I’m in a local ‘Next Door’ group which I’ve stopped taking any notice of because it seems to be entirely about lost cats…
 

johntea

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29 Dec 2010
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2,585
I'm a member of one and it is quite scary to see how much crime is being reported literally on your doorstep more than anything!
 

Killingworth

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30 May 2018
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4,812
Location
Sheffield
Is anyone else a member of a local Facebook group where there are endless posts about dog poo, rants about cyclists and of course posts about lost cats!
It seems it's the same the nation over!

Something should be done about all that litter and fly tipping too. While we're at it there are garden bonfires when washing's out, bbqs setting the countryside alight and noisy parties at all hours of the day and night. Bring in your local councillors or MP, they need to earn their votes.

Let off some steam then avoid this thread!
 

lxfe_mxtterz

Member
Joined
3 Mar 2018
Messages
817
Location
Sarahdale (West of Emmerdale)
Is anyone else a member of a local Facebook group where there are endless posts about dog poo, rants about cyclists and of course posts about lost cats!
Yes - and in addition to the kind of posts you mention, there's also the occasional post about planned or proposed developments to improve the town, which never fail to bring all the grumpy locals out in force, moaning in the comments along with their "angry face reactions".

Clearly, the people of my town would rather stare at a row of decaying, dilapidated buildings than have a lovely new square with cafés, shops and lots of greenery to make use of!
 
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stuart100100

Member
Joined
13 Dec 2009
Messages
174
Location
Liverpool
Dog poo, dog poo, dog poo. Naked pensioner cycling along the canal. Constant posts asking for recommendations for builders, plumbers, etc. Parking fines in the local pub when people have used it to go shopping elsewhere (I used it all the time before the fines came in so how dare they etc etc). "Be careful a few kids are hanging around" (not actually doing anything). New houses possibly being built, how awful, then posts asking if anyone is planning to sell their house as not much is coming up on the market

Pretty much sums up my town's group
 

DelayRepay

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21 May 2011
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2,929
Is anyone else a member of a local Facebook group where there are endless posts about dog poo, rants about cyclists and of course posts about lost cats!
As well as dog poo and lost dogs/cats we also have endless questions about the bin collections: What day do the bin men come, what day will they come if there's a bank holiday, why haven't some bins been emptied, has anyone seen a missing bin that wasn't returned after being emptied.

And endless questions about the local shop: What time do they open/close. What time do they open/close on Bank Holidays. Do they sell xxxx, do they have a cash machine, is the cash machine working?

And endless questions about the bus: What time does it come, how long does it take to get to town, where do you catch it, how much does it cost, is it reliable, why didn't it turn up, why was it late, does it run on Saturdays/Sundays/Bank Holidays?

It can be useful but I do wonder how some people managed to survive in the days before Facebook!

I would add that it can be useful, despite its faults. We are quite rural and when an old bloke with dementia went missing, half the village responded to his daughter's post by turning out and organising searches of the local fields. He was found and returned safely home before the police had even started an 'official' search.
 

DarloRich

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12 Oct 2010
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29,182
Location
Fenny Stratford
The quality of any moderation is a big factor in the quality of any group. My local group is well moderated with each post approved by the owner before it appears. That keeps out a lot of the rubbish.
 

DelayRepay

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2,929
The quality of any moderation is a big factor in the quality of any group. My local group is well moderated with each post approved by the owner before it appears. That keeps out a lot of the rubbish.

My local group doesn't approve posts before publication, but they do remove some of the rubbish such as people selling old tat (we have a separate page for that) and businesses posting too many adverts.

Occasionally the moderators go a bit crazy and ban people for trivial reasons or as a result of some personal quarrel. So we also have a rival 'banned from xxx' page which is quite amusing.

This week's theme seems to be people trying to re-unite post that's been delivered to the wrong address with its rightful owner! I guess the usual postman is either on holiday or isolating due to Covid, given the amount of letters that have ended up in the wrong place!
 

Bayum

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Joined
21 Mar 2008
Messages
2,902
Location
Leeds
Generally a ‘x grumbler’ page where x denotes the town/village.
 

alex397

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6 Oct 2017
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1,546
Location
UK
Yes I am, and I rarely look at it now as it isn’t much use to me. Generally a lot of moaning about the usual topics mentioned in other posts above. As soon as you hear a helicopter in the sky or an emergency siren I guarantee they’ll be someone on the group asking why it’s there. There are also people who like to ask when Asda is closing - when it would be much quicker to simply search for the answer on the internet.
They haven’t been able to moan much about university students and foreign visitors due to Covid.
There is some positivity though - seems to be lots of people reunited with lost items or pets thanks to the group, and people sharing their photography.
 

SteveM70

Established Member
Joined
11 Jul 2018
Messages
3,802
Yes I am. Two actually - where I live now, and the town three miles away where I used to live.

I suspect they’re pretty typical - dog poo, aren’t the council rubbish, bin collections, any recommendations for a <insert name of trade>, teenagers wrecking the joint, lost cat, sheep on the road, roadworks, what’s happening with such and such bit of land (to which someone always responds drive through Maccies to wind people up).

The thing about the recommend a tradesman stuff is that quite often - as it’s a small town - I know some of the people involved and the people recommending are pretty often the spouses of the tradesman concerned.

What does irritate me though is how lazy some people are, going on Facebook to ask “what time is the bus to Burnley?” etc etc
 

lxfe_mxtterz

Member
Joined
3 Mar 2018
Messages
817
Location
Sarahdale (West of Emmerdale)
So we also have a rival 'banned from xxx' page which is quite amusing.
Yes, similarly we too have a "rival" group - but rather it is focused on taking the (expletive) out of the posts in the main group, albeit in a lighthearted manner.

It can be amusing at times, particularly when a screenshot of a questionable post/comment from the main group gets posted. Recently, we had a screenshot of a woman's comment wherein she exclaimed she loved "eating children playing in the garden"(?!) :D

As soon as you hear a helicopter in the sky or an emergency siren I guarantee they’ll be someone on the group asking why it’s there.
Goodness, don't get me started! :lol:

"Just saw a police car/ambulance/fire engine speeding up our road with the sirens on. Anyone know what's happening?"

"Just saw a plane fly past. Is there an airshow happening somewhere?"

"Just saw a vintage car driving up our road. There must be filming happening somewhere?"

And a personal favourite:

(during a storm) "Did anyone else just see that huge flash in the sky?"
 
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scotrail158713

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30 Jan 2019
Messages
1,797
Location
Dundee
There's a couple in the area around me. One's private and I've never got round to requesting to join it. I occasionally have a read of the other one though, but it mostly seems to be people complaining about issues such as "place X is awful for dog poo - never seen anywhere like it". In reality these people have lived in the same place all their life and seem to hate where they live, yet at other times would also "never live anywhere else".
 

SeanG

Member
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4 May 2013
Messages
1,175
Ah yes there is a group around us "**TOWN** have your say" and then there is a rival "The real **TOWN** have your say". They both seem to whinge about each other.
Ours seem to be full of crime, with comments asking about whether it has been reported to the police (often it isn't), lost pets and takeaway adverts.
Always a good laugh to look through though.
 

Busaholic

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7 Jun 2014
Messages
14,029
;)
I'm going to start a local one.

Here's my first post:
It's disgusting how much dog poo there is around here, it leaves nowhere virgin for my dog to crap on.

I reckon it'll be an overnight success.
 

Cowley

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15 Apr 2016
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Devon
;)
I'm going to start a local one.

Here's my first post:
It's disgusting how much dog poo there is around here, it leaves nowhere virgin for my dog to crap on.

I reckon it'll be an overnight success.

You don’t know of any good plumbers do you? Also a man with a van that could take a washing machine away..?
 

ABB125

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23 Jul 2016
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3,746
Location
University of Birmingham
You don’t know of any good plumbers do you? Also a man with a van that could take a washing machine away..?
A car pulled up by the side of the road earlier, and just sat there for 10 minutes doing nothing. It then went away again. Anyone know what was going on?
 

DelayRepay

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2,929
A car pulled up by the side of the road earlier, and just sat there for 10 minutes doing nothing. It then went away again. Anyone know what was going on?
They weren't doing nothing. They'd seen some dog mess, so stopped their car to post about it in the local Facebook group.
 

Geezertronic

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Joined
14 Apr 2009
Messages
4,089
Location
Birmingham
Yesterday we had "Did anyone hear that big clap of thunder?" followed by "That house alarm is going off again, does anyone know whose it is?" :D
 

DarloRich

Veteran Member
Joined
12 Oct 2010
Messages
29,182
Location
Fenny Stratford
these are all moderation issues - none of these things appear in our local group. It makes it much more consumable.
 

Typhoon

Established Member
Joined
2 Nov 2017
Messages
3,488
Location
Kent
short of knocking round everyone in the local area what better way to find a decent trade?
... especially with the reduction in the number of newsagents with cards stuck up in their window.

Also
These are all moderation issues ...
absolutely. However, a moderator and founder of a (previously public) local facebook group near me got so fed with the verbal abuse he was getting because of his insistence that businesses that advertised (for free) be local (and, this is guesswork, the lack of support he got from other moderators) that he walked. I was never a member, there was so much hostility.
Example: There was a story on a local news website about a school girl being attacked and requiring hospital treatment. Member straight in there, blaming the school 'it's that school again! Can't keep control'). Some others pointed out that the school was named because that was the one the victim attended, the assault happened after school and the assailant's school was not named (I'm not sure it was known at the time, but it wasn't the same). Member back in, why hadn't the teachers done anything about it. I have seen teachers patrolling the road the school is in and the nearby parade of shops as well as the bus queue, but this took place some distance away, over a major road and a railway bridge for a start. Member still not satisfied.
Example: The 'when does (the pub that serves food) open'. When someone suggests that (as in #13) that they contact the venue, they are descended upon, people should be helping one another.
Example: A member wanted to know how to get to a particular supermarket by bus as they had applied for a job there. Member then issues out of date advice, initial stop had changed, route now stopped short, and has limited hours of operation* (very unlikely to get there by 9am, for instance). Another member suggests train followed bus for speed and frequency but is shouted down by the initial respondent and others, who know these things.

Some of it was funny, may still be, its gone private now with some of the old mods, potential members are warned that if they are easily offended to stay away so I guess its like the wild west.

These groups are what the members make of them, it is just that I see no benefit from a group that oozes aggression and misinformation (in my opinion).

* - I knew these things as I had a copy of the timetable and I used the route.
 
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