Fighting Crime via Neighborhood Social Networking
Mar/31/2008 05:48 AM Filed in: CrimeCommunication
Marlborough Mesa in
Mesa, Arizona was recently able to utilize their
discussion forum as a social networking tool to fight
crime in their neighborhood.
Evidently there was an ice cream man in the neighborhood who was consistently "short-changing" the neighborhood kids. The information was posted on the Marlborough Mesa Discussion Forum which alerted the rest of the neighborhood. Other neighbors related similar stories about the same ice cream man. They called the police who in turn tracked down the ice cream man, questioned him, and he is no longer "short-changing" the neighborhood kids.
The Marlborough Mesa group are no strangers to using the Neighborhood Link Discussion forums as a social networking tool. Back in October they used their discussion forum to help identify an elderly neighbor who had been seriously injured in an auto accident.
Congrats to Alma Jones (their tireless webmaster) and the Marlborough Mesa Neighborhood on a job well done!
Evidently there was an ice cream man in the neighborhood who was consistently "short-changing" the neighborhood kids. The information was posted on the Marlborough Mesa Discussion Forum which alerted the rest of the neighborhood. Other neighbors related similar stories about the same ice cream man. They called the police who in turn tracked down the ice cream man, questioned him, and he is no longer "short-changing" the neighborhood kids.
The Marlborough Mesa group are no strangers to using the Neighborhood Link Discussion forums as a social networking tool. Back in October they used their discussion forum to help identify an elderly neighbor who had been seriously injured in an auto accident.
Congrats to Alma Jones (their tireless webmaster) and the Marlborough Mesa Neighborhood on a job well done!
New Discussion Forums
Mar/24/2008 12:39 PM Filed in: NL Features
Neighborhood Link recently completely redesigned the
Discussion Forum areas for its neighborhood sites.
Besides a completely redesigned modern look, there
are many new features.
Below are highlights of some of the new features:
Below are highlights of some of the new features:
- Format: The new format was designed to be
easier to read and to provide for more efficient
use. For example previously in the old format, only
one reply to a post could be viewed per page. Now
four replies per page can be viewed at a time.
Also, now when viewing the topics page, the topic
with the most recent reply is at the top of the
page.
- Tags: Each Topic is now automatically tagged
with its geographic location. Also, when starting a
topic, you can tag it with appropriate key words
that help describe the subject of the topic.
Examples of a tag might be: crime, code violations,
dues, security, etc. Eventually, tags will help
Neighborhood Link provide for a much better
systemwide searching mechanism.
- Navigation: At the top of each page in the
discussion area, there is now a series of
navigation links which depict your current
location. Thus, you could see at the top of the
page: “US > Arizona >
Phoenix AZ
metro > Scottsdale AZ
> Highlands West Discussions”. This would
mean you were in the Highlands West Discussions
area in Scottsdale, Arizona. Clicking on any of
the links to left of “ >Highlands West
Discussions” such as Phoenix AZ
metro would show you all of the discussions
in the Phoenix AZ metro area.
- Respect-o-Meter: Each Neighborhood link user is
now assigned a rank. Our Respect-o-Meter
automatically assigns each user a rank based on the
quality of that users participation in all areas of
Neighborhood Link. Users who are helpful, promote
community and are respectful of others will receive
the highest rankings.
- Avatars: Users now have the ability to upload
avatars. Avatars are small graphics or images which
are a graphical representation of the user. The
avatar will appear above a username when someone
posts in the discussion forums area. An avatar can
be easily uploaded by going to the users profile
area.
Neighborhood Mediation
Mar/17/2008 07:25 AM Filed in: Communication
Neighborhood disputes can be particularly contentious
and sometimes it might seem like there is no way to
resolve them. It could be a dispute between an HOA
and a member or it could be just between two
neighbors.
Typical examples might be:
In the last 20 years, mediation has been used more and more to settle neighborhood disputes like the ones described above.
Mediation is a structured and organized process that can help people who are having a dispute come to a mutually acceptable agreement. The mediator is usually a trained neutral third party who helps the parties to clarify their issues, understand each other's perspective, and guide them to a final agreement of their own making.
One of the distinct advantages of mediation is that the effected parties retain control over the outcome of the matter. Instead of a judge, hearing examiner, or other third-party decide the matter, in mediation, it is the parties who decide.
Finally, mediation can resolve the matter faster and at significantly less costs than would litigation in the courts or an administrative proceeding
Many cities around the country offer free mediation services. Also for more information on solving neighborhood disputes, take a look at these two articles in our Neighborhood Resource Guide. The first one is about Neighborhood Mediation and the second one is about Neighborhood Dispute Resolution.
Typical examples might be:
- An HOA is trying to collect late fees from a
homeowner, but the homeowner feels he is being
charged unjustly.
- A landlord and tenant disagree over cleaning
and damage charges deducted from a security
deposit.
- A neighbor's dog barks all night long and has also caused damage to a neighbors fence.
In the last 20 years, mediation has been used more and more to settle neighborhood disputes like the ones described above.
Mediation is a structured and organized process that can help people who are having a dispute come to a mutually acceptable agreement. The mediator is usually a trained neutral third party who helps the parties to clarify their issues, understand each other's perspective, and guide them to a final agreement of their own making.
One of the distinct advantages of mediation is that the effected parties retain control over the outcome of the matter. Instead of a judge, hearing examiner, or other third-party decide the matter, in mediation, it is the parties who decide.
Finally, mediation can resolve the matter faster and at significantly less costs than would litigation in the courts or an administrative proceeding
Many cities around the country offer free mediation services. Also for more information on solving neighborhood disputes, take a look at these two articles in our Neighborhood Resource Guide. The first one is about Neighborhood Mediation and the second one is about Neighborhood Dispute Resolution.
Code Compliance
Mar/10/2008 07:43 AM Filed in: Great
Examples
Marlborough Mesa in Mesa,
Arizona has done a great job of using all the
tools that Neighborhood Link provides. They
recently asked us to create a separate website so that
Neighbors could report violations of city code.
The Mesa City manager in turn has pledged to
monitor the site and investigate all of the
reported code violations.
On their current website, they just created a link to the discussion forum on the new code violation website thus making it easy for neighbors to report code violation. Very cool!
If your HOA or Neighborhood Association would like to to do something similar for code violations or some other pressing issue in your community just email us
On their current website, they just created a link to the discussion forum on the new code violation website thus making it easy for neighbors to report code violation. Very cool!
If your HOA or Neighborhood Association would like to to do something similar for code violations or some other pressing issue in your community just email us
Neighborhood Link Gets Google Maps
Mar/03/2008 08:24 AM Filed in: NL Features
Neighborhood Link has enabled Google maps on all
Neighborhood Link websites. On websites that we have
corresponding boundaries we have drawn the shape of
the boundaries on the map. If we don't have
corresponding data or if you think what we have drawn
is incorrect, it is simple to correct or redraw your
boundaries. Below is a very short help video that
will show you how to draw boundaries on your
neighborhood map.
Drawing your neighborhood boundary is simple - click on each corner of your neighborhood. You'll have a chance to preview before you save the new map and you can always start over. Just watch the video.....
Drawing your neighborhood boundary is simple - click on each corner of your neighborhood. You'll have a chance to preview before you save the new map and you can always start over. Just watch the video.....