Inquiring minds...

I wish they did too. But how do you get people to visit that site? I think people would be more likely to if the site represented all the issues in SC rather than just RCSC items -- ie, a true Community site. I sense the RCSC would prefer to keep themselves primarily RCSC focused. It would be great if they saw that differently. There's plenty of residents who have never looked at the RCSC website and don't understand the difference between RCSC and SCHOA and Prides and ..., etc. -- yet they're part of the SC community and are affected by all it's issues.

I'm not exactly a fan of FB either, and for the same reasons. I used to check it every week or so (otherwise my young relatives get angry since that and text'ing is the only way they will communicate). I treated it like a newspaper -- ie, basically, read only... I hardly ever posted anything and only occasionally replied to anyone else's post. Then one of the organizations I belong to started a FB Group. Now I check more frequently and am more active in that group -- and the rest of FB I pay a little more attention to (which makes my relatives happier.)

We all see things differently -- what's good for one is often not for another. And that's ok. But we also have to cope somehow -- "The Times They Are A Changin'" as Bob Dylan would say.

As I mentioned in another post, I've noticed a big increase in Internet use and savvy in SC just the past 5 or so years. Pew Research says that if you're active on the Internet then over 75% will also use FB. If you are over 65, 60% on average use the Internet -- so about half of SC are probably FB users in one form or another. The older you are the lower the %. The more educated are higher, the less lower (by a lot, incidentally) -- I would guess SC on average would be mostly at the higher range. Younger Boomers' (under age 65) Internet use raises to 80%, so 5-years from now SC will be very social media literate. Of course, those under 30 are in the high 90% range so 20-years from now everyone will be Internet addicted.

All this suggests to me that, if you want a social media presence, FB gives you the best chance of attracting sufficient numbers to make it viable. But it has to be interesting enough in the beginning to attract a wide variety of interests -- otherwise it will never attain the critical mass of participants to become self sustaining. It will need to advertise itself aggressively without appearing to have any agenda other than be a portal to announce/share/discuss SC Community info. It needs to be upbeat with lots more good news than bad -- if it degenerates into a site predomenently of bitching and complaining it will die quickly.

 

Damn, since we moved here in 2003, i've been begging and pleading with every board i have served on to build a community/interactive site. Started at the Visitor Center, then on to SCHOA, the Del Webb Museum and concluded with the RCSC. The closest i ever came was at the Museum where i did the Word Press blog Sun Cities Today.

What we know about organizations is they fear interactive communication; for a couple of reasons. Control is the biggest, but the amount of work is intimidating or at least an unknown.

In each and every case, i volunteered to be the administrator, which meant of course no cost after the initial setup.

Interestingly enough, i'm on the membership committee at SCHOA and at our last meeting, i suggested they think about a more aggressive website including a blog. Their tech consultant told us how the Green Valley area Home Owners built such a site and it became the community site, which entailed a goodly amount of work.The question you have to always ask yourself is this: What is it you want your site to do, what is it you want it to be?

AS IC has mentioned, Sun City (and most other age restricted communities) have barely scratched the surface (from a technological standpoint) when it comes to reaching seniors weighing their options. 55Places is the best resource, but wholly inadequate in two-way communication. One of my goals in starting a new club was to build a kick-ass site that we could morph into a community gathering spot. Sadly building the club meant more work than i was interested in taking on. That said, i would be interested in putting together a site for Sun City that could become our Commons and a launching pad for bumping up our social media presence.

Just something else to think about eh?

 

As mentioned by a few others nextdoor is a nice simple tool. It will email you with new postings or you can go look at the latest postings, you choose how you want to see postings. For our nextdoor here in CO we also get messages from the city regarding things like snow removal or city meetings, etc. Yeah I know, I said the S word... S happens in CO.

The only bad thing I see about nextdoor is probably a good thing in some folks eyes. We see posts for lost cats and dogs. Furniture for sale, etc.. Anything a neighbor thinks is notice worthy can post as long as it meets the guidelines.

The good stuff is one lady posted that her garbage disposal died and she could not afford a plumber so she posted asking if someone could help her install a new one and if they could tell her what to buy. Some of us volunteered, she picked one and they met her at the store, she bought the new disposal and the person showed her how to install it. All went well and now she is a bit more knowledgeable.

Nextdoor has a contact button, it might be worth someone contacting them to see if there is a way to set up a neighborhood that covers all of Sun City.

 

I doubt Nextdoor would cover an area the size of Sun City in one group. They would create many small groups (there are already some) and then the user would need to add the nearby groups they wanted. I recently belonged to a Nextdoor in a city roughly the size of Sun City and they broke it up into many sections. I just sent them an inquire to ask about the limitation.

Near me I see a group called Boswell Blvd (quite large) Tan Tara, Lakeview, and Dawn Lake that I am able to join. I also see Sun City Estates, W Coggins Dr, Quail Run and Palmbrook (also quite large) that I would not be allowed to join because they are not directly adjacent to my group. Looks like it's mostly phase 2 participating at this point. Anyone can ask to start a neighborhood group though if yours is not already represented. I don't know if there are others that they are not showing me on my Nextdoor map, but that's all I see in Sun City.

 

I take that back, I could join the others if I want. I depends on the settings you choose.

 

Nextdoor replied that the limit is 3000 houses. Sun City will still need to join as areas and then people can add it the ares they are interested in.

 

Seems a long time since anyone talked about Nextdoor. Any fresh opinions?*
And is Newszap no more?

 

Hey SCJ, long time no see/read. Well, not quite true. Saw you posted on Nextdoor the other day. Tried it, not my cup of tea. Still would love to start a message board for Sun City and just feature our community. I bookmarked a couple of sites to research it, but for now, just need to see where SCHOA goes with my complaint.

 

I'm still on Nextdoor but I don't visit it often. Just when something comes up about the neighborhood. Someone posted photos of Javalinas on several SC golf course the other day.

 

Yeah, I've been reassessing life and circumstances after my mother's death so just now getting back to some ol' haunts (appropriate word choice for this Halloweeny season, eh? lol).
Well I saw you too not too long ago on YouTube version of RCSC mtg. Good that they have that service.
Good luck with the SCHOA stuff--what you are trying to do makes sense to me for sure.
Am on Nextdoor and it's ok but intend to be back here periodically too. I kinda like hearing what's doing in surrounding communities since The Independent rarely mentions events in our surrounding cities and I like to know what's going on but don't want to invest in a newspaper subscription esp. since my reading matter already fills the house.
When I first got on Nextdoor I was surprised at how they drew the community boundaries so you could be linked in with a Peoria neighborhood and not even get postings from other Sun City neighborhoods. I requested some boundary extensions and the Leads agreed so changes re: the districts are possible. Maybe you could just work with more redistricting or start a Group off their site? There is only one Group started and that is MAGA with 2 members. What is it that you're looking to accomplish that TOSC or a Group off of Nextdoor can't do?
And what happened to the old Newszap discussion board? Defunct?*

 

I saw that. And the coyotes postings, etc. What's your take about what this site does or doesn't do or what Nextdoor does or doesn't do that makes you lean here and not there?*

 

I wasn't aware anyone could start a group in Nextdoor, but I read up and I see it does. It would be one easy place to go if TOSC folds. Of course you have to join Nextdoor first, go though that process. It's easy to start a group: choose a name, write a description, and decide if it's public or private. I'm not sure of the limitations on which areas within SC could join and how far we could request boundary extensions. That's the good/bad part of Nextdoor...it's not designed to include all of SC area. And it would not fulfill the purpose of talking to new people who don't live in SC yet and want information as this site does. I found it very helpful for me before I bought.

To me Nextdoor seems more for information than discussion, although some discussion goes on. There are other sites to create free forums too but it would take more work from someone to start a fresh site.

 

Thanks for your answers--helps me understand. Always good to cover the bases, esp. should TOSC fold, but sure hope it doesn't. Guess that's another reason there should maybe be an in-house RCSC, or SCHOA and condo collaborative effort to keep things in-house so the fear of folding would be erased. *Seems SC Visitor's Center makes most sense for hosting the discussions for potential residents. Guess we'd need to explore boundary lines re: Nextdoor, but I was pleased when I noticed I wasn't getting some Sun City area info, therefore I requested some extensions, headquarters contacted Leads, got 'em...

 

I'm sorry for your loss too. I'm so glad we have so many supportive services out here and I think I've availed myself of almost all of them. One good thing is now I am a walking resource for others going through loss, but what a way to learn....
I did the same thing re: Facebook a few yrs ago. Still off it.
Nextdoor has not turned out to be a time-eater since their settings seem to work so well and I am so glad to be able to get the alerts to help people find their pets, etc. I had a particularly positive experience by posting an announcement of the rainbow flag raising at the Church of the Palms (they had no idea such a Progressive church existed in Sun City) and having so many people thank me (yes, there were some nasty comments too) that I have made some continuing friendships. Might be worth reconsidering Nextdoor at some point--easy enough to pull out if you don't think the filters work well enough, etc.*

 

Dang SCJ, i can see vividly you pushing mom along in her wheelchair. So many fond memories for those of us who moved here to be with the folks as they grew old and counted on us to be there for them. Tough to watch, great memories.

Seriously would love to start our own site for SC residents and if there are no ties to orgs, far less filters to work through.

 

And of course one of the joys of running our own site is we could keep these worthless bots from the endless posts of links no one clicks on.

 

In fact, every time i open this site and see the spam, i get closer to starting my own board where i can toss them.

 

Just curious, anyone think doing our own site make sense?

 

In past posts I've said yes, but I'm more conflicted now...

JMHO...

The Pro's:

Ability to admin the forums... ie, can manage spam

SC community-specific... ie, just SC,AZ...

Features could be added -- eg, classifieds, contractor referrals, yard sale calendar, etc, etc. etc.
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The Cons:

Keeping spammers and trolls from flooding these type of boards can be non-trivial since they can, in theory, try to register a limitless number of accounts every day. Hence, keeping a site like this spam-free requires daily oversight. However, since the audience of a new SC-only forum would be relatively small and geographically constrained, it might be less likely spammers would target it compared to TOSC, which has a larger presence.

There would be expenses (domain registration, forum software, and hosting, etc.) -- a few hundred dollars a year probably.
​

Another thing to consider in starting a new SC forum is that all posts in this forum (TOSC) would remain here and essentially be lost to the new forum. Lots of historical info was lost when the Sun City/Newszap forums of 5-10 years ago closed. I have often wanted to refer to posts made on that board to clarify history, but alas they're gone.
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FWIW, the vBulletin s/w used in this forum (TOSC) is the best and I recommend it -- the downside is it has a non-trivial learning curve for those not familiar with the multitude of issues relating to web sites. Godaddy and Wordpress make their offerings sound easy to create a website, but developing a forum of this feature/quality will be lots of work using their tools, too. According to what I've heard, Nextdoor can't scale to include all of Sun City so it may not be a useful alternative, either.

 

Forget Godaddy, IMO. Their servers are so slow. Wordpress is better. There is a fix for this type of spam, you only let people post links after they have posted X amount of posts. Not to say they couldn't spam but not the daily type they are doing here. Yes it's pretty easy to start a forum but finding people who want to keep up the work of it is another issue.