My Neighbourhoods (MN) is a new UK “community networking” site that has just launched with the aim to “improve communication and neighbourly behaviour in the thousands of communities throughout the UK”. as explained by Danny Bull the CEO
On closer inspection the site is a mashup of local news & reviews plus local classified advertising combined with aspects of social networking. i.e imagine a combination of UpMyStreet.com + Fish4 + Friends Reunited, except in this case, much of the initial local information has been provided via partnerships with Nestoria and Scoot thus far.
Potentially this is a good idea to localise social networks and listings but I have a number reservations that I would hope can addressed in future beta releases. Firstly, although registration is free, in order to link to other people in my neighbourhood and/or sell items through the classified marketplace I must upgrade my membership and pay an annual fee of£6.50 – why!?
This barrier to entry and participation seems very odd to me when the site is an alpha trying to grow a community, especially when there are better known free listing sites already established in the UK such as CraigsList, eBay and others with established communities (buyers/sellers). Even my local newspaper’s online classified listings is free.
Personally I would prefer to see MN generate its income from local advertisers (but limit adverts only to those businesses who have received a positive review from their local community) but I guess that may be a limitation imposed by “current” business listing partners Scoot.
