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Next Door Has a Toxic Moderator Problem

A look at Next Door's terrible job of handling their moderators' horrendous behavior

By Clyde E. DawkinsPublished 5 months ago 6 min read
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While I was watching the Thursday Night Football contest between the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns, I was on Next Door at some point, and I noticed something of concern on the app. Someone posted about a delivery driver that had violent tendencies, and it became a big conversation involving others who had similar experiences. However, one person decided to shame said person and blame them, trying to suggest that the person "should have tried to get the driver's side of the story."

That last sentence is very troubling. Again: the driver had a history of violence and others complained about her. Yet despite this, the poster, named Susan K., had to chime in with such a tone-deaf statement like, "I would try to reach out to the driver and get her side of the story." That's textbook victim-shaming. That's basically the same as asking, "Well, what did you do to provoke that person?" Just hideous!

And here's the kicker: Susan K. is a moderator on Next Door!

I've noticed my share of abusive mod behavior on Next Door. I was visiting a friend one day because we were talking about Next Door and their terrible conduct. With the friend's permission, I took screenshots of that mod's toxic comments as evidence proving my friend's case, though the main one is shown above: Susan K.'s tone deaf comment. Sadly, this isn't the first time a mod has acted in such a horrendous manner.

This woman is Autumn Martin, another one of Next Door's moderators. And yes, she's big time toxic. Many months prior, a Latinx woman's property was vandalized by a young White child, whose grandfather went on a racist tirade against the woman. So what does Autumn do? She attempts to force other people on Next Door to gaslight the Latinx woman, and she basically victim-shames the woman while defending the vandal, and also ignored that the child's grandfather was basically neglectful. And how did Autumn respond to those who stood up against her actions? She made their comments disappear! Poof! A blatant abuse of power by a bigoted moderator.

Check out these videos exposing Autumn Martin's terrible conduct:

But wait, there's more:

Hannah Taylor and Melissa McGonagle are another pair of mods on Next Door who have caused nothing but trouble. A woman asked a simple question about a missing pet, and both Melissa and Hannah decided to respond by bullying and making all sorts of tone-deaf comments trying to make this woman look like she was being picky when she wasn't. It's amazing how arrogant and entitled these mods are on Next Door. But does anything get done about these mods? Not one bit. Next Door just sits back and twiddles their thumbs while mods like the four I mentioned do nothing but harass, bully, and nitpick, while those who stand up to these power-mad dictators get silenced and get their comments removed.

Here's my TikTok where I call out their bad behavior. In some of the videos, a person known as "SamusSilver3" was mentioned. SamusSilver3 is one of the many users who have been affected by bullying, and who have spoken out against Next Door. His TikToks were featured, but due to severe harassment, he privatized all of his social media and just left it as is. That's another example of how toxic Next Door's harassment is.

But at least you one could use email to report them. Emphasis on could.

According to everything that's in these screenshots, you can't use email to report these misdeeds anymore. Email is a private way to report bad behavior; it provides anonymity, it prevents further problems. With this, it's going to provoke more harassment from the people being reported. By removing the one private forum for reporting problematic posts, it opens the door for ostracization. The ironic thing is that Next Door promotes themselves as a "safe space," yet everything they're doing endangers the mental health of those who use the app.

Two days later, I woke up and spoke to my friend regarding her post about her terrible Uber experience, and lo and behold, when I asked my friend for an update, I was shown all of that above. The post was hidden under the claim that it broke the guidelines of "Privacy violation and discrimination." Yet the email tells a different story. According to that, Preeta (some sort of higher-up for Next Door) had the gall to accuse my friend of "public shaming." What? This is a clear case of Next Door talking out of both sides of their mouth. It can't be a "privacy violation" and "public shaming." Really, it's neither; my friend was not in the wrong. Funny. It always seems to be Preeta who delivers stuff like this. She's another one who is immensely problematic.

Right as I'm about to publish this piece, I heard back from my friend. Turns out, Preeta (and Next Door as a whole) is continuing to twist the proverbial knife with repeated accusations towards my friend of "publicly shaming" someone. My goodness. And the way this was said is just sickening. Next Door is acting like they would never shame anyone, yet that's exactly what they're doing. They are absolutely victim-shaming, and it's absolutely blatant.

So later tonight, I was talking to my friend after enjoying the amazing game between the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys, and I asked how things were going. I was disappointed to hear a few things. For one, my friend and I scoured her timeline because she told me that a completely different post was hidden. She sent me a screenshot of the notification, and we looked on her timeline to see which post was missing. After looking at the timeline, we found out what the post was. It was a picture of her and her cat, and she was speaking fondly of her cat, saying "Look at this big boy next to this big face LOL." That's all. A very, very harmless post. That is not public shaming! Next Door doesn't know a damn thing about anything, I swear! And get this, later on, we learn that she was suspended! Suspended?! For what, you ask?! For calling out the bullshit caused by that Uber Eats driver, as well as simply mentioning that Uber Eats wasn't going to do anything about it! Are you kidding?! I swear, Next Door is so damn dictatorial, just hideous!

I've known Miley a long time, and she was simply trying to warn her neighbors on Next Door about this injustice so they wouldn't have to go through it themselves, and if they ran into that person and had a similar issue, they would also know that they're not alone. She did absolutely nothing wrong. All the time, I see posts on Next Door where people warn others about suspicious people, criminal activity, you name it. A lot of posts do cross the line, but they don't get taken down. Yet Miley was doing the same thing: warning neighbors about shady activity, but her post was taken down. Why? I don't get it. She didn't break any rules.

As I stated before, Next Door moderators are corrupt. They live to abuse their power, and the powers that be at Next Door are just as bad. Miley is one of several people who reported Autumn Martin for racial profiling. Yet from what I've personally seen, Next Door's mods have become snippy to her and sabotaged her posts ever since. It's petty behavior from those mods. I would be posting all of this, more than what I've shown...but ever since Miley reported Autumn for racial profiling and public attacks against a Latinx woman, she has been messed with in many ways. I've seen posts where Miley's responded to others, always politely, yet Next Door's mods find reasons to respond rudely, and acting like she said something different when she didn't. One example: the post where Miley asked, "Why dead or alive?," yet two mods, Hannah Taylor and Melissa McGonagle, made it look like Miley was causing trouble when she wasn't. I wouldn't be surprised if Susan K. was behind the unnecessary drama that has occurred, in regards to the Uber Eats driver issue. It's very suspicious that after Susan K. had her little tantrum, that all of this started to unfold. As to why Miley's name is covered in some shots but exposed in others, I originally thought my friend wanted her name out of it, but later on, there was a conversation, and it was decided that I had to mention her name, because it was the only way to get this important point across.

Next Door, I'm begging you. For the love of all that is good in the world, be better. Don't condone bullying from your moderators. It's not hard to be decent. As the saying goes, "It costs $0.00 to do the right thing."

Check out this video that exposes Next Door's latest batch of misdeeds:

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About the Creator

Clyde E. Dawkins

I am an avid fan of sports and wrestling, and I've been a fan of female villains since the age of eight. Also into film and TV, especially Simpsons and Family Guy.

Feel free to follow my social media:

Twitter - Facebook - Tiktok - Instagram

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Comments (5)

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  • Vicki Lawana Trusselli 5 months ago

    Nice story. I don't do Next Door because of the complaints on there. Good story

  • Terry Silver5 months ago

    I was once on NextDoor, but chose to leave. I had decided to leave when I had reported one Autumn Leigh Martin of Jacksonville, Florida for abusing her position in order to attack a person of color. While she did not make racist remarks and hasn't (to my knowledge), I have noticed she tends to lash out more upon those whom are not white. Supposedly she can't be racist because she "has friends of color. But considering most of her targets, when she targets others, are people of color, it speaks an encyclopedia set full of volumes. I had reported Autumn Leigh Martin via email, which is much safer than the website and app. The NextDoor staff chose to do nothing. That is in effect, protecting her. Apparently NextDoor is one of those sites that protects abusive moderators while preaching safety, peace, and pleasant environment. Your friend Miley should have never been suspended. It is obvious that moderators have been messing with her since she reported Autumn Leigh Martin. I feel bad for her because Autumn Leigh Martin's fellow moderators can be quite vicious as they put forth the public face sainthood and of "doing their job for the good of the community". I ended up harassed on Tiktok and stalked on Facebook. My You Tube Channel was terminated because of all the reports being spammed by bots created by a close friend of Autumn Leigh Martin. I more than proved all of my claims about Autmn Leigh Martin and her fellow moderators, but you know what NextDoor staff told me? They accused me of being racist against a kind lady because she is white and not a person of color. I was wrongly labeled a racist and banned. All for the reason of reporting her and proving her racist nature. It seems that anyone that has reported Autumn Leigh Martin has either been banned or is getting messed with. Also in seeing how moderators act like their position is entitlement to act out, NextDoor is not worth being on. It is more harmful than helpful. It is very damaging to one's mental health.

  • I'm not on that, Next Door, but thanks for raising awareness. Sounds like they need some training in awareness. Good of you to be objective.

  • Cathy holmes5 months ago

    To be honest, I've never heard of Next Door.

  • Philip Gipson5 months ago

    NextDoor is just a pathetic corporation overall. All they ever care about is chasing clout. Thank you, Clyde, for raising awareness on their nepotism.

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