WCLDC News

 ARGYLE — It just got a little easier for residents to do everything from find a lost dog, hire a plumber or debate local issues.

Front Porch Forum, a website that seeks to connect residents with their neighbors, launched last week in Argyle. It’s the first New York town to have the service, as the majority of the community forums on the website are in Vermont.

“It’s us talking to each other about things that are unique to us,” said Joanne McDowell, secretary of the Argyle Community Enhancement Team, the group that brought the forum to town. “What appeals to me about it is someone may get home from work at midnight when they’ve been away for much of the day, and they can hop online and connect.”

The Argyle site went live on Feb. 6. It had around 50 members and 80 postings as of Wednesday, McDowell said.

The website, http://frontporchforum.com, was created in 2006 in Burlington, Vt. The number of its online community forums has since grown to about 70. According to the website, there are around 70 Vermont forums, the one in Argyle and one in New Hampshire.

It currently serves a lot of rural communities, but also works well in the neighborhoods of Burlington, Front Porch Forum creator Michael Wood-Lewis said.

“It was put to such amazing use during Hurricane Irene, it’s helped people find lost pets and helps people feel more connected to their communities,” he said. “We’d really like to see it work everywhere.”

Even though the forum is online, the “absolute bottom line” is to also get people more engaged with their neighbors face-to-face.

“I think we’re all better off when we know our neighbors better,” Wood-Lewis said. “When you know the people around you, you feel safer and more of a sense of ownership in the community.”

When a resident joins the forum, they are first asked for their address. A check of their global positioning system coordinates determines whether they live in the town or within the boundaries of the Argyle Central School District.

The site is free for residents to use. And unlike some online forums, people are asked to use their full names as a way to hold them accountable for what they say. Every time they post, their name and street, though not their exact address, are attached to their posting.

Diana Eggleston, president of the community enhancement team, said in an email that people will be able to track a lost pet, debate the school budget and find a babysitter, among many other things, if they join the forum.

Residents who are at least 14 years old can join, and because the site targets rural communities, it’s designed to run well with slow Internet connections, Eggleston said.

The forum needs about 200 members to sustain itself, which McDowell believes is doable.

She and other community enhancement team members have been spreading the word by attending recent village and town meetings. Town Supervisor Bob Henke said he is excited about the forum.

There is an initial start-up cost of $5,000, which the community enhancement team raised. After that, the site is self-funding with advertisements; local businesses can post for free once a month, McDowell said.

“We need this in small towns because big towns already have their ways to connect with each other,” McDowell said of the forum. “And if people know there’s a need or they can help (their neighbors) in some way, they’ll jump right in.”

Read more: http://poststar.com/news/local/online-forum-lets-rural-towns-connect/article_e712b82c-5b65-11e1-afd4-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1n8×1NLyX