Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Streetlife online community
Anyone else used it?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mark B on
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So this is the letter we got this morning:
Didn't sign up. Seems to me a commercial HoL and I didn't feel I would need that. (Don't internet entrerprenuers call it "monitized"?)
Interesting use of "featured in" at the top.
So on BBC this comes up from 2012 and not much else.
On the guardian similar dated things but it also confirms in a link from 2013 that streetlife.com are apparently able to sell local poll information.
So set up a few years ago... and it looks like the www site got a new head of marketing in January 2015 too.
This must be a new marketing campaign?
I love HoL too much to spread my internet footprints over an even bigger area!
ps this from their www site
How does Streetlife make money?
Streetlife is and always will be free for local residents, charities and non-profit organisations.
We're a privately funded company, and are currently focused solely on building thriving communities.
In established areas we do generate a small amount of revenue from local businesses. Streetlife provides a great way for them to promote their services and show they care about local issues. At the same time, residents are able to discover local tradespeople, support their high street, and benefit from special offers on their doorstep.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks Mark. Interesting to hear about the new Head of Marketing. I didn't know about that. I met Matt and Nina, who used to run Streetlife a few times (perhaps they're still at the the helm). They're both very nice. Matt told me the story of how they got their initial venture capital funding from Peter Bottomley MP and his wife Virginia who invested after meeting co-founder Rupert Jermyn at a dinner party.
They claimed to be very supportive of existing websites - and I believed them. I think they were at the start. I guess with the arrival of corporate financing, a new more aggressive more profit-hungry marketing policy was inevitable.
...and yes, we can all do the featured in thing. Here's some of our BBC coverage - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10155457 plus the feature in BBC TV news and one on the Daily Politics Show (neither of which I'm going to link to!) and of coursre The Guardian, Evening Standard, blah blah blah. We hide our some of our bragging right here.
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I was fascinated to receive a letter through the mail from Streetlife today.
Streetlife started off as Streebook, with the aim of being a semi-local Facebook. They rebranded after about a year and are now part owned by national/multinational businesses.
As far as I understand the way a "local area" works is that the one you are assigned expands and contracts as their membership grows or shrinks. The more people they have in an area the smaller your assigned "local area" is; where they don't have so many, your "local area" is much bigger.
It's a useful set-up for areas where there is no local online community and it has to be patted on the back for that. However, people round the county who run genuine local online communities have not always welcomed it with open arms. Their fear is that Streetlife is not OF the local communities in which they operate and don't care about particular local communities in the same way. Their motive is profit. As Streetlife has grown so some local websites have folded. That seems like a pity to me. You have to wonder at what we're losing.
Haringey borough currently has one of the most vibrant scenes of local websites in the country. Streetlife's team are well aware of this and this is probably why they have started their more aggressive marketing campaign in our borough. Unlike Streetlife, all of Haringey's local sites are run by people who live in their local communities and care passionately about them. Each one is motivted by creating positive change in their neighbourhoods. Most have been successful to a greater or lesser extent in so doing and want to continue to do so. Perhaps Streetlife is an inevitable development of the web, but even setting HoL aside, I hope that where a genuine local website is doing a good job, each of them is strong enough to withstand Streetlife's attempts to take over the local 'airwaves'.
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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thanks Hugh. Could you maybe point me to some of the other sites you like? I really only know Hol and think you do a great job, but we are now living towards Tottenham way but aren't aware of similar?
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In Tottenham, there's Tottenham Life. All the other local sites in Haringey have followed HoL's lead and were set up using the same software, but I haven't had any direct involvement in setting up any of them other than with the excellent Bowes and Bounds run by Richard and Lindsey.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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SoTo is slowly growing as a site for South Tottenham/Seven Sisters. It has links to other local sites too. I'd love others to get involved with writing it, see the About page for how to engage. The collective of one has made all the decisions so far, many of which are ad hoc, eg comments all moderated at the mo but that could be changed if monitoring is shared.
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Thanks Pam. Hadn't heard of that one.
Is it yours? (And strictly speaking shouldn't it be "So ToSS"?).
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The name SoTo for this thrusting new area for the aspiring North Londoner, was delivered intact by the naming angel to an unknown person some five years ago, and has since become an urban legend. Yesterday Stokey, today SoTo. Bringing back the Tottenham to those who would only admit to *cough* living in Seven Sisters.
I started it. I own the domain soto.org.uk, just in case.
In awe of HoL but I know I don't have the time to learn that amount of new skills.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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My invitation was addressed to - " The lovely person who lives at..... "
How little they know me
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I am tremendously thrilled and excited to receive a 'Bronze Commentator' badge from Streetlife having posted three times! Mind you there are a total of 41 badges its possible to earn! C'mon Hugh, you'll have to up your game mate! All this time and you haven't even given me a 'Whinging Pain in the ****' badge!
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