The data used in the following evaluation were collected in a Durham (NC) neighborhood over a period of two months (Dec 2010 - Jan 2011). In total, 1000 posts have been evaluated. There were 1074 neighbors signed up to this particular mailing list. Of these 31% (333 users) participated in conversations with a frequency ranging from 1 to 23 posts.

As you see on this graph there is a small group of high-frequency users while the majority of users only sparsely use the current system. 741 members (69%) have been either inactive users or passive viewers. It is one of our goals to raise the first half of this curve and provide a useful application that will intrigue many more neighbors to actively participate and ultimatly enrich their community life.

Here is an example of a daily digest users of mailing lists are typically signing up for since they do not want to get notified for each new post. They tend to become very long since the posters often quote the message of the starter thread in order to let readers know what this message is in response to. Ultimately, the undesired results are lengthy digests like this example which shows a staggering word and line count. Sifting through these worms and making sense of them challenges the patience levels of many. The sad part is not only the inconvenience but also the incredible amount of time you will have wasted using these systems year to year. With Neighborship you can respond to posts without quoting since all messages get organized within their relevant threads. And you can search for them with a mouseclick. If found, you can easily reactivate an old discussion and everybody will be on the same page. If you use notifications in Neighborship, messages will arrive in your email-box with the full body text. Do you need to post a response? Like in all major social networks you can follow the provided links to see the full thread, post your response, or unsubscribe from this thread.

Neighborship does not use the typical ad panes from the big players which you see on the majority of websites or in connection with free email and websearch services.
Here is why:  We wanted to keep it local. Our goal was to build a mutually rewarding advertisement system which benefits neighborhoods and their local business communities, as well. Communities have several options:

• Option 1:
  Sponsor-free site: We will ask communities for a reasonable service fee.
• Option 2:
  Allowing sponsor ads that will only appear when users click a button.
• Option 3:
  Featuring sponsor ads prominently with ads from neighbors following.

With Options 2 and 3 communities will participate in the revenue income of sponsor ads. While the local business community will welcome a way to better target their desired audiences, communities will be able to improve their budgets. The choice is yours.