Atlantic Cities: The Characters On Your Neighborhood Listserv

• February 24, 2012

by UrbanTurf Staff

For anyone who has ever participated on a neighborhood listserv, where residents can chat about crime reports, potlucks and new restaurant openings without leaving their homes, part of the fun is hearing out your neighbors in their unfiltered glory.

This morning, Atlantic Cities’ Emily Badger put together a pretty funny list of 20 common characters who pop up on these lists

Here are our favorites:

2. The comic. This guy reminds people not to take the neighborhood email group too seriously by writing parodies of the neighborhood email group, on the neighborhood email group. Invariably, some people aren’t quite sure if they’re in on the joke, or the butt of it.

8. The armchair urban planner. This person is always ready to debate the pending arrival of the new mixed-use Ikea/condo with talking points about “economic development,” “transit corridors” and “walkable urbanism.” If you’re a regular Atlantic Cities reader, this person may be you. Tread lightly: This personality type is among the most sanctimonious characters you’ll encounter on any email group.

11. The ‘I have no shame’ guy. This man only posts when he wants to crowd-source the answers to personally embarrassing questions like, “Does anyone know of a dry cleaner that can handle really bad armpit stains?” Guys like this are the reason you can’t bring yourself to stop reading. It’s just too good.

12. The dog-poop vigilante. Before email was invented, this person would just have to mutter to himself while walking down the street, “why can’t people pick up after their dogs?!” But now he can broadcast this sentiment to all of his neighbors in a matter of seconds. And he does. IN ALL CAPS.

Some of these folks make occasional appearances at monthly ANC meetings, too.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/have_you_seen_these_characters_on_your_neighborhood_email_list/5195