Day 101: Our Data Is a Commodity. Why Are We Giving It Away?
Day 101.
Today I want to strip this Nextdoor discussion down to basic economics.
If I have something of value, another party uses it, and that use generates revenue, why shouldn't I share in the value created?
In this case, the commodity is information.
Reviews are information.
Recommendations are information.
Posts, comments, neighborhood observations, business experiences, and local knowledge are information.
Collectively, that's user-generated content.
And when a platform can aggregate, organize, analyze, and monetize that information, those individual contributions can become economically valuable.
We Call It “Content.” But It's Also an Economic Input.
Suppose I recommend a plumber on Nextdoor.
I supplied the experience. I paid to hire the plumber. I evaluated the work. I spent my time writing the recommendation.
Another neighbor reads it.
The plumber potentially gets business.
Nextdoor gets engagement and another piece of local knowledge stored within its platform.
Now multiply that by millions of neighbors and years of participation.
Suddenly, what looks like individual posts becomes something much more interesting:
An asset.
And with AI making it increasingly possible to organize, summarize, and extract useful information from enormous collections of human-created knowledge, that accumulated information may become even more useful.
I'm Not Saying Nextdoor Shouldn't Profit
Quite the opposite.
I'm a shareholder. I want Nextdoor to make money.
Nextdoor built the technology. It operates the platform. It employs people, develops products, sells advertising, and assumes the financial risk of running the business.
Nextdoor should benefit from the value it creates.
My question is:
Why does that automatically mean the neighbor gets zero?
If my contribution becomes part of something commercially valuable, why couldn't there be a model where:
Nextdoor wins.
Shareholders win.
Businesses win.
And the neighbors supplying the information win too.
I'm not suggesting every post deserves a royalty check.
But reviews, recommendations, local knowledge, research participation, and other user-generated information that contributes to commercial value?
Let's have that conversation.
Until Then, Maybe We Stop Supplying the Commodity
That's the idea behind my Neighbor Value-Sharing Petition.
The petition asks Nextdoor users to voluntarily stop providing new routine data, business reviews, recommendations, and other commercial user-generated content until Nextdoor develops a meaningful way for neighbors to participate in the revenue and value their contributions help generate.
It's not about withholding emergency information, safety alerts, missing-person information or other important community communication.
It's about the commodity.
If our information has value, perhaps we should stop giving that value away for free until there's a conversation about sharing it.
Read and sign the petition:
Then share it with another Nextdoor user.
Nextdoor Built the Container. Neighbors Keep Filling It.
A platform without people is software.
A review platform without reviews is an empty database.
A neighborhood network without neighbors sharing neighborhood knowledge isn't much of a neighborhood network.
Nextdoor built the container.
Neighbors keep filling it.
If what's inside that container can be monetized, I think it's reasonable for the people supplying it to ask:
Where's our share?
Until Nextdoor is willing to have that conversation, I'm asking neighbors to consider something incredibly simple:
Don't provide the commodity.
No new routine reviews.
No new business recommendations.
No additional commercial data.
Then let's see how valuable the commodity becomes when the people producing it decide they want to share in its value.
Our data. Our knowledge. Our time. Our value.
👉 Sign the petition:
https://c.org/GkNWmffgg9
👉 More of my continuing Nextdoor case study:
NielFlamm.com/blog
Day 101: Nextdoor Said It. The Person Behind the Post Is Doing the Work.
I missed yesterday on LinkedIn, although I posted almost everywhere else.
So, welcome to Day 101.
NXDR closed today at $2.38, down 4.8%.
But something Nextdoor posted on LinkedIn caught my attention even more.
Read Nextdoor's LinkedIn post.
It highlights Jessica Spann, a Charlotte educator whose work supporting students ultimately caught the attention of The Drew Barrymore Show.
Then I got to Nextdoor's final sentence:
“Local posts have a way of traveling when the person behind them is doing the work.”
ABSOLUTELY!
That's my point.
Jessica did the work.
Jessica made the impact.
Jessica created something worth talking about.
Nextdoor provided the platform that helped amplify it.
That's valuable too.
But if Nextdoor recognizes that the person behind the post is doing the work, why shouldn't we also talk about that person participating in the value their contributions help create?
Think of Nextdoor as the funnel.
The funnel helps direct the gasoline.
But the gasoline makes the engine run.
Neighbors provide the stories, reviews, recommendations, conversations, and local knowledge that keep the platform interesting.
That's why I started the Neighbor Value-Sharing Petition.
And, for transparency, I remain its sole signer. 😂
I need signature No. 2.
If you believe neighbors should participate in the value their contributions help create, sign it. Then share it.
Sign the Neighbor Value-Sharing Petition
Nextdoor said it, not me: the person behind the post is doing the work.
Now let's talk about sharing the value created by that work.
👉 Full Day 101 post: NielFlamm.com/blog
Day 100: Triple Digits. And Still Waiting.
Day 100.
I almost can't believe I'm typing that.
For 100 days, I've been asking Nextdoor for the detailed Insights data its own published material said readers could request.
I'm a shareholder. I asked for something the company advertised as available.
One hundred days later, I'm still waiting.
Meanwhile, NXDR Has Been Moving
Yesterday, NXDR traded as high as $2.64, very close to its 2026 closing high of $2.68 on August 10 and $2.66 close on August 11. As I write this, I'm seeing approximately $2.54. ChartExchange
Yesterday I wrote about something else I've been thinking about: a stock isn't evaluated solely on revenue, EBITDA and what's sitting on the balance sheet.
Leadership confidence and corporate reputation can matter too.
But I want to be careful here.
I have no evidence that today's movement has anything to do with my post, Nirav Tolia, my 100-day campaign—or anything else I've written.
Maybe short-term traders took profits. Maybe investors reacted to something entirely unrelated. That's the market.
What interests me is the longer-term question.
What Does Day 100 Cost?
Not in dollars.
In credibility.
A company can publish mission statements, announce AI initiatives, appear on podcasts and talk about connecting communities.
But sometimes reputation is built in much smaller moments:
Someone asks a question. Does anyone answer it?
Someone requests something you publicly said was available. Does anyone provide it—or simply explain why they can't?
That's what makes Day 100 remarkable to me.
The original request was tiny.
The case study it created is now enormous.
I'm still a shareholder. I still want NXDR to succeed.
And I'm still asking the same remarkably simple question I asked 100 days ago:
Can someone at Nextdoor provide the detailed Insights studies—or tell me why they can't?
Welcome to triple digits.
I really didn't think we'd get here.
👉 Follow the continuing case study at NielFlamm.com/blog
Day 99: A Stock Ticker Measures More Than Numbers
Day 99.
Tomorrow, this Nextdoor journey officially enters triple digits.
Another email requesting the detailed Insights studies is coming, but today I want to look at something completely different: leadership reputation and shareholder confidence.
I recently saw a reel discussing how a stock isn't influenced only by revenue, earnings, and a balance sheet. Investors also evaluate management, governance, credibility and the risks surrounding the people running a company.
That reminded me of Dan Bilzerian and Ignite International Brands.
Former Ignite executive Curtis Heffernan sued after his 2020 termination, alleging he was fired after refusing to approve substantial expenses he believed were personal expenses being charged to the company. Bilzerian disputed that account and said Heffernan was terminated for negligence and incompetence. The dispute eventually reached the California Court of Appeal. Bloomberg
And the story didn't end there.
Later litigation involving Ignite became even more complicated. In 2024, federal prosecutors charged Dan's father, Paul Bilzerian, and others in a case involving Ignite. Prosecutors alleged Paul secretly exercised significant control over the company while concealing that role. Those are government allegations, not something I'm presenting as independently proven here. Paul had previously been convicted of securities fraud in 1989. Department of Justice
Court records also show that Dan was removed as Ignite's CEO in 2023 after internal disputes, including concerns about his impact on the brand. Justia Law
Why Am I Talking About This on Day 99?
Not because Nextdoor is Ignite.
It isn't.
And I'm certainly not suggesting Nirav Tolia has done anything resembling what was alleged in the Ignite cases.
My takeaway is much simpler:
Leadership becomes part of a company's asset—or liability—whether the balance sheet lists it or not.
A CEO's reputation matters.
How leadership communicates matters.
How criticism is handled matters.
How shareholders are treated matters.
Whether questions receive answers matters.
And when leadership becomes closely identified with the company itself, the distinction between corporate reputation and executive reputation can become increasingly difficult for investors, customers, and the public to separate.
That's something I think about as a Nextdoor shareholder.
I've spent 99 days asking for studies that Nextdoor publicly said readers could request.
Tomorrow we hit 100.
At that point, the unanswered question isn't only about the studies anymore.
It's also about what 100 days of an unresolved request says about communication, ownership, and leadership.
See you in the triple digits.
👉 NielFlamm.com/blog
NXDR Is Up. The Petition Is Live. Now Let’s Talk About Who Creates the Value.
I spend plenty of time giving feedback about Nextdoor, so when something moves in a positive direction, I'll acknowledge that too.
NXDR has been climbing.
The screenshot above shows the stock around $2.48, after trading substantially lower earlier in the year. At the time I'm writing this, it's down about one penny today—hardly something I'm going to sound an alarm over. Recent trading has included a notable run from $2.15 on September 9 to the mid-$2.40s this week. StockAnalysis.com
As a shareholder, I like seeing green.
But here's something we haven't talked much about:
What Happens If Neighbor Data Becomes Part of the Valuation Story?
Investors value companies partly on the assets and competitive advantages they can turn into future revenue.
For Nextdoor, one potential advantage isn't sitting in a warehouse.
It's sitting in our conversations.
Years of recommendations, questions, reviews, and hyperlocal knowledge are difficult for a competitor to recreate overnight.
If AI makes that accumulated information more useful—and therefore potentially more commercially valuable—then neighbors shouldn't wait until that business model is fully developed before asking where we fit into it.
That's why the Neighbor Value-Sharing petition is now live.
The idea is simple:
If our information helps create value, neighbors should participate in that value.
Take a moment to read and sign it:
And please share it.
Post it. Send it to another Nextdoor user. Send it to a small-business owner. Let other people decide whether their reviews, recommendations, information, and time deserve compensation when they're used to create commercial value.
I'm a shareholder. I want NXDR to rise.
But I also want the people helping create Nextdoor's unique knowledge base to participate in its success.
Those two ideas don't have to compete.