Neighbor posts being removed

I have tried repeatedly to post a video in the Neighbors App and it keeps getting removed. The video shows a guy ringing my doorbell and running away. I’m trying to understand why it is being removed. A boilerplate email is sent when the post is removed claiming it ‘does not relate to a specific crime or safety issue’ in my area. I am baffled because the video shows a crime ( trespassing and harassment). My attempts to get clarification on this matter go unanswered but when I repost the video it is removed within minutes! What’s going on?!

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Hey @SonnyBoy! Posts on the Neighbors app must follow the Neighbors Community Guidelines. Please ensure the post is related to one of the approved topics in the guidelines and contains appropriate content. Following these guidelines will ensure the Neighbors app remains relevant and useful to all neighbors in your area. :slight_smile:

Hello Marley,

Thank you for the reply. I have read the guidelines over and over to try and understand what is wrong with my post. I posted it several times (~5 - 6), each time differently, to try and address any issue I could imagine based on the guidelines and each time it was removed. I received only one response to my request for help on the matter from the Neighbor support folks. It follows:

Hi Neighbor,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

We’ve reviewed your post, and we feel that it’s not quite right for Neighbors. Due to the feedback we have received on the Unknown Visitor category, we made a change to our guidelines based on feedback from the community about what posts were most useful to them. If you feel that the actions of the individual are suspicious and possibly place you or your neighbors in danger, please repost with a description of why the behavior is concerning or contact your local law enforcement agency. We certainly appreciate your feedback as we are amending our guidelines on a regular basis while we figure out what neighbors feel are important updates on crime and safety.__We hope you continue to engage with your neighbors.

The Neighbors Team

As you can see, the reply still does not explain what it is about my post that is unacceptable. It explains that changes were made to the policy but does not say what those changes are! Meanwhile, there are posts in my neighborhood that do not appear to be any different in their nature than mine. People arguing in the front yard, unknown people walking around the front door, etc. These posts have remained without any problem.

This has been a very frustrating experience for me. Support has been unresponse and/or unwilling to answer my questions repeatedly. I hope someone will clarify this matter so I can use the neighborhood app effectively and without breaking any rules.

Thanks kindly for your help in getting this resolved.

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Actually, it does explain. And it solves the issue many were dealing with. If some person or persons come to your house and do nothing or just ring the bell (even if looking around the front of your house), it does not mean it’s a threat, thieft, damage or a reason to call and notify police, they will no longer allow the posts. I hated it as did many others. They were salesman, meter readers, construction workers, just people. Most people said they didn’t even answer the bell to ask. So with so many of these posts people were getting nasty towards the people posting these. I was wondering why my neighborhood app was so quiet for a while. Now I know and I’m very happy for this change.
Here is the part of that email that states this.
"Due to the feedback we have received on the Unknown Visitor category, we made a change to our guidelines based on feedback from the community about what posts were most useful to them. "

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@Eagle328 wrote:
Actually, it does explain. And it solves the issue many were dealing with. If some person or persons come to your house and do nothing or just ring the bell (even if looking around the front of your house), it does not mean it’s a threat, thieft, damage or a reason to call and notify police, they will no longer allow the posts. I hated it as did many others. They were salesman, meter readers, construction workers, just people. Most people said they didn’t even answer the bell to ask. So with so many of these posts people were getting nasty towards the people posting these. I was wondering why my neighborhood app was so quiet for a while. Now I know and I’m very happy for this change.
Here is the part of that email that states this.
"Due to the feedback we have received on the Unknown Visitor category, we made a change to our guidelines based on feedback from the community about what posts were most useful to them. "

I must be dense then. I see absolutely no explanation for why my post was deleted. The video clearly showed someone sneaking up to my door, ringing the doorbell, and running away as fast as they could. This is obviously not an innocent person coming to my door for legitimate reasons. It is someone intentionally harassing me and my family. Meanwhile, as an example, there is another post in my neighborhood, of a guy walking past a ring doorbell. That’s all. The person could be a meter reader, salesman, anything! Yet that post is allowed to remain! So, thank you @Eagle328 but I still do not have a satisfactory answer to my question.

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Looks like you got what we used to call, Ring and run. That’s really not a threat, and they only pushed the doorbell then left. Ask the police if they think it’s anything, I’d be surprised if they said it was a problem to look into. But posts like these are no longer allowed. I still see all the older ones on my app. But no new ones like those. If these other posts recently got approved, I’d have to see them to guess why they were.

@Eagle328 wrote:
Looks like you got what we used to call, Ring and run. That’s really not a threat, and they only pushed the doorbell then left. Ask the police if they think it’s anything, I’d be surprised if they said it was a problem to look into. But posts like these are no longer allowed. I still see all the older ones on my app. But no new ones like those. If these other posts recently got approved, I’d have to see them to guess why they were.

They are more recent than mine.

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I finally received a response from the Ring Team with an explanation I can understand. It seems my post was removed because:

However posts of children or teenagers engaging in senseless pranks are not permissible crime and safety updates that would benefit the neighborhood overall.

While I disagree with their assessment of the situation (i.e.: the video is of a young man but it’s not clear he is a minor) I am happy to understand their rationale. Also, I would suggest they include this information in the guidelines they refer people to so folks are not left guessing in cases like this.

One thing is clear, the Neighbor App is moderated by people who do not understand specific neighborhoods and their challenges. I am unlikely to make use of it in the future as it does not further the safety of my neighborhood. In fact, in this case, it was an obstacle to getting a timely resolution to the matter.

Good day to all and thanks for the help.

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That was definitely a kid playing Ring and run on you. Maybe 12 to 13 of age. I would not consider that a reason to be worried in any way at all. If that post was posted you’d be seeing everyone saying the same thing. These are the posts that caused the backlash. I’m sorry but that was a child playing a game as old as me. I did it as a kid too. I bet that kid lives near you as well.

@Eagle328:

I do not agree. This behavior can be an attempt to see if someone is at home,

will he react or does the doorbell work? Thieves have many ways to scout.

Any such behavior can be a stupid joke, but also scouting before a crime.

My rule: I’m not looking after the thief, but the thief is looking after me.

If you understand what I’m talking about.

And the second rule: If something can happen, assume that it will happen.

That’s why I would like to know who is walking around my area.

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Hey, if you call the cops on young children playing Ring and run, please post the conversation. I’d love to hear it. But I know that I don’t want to know or hear it in the neighbor app. And it seems I’m not alone since they block these. Maybe they should add a tab so people that are afraid of children can get child in the neighborhood alerts as well as meter reader alerts too. But give the rest of us the ability to block these people from us in the future.

I was an isolated incident sounds like to me… The person or person did a ding-dong Ditch on you. Do you mind if I ask what age that person could have been? The reason that it was taken down. It causes no threat or imminent danger to the neighbor’s. I wonder how many other people have ring and runs?

Sonny boy,

I wonder if you were still having problems posting incidents to the Neighborhood…

I, too, had problems with with Ring Neighbor admin removing perfectly legitimate posts. My last post involved a car with people running up to a door, ringing the doorbell, and then sorta “trying the door handle”. I chased the car, observed their behavior, took a pix of their license plate, and called county police. Officer responded within four minutes, took the info, and I mentioned that I might also post the info to Ring - he said “Great idea - please do!”, and off he went to find the car.

I did - and Ring Neighborhood immediately took it down because “it didn’t meet community standards”. Imagine that.

I also FYIed the Community about receiving phony IRS calls (actually from India) with the ol’ “you owe money, the police are coming for you” scam. I happen to live in the Number One target area in the U.S. for telemarketing & phone scams, since we’re loaded with retirees. They work an exchange and geographic area. And Ring Neighborhood immediately took THAT post down because “it didn’t meet community standards”. Imagine that.

I called Ring Support for an explanation, and “Daniel” just hemmed, hawed, schuck and jived, but could not/would not explain what was going on. Considering the vast amount of absolutely useless and inappropriate Ring Neighborhood comments (my Ring Neighborhood neighbors use the forum like Facebook & Twitter) we receive on a daily basis, it is inexplicable as to why I couldn’t post legitimate incidents. “Daniel” eventually “disconnected” our call. Imagine that.

Got fed up, and sent a firm but polite response to my last Ring Neighborhood comment rejection summarizing the above, and informed them I wouldn’t bother them anymore.

And I haven’t seen ANY ACTIVITY on my Ring Neighborhood forum since then - NATTA! Total silence, no activity - never seen this since we’ve been on Ring. And I’m paying for this?

Wow… looks like we have Facebook/Twitter administrators working over at Ring, hmm?

BTW, to reduce the inevitable trolling - I’m a retired DHS (Homeland Security) officer, and I’m doing some volunteer work with the FBI with the public sector.

Looking for a replacement for my Ring Doorbell… which actually works pretty well for our family.

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FYI, you don’t have to pay for the neighborhood app. It’s free to anyone wether if you have a Ring device or not. As for the posts, the one checking car doors I would want to know about. The fake IRS calls might not make the cut since it has nothing to do with the area. It’s good to warn others of course. But, some people get upset by posts they see as already known to them. The really should tell you why it was removed after they remove it. How else do you learn… It’s a good app but is still growing up in many ways.

Ummmm…

The people checking the doors were trying the HOUSE doors, NOT car doors.

The fake IRS calls having “nothing to do with the area”? Uh uh. You need to go back and read my post - it has EVERYTHING to do with the area times 10!

TRUST ME - part of my job was working on various scams that involved Federal employees at work AND at home. I know of what I speak in detail.

Thanks for your response - much appreciated!

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I disagree. Even if it is just a Ding and Ditch thing, there is no reason to delete the original posters thread. He has a concern and it should be listened to.

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I am having same issue but what boggles me is how the same posts ring is tagging me on, I see all the time from others, and who is ring to be the authority on what’s right or wrong for simple sake of posterity what they think may not be a crime may in fact be the precursor to a crime, or even the missing link in giving evidence to a crime, either way, at the end of the day the community is a social media platform and policing free speech by technology elites is Orwellian, I don’t need ring censoring me any more than I need Facebook or twitter censoring me.

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Actually, there is no free speech on here or any social platform. You agree to adhere to the rules when you signed. If you don’t follow the rules, you can be banned as well. So, any site that allows you to post always has rules to follow and usually there is no way to fight it. They own it.

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Yes I agree, for now, why feel Orwellian not illegal, either way you must agree it’s a slippery slope because without technology platforms who in some cases are nearing a monopoly, we are back to hand printing local Gazettes and HAM radio especially since Amazon owns ring, Bezos owns both and the Washington Post. We are entering an era where tests on free speech have not been so at risk since the 1790’s.

Thanks to technology we’ve become sheep. We are lied to repeatedly by media. Social media is the worst for disinformation. I see things getting worse. All media in controlled by a few corporations. They twist it as they want and it’s totally legal. Going back to the 70s would be better. I love technology but hate what it brings with it.