Made for one street
A quiet way to reach the people who live a few doors away.
Furness Road has its own private noticeboard. Ask for a small favour, pass something on, find a decent plumber — without publishing your phone number, your email or your address.
- One street only
- Every notice read by a person first
- No profiles, no ads, no app
Why this exists
The people nearest to you are the hardest to ask.
Neighbours on one street can often help each other — a ladder, a recommendation, ten minutes of someone’s time. What’s missing is a way to ask that is simple and private enough to actually use.
The bet
Keep the circle small, ask for almost nothing personal, and people will feel able to ask each other for small things.
What it isn’t
A noticeboard. Nothing more.
Most of the design is a list of things that were left out.
- 01
Not a social network
No profiles, no photos, no followers, no record of what you’ve posted before.
- 02
Not a marketplace
Only the people who live on this street — not the wider area, and not the wider internet.
- 03
Not a group chat
Nothing pings all day, and nobody gets your number.
- 04
Not after your attention
You come with one thing to sort out, and you leave when it’s sorted.
Left out on purpose
- Public profiles
- Comments
- Likes and ratings
- Group chat
- Photos and video
- Links in notices
- An algorithmic feed
- A map of houses
- Reputation scores and badges
- Adverts
- Paid promotion
- An app to install
How it works
From a slip of paper to a private reply.
An invitation comes through your door
A paper slip with a random code on it. The code is tied to Furness Road; it doesn’t contain your house number.
You enter the code and an email address
There’s no password to invent: you sign in with a link sent to your inbox. A first name is optional.
You see the street’s board
Only this street, and only notices written by people who joined the same way. Nothing on it is invented to make it look busy.
You post a notice
A category, a title and a few lines of text. You choose whether it shows your first name or simply “A neighbour”.
A person reads it first
Every notice is checked against the community rules before anyone else can see it.
A neighbour replies privately
Their reply reaches you by email. Neither of you sees the other’s address, and there is no public thread underneath.
The notice closes
Mark it resolved once it’s sorted. If you forget, it comes down by itself after 30 days.
What the code does and doesn’t prove
A code shows that a paper invitation reached your door. It isn’t an identity check, and nobody is asked to prove who they are.
What goes on it
Seven kinds of notice.
These describe what each category is for. Real notices are only ever shown to people who have joined.
- Ask
A drill for the afternoon. A hand getting a sofa down the stairs.
- Offer / Free
Plant pots, moving boxes, the thing you’d otherwise take to the tip.
- Buy & Sell
Small things, sold to someone who can walk over and collect.
- Recommendations
“Has anyone used a good electrician?”
- Lost & Found
Keys on the pavement. A cat that isn’t yours.
- Neighbour Skills
What you do yourself — tutoring, repairs, piano lessons.
- Local Notice
Practical news for the street: a road closure, a skip arriving, the water going off.
Residents can mention their own skills or services. Repeated promotion, and advertising on behalf of someone else, isn’t allowed.
Privacy before participation
What it asks you for, and what it never does.
The rule is simple: if the board works without a piece of information, it isn’t collected.
Asked for
- An email address
- To sign you in and to deliver replies. It is never shown on a notice or to another neighbour.
- A first name — if you want one
- Leave it out and you post as “A neighbour”.
There is no field for
- Your full name
- Your date of birth
- Your phone number
- Your home address
- A house number on your profile
- Your gender
- A photo
- Your contacts
No adverts, no paid promotion, and your personal data isn’t sold. The full privacy section is on the noticeboard.
Moderation
One person reads every notice. This is what they hold themselves to.
Rules and safety are checked — not your spelling.
Your meaning, your style and your opinion are left alone.
The same rules apply to everyone.
If a problem can be fixed, you can fix it and send the notice again.
If there is serious doubt, the notice waits until it’s cleared up.
About recommendations
Asking “Has anyone used X?” is fine. A bad experience is something to pass on privately, in a reply — the board isn’t a place to name and shame a person or a business.
About waiting
Notices are checked a few times a day by one neighbour, not a team. There is no guaranteed turnaround, so a notice can sit for a few hours before it appears.
What’s welcome and what’s kept off is set out in the community rules.
Where this is going
A small experiment, on one street.
It was built to find out four things.
Will households join from a paper invitation?
Will neighbours post real, small requests and offers?
Do those notices get a useful private reply?
Is email enough, without a built-in messenger?
The first run lasts two to three months from the day invitations go through doors. It stays on one street on purpose: nobody on the board can see another street, and nobody elsewhere can see this one.
Whatever it shows will be written up as totals only — how many households joined, how many notices got a reply. Never anyone’s notices, messages or names.
Got an invitation?
The code printed on it opens the Furness Road noticeboard. Invitations are delivered by hand, to doors on this street only.