About Handylist
The mission of Handylist is to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods by connecting neighbors through a simple online service anyone can use called Neighborhood Forums. This site is designed to transform your neighborhood for the positive! Forums are easy to use for novice computer users. And of course, they are free. We believe the world will be a better place if every neighborhood has an active Neighborhood Forum.
Handylist.org was started by a Silicon Valley philanthropist who saw his friend's neighborhood transformed for the better over a few months after it started using an online Neighborhood Forum. Handylist.org has no hidden agenda such as trying to sell a real estate service. The goal of Handylist.org is to provide the benefits of Neighborhood Forums to every neighborhood that is interested.
A Neighborhood Forum is a simple email list plus an area of the Handylist.org website reserved for your neighborhood with the following features:
- Directory of neighbors
- All Forum messages are archived for easy reading
- Important numbers in the local area
- Events Calendar
- Member profiles so neighbors can learn about one another
- Members can email each other privately
- Post messages or classifieds to other Neighborhood Forums or to your entire city area
- Maps
- Photo sharing
- Manage invitations to the Forum
- Print out flyers to tell neighbors about the Forum
An active Neighborhood Forums will:
- Increase friendliness in a neighborhood
- Improve safety, emergency response
- Connect families with children
- Simplify event organizing and planning
- Increase home values
- Improve communication with local government and law enforcement
- Improve gifting, bartering, renting, buying, and selling among neighbors
- Improve evaluation of local service providers through recommendations from neighbors
- Improve discussion of neighborhood issues
- Amplify local opinion to the town and city level
Handylist is truly created by its users. In fact, just one person codes and maintains this site, and one person works part time from home to answer emails. This site is built and maintained in San Francisco by Ooga Labs.
On a day-to-day basis, Handylist is powered by the Handylist Boosters, a group of volunteers who keep the site fun and working well by moderating posts, helping set policy, and flagging inappropriate behavior. You can pitch in too if you apply to become a Booster.
The name Handylist refers to our founder's grandmother's "handy list" of all the neighbors' phone numbers. It was the most used piece of paper in the house, and every year or so, she would rewrite it by hand. Back in those days, of course, you just had to dial the last 4 numbers to get the neighbor you wanted. Following that idea, in addition to the email list part of the service, the Handylist.org website has been designed to provide useful lists that are self-updating, simple to use and thus "handy". The site also lists things that are near – and thus "handy" – to your house, like neighbors, useful local contacts, local events, etc.
Telephone and online support are available to make sure the service works for every neighborhood. Please give us feedback so we can continually improve the service.
Thanks,
The Handylist Team