Neighborhoods
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Meta is shutting down Facebook 'Neighborhoods' for local communities
The Nextdoor-like product was never even widely released.
Facebook sets its sights on Nextdoor with new Neighborhoods feature
Facebook is testing Neighborhoods, a Nextdoor-like feature that gives you a way to join community-based groups, in Canada.
Facebook is testing a Nextdoor-like 'Neighborhoods' feature in Canada
Facebook is testing a feature called Neighborhoods that would allow users to join community-based groups, much as you can with Nextdoor.
AI vision can determine why neighborhoods thrive
It's relatively easy to figure out whether or not a neighborhood is doing well at one moment in time. More often than not, you just have to look around. But how do you measure the progress (or deterioration) a neighborhood makes? That's where AI might help. Researchers have built a computer vision system that can determine the rate of improvement or decay in a given urban area. The team taught a machine learning system to compare 1.6 million pairs of photos (each taken several years apart) from Google Street View to look for signs of change on a pixel-by-pixel, object-by-object basis. If there are more green spaces or key building types in the newer shot, for instance, that's a sign that an area is on the up-and-up.
Microsoft's 'HereHere' project maps what's wrong with NYC neighborhoods
It's no secret that New Yorkers love to complain -- the city's '311' non-emergency line serves as a hotbed for grievances on everything from burnt out streetlights to wildlife on the loose. Now thanks to a new project called HereHere from Microsoft's Future Social Experiences Lab (FUSE) you can keep up to date on your neighborhood's many complaints through curated notifications. The initiative displays issues from 40 NYC neighborhoods in a cartoon map with icons representing the largest problems for each neighborhood. Residents can see what issues are affecting their area, as well as opt into an email newsletter detailing local problems. Neighborhood-specific Twitter accounts can also keep you in the loop. The goal of the project is to make the data more accessible to average citizens so they can help prevent issues and help solve those that already exist. At the very least, you'll know that everyone else in the 'hood is as pissed off as you are about those "incessant ice cream trucks."
Wings Over Atreia: F2P doesn't mean forgotten for Aion
Did I call it or what? Forgive me while I take a moment for a little can't-get-nuttin-by-me gloat and mini victory dance. Uh huh, uh huh, I got it, oh yeah. Yup, 3.5 is now live, released on the 10th just as predicted. *Ahem* OK, now on to the our regularly scheduled Wings Over Atreia. Actually, this very matter (the patch, not the dancing!) leads us right into the topic that was scheduled. It's been bouncing around my mind for a while, and the release of the patch really drove it home: the fact that free-to-play is not code-speak for shoving a title to the back of some top shelf and ignoring it. Simply stated, free-to-play does not equal forgotten. And I think few games show this as clearly as Aion. Contrary to what detractors would have you believe (remember the cries of doom and gloom when the EU and NA announcements were made?), going F2P is far from a death knoll, especially for Aion. Content is coming faster than ever now; 3.5 launched only three months after the official Korean release! And content for 4.0 is already being shared, albeit too slowly for my eager Daeva heart. From fast patches to 4.0 teases, there is much on the way for this F2P fantasy game and still much to look forward to.
The lore behind districts in City of Heroes: Going Rogue
As we alluded to in our small preview last week, Nova Praetoria is one of the most elite neighborhoods in the alternate Earth setting of Going Rogue. The City of Heroes team has long been known for giving every region a detailed backstory, and the new areas of Praetoria are no exception. Official information on Nova Praetoria and the Underground has just been released on the official site, giving players a chance to take a peek behind the visuals to see how day-to-day life functions in the world's most prestigious city -- and its underbelly. The seat of humanity's self-proclaimed savior, Nova Praetoria is elevated from the rest of the world both figuratively and physically, built on an artificial island upon an artificially flooded river. Unfortunately, between the Resistance and the disenfranchised Destroyers -- former soldiers who want to tear down Cole for purely anarchistic reasons -- even the seat of power is increasingly less stable. Meanwhile, the Undergound below is a war between Cole's loyalists using the tunnels for their original purpose of surreptitious transport, the Resistance setting up headquarters to strike at Cole's base of power, and the ravenous Ghouls patrolling the tunnels for unknown reasons. The lore on both areas is top-notch, and it should help make City of Heroes players even more invested in the coming expansion. %Gallery-97436%
New LotRO dev diary video: Player housing
Lord of the Rings Online producer Jeffrey Steefel has released another one of his video dev diaries. These are a series of short videos that explain different features of the game for people who haven't played before.This installment covers the newly introduced Player Housing of Book 11. Jeffery covers the Neighborhood concept, the different racial homes, the various housing sizes as well as decorating, permissions and upkeep. It's an excellent introduction for those interested in this aspect of the game.
Saturday is unofficial meet your LotRO neighbor day
Player housing is a little different in Lord of the Rings Online, than in other MMOs. Instead of instancing housing, Turbine instanced entire neighborhoods. A single neighborhood instance holds about 12-15 houses. A mix of standard, deluxe and guild housing is spread across the area along with a few vendors and a community meeting center.To foster community in these housing clusters, one player has called for an unofficial Meet Your Neighbor day this Saturday, November 3rd at 8:00pm EST. On this day and time, he wants you to visit your neighborhood and chat with your fellow instance cohabitators.You can ask, as one forum writer suggests, why your Hobbit neighbor has so much fondness for shapeless lawn statues. Or, perhaps how do they keep all that shrubbery alive in the underground Dwarven housing? Or even form an impromptu raiding party to kill spiders. You can never kill enough spiders.So if you own a house in LotRO, head out Saturday night with some pie or some friendly advice and see who else is sharing your little corner of virtual home ownership.
