These days it seems you’re more likely to “Friend Request” a neighbor online than visit them with baked goods.

One San Francisco company understands that and is linking neighbors online to foster community. The service is called Nextdoor and residents in the Renton Highlands have signed up.

Nextdoor is a free and private social network for neighbors to connect and communicate. Neighbors can use the website platform to find babysitters, plumbers and dentists that their neighbors recommend. Neighbors can also report suspicious activity and crime, organize events, find lost pets and missing packages or sell and giveaway items.

The company reports that there are 50 neighborhoods in Renton that have launched Nextdoor websites.

Melissa Quade lives in the Maywood West neighborhood of Renton and heard about Nextdoor from a neighbor on Facebook.

“As a resident I appreciate the connection to the neighbors from a safety perspective, and also from a community perspective,” Quade said. “It helps me feel more connected to the people around me, even if I’ve never met them in real life. I feel like we are all looking out for each other, and I know how to reach people if I need to inform my community about something important.”

Quade is also a real estate broker and said that the website is the kind of added bonus to any community in “our general ‘Seattle Freeze’ culture where many people can’t even say they know their next-door neighbors.”

Nextdoor works by each neighborhood creating a private Nextdoor website that is accessible only to the residents of that neighborhood. Neighbors verify their addresses and join their neighborhood website. Then they can choose to see and respond to updates via email or only on the website or mobile apps.

Conversations on Nextdoor range from 16 percent crime and safety, 19 percent classifieds, 26 percent recommendations, 7 percent events, 8 percent lost and found, 8 percent free items and 16 percent other.

Douglas Rector is a member of his Maplewood Heights Nextdoor website and called the website an even farther reaching “Block Watch.”

“It’s interesting to see if there are car break-ins or if there is a black bear roaming through the neighborhood,” he said.

And there was a black bear sighting someone posted about a week ago. Rector, who works as a private investigator, said he’s seen posts about suspicious cars, stolen packages and strange door-to-door visitors. There’s just one thing he doesn’t like about it.

“The only thing I don’t like about it is people need to know how to use it,” he said.

He feels people need to be mindful about posting full addresses of homes on the website even though its supposed to be among neighbors. He would never post that he’s going to be gone on vacation for two weeks for example, he said.

“You can still live in the neighborhood and have a criminal mind,” Rector said.

When asked how the company prevents Internet “trolls” from interfering on their websites, Danielle Styskal, Nextdoor communications associate, had this to say via email:

“Our guidelines help ensure that members hold themselves and their neighbors to appropriate neighborly behavior – for example, members are expected to refrain from using profanity or posting messages that will be perceived as discriminatory or racist in any way.”

The individual who starts a Nextdoor website for their community is designated as a Founding Member and is automatically given Lead status once their neighborhood launches with 10 verified members. According to Styskal, Leads cannot block access to anyone and members can “elevate content” to Leads that appears to violate “Nextdoor Guidelines for Neighborly Behavior.”

Leads do have the ability to adjust neighborhood boundaries, remove inappropriate messages and appoint other members as Leads.

“To date, only a quarter of one percent of all the messages ever shared on Nextdoor have been flagged as abusive,” said Styskal.

“You just got to be careful about what you’re posting; it is a good tool,” said Rector.

He tried to organize a neighborhood potluck at Maplewood Park using the website, but got no response from his neighbors. Because he only knows his neighbors on either side of him and across the street, Rector thought the potluck would be a good idea.

“They don’t want to meet face to face it seems like; it’s kinda sad,” he said. Rector added, “You don’t go to people’s houses, you just stay online and watch stuff.”

The online business review site SiteJabber.com rates Nextdoor at 12 percent for the amount of four and five star reviews it has received of 107 total reviews.

More than 1,500 neighborhoods in the greater Seattle area have launched Nextdoor websites and more than 64,000 neighborhoods across the country have also launched the websites.