As regular readers of this column are painfully aware, I’m a student of how, and whether, social networks are being used by the normal people who make up my non-work life. You know who they are. The people who don’t know what Facebook Exchange or Promoted Trends are – and don’t hang on Mark Zuckerberg’s every word – but actually do real-world things, like go for a bike ride or weed the garden. In other words, people who are very unlike you and me. So I was curious when a guy who lives a few blocks away asked me in late March to join NextDoor, a social networking start-up that pledges to unite people online based on their geography, in private online communities. Of course, I signed up, not out of any urgency to get to know my neighbors better, but to study it. It has places to post items you’re giving away or selling; a classifieds section; a recommendations section primarily for local businesses; a crime and safety section; and so forth. It’s quite hyperlocal at a time when hyperlocal is all the rage. But my kneejerk reaction to all this – proven out in the near-term, by the lack of activity on NextDoor – is that for all its neat features, it just isn’t necessary. We have it already – if in a somewhat haphazard fashion – on Facebook. In the town where I live (Pelham, N.Y.), our “NextDoor” is comprised of a series of intertwined Facebook groups. They include Pelham Crimestoppers, Friends of Pelham Schools, and the major domo of Pelham groups, Moms of Pelham, which is most commonly referred to by the abbreviation “MOPS.” (No, I don’t know what the “s” stands for.) Even if MOPS is the clear leader, at almost 900 members and counting, each of these groups has played a major role in outreach and communication, depending on the news at the time. Crimestoppers was indispensable last year during the months when an armed gunman got in the nasty habit of holding up commuters walking back from the train at night; Friends of Pelham Schools served as the focal point last year when some parents were urging a rethink of the elementary school curriculum; and MOPS reached its apex during Hurricane Sandy, when people shared information on what gas stations had gas, and offered up their spare outlets and generators once power was restored. MOPS is the best exhibit for why NextDoor just isn’t necessary. Scanning it quickly this morning, I found: