[RP TownTalk] Service Recommendations?

[Nancy Augustine]

My parents live in the "PEN" (Philadelphia-Eastern-??) neighborhood of Takoma Park, and they have a contractors' database that I have consulted frequently. There is a minimal website for the list, and the database itself (it's actually just a big table) is password-protected. It lists the contractors' contact info, date of service, type of service (plumbing, electrical, roofing, whatever) recommender, and individual comments. It's interesting to see the variation in experiences with a single contractor - I'm guessing that some of the workers are better at what they do than others.  

I agree that it's not helpful to divide by Hyattsville / Riverdale Park. Unless someone has already done so, I'm curious enough to contact Jim and ask him what would be involved in adding input from our subscribers to his list, ****with permission of the original writer, only.****

Dwight, do you mind if I forward your message below to him, just because I'm lazy and don't feel like re-typing?  

~Nancy



On May 26, 2009, Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com> wrote: 

Lissa,
As far as I know this hasn't been done on this list. Anyone who is so
inclined could start such a compilation, of course, and the RP
Community Wiki (rpwiki.wetpaint.com) would be one place that the
information could be stored for reference and relatively easy
updating.

I know quite a few subscribers to TownTalk are also on the
Hyattsville HOPE list (yahoo group). For years, Jim Groves (the
moderator) tried to get us to not just email about our experiences
with contractors, but place them in the database online (in the
HOPE/yahoo groups site). needless to say that didn't work very well.
More recently, Jim has moved this database to the Hyattsville wiki
(http://hyattsvillewiki.com), and you can find access to it on this
page: http://www.hyattsvillewiki.com/page/Database+-+Where+to+find+what+you+are+looking+for!

It seems terribly arbitrary to divide these databases across town
lines in this case. Once upon a time there was serious talk of
merging the two wikis, which is one reason why i've resisted any
temptation i might have had to cull the towntalk archives and create a
database of local contractor reviews. "After the merger..." i thought.
I'm frankly not holding my breath for that merger to take place now.
I would certainly applaud and support (and endeavor to follow up by
utilizing it in the future) anyone who took the bull by the horns and
created a Riverdale Park contractor review list or database. Hear
hear!!