October 7, 2025 – Announcing the launch of Community Boards, built on the original social network

When we started Amherst Now, Amherst’s digital community bulletin board, the goal was to build an online space where Amherst residents and members of surrounding communities could share their notices.

But the first people who found us didn’t come through ads or algorithms; they came through paper. We printed flyers, pinned them to corkboards around Amherst, and waited. People saw a QR code, scanned it, and visited the site.

That was our first real network, built with thumbtacks and curiosity. We reached over a thousand users a month this way.

Walking around town posting those flyers, I noticed something. Physical bulletin boards are everywhere, but also invisible. They’re how small businesses, artists, and neighbors do a lot of their communication.

But there’s no easy way to find them.

If you’re a plumber, a ceramicist, or someone launching a side hustle, you can’t just Google “where’s the nearest notice board?” You have to wander and hope.

That’s where Community Boards comes in. It’s a new project born from our Amherst Now experience, a platform that maps and connects both physical and digital community bulletin boards.

You’ll find a visual map of notice boards across Western Massachusetts, plus an evolving directory of online community spaces like Facebook groups, event lists, and local websites that share local notices.

We’re launching the beta on Friday, October 24, at communityboards.space.

Since you’re here, you can get a preview of the site and send us your feedback – or add a noticeboard 😉.

When you visit, you’ll find a simple, clean interface, built for both mobile and desktop, where you can add bulletin boards in minutes. The site will start light on content, but that’s intentional. It’s an open invitation for the community to help bring it to life.

We’ll spend the six months after the beta launch activating communities across Western Massachusetts and asking for people to share their favorite bulletin boards on the site.

This isn’t another social network. It’s about rediscovering the original one; the quiet, hand-pinned web that connects towns, campuses, coffee shops, and corner stores everywhere. How’s that for alliteration, Mrs Ngwenya?

– Fungai