“Facebook is everywhere, and most of its content is crappy; it’s become the Walmart of the internet,” wrote some cheeky scamp on, well, the internet the other day. They certainly have a point, but there are still some useful and entertaining YK-related alternatives to your inspiring-quote-and-baby-pics-ridden friends list. Here’s some of them:
Meant to be your typical local buy-and-sell page, this is often a local default for when things get weird on the internet.
You may join this group fairly innocently, just to sell your beat-up Modernist coffee table, then one day scroll through to see a comment thread explode before your eyes. One of its members told EDGE that they’ll often trawl the page looking for any post with 15+ comments as part of their daily entertainment.
While these comment threads are often instigated by an intriguing For Sale post (like the big polar-bear-fur pants sale of last year, or someone trying to sell their ‘rare, vintage’ pornography), there are also makeshift community bulletin posts that can get a lot of attention. There’s no real online community board for Yellowknife, so this group page serves that function at times (although not encouraged by moderators). You may see anything from users taking on the role of a Google search engine for others to heartwarming threads following a lost pet – as well as some panic-inducing cries for help that can polarize the community.
Related: Yellowknife buy, sell or trade! We know you have stuff! and (the less wordy but more excitable) YK Buy, Sell and Trade!! or the more specific Yellowknife Second Hand Furniture. You’ll find a lot of duplicate posts in these communities, while increasing your chances for drama and entertainment.
Yellowknifers love to talk about food, especially restaurant food. Newcomers will complain about how they just don’t make it like they’re used to it down south (or east, west, north), and old-timers may reminisce about how they just don’t make it like they used to anymore. And it’s not just the customers who want to talk about their food, but restaurateurs and their employees ready to passionately defend their work. Give them all a forum to discuss this, at any time of day or night and from the comfort of their phone or computer screen, and you can understand the drama and consistent entertainment that is Bite Me Yellowknife.
For a group page that is supposed to be about giving “everyone an opportunity to share their experiences dining out in Yellowknife, NT” according to its creators and moderators, things can get pretty emotional. In this group, everyone’s a critic, and tastes are clashing. Moderators caution users to “try and be positive but by all means, call it as you may see it. In the end, it’s our hope that standards and practices are elevated through public opinion.”
Go here to see posts ranging from: disgruntled customers who’ve gone home ‘hangry’ and want to write about it; full and satisfied customers who want to share pictures and descriptions about how they got that way; lengthy discussions on cilantro, pizza, and food culture; and employees and restaurant owners defending/explaining their work. Don’t go here if, um, you’re not into food?
For Yellowknifers looking to reminisce, or newcomers looking for a bit of history about the town, this group page is your happy place.
A typical post will usually include a photo memory that will often start a flurry of comments when ‘Knifers recognize one another, or a question along the lines of “Do you remember ___?” followed by everyone getting lost down memory lane. This group page is a delight, and sometimes a gold mine of historic tidbits. “What was the name of that one restaurant that used to be on the corner?” a user will ask, and eventually someone’s brother’s granddaughter’s son will enter the 60-comment-long thread to crack the code and sometimes even offer a picture and more stories.
It’s not just locals who are high-fiving each other while enjoying this page, but also anyone wanting to learn and participate in their community by knowing its backstories.
Most Yellowknifers know people in town who avoid steep rental costs and accumulating a collection of ‘stuff’ to cart around by house-sitting regularly. Some are able to pull it off year-round with careful planning, thanks to pages like Yellowknife House Sitting.
Users can post if they are looking for someone to look after their home (plus plants and animals if applicable) or if they are looking to housesit and want to post their availability. It’s a fairly straight-forward group page; everyone sticking to the purpose, but we thought this one deserved a mention, since house-sitting is such a Yellowknife phenomenon.
Related: Yellowknife Accommodations
Yellowknife’s Cost of Living is out of Control!
On the topic of living expenses, are you ticked about garbage collection, or your electricity bill? How about property taxes? Yellowknife’s Cost of Living is out of Control is your group page if you need a place to rant and maybe even find some answers. Maybe. The page administrator has laid out in a pinned post that this is not the space for rants, and that: “we need to find ways to make it affordable and not just have complaint sessions.” Except, well, there’s a lot of ranting and complaining. It’s hard to blame users though, especially when the very name of the group is a complaint and, y’know, it’s also just the truth.
It’s not all doom and gloom for this group of nearly two thousand strong, though. Users also offer helpful resources and information regarding housing and local politics.
Yellowknife Mom to Mom (Infant and Children’s Items Buy/Sell/Swap)
This group page serves as not only a clothing, toy and furniture swap but also a bona fide community among mothers in Yellowknife. This network is huge, with over three thousand members and climbing.
Yellowknife can be a tough place for parents away from their family network, as many in this group will attest. Even new parents born and raised in the city can use all the help they can get since raising a family in the North can feel so much more isolating than elsewhere. This group’s clothing swaps offer essential cost-cutting measures.
Shopping for new clothing is pretty pricey up here, and thrift shopping at either of the two second-hand clothing stores in town is hit-or-miss. When you’re looking for an item or two to spruce up your wardrobe but don’t want to pay a premium for what could be a passing trend, or need to sell something that definitely was a fashion trend, you may want to join this group.
There are some rules, of course, and some more work involved. Items have to be in great condition, and can’t be more than two years old. You’ve also got to make sure you display your items well (no wrinkles, no blur) so that they’ll sell quickly.
The male equivalent? Try Men’s Buy Sell & Trade Yellowknife Classifieds for your male and male-identified clothing soulmate.
Related: Yellowknife Curvy Divas, another women’s clothing swap, but catering toward sizes XL/14 and up. YK Clothing Resale is a smaller group but is for all genders, and growing.
Want to know the best 10km cycling route for today? A challenging running trail? Or maybe you’re looking for some like-minded people to join you on the trail. This is the group page for active people in Yellowknife.
The club organizes and promotes swimming, running, road bike, mountain bike, adventure race, triathlon and duathlon events, and their page serves as a great motivator to get involved in all of these. Users are encouraging of each other’s goals and progress, holding each other accountable, and offering support. They’re active year-round.
For those who want to practice their skills in nature photography and/or ask someone who might know what that mystery plant or bug is in their backyard, NWT Species is all about nature and wildlife in our territory.
There are quite a few experts waiting in the wings on this page, so if you have any questions you’re bound to get fairly detailed answers from knowledgeable teachers about almost anything to do with the outdoors. You’ll catch great pictures of mystery berries, caterpillars and shrubs that the pages’ experts have identified as well as a collection of local species-related news stories.
For Facebook users ranging from professional to newbie, the NWT Photography Group Page is a helpful resource.
Many users in this closed group post their photographs, taken around the NWT, asking for feedback from other members. This practice can be invaluable for new photographers. There’s even buying/selling/trading going on every once in a while, so you can get quality second-hand gear for a steal if you’re lucky. Users also offer each other advice on shooting locations, printing, and plenty of other tricks of the trade.
Whichever category you fall into as a photographer, you’ll be able to see beautiful images posted, and you can pick up useful tips from users eager to encourage your talents at any skill level.
