5 ms·

I have never even considered this. This seems to be a good idea with little downside.

by kiba 7y ago

ericras 7y ago
The downside is that with a mass of publicity around promoting it, some people (such as children) will get it mixed up with 911 and in an emergency there will be a delay in getting the proper help. Edit: I'm not necessarily against this idea, I'm merely trying to participate in due diligence.
- astura 7y ago
  They should just be able to forward you to 911. And, also, is there an major epidemic of emergency calls being placed to 311 or similar?
  - hsk823 7y ago
    Why can't it work the other way, suicidal thoughts are certainly a psychological emergency.
  - ericras 7y ago
    The Suicide Prevention Hotline may go to a national center and forwarding to local 911 may be complicated.
    - imgabe 7y ago
      If cell phones can figure out how to call local 911 from wherever they are I'm sure this can be done.
      - vorpalhex 7y ago
        Cellphone locating for 911 is a whole mess and sometimes doesn't work anywhere near as well as you'd like it to and requires the police to drive around block sized areas trying to find whoever needs help. Add in the complexity of transferring calls (how many times has your call been dropped when a support agent transfers you?) and this is a bucket of trouble.
- t-writescode 7y ago
  That’s probably a bigger problem of 911 being hard to enter compared to, say, 999
  - MBCook 7y ago
    Wasn’t 911 chosen to be hard to dial by accident?
  - toby- 7y ago
    That's why I like 999, despite the risk of it being entered accidentally (this isn't as common as Americans seem to imagine). Same goes for 112, which is just as likely to be input by accident. In placing an emergency call, sometimes milliseconds count.
    - zepto 7y ago
      Do you have an example of milliseconds counting? I’m not doubting you - just can’t think of one and would like to know.
    - DanBC 7y ago
      In the UK, in 2008, there were several million silent 999 calls. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7748046.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7748046.stm It's harder now, because smart phones have made it harder, but it still happens.
VLM 7y ago
Cleaning the national number plan of 911 took a lot of work and time. Right off the top of my head the 513 NPA (Ohio-ish) has a 988 NXX so there's a thousand potential phone numbers that have to change. There's going to be a ton of incoming traffic from people trying to call a dominos pizza in ohio who manage to get themselves routed to the hotline because they dialed 988 as part of the number. Some people program some PBX dialplans such that pretty much any stream including the regex 911 goes to 911 (dial 9 for outside line and 911, dial 911 without a leading 9, etc) and they're going to try that with 988 with predictable results (try to call your buddy who used to be extension 9889 and you're mysteriously connected to a hotline). The international phone dialing country code for Bangladesh is 880, that country code will have to change because some fraction of PBX programmers and users are going to F it up (as usual) and route all "9 for outside line 880 for Bangladesh then 123456 for the lnum" calls to the hotline. The massive incoming call volume will require laws to reduce the massive volume involving expensive fines and fees. That'll scare people away from calling. Well, they say fake or repeatedly incorrectly routed calls will result in a $1000 fine, so if someone's feeling down, they're not going to be into a $1000 fine... In the end it seems like it would be ridiculously cheaper, simpler, more reliable, and safer to simply have people dial 911, and the 911 ops can read a sticker stuck on their phone with the transfer number on it. Overall the idea adds complication to a dangerous situation which is never advisable. Only someone very sarcastic could say, I know what stressed people need, is a larger more complicated decision tree when they urgently need help... Not exactly aerospace engineering going on here. We already have a "I need help" phone number, 911...
- RKearney 7y ago
  > Right off the top of my head the 513 NPA (Ohio-ish) has a 988 NXX so there's a thousand potential phone numbers that have to change. They can just require 10 digit dialing for that area code. It's already been required on may others. > Some people program some PBX dialplans such that pretty much any stream including the regex 911 goes to 911 (dial 9 for outside line and 911, dial 911 without a leading 9, etc) and they're going to try that with 988 with predictable results (try to call your buddy who used to be extension 9889 and you're mysteriously connected to a hotline). That would break so many things if they did that today. Numbers can contain "911" within them and have nothing to do with 911. If they've made it this long with a broken dial plan, adding another broken match for 988 won't change much as they're already used to not being able to dial thousands upon thousands of numbers. > The international phone dialing country code for Bangladesh is 880, that country code will have to change because some fraction of PBX programmers and users are going to F it up (as usual) and route all "9 for outside line 880 for Bangladesh then 123456 for the lnum" calls to the hotline. Generally you have to dial an international call prefix before the country code, so this is a non issue. Without it, the phone system won't know if you're trying to reach country code 44 for the UK, or area code 440, 441, 442, 443, or 445 in the US.

I have never even considered this. This seems to be a good idea with little downside.

by kiba 7y ago

I have never even considered this. This seems to be a good idea with little downside.

The downside is that with a mass of publicity around promoting it, some people (such as children) will get it mixed up with 911 and in an emergency there will be a delay in getting the proper help. Edit: I'm not necessarily against this idea, I'm merely trying to participate in due diligence.

astura 7y ago
They should just be able to forward you to 911. And, also, is there an major epidemic of emergency calls being placed to 311 or similar?
- hsk823 7y ago
  Why can't it work the other way, suicidal thoughts are certainly a psychological emergency.
- ericras 7y ago
  The Suicide Prevention Hotline may go to a national center and forwarding to local 911 may be complicated.
  - imgabe 7y ago
    If cell phones can figure out how to call local 911 from wherever they are I'm sure this can be done.
    - vorpalhex 7y ago
      Cellphone locating for 911 is a whole mess and sometimes doesn't work anywhere near as well as you'd like it to and requires the police to drive around block sized areas trying to find whoever needs help. Add in the complexity of transferring calls (how many times has your call been dropped when a support agent transfers you?) and this is a bucket of trouble.
t-writescode 7y ago
That’s probably a bigger problem of 911 being hard to enter compared to, say, 999
- MBCook 7y ago
  Wasn’t 911 chosen to be hard to dial by accident?
- toby- 7y ago
  That's why I like 999, despite the risk of it being entered accidentally (this isn't as common as Americans seem to imagine). Same goes for 112, which is just as likely to be input by accident. In placing an emergency call, sometimes milliseconds count.
  - zepto 7y ago
    Do you have an example of milliseconds counting? I’m not doubting you - just can’t think of one and would like to know.
  - DanBC 7y ago
    In the UK, in 2008, there were several million silent 999 calls. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7748046.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7748046.stm It's harder now, because smart phones have made it harder, but it still happens.

VLM 7y ago

Cleaning the national number plan of 911 took a lot of work and time. Right off the top of my head the 513 NPA (Ohio-ish) has a 988 NXX so there's a thousand potential phone numbers that have to change. There's going to be a ton of incoming traffic from people trying to call a dominos pizza in ohio who manage to get themselves routed to the hotline because they dialed 988 as part of the number. Some people program some PBX dialplans such that pretty much any stream including the regex 911 goes to 911 (dial 9 for outside line and 911, dial 911 without a leading 9, etc) and they're going to try that with 988 with predictable results (try to call your buddy who used to be extension 9889 and you're mysteriously connected to a hotline). The international phone dialing country code for Bangladesh is 880, that country code will have to change because some fraction of PBX programmers and users are going to F it up (as usual) and route all "9 for outside line 880 for Bangladesh then 123456 for the lnum" calls to the hotline. The massive incoming call volume will require laws to reduce the massive volume involving expensive fines and fees. That'll scare people away from calling. Well, they say fake or repeatedly incorrectly routed calls will result in a $1000 fine, so if someone's feeling down, they're not going to be into a $1000 fine... In the end it seems like it would be ridiculously cheaper, simpler, more reliable, and safer to simply have people dial 911, and the 911 ops can read a sticker stuck on their phone with the transfer number on it. Overall the idea adds complication to a dangerous situation which is never advisable. Only someone very sarcastic could say, I know what stressed people need, is a larger more complicated decision tree when they urgently need help... Not exactly aerospace engineering going on here. We already have a "I need help" phone number, 911...

RKearney 7y ago
> Right off the top of my head the 513 NPA (Ohio-ish) has a 988 NXX so there's a thousand potential phone numbers that have to change. They can just require 10 digit dialing for that area code. It's already been required on may others. > Some people program some PBX dialplans such that pretty much any stream including the regex 911 goes to 911 (dial 9 for outside line and 911, dial 911 without a leading 9, etc) and they're going to try that with 988 with predictable results (try to call your buddy who used to be extension 9889 and you're mysteriously connected to a hotline). That would break so many things if they did that today. Numbers can contain "911" within them and have nothing to do with 911. If they've made it this long with a broken dial plan, adding another broken match for 988 won't change much as they're already used to not being able to dial thousands upon thousands of numbers. > The international phone dialing country code for Bangladesh is 880, that country code will have to change because some fraction of PBX programmers and users are going to F it up (as usual) and route all "9 for outside line 880 for Bangladesh then 123456 for the lnum" calls to the hotline. Generally you have to dial an international call prefix before the country code, so this is a non issue. Without it, the phone system won't know if you're trying to reach country code 44 for the UK, or area code 440, 441, 442, 443, or 445 in the US.