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Those are very annoying and usually useless, so many people turn them off (everyone I know does). And if you miss one for any of the many reasons that could occ

Those are very annoying and usually useless, so many people turn them off (everyone I know does). And if you miss one for any of the many reasons that could occur in an emergency, I wouldn't know where to go to seek out those alerts.

MichaelZuo 3y ago
It's not possible to turn off alerts of the highest authority, "Presidential alerts", without turning off the phone. All basemodem and smartphone manufacturers selling in North America hardcode this into the black box part of the firmware. (Which is part of the approval process and why you'll never be able to buy a 'fully unlocked' phone.) For example in Ontario, every alert is sent out at this authority.
chiefalchemist 3y ago
So for that we blame...Twitter?
- delecti 3y ago
  Where in my comment did I mention twitter, or imply anything about it? I was just saying that the automated phone alerts aren't a great fit for something like wildfire evacuation instructions. At the very least they shouldn't be the only avenue for that information. Twitter was fantastic for that kind of thing though.
  - chiefalchemist 3y ago
    You didn't. But the topic is public notifications and Twitter. You seemed to imply the alternative to Twitter isn't effective, within a thread that starts with Twitter isn't effective.
ineedasername 3y ago
People die or get injured in my region annually during flash floods, snow storms, etc., so most people don't turn off these alerts. The ones who get hurt are the unlucky or disadvantaged or people who ignore the alerts. Child alert systems find about 50 or 60 kids a year (US). Turning them off is a pretty shit move for the ~dozen per year that come through. > if you miss one for any of the many reasons that could occur in an emergency( "It's not perfect so why bother?" Is an odd attitude. Per the above, I keep on emergency weather alerts even though I might miss some. >I wouldn't know where to go to seek out those alerts.* You can fix that. I know where to go for such things during adverse weather events, and when an AMBER alert has been issue for a kid I'm often curious enough to see if it's been called off a few hours later.
- coldpie 3y ago
  > Child alert systems find about 50 or 60 kids a year (US). Turning them off is a pretty shit move for the ~dozen per year that come through. As far as I know, the only options on my phone for these alerts are "deafeningly loud alarm" and "entirely disabled." After my phone woke me up at 3 AM for some kid being abducted in some other town, it's now off permanently. I did the same for weather alerts after it destroyed my ears to tell me about some flash flooding alert on some street across town that I will never use. There is literally no situation in which my phone making a deafeningly loud alarm is acceptable, so I turn all those alerts off to make sure it doesn't happen again. If the implementation were better, I might leave them on. But it isn't, so I don't.
  - progman32 3y ago
    No situation at all? What if you were on that street?
    - coldpie 3y ago
      Then it should vibrate like any other notification. There is no situation I can think of that is improved by someone at city hall having the ability to make every phone in the area scream at full volume, versus just behaving like a normal notification.
      - ineedasername 3y ago
        >There is no situation I can think of The horizons of your thinking appear to be truncated to somewhere within a few dozen yards and ~10 minutes of your current time & location. Can you think of no incident where there was an otherwise avoidable death or injury that could have been prevented with a timely alert?
        coldpie 3y ago
        Not one that couldn't have been equally well handled by a normal notification, no.

MichaelZuo 3y ago

It's not possible to turn off alerts of the highest authority, "Presidential alerts", without turning off the phone. All basemodem and smartphone manufacturers selling in North America hardcode this into the black box part of the firmware. (Which is part of the approval process and why you'll never be able to buy a 'fully unlocked' phone.) For example in Ontario, every alert is sent out at this authority.

chiefalchemist 3y ago

So for that we blame...Twitter?

delecti 3y ago
Where in my comment did I mention twitter, or imply anything about it? I was just saying that the automated phone alerts aren't a great fit for something like wildfire evacuation instructions. At the very least they shouldn't be the only avenue for that information. Twitter was fantastic for that kind of thing though.
- chiefalchemist 3y ago
  You didn't. But the topic is public notifications and Twitter. You seemed to imply the alternative to Twitter isn't effective, within a thread that starts with Twitter isn't effective.

ineedasername 3y ago

People die or get injured in my region annually during flash floods, snow storms, etc., so most people don't turn off these alerts. The ones who get hurt are the unlucky or disadvantaged or people who ignore the alerts. Child alert systems find about 50 or 60 kids a year (US). Turning them off is a pretty shit move for the ~dozen per year that come through. > if you miss one for any of the many reasons that could occur in an emergency( "It's not perfect so why bother?" Is an odd attitude. Per the above, I keep on emergency weather alerts even though I might miss some. >I wouldn't know where to go to seek out those alerts.* You can fix that. I know where to go for such things during adverse weather events, and when an AMBER alert has been issue for a kid I'm often curious enough to see if it's been called off a few hours later.

coldpie 3y ago
> Child alert systems find about 50 or 60 kids a year (US). Turning them off is a pretty shit move for the ~dozen per year that come through. As far as I know, the only options on my phone for these alerts are "deafeningly loud alarm" and "entirely disabled." After my phone woke me up at 3 AM for some kid being abducted in some other town, it's now off permanently. I did the same for weather alerts after it destroyed my ears to tell me about some flash flooding alert on some street across town that I will never use. There is literally no situation in which my phone making a deafeningly loud alarm is acceptable, so I turn all those alerts off to make sure it doesn't happen again. If the implementation were better, I might leave them on. But it isn't, so I don't.
- progman32 3y ago
  No situation at all? What if you were on that street?
  - coldpie 3y ago
    Then it should vibrate like any other notification. There is no situation I can think of that is improved by someone at city hall having the ability to make every phone in the area scream at full volume, versus just behaving like a normal notification.
    - ineedasername 3y ago
      >There is no situation I can think of The horizons of your thinking appear to be truncated to somewhere within a few dozen yards and ~10 minutes of your current time & location. Can you think of no incident where there was an otherwise avoidable death or injury that could have been prevented with a timely alert?
      - coldpie 3y ago
        Not one that couldn't have been equally well handled by a normal notification, no.