Debate about the use of frequent emergency alerts sent to cell phones
 

In an effort to get it out of the other thread, here's a new one.

Good call.

Yes, this would be a better place to discuss this issue.

Though I don't think the other thread was the place to debate it, I do agree with King that alerts going out one minute apart are completely excessive. It would make more sense to send it only once unless there is new information available.

The timing sounds like it was also pretty annoying. I'd be pretty irritated if I were woken up at 6am with an Amber Alert. Chances are, I wouldn't have seen the girl while lying in bed. Or at least, if I did, I'd have bigger issues on my hands than annoyance with my cell phone.

Katie Horner's true calling.

LoneWolf and Brainiac should be along shortly to tell you what a heartless, soulless bastard you are.

this is a ****ing stupid discussion.


who really gives a **** if they alert you every ****ing second if it gives even a 1% better chance of saving a child's life.


quit bitching about stupid shit

the child was killed. anyone bitching about getting some text alerts and a stupid siren on their phone is focusing on the totally wrong thing

King's point is certainly valid, though. He was literally getting a text per minute. There's absolutely no reason for that, and the most likely result is that a ton of people will opt out of the alerts entirely, rendering them less effective overall.

you don't know how to shut off the phone?

couldn't agree more

Eh, I think it's the timing of it all. If it hadn't been in a thread that was so emotionally involved, I doubt there'd be such a ruckus.

Do I think it's a big deal for people to live with an alert here and there if it'll help save a life? Certainly not. But do I think that the way it was handled could potentially damage the system's usefulness? Absolutely.

something was wrong there. my wife got 4 total texts.

again a text a second would be worth it if they would have found that child alive because of them.

So you're suggesting people shut their phones off religiously every night so that they don't have to get an alert once a year or so?

wait... it said he got those texts in the AM... this all happened at night

Right, but that's not my point. My point is that, if you annoy people, they will shut you off. Period. This isn't about anyone saying "boo hoo, I was moderately inconvenienced, so it's not worth saving the girl's life." It's about a system that will lose effectiveness if it's handled the way it was today.

I turned my alerts off after getting several within 20 mins about flooding after a rain storm

King's beef shouldn't be with the Amber Alert System, it should be with his mobile service provider. I have Verizon and they sent me 2 alerts, not an alert every other minute like King received.

With that being said I could care less if they sent me an alert every 15 seconds and interrupted every channel on my TV if it meant saving a little girls life.

again how come those texts came through in the AM?

The first thing I did when I got my new phone was shut off the alerts.



Problem solved

Yep.

http://i.imgur.com/UYWqVd1.jpg

So perhaps there's just something that malfunctioned in the system here. :shrug:

Yeah, for the record, I've got no issue whatsoever with the alerts on TV. If TV were a one-to-one system, that'd be one thing, but the technology just isn't there to let you "dismiss" an alert on TV on an individual level. Given that, repeating the alert on TV makes perfect sense.

Now that I got that out of the way, apparently there are some misconceptions about what the Amber Alert was designed to do. It is in place to make people aware of a situation and be on the lookout as they live their lives. While it would be fantastic if everyone in a six state area could drop what they're doing and go on a massive manhunt, that's not feasible and anyone who thinks that's what's supposed to happen is living in a fantasy world. I prefer to live in reality.

And the reality is, if you have people opting out due to excessive texts, that's one less outlet available to get the message out, and defeats the purpose. I don't think it's unreasonable to not want your personal phone that you rely on to live your life unnecessarily blown up to the point you have to consider silencing it or shutting it off.

And no one, I mean NO ONE in the other thread complained about "their favorite TV show being interrupted." But yet that was brought up by one jackass multiple times. It's a shame that you can't have a reasonable discussion about a serious issue without certain assholes blowing what one says out of proportion.

And lastly, we can take every possible extreme measure to try to prevent such tragedies from taking place, but as shown in this case, sometimes they simply can't be prevented. The human race shows its ugly side on occasion. I don't like it any more than anyone else. What's important is to not completely overreact and throw out knee-jerk solutions that will not solve the problems. No amount of Amber Alerts are going to save every child from a predator. No amount of gun control is going to stop every school shooting. Throwing people in prison for life for a DWI won't prevent idiots from getting behind the wheel drunk and killing people. It's just the sad reality of life.

I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything about such issues, but what I am saying is there are always going to be limits to the effectiveness of them and we have to be rational about how apply the systems we put in place.

/mic drop.

It's not a stupid discussion. Just because there's a system it doesn't mean the system can't be improved.

he had his phone off and they all came through at once im betting...


if so it makes his bitching seem even more silly...

Sorry people that work the graveyard shift. Now that you see the daylight, good luck getting back to sleep & not cutting your hand off in the meat slicer tonight.

its stupid because those texts weren't even sent out at the times he got them...

if that shuts they whiney putz up....yes

I did this as well. I'm involved in enough social media that I still had all the information as soon as the alert was issued.

I understand people being annoyed when they get flooded with messgaes, but do a little research if you need to, and simply turn the messages off if that's what you want to do.

Or they could just opt out, lessening the effectiveness of the system as described above.

I would support these more if they did them for lost pets.

I wouldn't put much stock into what brainiac (ironic screen name) says. Hes incapable of having a discussion in which he agrees to disagree with someone. He represents a small minority that make CP a shitty place at times. I remember last month discussing how Andy Reid didn't deserve coach of the year for blowing a 28 point lead. "Brainiac" goes on some rant calling me names and brings up his weird obsession with me supporting a political candidate from 2 years ago. Funny he had a problem with what you said but had no problem hijacking the thread.

Anyway here's the flaw with Amber alerts: the girl was abducted at 4:48 the alert wasn't sent out until 7? She was most likely already dead by then. Bugeater is right they aren't going to fix this.

why do you have to shut off your phone to stop getting alerts by the minute? thats not fair to the people trying to reach you by phone.

yup, there is that too.

TURN OFF THE GOD DAMN MESSAGES. IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT.

Just opt out of the messages. You'll miss amber alerts, tornado warnings and the like; but it's pretty simple to do.

I turned the gubment texts off a long time ago.

I don't mind the alerts. I will say I got a bit desensitized to Amber Alerts in general when they were first being pushed out because the ones I heard always ended up being "family abductions".

From looking at the Amber Alert wiki, it looks like most law enforcement agencies now won't issue an Amber Alert for these, stating the requirement that the child's life must be in significant danger.

Two things I think they should do:

1. Add a picture of what the car looks like. It doesn't have to be the same car. I just don't know what every make and model of car looks like, and when I'm out in my car and get one of these texts it's not a great time to google it. I'm not even sure what color is classified as "gold". Is that the same as yellow?

2. Add picture of child and obviously any suspect if possible.

If it is that infrequent why the complaints? seems like more time is spent bitching about the texts then getting/reading the texts.

I'M NOT SURE EVERYONE IS AWARE THAT YOU CAN DO THAT. DID THAT THOUGHT EVER CROSS YOUR MIND? USE YOUR GODDAMN BRAIN, IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT.

Too much data, pushing out all those photos to every cellphone in the land

seems like the more alerts people get they end up turning the alert feature off. I don't see how constant alerts are effective if people are turning them off. right?

See parable: "The Boy who Cried Wolf"

Do some research, figure out how to solve the problem if it bothers you so much and it stops you from using your phone. People will bitch about anything.

That's what I did. I opted out of Amber Alerts and kept "Government Alerts"

I don't know man. I'm just angry about the situation, not really the people complaining about getting all the texts.

Sorry for my all caps rage.

Yeah, I'm totally sure you have never complained about anything in your life and have always solved all of your problems completely on your own. If only the rest of the world could be as awesome as Big Smoke.

Again, this isn't a discussion about whether or not people should be irritated. From a systems standpoint, you can't control that. The question is how the system could be improved so that fewer people are irritated.

No my phone hasn't been off in a few days.

And I can confirm it isn't just my mobile provider that was getting the texts so frequently.
Posted via Mobile Device

Yesterday evening I received two alerts 30 minutes apart, then this morning I got two at the exact same time. A grand total of four messages on my phone. The ones this morning were almost certainly a mistake since it was all over by then. This is with an iPhone on AT&T.

well for some reason you got all the texts at once, probably should be complaining about your provider and not the alerts

One Amber Alert is fine.
I read it and kept it in mind. (although I was already in for the night).

After a few more alerts and my wife getting woke up from one, she demanded I turn them off. So I did. No more Amber Alerts to my phone.

Whatever. I've stated that I'm angry about the situation, not about the people bitching about the number of texts they've received.

It's not unbelievable that someone would ask the question, "Does sending out frequent messages cause a lot of people to turn the messages off, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the messages?". Jeez.

Well you are in the wrong thread then. This is the thread for either bitching about the number of texts sent out, or bitching about the people who are bitching about the number of texts sent out, or bitching about the people who are bitching about the people who are bitching about the number of texts sent out.

It's not like someone complaining about wanting a lathered mob to rip his liver out. Most understand the sentiment.

I would find wolf alerts to be quite valuable.

Fair enough.

exactly. people are just going to turn off the alerts thus making the whole amber alert system counter-productive to its meaningful use. there should be alert system no doubt. Maybe they should add a check-in feature to tell the app you've acknowledged the alert so it won't continue to annoy you or others.

OMG STOP BITCHING YOU STUPID PRICK, YOU COULD HAVE SAVED A LIFE!!!

Oh cute, the "let me google that for you" response. Now that's something fresh and original!

Just sayin, if you simply googled it you would be able to find out that they can be turned off. Not that hard.

They weren't all at once. Those are just some of them.
Posted via Mobile Device

These things happen like 2-3 times per year. If somebody is so put out by it that they go to the trouble of disabling alerts, then it's a pretty good bet they don't give a shit anyway.

Again, this isn't a discussion about whether or not people should be irritated. From a systems standpoint, you can't control that. The question is how the system could be improved so that fewer people are irritated

You can disable the alerts and still give a shit and be informed about the situation.

Yes, the fact that they can indeed be turned off has been pointed out already, but thanks anyway for the breaking news, Ace. Although, not everyone knew that when their phones were blowing up overnight.

It's easy to find, that was my point.

Everyone knows how to use Google. Apparently you just want to fit in with the rest of the jackasses that infest this place.

People getting all nutzo.... Even over text messages that may save a life.

I think we should pass a law requiring everyone to wear pink all the time for breast cancer awareness.

Gotta say the alerts didn't bother me, then again I was in the garage, drinking natty light and texting Bubba.

I guess. They just give way less of a shit and are informed later than the rest of us, if at all.

I got the alert around 7 pm then received another about 1 hour later. After the second one I put my finger on the dismiss and did not receive another. I did get a message when my phone went into sleep mode and I woke it displaying the amber alert. This is on a Nokia windows phone using ATT towers thru H2O wireless. I didn't feel put out or bothered.

I would suspect the same folks that get upset about the Amber alert are the same folks that blow a gasket out driveing when something doesnt go there way.

Agreed.

Has nothing to do with wanting to fit in, I'm all for anything that may save a life. As a father, I would want the word spread in any way possible. Maybe if/when you have kids someday you'll understand.

You only need one alert, unless there are significant changes that are critical to pass on. Anything else is redundant.

I've been in places where you are not allowed to have cell phones. Wonder if it turned on people's phones and got them fired.

Yep, that's my opinion - only send a new one when there's new info to be delivered. Repeating it makes sense on TV when people aren't watching all the time, but on phones, there's no need for more than one.