A Modest Proposal for a FReepers "Instant Alert Network"

Butter Pecan Fan ^ | November 3, 2001 | butter pecan fan

[Quix]

HAVE LONG FELT THAT, thought that something like this should be set up. . . redundantly.

[MistyCA]

Very good and well thought-out plan, but I would like to suggest something else. It would seem to me that it might be good to consider a high-alert news area that does not get bumped out of position until the alert has been disarmed. So, when a freeper gets online he is immediately alerted to whatever major situation has developed and will not have to scan the news items to pick it up. High alert could be an area posted in red that stay on the top, or something like that. You think?

[Fred25]

I think FReepers in major cities should volunteer to buy police scanners. Not all cities’ police channels are on the internet, especially Channel 2, 3, etc. Also, we need some people to monitor state police and highway patrols in each state.

Maybe we could work this out through the state by state messages that show up when we post our own state flags on our profile pages.

[MistyCA]

Good idea. I already have one :) I am not, however, in a major city in California.

[lelio]

If FR had some sort of XML setup on their site where you could pull down news articles and their ranking (ie "vanity" to "cops find truck of bombs in Mall" to "blowing up of bridge in San Fran") then someone could do this themselves.
You would continiously poll the site for new stories and then decide what to do with them. I would mail my cell phone, for example.
To do this requires that all articles are a) factual and b) properly labeled.
I say XML as you can encode values into the stream so that you can easily pick them out later on. HTML is hard to parse.

[Fred25]

Also, I think we need a running thread that has emergency, medical, and survival information and links. The government has not yet put out any information at all about how people who are down-wind from nuclear power plants should evacuate rapidly. They should usually evacuate at right-angles to the prevailing winds. They shouldn’t drive down-wind because the wind will follow them, and of course they shouldn’t go up wind. Most younger people today don’t know this.

We’ve got a whole lot of Mormons here who are experts on disaster survival supplies, many people in the South who have had to evacuate from tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods, a few scientists who know about nuclear power plants (and iodine pills), and other people who have other expert knowledge.

We should keep rumors off those threads. If we want to start a sidebar rumor and homeopathic thread, we can do that too.

I think we need a “Potential Terrorist Alert and Profile” thread. We can add names, places, etc. of people we suspect might be anti-American male foreign-national Islamics, people we can keep an eye on.

We need an emergency-phone-number government agency thread, listing the CDC, FBI, Justice Dept., and maybe also local and state phone numbers and links for local emergency agencies.

[lelio]

I think FReepers in major cities should volunteer to buy police scanners.
Great idea! I listen to my friend's scanner over the internet (uses IceCast) and you do get quite a bit of info on it (course a lot of it is parking violations). Maybe a forum on FR for police scan's transcripts?

[RightOnline]

Nice work. In the military, we had such things ("phone trees", "recall rosters", etc.), so I get your idea. Anyone who has spent time in the military does.

In some ways, FR already does exactly what you are suggesting. Real-time, cross-time-zone information, etc. It seems that you wish to "formalize" it a bit more. Worthy of discussion, to say the least. Nice post.

[MistyCA]

I would like to suggest something else. Perhaps the ring of calls should be structured so that all that is said is "Freep-Alert". That triggers each person into operation but does not slow down the process by long explanations over the phone, etc. I can well imagine each person being called saying, "What? What's going on?" And that slows down the whole process. The Freep-alert can then go to whomever answers the phone. No explanations are/should be required.

[lelio]

I think we need a “Potential Terrorist Alert and Profile” thread.
Again, another great idea on this thread. And even more better as you know the local police and FBI don't want to publize this info.

[WIMom]

"It would seem to me that it might be good to consider a high-alert news area that does not get bumped out of position until the alert has been disarmed."

I see a potential abuse with this. If a high alert area is used, what is to prevent someone from posting vanities there? It may need to go through Jim or a moderator for authorization. But, it's a very good idea.

[Fred25]

Don’t you have a nuke plant around there somewhere? Isn’t there one at San Luis Obispo? You could scan for the CHP. If LA has to evacuate, highway 101 North will be filled with cars.

[WIMom]

Besides being my favorite ice cream, you did a good job with this post. ;-)

[Fred25]

Yes, I think we need to have a “hard facts” thread and a separate sidebar “rumor” thread so we can keep all the rumors off the main thread. I have collected a number of militant Islamic English-language message board addresses that we could keep an eye on.

[lelio]

If a high alert area is used, what is to prevent someone from posting vanities there? It may need to go through Jim or a moderator for authorization.
Not being too familiar with the workings of FR, isn't there a mechanism for the moderators to look over posts right now and delete them? Maybe a system where they vote on the validity of the posts?
They could also make sure that the severity of the post and all pertinent info is included in a short message. Then just send out one email / pager notification to everyone that signed up for the service.
You could charge $5/month for it to pay for a "salary" for the moderators that would have to do a couple hours work a month on it.

[MistyCA]

If a high alert area is used, what is to prevent someone from posting vanities there?

there is always a potential for abuse, regardless of what you are attempting to do. However, that does not eliminate the need to have something like that. It would be like breaking the glass on a fire alarm! How many of us have ever done that? I am suggesting an area that is only meant to warn on high alert subjects.....San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge being blown sky high, for instance. Nuclear facility penetrated and under control of terrorists, for instance.

I can certainly understand your point, as we would not want to have a bunch of white powdery substance warnings posted that turn out to be false alarms. The entire nation does not have to wake up to find out that a letter was discovered in a postal facility in New Jersey. Obviously, this would require some thought, or perhaps it should only be posted to by password entry according to rules established by the phone ring.

Just an idea.

[RnMomof7]

It is a go here. Buffalo/Niagara Falls /Ontario..(think power east coast).....will purchase scanner..I think we use both (scanners and web) in Buffalo..but they have a "secret" channel not for the public to hear..will have to talk to cops!

[MistyCA]

My scanner is set up for all major departments (including airport traffic). Lordy be, do I have a nuclear facility near me????? I better ask, huh? :(

[Fred25]

I think we have thread monitors now, a group of individuals. If you hit the “abuse” button, you can send them a message. I think you are supposed to add your name to the message if you want them to know who you are.

I would suggest thread titles something like.....

MEDICAL, EMERGENCY, AND SURVIVAL INFORMATION

POTENTIAL TERRORIST NATIONAL AND LOCAL WATCH LIST

NATIONAL POLICE SCANNER INFORMATION

NATIONAL AND LOCAL EMERGENCY AGENCY PHONE NUMBERS

If you post a message in the first post of the thread that reads something like this.... “PLEASE DON’T POST PHOTOS OR TRIVIAL INFORMATION”, the posters will usually abide by the request.