Not sure why these need to be billed as "Presidential alerts" if they're for national emergencies, which is already the domain of FEMA. Call them "National emergency alerts". Presidential addresses (which the name suggests these are in the age of cord-cutters and smartphones) are for sympathy and calls for unity in the aftermath of disaster; if there's a hurricane or tornado bearing down on me, all I want is info straight from FEMA or the National Weather Service without having to be routed through the president first. Not to mention that referring to the president in any capacity is a great way to get half the country to dismiss a notification without reading it.
Presidential Alerts
51–60 of 122 posts
Re: Presidential Alerts
#52The alert didn't shut off until you pressed the button. Many devices were making noise for minutes around me. How many car crashes were caused by people startled by the sudden, continuous alert?
Really? It sounded like all of the phones in my office alerted once and then stopped (though not all simultaneously, some took longer to receive it). What kind of phones are people using?
My ringer was off so I can't say personally.
Re: Presidential Alerts
#53Re: Presidential Alerts
#54I still don’t understand the actual point of this, beyond the optics of a vaguely-defined “emergency preparedness.” Emergencies are inherently local. Even if smartphones had been widespread in 2001 and the presidential alert system had been active on 9/11, what purpose would a nationwide alert have served?
If the Yellowstone Caldera blows up or an asteroid hits, I want to know rather than wonder what happened and what I need to do. A system like this only needs to work once for it to pay off.
I don't think a little cell phone tone and alert is going to help much for a TEOTWAWKI event.
Re: Presidential Alerts
#55My iPhone X with iOS 12 made the siren noise, but no message appeared on the screen and I can't find any alert message in the notifications page, messages, or elsewhere. So I only got 1 bit of information :-(.
One of my coworkers was on their cellphone during the alert period. They did not hear nor see any indication on their phone. iPhone X with iOS 12.
Re: Presidential Alerts
#56A bunch of us just got one. SERIOUSLY? Does it _HAVE_ _TO_ say "presidential alert"? Do I have to be reminded of "him" during a time of potential crisis? What could "Cheeto-Satan" have to say in a real emergency that is of any value whatsoever?
The content is written by FEMA, not the president. The title on the alert is misleading.
Re: Presidential Alerts
#57The moment I saw this pop up on my screen, all I could think of was the destruction one could cause via fake alerts. For instance, a warning of incoming nuclear warheads like what happened in Hawaii a few months ago. Sure, news stations might rapidly debunk it, but how many people wouldn't see it? Cell towers would be overloaded with calls and data, preventing the dissemination of info to many. Radio would be the bes…
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Re: Presidential Alerts
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Used correctly, these should be so infrequent that there's no legitimate reason to disable them. This is a broadcast, not a data collection, and if a missile is headed in your general area, literally every capable device should be telling you about it.
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Re: Presidential Alerts
#59A bunch of us just got one. SERIOUSLY? Does it _HAVE_ _TO_ say "presidential alert"? Do I have to be reminded of "him" during a time of potential crisis? What could "Cheeto-Satan" have to say in a real emergency that is of any value whatsoever?
Hoo boy, I would love to see the raw upvote/downvote tally on that comment.
Sorry, it was a visceral response.
That kind of alert brings up, for an instant, a feeling that something awful is happening. And if something really bad was going down, the last thing I would want to hear is dithering idiocy of President Trump.
Re: Presidential Alerts
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the Yellowstone Caldera blows up or an asteroid hits, I want to know rather than wonder what happened and what I need to do. A system like this only needs to work once for it to pay off.
I don't think a little cell phone tone and alert is going to help much for a TEOTWAWKI event.
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