Feed Providers & Vacations

[PC1309]

Gordon or Lindsay,

I was wondering about the part if a scanner is offline for senven days or more it becomes inactive. I will be on vacation in mid July and again in mid August both 7 or so days and really don't want to leave computer and scanner on while I am gone. I also don't want to become inactive any solutions?

Thank you for providing a great site!!!

Pat

 

[hacksaw]

I agree.. this time length is very short. I think it should be extended by,. from 7 day to 21 day notification and 14 day to 30 day.

If I am on vacation for two weeks and my UPS batteries and goes down, My server will not start automatically and login and start my feed.

14th day and its all history is very agressive. We are providing feeds, freely.. lets not be too harsh, please.

Rik

15 min Email Notification to Feed Owner
6 Hours Email Notification to Feed Owner
24 Hours Email Notification to Feed Owner
7 Days Email Notification and feed set inactive
resulting in feed provider losing premium
subscriber status
14 days Email notification and feed deleted.

 

[SCPD]

I guess i will post this here to lol the Clare County Michigan feed will be down until around July 3rd 2009 due to the feed computer getting work done on it.

Thanks

Matt

 

[GordonE]

I guess i will post this here to lol the Clare County Michigan feed will be down until around July 3rd 2009 due to the feed computer getting work done on it.

I updated the status field for your feed to let people know it will be offline until July 3rd. If you need to change the note you can do so via the "My Live Audio Feeds" link in your account profile.

 

[K9GTJ]

As a feed provider, I took on the task knowing it is a 24 x 7 x 365 operation. While I started it out for fun a little over two years ago using the free StreamTown service, I worked very hard to keep it going even when it went offline.

I was truly grateful when Gordon offered to host with Scan America. My feed has only went offline for brief times when the DSL service was out for a few hours due to ice or thunderstorms or the power was out longer than 80 - 90 minutes which is all my UPS can meet things alive.

I use the free service of LogMeIn (http://www.logmein.com) to remote access the streaming computer should something need my attention and I am not at home. It can be accessed from anywhere there is a web browser or from an iPhone or iPod touch with Wi-Fi and the LogMeIn application.

Finding a dedicated computer for a stream is easy. Almost any computer will work and ask around if needed to get an old one from a friend. The machine I use is a laptop which has a broken DVD, broken floppy disk, and no working display or battery. (Remote access is my only access.) I got it for nothing. (It also runs my Davis weather software for my weather site.)

I want to point out a couple things about my feed. It is always on with the rare exceptions mentioned above. (Even then it was just a few hours offline.)

I promote it outside of the “scanner enthusiast” community hitting the local community. With it being reliable and available 24 x 7 x 365, people listen.

You will notice I am usually one of the top feeds if not the top feed and have just a medium sized market to pull from. (You would think the large metro areas would clobber me but they don’t.) You cannot build a listener base when your feed is up and down at your convenience.

When stuff does happen in my community, people get online to listen. The TV news stations from Indianapolis often use my feed for breaking news information in this area. Why? Because they know my feed is on and available 24 x 7 x 365.

Take a look back at a newspaper article from April 2008 which I shared here at RR. I had nearly 1000 listeners that evening with 520 at once during the peak. Why? Because the local community knows my feed is on and available 24 x 7 x 365. Take note that I was away on business when this all went down. I didn’t even know something happened back home until someone else at the conference asked me about the “boom in Kokomo” since it made the news.

If you want a successful feed, you have to be on all of the time plain and simple. I don’t have any problem with RR and the staff and how they have it set up now. Just remember they are not saying you cannot reapply to offer a feed again should you be offline for an extended length of time.

I know it seems like I am hammering on you but a successful feed has got to be online all of the time to be successful. I don’t get anything out of it other than thanks from the community and from the local sheriff (who links to my site) and mentions me often to others in the area.

 

[daranged]

i just got my feed up and going but it has the info for it wrong it says provo and byu police when it is only provo police but it uses both ucan and the byu systems how can i change the info on the tag?

 

[GordonE]

I changed the description for you.

 

[daranged]

thank you

 

[lbpd719]

one of the reasons I went with my linux setup was to avoid the login issues. I run 24/7 365 as well (I have an application in for this site/scan america). Since the initial build out a couple of years ago, it's been a set it and forget it configuration.. it's been down twice in the past year, one was a power outage that lasted almost a day - the other was when I moved.

Network traffic has been minimal and the old Pentium II / 400 still has plenty of power to run a few other goodies off the box..

 

[SCPD]

The Clare county MI feed will be down longer then i thought i am stuck in Lafayette La was just involved in a car accident here and my car is not in good shape so until i can get back to MI the clare county feed will be down and the Lafayette Parish fire feed will remain up until i leave here.

Thanks

Matt

 

[SCPD]

I too realize this is a 24/7/365 Operation. Initially I looked at it optimisticly "I'll try it for a few weeks no listeners I'm outa here" And did just that. Somewhere I ran into a few listeners who I actually knew Here in the Non-Cyber world who kept asking where the feed went. I soon found out a few people liked it and one of which was the County Emergency Manager.

Today, I have Fire & Police Chiefs of Small to large Departments and Fire Fighters who don't own scanners relying on My Feed to hear what their radio's can't. I have a Website which is beginning to show up in bits and pieces on Google Search And email comming in from People I don't know asking to advertise on the site.

It can Only get better since SA is on RR, I have watched the feeds blossom and RR grow. Scanning used to be a hobby which I could walk away from for times, but now, As a provider I see its a duty to some. Additionally, For Blanton, this is a business. Thus we might consider ourselved Indipendant self Contractors. In this sense I have a duty to have my feed up, working, Sounding good & ONLINE as much as possible. Yes, Weather knocks me off from time to time too.

If I worked at Wal*Mart I'd get a vacation and Take it. I look to take one from here soon, but because the people listening won't be on the same cruise as I, it will have to be up for them. I entered into this knowing this So I and other providers need to consider some options for those times when Grandma Has Chilli on sunday night 5 hours away. On my Wal*Mart vacation I'd still check email and look in on the pets, this is the same thing when it comes to Providing a feed. One needs to look at it from a business stand point.

Flip the shoes around, Your the listener and the feed goes down while the provider is racking PI's in Miami and the feed is offline. SWAT is called out for the first time ever on a Stand-off and the listeners don't know about it till the next day. Lets toss in your Local media misses the coverage to another network.

21 days your back, Got a nice tan and a hang-over, turn your feed on and log in to RR and have ZERO listeners. and it stays that way for a few weeks.

We all need to stop and consider the comittment were engaging in when we pop up a feed. Even while your away on Business or travel, you should consider what your doing to the listerers. Your hot feed aint hot no more and you have to re-build your fan club.

Take your vacation, you deserve it! but when you do, leave your feed up and let the community hear it. Access it remotely once a day before you hit the surf. won't take but a few minutes each of those 21 days.

Do you Ask the stock market to Freeze your investments till you get back?

 

[AMDXP]

Which is why I think Lindsey and Gordon put the status messages in with the feed basic feed information page. All feed providers have the ability to update them. As a feed provider we also have the option to have a message to come up when the feed is offline only.

I've used it to so people know why it's offline and about how long, or if a certain feature such as Alpha Tags are not available and why.

In about 2 weeks I plan on taking my scanner with me when the family and I go camping. I may put my analog only scanner on during this time or leave the feed offline for the 3 to 4 days I will be gone. I haven't decided yet.. Most likely I'll put my analog scanner on for those days so there is something rather than nothing.

 

[GordonE]

The automatic feed notification and deactivation rules have been changed so that feeds are not deactivated until they've been offline for 14 days (instead of 7 days).

You'll receive e-mail notifications about your feed being down after 15 minutes, 6 hours, 1 day, and 7 days.

 

[Deziel0495]

The automatic feed notification and deactivation rules have been changed so that feeds are not deactivated until they've been offline for 14 days (instead of 7 days).

You'll receive e-mail notifications about your feed being down after 15 minutes, 6 hours, 1 day, and 7 days.

Gordon,

I get the email notification that my feed has come back online and has been offline for 15 min, but I do not get the 6 hour offline or the 24 hour offline notifications. Any reason for this?

Thanks
Daniel

 

[GordonE]

I reproduced the problem (about not receiving the 6-hour and 24-hour notifications) and let Lindsaay know.

 

[Deziel0495]

I reproduced the problem (about not receiving the 6-hour and 24-hour notifications) and let Lindsaay know.

Thanks

 

[blantonl]

Yup, there's a problem with the notification system... I'm looking in to it... it's rather complex so it will take some time to deconstruct what I wrote and figure out the issue. Be patient with us...

 

[WillitsCA]

How do I get my premium account as a feed provider?

 

[GordonE]

You should have it now, I just now associated your feed with your account.

 

[marileau]

TO ALL OF YOU, ABOVE....

I am marileau and within the limits, and with the aid of a few other seniors ladies, we are trying to learn by reading and interacting, then in home education to achieve the confidence and strength to involve more and more, so we as the in home can stand behind and filter for you, what you have filtered to us. I hope this had made some sense. We appreciate all and we are learning as rapidly as we can and still we don't want to get in the way. Thank you sincerely marileau