I wonder who keeps putting in the "shooting" alert on the FDNY live feed. It's funny to see the number of listeners go up a couple thousand even though that feed will have nothing to do with any shootings.
FDNY
- Thread starter coolrich55
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Let's be very clear here to avoid any confusion: the "alert" you're referring to is not an official Broadcastify feed alert, but is instead a feature unique to the Scanner Radio app where anyone can hit a button to flag a feed as having something going on. This is not a Broadcastify issue, nor is it the feed provider doing anything nefarious.
Frankly, I'm surprised that when Gordon Edwards added this feature to his app, he didn't include a way to report false alerts.
@GordonE how is abuse of this app feature handled?
Frankly, I'm surprised that when Gordon Edwards added this feature to his app, he didn't include a way to report false alerts.
@GordonE how is abuse of this app feature handled?
Understood. It's happened a few times now. I'm sure you know what I mean. Doesn't make any sense to have that alert for that particular feed. Ironically I have yet to see a shooting alert for any of the NYPD feeds. Not saying there hasn't been one. I've just only noticed them on the FD feed.
Awesome, thanks Lindsay. It's nice to see top-down accountability.
Yup, I got the alert on my phone through the app this afternoon also, that's how I knew it was a Scanner Radio alert and not specifically from BCFY. I figured it was worth making sure anyone reading this thread was made aware of the difference, as only feed owners can post official BCFY alerts on their feeds. This new feature on Scanner Radio is pretty much open to anyone with the app to hit the Active Event button.
I actually kind of like the idea of listeners being able to add an alert to a feed in the app, as obviously the feed owner is not always around to post an official alert through BCFY. The only issue is when some numbnuts adds a false alert, which is potentially what we're seeing here (although it could be a glitch of some sort I suppose).
Strange that it shows the "Shooting" event being posted at 21:02, and it's still up 2 hours later with 1900+ listeners.
It is a nice feature when used correctly.Yup, I got the alert on my phone through the app this afternoon also, that's how I knew it was a Scanner Radio alert and not specifically from BCFY. I figured it was worth making sure anyone reading this thread was made aware of the difference, as only feed owners can post official BCFY alerts on their feeds. This new feature on Scanner Radio is pretty much open to anyone with the app to hit the Active Event button.
I actually kind of like the idea of listeners being able to add an alert to a feed in the app, as obviously the feed owner is not always around to post an official alert through BCFY. The only issue is when some numbnuts adds a false alert, which is potentially what we're seeing here (although it could be a glitch of some sort I suppose).
Strange that it shows the "Shooting" event being posted at 21:02, and it's still up 2 hours later with 1900+ listeners.
could a threshold be implemented before the alert gets pushed out? Maybe something that requires a (sliding scale) percentage of active users to submit an alert before it becomes official?
Yes, there are thresholds that determine when a user-reported event should be displayed as well as some methods used to reduce false reports. The logic behind-the-scenes as well as the thresholds are still being fine-tuned.
I hope future updates allow filtering of the alerts to only Broadcastify alerts and allow us to block seeing user submitted alerts (and for those of us with feeds to block others from posting alerts on our feeds).
The amount of garbage alerts is out of control. Especially on certain feeds. “Sounds like shoplifters running from the cops” is one that popped up a few minutes ago on a frequent garbage alert posting feed. It’s annoying now to the point I’m ready to disable notifications from the app and will just rely on PulsePoint notifications and checking in on Broadcastify for feeds that have active alerts or just delete the app and use the a Broadcastify app full time. Some junk slips through on Broadcastify as well but not nearly as much.
The amount of garbage alerts is out of control. Especially on certain feeds. “Sounds like shoplifters running from the cops” is one that popped up a few minutes ago on a frequent garbage alert posting feed. It’s annoying now to the point I’m ready to disable notifications from the app and will just rely on PulsePoint notifications and checking in on Broadcastify for feeds that have active alerts or just delete the app and use the a Broadcastify app full time. Some junk slips through on Broadcastify as well but not nearly as much.
My apps don't send out any alerts/notifications for user-reported events, they only send out notifications for alerts posted on Broadcastify.com as well as notifications when feeds have more than a certain number of listeners.
If I do have the app start sending notifications for user-reported events in the future I'll definitely provide a way to opt-in or out of receiving them.
That alert was one that was posted on Broadcastify.com, not an one submitted by a user of my apps. Also, users that report events via my apps can only specify the type of event they're hearing, they're not able to enter any text at all.
I apologize. I saw it listed in the feeds with alerts on the app and didn’t see any Broadcastify feeds with current alerts. I guess Broadcastify squashed the junk alert before I looked there.
Somewhere along the line there’s a ton of junk alerts that are getting posted though. It would be nice to have it cleaned up so that only legit alerts are sent out.
Somewhere along the line there’s a ton of junk alerts that are getting posted though. It would be nice to have it cleaned up so that only legit alerts are sent out.
Gordon, I love your app, but this addition is absolutely pure dog s**t and really has me ticked off. I woke up to over 4,000 people listening to my feed, several local reporters and even off duty EMTs calling me asking what the "Active Alert: Shooting" was today. Then afterwards there was another false alert for a fire. which sent another thousand or so listeners to my feed. Thanks to this pile of hot garbage, I now have to explain fake alerts to my local small news outlets and tamp down all of the "WTF??!!'s" on the local Facebook feeds. This has done nothing but completely destroy any sort of trust or enjoyment Broadcastify listeners (and providers) have with feeds. Leave the alerts where they belong, on Broadcastify.
Get rid of it...
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