this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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People were interested in what it looked like so this is from my phone.

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[–] qx128 205 points 1 week ago (4 children)

This is why governments should use public infrastructure for public services.

[–] RagingRobot 67 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I wish the federal government had a software team that made open source software that could be used by all the states.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Imagine if there was a free and open source self hosted alternative to twitter that federated with other social networks...

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

Germany is/was trying something kind of like this? I don't know much about it but here's a link in case you want to try reading into it a bit more.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think something like code sharing just became a thing in government so I guess it's closer

Edit: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2025/01/agencies-required-to-share-custom-software-under-new-law/?readmore=1

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Can you imagine a mastodon.whitehouse.gov instance and everyone in the world just defederates with it every time a republican gets inaugerated?

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[–] Anticorp 5 points 1 week ago
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[–] [email protected] 196 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Using an url shortener smells like phishing

[–] [email protected] 127 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeh, I can't believe an emergency service (which I would consider a government agency) is using a URL shortener.
No wonder scammers also use URL shorteners. People get desensitized to what they are doing, masking the actual URL

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I would think they could have a legit .gov url shortener. They're not much code and easy enough to run at scale.

I'd vote for u.gov.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

they gotta recoup them tax dollars

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They really don't. Just don't spend them on cocaine.

unless they are sharing.... I guess.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The dumb thing is they can fit quite a bit of text in the alert itself. They don't need to link to anything to provide the relevant info necessary to spot potential suspects or the description of the child.

[–] mesamunefire 19 points 1 week ago

Absolutely.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

And no one is gonna bother clicking on that link so they pretty much made it useless

[–] Pyrarrows 8 points 1 week ago

Every time I've gotten an Amber Alert on my phone, the phone screams the description of the kid & the suspected car & possibly the suspect themselves on top of showing the entire message on the screen. No idea why anywhere would put all of that info onto Twitter only when this system already exists & really grabs your attention.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 week ago (1 children)

...and then it wants you to make an account, right? :)

[–] mesamunefire 35 points 1 week ago
[–] Anticorp 48 points 1 week ago

Yah, I've been yelling loudly about this shit for a decade. Nobody cares, especially not the people in the government who can't be bothered to use their own websites.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago

Just a taste of the deepening US oligarchy, as more public services are gutted in the favour of corpo interests.

[–] mesamunefire 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If this isn't the correct community please let me know. I'm not sure where to post to be honest but it is a picture I suppose.

[–] serpineslair 31 points 1 week ago

It's probably fine here, but you could consider [email protected].

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[–] toiletobserver 27 points 1 week ago

That's just an amber alert with extra steps

[–] solomon42069 24 points 1 week ago

These marketing strategies to get people back on Twitter are getting out of hand!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This kind of crap, and the fact that I can't force the sounds to respect DND in my country, are why I turned off Amber Alerts on my phone through adb (or "hacking", to the layperson).

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You need to use adb for that? I simply have a setting to disable them.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I have that setting, but it doesn't work in my country.

For some stupid reason, they've decided to send every time of warning message at the "Presidential Level" that's supposed to be reserved for crazy life or death kind of stuff.

The settings are in my phone, but can't actually do anything to the messages coming in.

So I disabled the entire system from my phone and downloaded an app that gives me alerts. Now I'm getting weather alerts again. Haven't had the opportunity to test whether it'll alert me to emergencies yet, thankfully. But I've turned off Amber Alerts in the app.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Ah fuck, that's annoying. I'm not even sure Amber alerts are a thing in Malaysia, I got one during a business trip to New York years ago that scared the hell out of me since my phone is set to perpetual silent mode with no vibrations, and at like 3 AM it started playing sirens on max volume.

Had it turned off ever since, and only severe threats and storm warnings activated, see those work fine.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago

Missouri does the same. I haven’t been able to see Emergency Alerts since quitting Twitter

[–] letsgo2themall 17 points 1 week ago

I turned off alerts for this reason. It's always a twit or FB link. I don't have either so I can't see the info.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

Jeez! I had one in MI a few months ago where the image of the abductee was a Bookface link you couldn't view unless you were signed in. Just ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Now I understand. I was confused about why people were going to Xhitter for Amber alerts. Looks like California is the issue for pointing people there in the Amber alert that goes out to phones.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (5 children)

in the US you get automated messages that blow up your phone when a child is involved in a crime near you.

I turn mine off.

[–] Fondots 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

when a child is involved in a crime near you.

The specifics vary a bit from one state to another but AMBER Alerts are normally reserved for abducted children, usually with some additional requirements like sufficient reason to think the child is in immediate danger of death or injury, and enough of a description of the child and/or the abductor to be able to identify them.

[–] Bonesince1997 5 points 1 week ago

Child bank robbers in your area!

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[–] blazeknave 7 points 1 week ago

Nixel's system is great for SF and up North. I assumed the whole state used it

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